In
2007 actor Kevin Costner starred in a movie entitled Mr. Brooks. The movie is
about a serial killer who views his obsession to kill as similar to the obsession
an alcoholic has to consume alcohol. In an attempt to stop murdering people
Costner’s character, Mr. Brooks, joins Alcoholics Anonymous. Unfortunately, for
both Mr. Brooks and another person, he relapses. Mr. Brooks is what some psychiatrists
would call a sociopath or in terms of the Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV he has antisocial personality disorder. When hearing the term sociopath people
immediately think of a serial killer. However, many sociopaths live amongst us without
ever committing murder. In fact, they are very hard to spot. The 12 Step
program of Alcoholics Anonymous is a cognitive-behavioural program with a
spiritual component. The movie, and a book I recently read, has made me wonder
if a psychopath can get better through use of the 12 Steps.
In
author Martha Stout’s book the sociopath
next door she states that four per cent of the population is a sociopath or four people out of 100. Ten per cent of the population is alcoholic so one has a
greater chance of being a psychopath than an alcoholic. Stout explains a
psychopath is someone without a conscience. He/she may understand right and
wrong in an intellectual fashion but he/she does not care if they commit a
wrong act – an act that would hurt another individual and/or animal.
There
are some commonalities between a sociopath and an alcoholic. The first
commonality being, the sociopath’s need to control everything. As a recovered
alcoholic/addict I know that a big part of my addiction was fed through the
delusion that I could control everything. If everyone in the world just did
what I wanted them to do than I all would be well. As the basic text of
Alcoholics Anonymous (AKA: The Big Book) puts it, the alcoholic wants to be the
director and control the actors and lights, etc. on the stage of the world. The
frustration caused by one’s lack of control is a big part of one’s need to
drink. The Big Book states, “lack of power that was our dilemma”. The sociopath
wants to exert control over everything around him. Another commonality between
the sociopath and the alcoholic/addict is impulsiveness. The sociopath makes
impulsive decision to fill his need for immediate gratification just as the
alcoholic/addict does the same. The alcoholic/addict will eventually begin to
break the law in an attempt to satiate his obsessive need to self-medicate. The
sociopath begins to break the law to quench his need of control over others.
While the alcoholic/addict feels guilt and shame over his actions the sociopath
feels nothing as he has no emotions. This lack of emotion and/or conscience is
why I believe the 12 Step program would not work for a sociopath.
Through
working the 12 Steps I found out that part of the reason I drank and used was
to push down the feelings of guilt and shame I got due to the actions I took to
obtain alcohol and drugs and because of what I did while under the influence of
alcohol and drugs. I would steal to get money for drugs, self-medicate, sober
up and feel bad about stealing and my mind would tell me to get more drugs to
rid myself of these bad feelings. This cycle of addiction continued until I was
sick of living that way and faced my feelings head on. A sociopath does not
feel bad when hurting another living creature and so there is nothing to face.
A
12 Step program required me to find a power greater than myself. This power
could be anything I chose as long as it wasn’t myself or another human being. I
balked at first at this requirement and then realized that alcohol and drugs
were the catalyst to me doing things I would never thought myself capable of
and therefore these manmade things had become a higher power to me With this
realization it was easy for me to come to believe that there could be something
greater than drugs and alcohol and therefore myself. I chose the power of
positivity and people or as Dr. Carl Jung termed it the collective unconscious. A sociopath thinks she is at the top of the
food chain and better than everyone and everything and therefore would not be
able to find a power greater than her. Without the ability to find a power
greater than oneself the sociopath lacks the ability to carry out a fundamental
requirement in completing the 12 Steps. With the lack of a conscience and a
high power the sociopath would not be able to carry out the amends part of the
12 Step program as well. If the sociopath did find himself making amends it
would only be a gambit to fulfil a preconceived goal the sociopath has come up
with.
As
a result of the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous I was able to recover from the
disease of addiction. But I feel if a sociopath tried to seek the same recovery
through the Steps she would clearly fail. Even an alcoholic sociopath would
fail.
Dave
the Dude
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