Haltlose personality disorder

Haltlose personality disorder
Other names– Willenloser Psychopath[1][2][3]
- Unstable psychopath[4]
- Unstable drifter[5][6][7]
- Disinhibited Personality[8]
SpecialtyPsychiatry, clinical psychology

Haltlose personality disorder was a type of personality disorder diagnosis largely used in German-, Russian- and French-speaking countries. The German word haltlose refers to being "unstable" (literally: "without footing"), and in English-speaking countries the diagnosis was sometimes referred to as "the unstable psychopath" (although it was little known even among experts in psychiatry).[9][10]

In the early twentieth century, haltlose personality disorder was described by Emil Kraepelin and Gustav Aschaffenburg.[11][12] In 1905, Kraepelin first used the term to describe individuals possessing psychopathic traits built upon short-sighted selfishness[13] and irresponsible hedonism, combined with an inability to anchor one's identity to a future or past.[9][14] By 1913, he had characterized the symptomatology as stemming from a lack of inhibition.[15][16] Haltlose was also characterized as a psychopathy with an "absence of intent or lack of will".[3] The diagnosis was recognized by Karl Jaspers, and by Eugen and Manfred Bleuler, among others.[3]

In 1933, it was argued that significant social restraints needed to be imposed on the lives of people diagnosed with haltlose personality disorder, including "constant guardianship in an organized environment under the pressure of a harsh lifestyle, or in the hands of a person with a strong will who does not let him out of his sight".[17] In 1936, it was claimed that – along with other "hyperthymics" – haltlose personalities constituted "the main component of serious crime".[18] Haltlose came to be studied as a type of psychopathy relevant to criminology,[19][20][21] as people with the diagnosis were viewed as becoming "very easily involved in criminality"[22] and predisposed to aggression[4][23] or homicide.[24]

Haltlose personality disorder was viewed as difficult to identify due to high levels of conformity.[25] Contrasting traits were noted of pronounced suggestibility and "abnormal rigidity and intransigence and firmness".[26] As recently as 1978, a claim was made that a diagnosis of haltlose personality disorder carried one of the most unfavorable prognoses among the different types of psychopathies recognized at the time.[27]

Regarding recent medical classifications, the term "haltlose personality disorder" was mentioned in ICD-10 under "other specific personality disorders", and in DSM-III under "other personality disorders", but the term was not described or discussed in either classification (separately, it was claimed that the diagnosis describes a combination of frontal lobe syndrome, sociopathic and histrionic personality traits[9]). It is no longer mentioned in DSM-4, DSM-5 or ICD-11.

  1. ^ Jablensky, Assen (May 1998). "Definition of 'haltlose'". Psychiatric Bulletin. 22 (5): 326. doi:10.1192/pb.22.5.326.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference jasp was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c Schneider, K. (1992) Klinische Psychopathologie (14th edn). Stuttgart: Georg Thleme Verlag.
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference roth was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Raines, Margaret Gordon (1979). A quantitative analysis of personality profiles for male drug abusers using the MMPI (Thesis).
  6. ^ "Classification of the MMPI codes, including scale 4, of an alcoholic subsample in relation to corresponding case history characteristics". Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. 63 (S292): 005–028. June 1981. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0447.1981.tb02469.x. S2CID 221398498.
  7. ^ Annesley, Dr. PT. Asst Psychiatrist, "Psychopathic Personality", St Ebba's Hospital, Epsom. 1963
  8. ^ World Health Organization, "Lexicon of psychiatric and mental health terms", Second Edition. 1994. Pp. 48+76 – sections "Personality, Dishibited" and "Haltlose Personality"
  9. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Langmaack2000 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cullivan, Rachael (January 1998). "Definition of 'haltlose'". Psychiatric Bulletin. 22 (1): 58–59. doi:10.1192/pb.22.1.58-a. ISSN 0955-6036.
  11. ^ Lečić Toševski, Dušica (2004). "Savremeno određenje poremećaja ličnosti – ponovo otkrivena prošlost" [Modern definition of personality disorders – rediscovered past] (PDF). Psihijatrija Danas (in Slovenian). 36 (2): 243–260.
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference exner was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Kraepelin, Emil. Einführung in die psychiatrische Klinik: Zweiunddreissig Vorlesungen, Chapter XXIX: Vorlesung – Krankhafte Personlichkeiten, Leipzig, 1905
  14. ^ Heinemann Medical, "Psychiatry – Modern Practical Nursing Series", Page 90
  15. ^ Boumendjel, May Doria. "Diagnostic de la comorbidité du Trouble de Déficit Attentionnel et d'Hyperactivité (TDAH) chez les patients bipolaires adultes." Psychiatrie et santé mentale. 2014.
  16. ^ Kraepelin, Emil (1913). Psychiatrie (8th ed.).
  17. ^ Gannushkin, Pyotr, Клиника психопатий, их статика, динамика, систематика/Статика психопатий/Группа неустойчивых психопатов, 1933
  18. ^ Grotjahn, M. of Topeka Kansas, Book Review of F. Stumpl's "Die Urspriinge des Verbrechens" as published in the International Psychoanalytic University, Internationale Zeitschrift fur Psychoanalyse XXII: Heft 4, 1936. Page 619
  19. ^ Rothmaler, Christiane. "Von "Haltlosen Psychopathinnen" und "Konstitutionellen Sittlichkeitsverbrechern". Die kriminalbiologische Untersuchungs- und Sammelstelle der Hamburgischen Gefangenenanstalten 1926 bis 1945", Edited by Heidrun Kaupen-Haas et al. Frankfurt/Main 1999: 257–303
  20. ^ Birnbaum, NA, "Kriminal≈Psychopathologie und Psychobiologische Verbrecherkunde", Page 137
  21. ^ Kriminologie, Gerhard Ledig, Page 37
  22. ^ Psychopathy – Signs in men and Women[permanent dead link], 2019
  23. ^ Dr. Iustinian Turcu, Psychology, "Tulburarile de Personalitate, section "Tulburarea de Personalitate de Tip Haltlose"
  24. ^ Weichbrodt, Dr. R., Abhandlungen aus der Neurologie Psychiatrie Psychologie und ihren Grenzgebieten, Chapter "Der Selbstmord" page 34 and elsewhere, Berlin 1923
  25. ^ Cite error: The named reference lich was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  26. ^ Cite error: The named reference aa was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  27. ^ Kalachev, BP; Burlakov, IA; Dobrokhotova, EV (1978). "[Results of long-term catamnesis of neurotic and psychopathic states and assessment of the prognosis]". Zhurnal Nevropatologii I Psikhiatrii imeni S.S. Korsakova. 78 (11): 1667–1671. PMID 726763.