‘Antisocial personality’, an Antithesis of Psychopathology

The paper offers a critical and clinical examination of the concept of ‘antisocial personality, often used in the field of psychiatrical nosology and psychopathological practices in criminology and forensic sciences. Our reflection begins with a genealogy of the concept in various versions of psychiatric classifications, in particular the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The lack of sociological reasoning in a concept which refers to the ‘social’, and its historical development is discussed. It is then demonstrated that this idea can be seen as the antithesis of a psychopathological perspective, which should be dynamic, comprehensive and phenomenological.