Haltlose personality disorder
[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.
[30] The Haltlose were said to have a dynamic instinctual drive to "cling" to others, to avoid a horrible loneliness they fear[25] – but they will always represent a "lurking danger" because they were unable to actually maintain the necessary relationship and were in a class with the "forever abandoned".
[41] Research in 1925 indicates they display "great emotional irritability, which may result in violent loss of temper...and interpret every limitation as an undeserved insult"[41][42] and have a "pronounced lust for argument".
In one hour, they are happy and excited with the whole world lying open for them in the splendor of the joy of life, but the next hour casts aside this optimism and the future now seems bleak, gray on gray...sympathies and antipathies quickly replace each other, what was worshipped yesterday is burned today, and despite all oaths of eternal loyalty, the best friend is transformed into the deeply-loathed enemy overnight.Those with HLPD display "a number of endearing qualities, charming with an apparent emotional warmth, but also an enhanced suggestibility and a superficiality of affect", which can lead to unrealistic optimism.
[52] Similarly, researchers in the early twentieth-century believed that the inauthenticity of their projected self and superficiality of knowledge means that when "someone who is really superior to [them]", after a period of stiffly asserting themselves hoping to avoid submission, will ultimately and without explanation fully embrace the position of the other.
[55] They have been described as "cold-blooded",[56] but must be differentiated from dependent personality disorder, as the two can appear similar, due to the artifice of the Haltlose patient, despite having starkly opposing foundations.
[9][62] Kraepelin, in noting "an increased risk of criminal behavior", estimated that 64% of men and 20% of women with Haltlose descended into alcoholism in the early twentieth century.
[44] Given their tendency to "exaggerate, to embroider their narratives, to picture themselves in ideal situations, to invent stories",[41] this fear then manifests as being "apt to blame others for their offences, frequently seeking to avoid responsibility for their actions".
[69] Frequently changing their determined goals,[44] a haltlose psychopath is "constantly looking for an external hold, it doesn't really matter whether they join occult or fascist movements".
[29] A study of those with haltlose personality disorder concludes "In all of those cases, the result was a continuous social decline that ended in asocial-parasitic existence or an antisocial-criminal life".
[74][year missing] Gustav von Bergmann, a specialist in internal medicine rather than psychiatry, wrote in 1936 that Haltlose personality disorder was entirely biological rather than fostered through psychological experiences.
[75] Indeed, Dr. Hans Luxenburger proposed in 1939 that a toxin in the metabolism, when present with Haltlose personality disorder, might be responsible for asthenic difficulties such as shortness of breath, nausea, and cluster headaches.
[78] In 2006, an Essex warehouse employee who sustained head injuries was awarded £3 million compensation on the basis it had caused him to develop Haltlose personality disorder, seeking out prostitutes and pornography which destroyed his marriage.
Even with weeks of institutional observation, the certainty of our diagnostic aids can remain doubtful...under certain circumstances a doctor will advise medical care even at the risk of learning the patient cannot improve as a result of mental illness and will end up in a madhouse.Dr.
[94] Critics ceded that the term "Haltlose" remained of value in educational and therapeutic contexts, while suggesting future collaboration between psychiatric research and sociologists would allow further definition.
[96] Dr. DM Svrakic and Dr. M Divac-Jovanovic suggested the ICD-10 explanations of Haltlose, Immature and Psychoneurotic personality disorders appeared "dubious",[97] and sociologist James Cosgrave found psychiatric use to represent a "fringe figure".
[98] A graduate student at Bochumer Stadt & Studierendenzeitung condemned the historical diagnosis from an LGBT perspective, opining that "incredibly oppressive language" had been used by the psychiatrists studying it such as "pathological femininity".
[35] Whoever is abandoned in youth to the inexorable misery of existence, and at the same time is exposed to all manner of seductions, will find it very difficult to curb their constantly incited desires, and to instead force themselves through to the lofty vantage of moral self-assertion.It has been proposed that haltlose personality disorder may arise from "traumatization through maternal indolence" or institutionalization in early life, although without definite conclusion.
[25] Gerhardt Nissen referenced the possibility of intrauterine factors in the shaping of anti-social behaviors in Haltlose psychopaths, while noting the concept of psychopathy had been so weakened in modern psychopathology as to be indistinguishable from other conditions.
[67][43] Raising a Haltlose child can, in some cases, destroy the family structure by forcing relatives to take opposing positions, provoking disagreement and creating an atmosphere of bitterness and dejection.
[32] They have been clinically described as disappointments to their families,[100] and are unable to feel actual love for their parents and are indifferent to the hardships of relatives – since all relationships are seen only as potential means towards acquiring pleasure.
[25] Care must be taken in making Haltlose diagnoses of children, since "the traits of instability of purpose, lack of forethought, suggestibility, egoism and superficiality of affect...are to some extent normal in childhood".
[102][25] Regressive addictions amongst Haltlose psychopaths typically are infantile, and seek to replace the lost "dual union" arising from their parents' rejection, and later morph into a focus on subjects including vengeance or sado-masochism.
[17] The wasted good intentions resulted in the summary "probably the most important function of the psychiatrist when dealing with these patients is to protect their relatives and friends from ruining themselves in hopeless attempts at reclamation.
However superficial their affects, personalities of this type often show an apparent warmth...permit[ting] them to impose on their friends and relatives to an almost unbelievable extent.While some Haltlose have risen to the level of dangerous offenders multiple times over, it is more frequent that they attract attention early from their "vagabond" nature.
[114] Although Kraepelin believed those with Haltlose personality disorder represented the antithesis of morality,[115] there is not necessarily a tendency towards deliberate amorality among the demographic despite its frequent criminal violations since they may lack the ability to premeditate.
They do not understand how they could have done these things, or they blame their relatives, neighbors and so forthAlthough they enter relationships easily, Andrey Yevgenyevich Lichko contends they are not capable of actual loyalty or selfless love, and sex is treated as a form of entertainment rather than intimacy.
[38][41] Haltlose patients respond very well to institutionalization where their influences can be controlled, becoming "model inmates" of sanitariums even within hours of first arriving despite a chaotic life outside of the regimen, "but if you leave them, through good intentions, to their own devices – they don't last long before collapsing their current state and being seduced back onto the wrong track".
[124] Pyotr Gannushkin noted they joined military service due to peer pressure but given the lack of alcohol and stern, hard work required of them were able to function without their normal impairment.
[44] Upon being confronted with their misdeeds, the Haltlose respond "with more or less superficial reasons to excuse them, they claim that their parents treated them incorrectly, that they were the victim of adverse circumstances, seduced by other people and misled.
