Abnormal Psychology Final
June 23, 2013
Final Paper
Most people have heard of the great detective Sherlock Holmes, but do they really know the man he is inside? Many classify Sherlock as an eccentric man who can find anything he is in search of while improvising along the way. He can make something out of virtually nothing and is a known for being a genius, but no one knows that he suffers from schizoid personality disorder as well as Asperger’s syndrome. In both movies and books, Holmes displays many signs of both diagnoses. Sherlock Holmes is a very witty, charming, highly intelligent, perceptive to detail, and an extremely observant man. He is a very imaginative man and is able to concentrate even while outside distractions exist. This gives him the ability to focus on certain aspects while completely ignoring others. He somehow makes connections using data that a normal person would see as unrelated to the subject at hand. Perhaps most interesting of all is his ability to understand and predict human behavior. While Holmes has many positive attributes of both disorders, he also exhibits many negatives features of both as well. Being a detective often means being empathetic of those that are a part of the case you are working on. Holmes does not have this ability and as a matter of fact, he finds it hard to conform to social norms. He is narcissistic, very stubborn, unable to properly deal with boredom, and he tends to over think or over analyze things. At times he has a hard time dealing with his emotions, has no regard for authority, and seems to lack common sense most of the time.
Because Sherlock believes that emotions affect his ability to think logically, he chooses to suppress his emotions so that he can work on and solve cases in an acceptable amount of time. In an effort to cope with his boredom, Sherlock solves cases. It is most likely that he has been trying to cope with this since his early childhood and with his level of intelligence, it must pose a
Final Paper
Most people have heard of the great detective Sherlock Holmes, but do they really know the man he is inside? Many classify Sherlock as an eccentric man who can find anything he is in search of while improvising along the way. He can make something out of virtually nothing and is a known for being a genius, but no one knows that he suffers from schizoid personality disorder as well as Asperger’s syndrome. In both movies and books, Holmes displays many signs of both diagnoses. Sherlock Holmes is a very witty, charming, highly intelligent, perceptive to detail, and an extremely observant man. He is a very imaginative man and is able to concentrate even while outside distractions exist. This gives him the ability to focus on certain aspects while completely ignoring others. He somehow makes connections using data that a normal person would see as unrelated to the subject at hand. Perhaps most interesting of all is his ability to understand and predict human behavior. While Holmes has many positive attributes of both disorders, he also exhibits many negatives features of both as well. Being a detective often means being empathetic of those that are a part of the case you are working on. Holmes does not have this ability and as a matter of fact, he finds it hard to conform to social norms. He is narcissistic, very stubborn, unable to properly deal with boredom, and he tends to over think or over analyze things. At times he has a hard time dealing with his emotions, has no regard for authority, and seems to lack common sense most of the time.
Because Sherlock believes that emotions affect his ability to think logically, he chooses to suppress his emotions so that he can work on and solve cases in an acceptable amount of time. In an effort to cope with his boredom, Sherlock solves cases. It is most likely that he has been trying to cope with this since his early childhood and with his level of intelligence, it must pose a
References: Abnormal Psychology pp.28 By: Charles Stragnor Retrieved 6/22/2013 New Theories of Autism, Aspergers By: John M. Grohol Retrieved 6/22/2013 http://www.bandbacktogether.com/schizoid-personality-disorder-resources/ Retrieved 6/22/2013 The paper by Drs. Mehler and Purpura, “Autism, fever, epigenetics and the locus coeruleus,” was published in the March issue of Brain Research Reviews. Abnormal Psychology pp.454 By: Charles Stragnor Retrieved 6/22/2013 www.webmd.com/brain/autism/tc/aspergers-syndrome-home-treatmenthomework.WebMD staff April 2010 Retrieved 6/22/2013 http://psychcentral.com/disorders/schizoid-personality-disorder-treatment/ By: Grohol, John Retrieved 6/22/2013 http://www.psychiatry.org/practice/dsm/dsm-history-of-the-manual American Psychiatric Association Staff Retrieved 6/22/2013 http://www.psyweb.com/DSM_IV/jsp/dsm_iv.jsp 2013 2013 Retrieved 6/23/2013