Why Agot Isidro is Wrong in Calling Duterte a Psychopath?

Psychopath as Defined in Psychology: Why Agot Isidro is Wrong in Calling Duterte a Psychopath?

In the midst of the current administration’s new governance, sparked controversial sentiments, lots of opinions were thrown between two opposing parties, particularly the Duterte Administration and those who are not convinced of his way of control specifically on his war against drugs. One of the most talked about remarks was made by an actress, Ms. Agot Isidro. Ms. Isidro, in her Facebook status update, slammed the President for the statements he gave during one of his speeches. Aside from criticizing Duterte with his way of governance and his behavior to other foreign personalities, she ended her post by calling Duterte not a Bipolar but a Psychopath.

Ms. Isidro’s statement steamed over the social media. Several people expressed disagreement with her post not because of her remarks toward the President, but when she used the term Bipolar and Psychopath. The comments in general condemned Ms. Agot’s use of these terms without being aware of the weight of her statements. She is not an expert on such field yet she vocally used it as if it is just a common term to be used.

A psychopath is not merely a term used to describe a person with a wicked personality. It is a mental health illness. It is thoroughly defined with the help of DSM-5 or the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders, 5th ed. Psychopathy, is a type of personality disorder. Personality disorder is a mental health illness that has something to do with a person’s maladaptive behavior towards his or her environment, this includes the people around him or her, and that prevents the person to function normally. In Psychopathy, the problem focuses on the person’s insistent antisocial behavior. Antisocial behavior is the lack of capacity or the need to isolate oneself from other people. Psychopaths are known to behave maladaptive with other people. They don’t socialize and building a relationship for them is the hardest thing to do. Their withdrawal towards their environment is characterized by egoistic desires thus they don’t feel remorse if they have to abandon a certain person or situation.

A psychopath is a type of mental illness but it isn’t different from being a diabetic or asthmatic, the only difference is that it has something to do with the mental and not on the physical state of the patient. Thus if you criticize and use it to describe your disappointment to a particular person, you are as if demeaning a person’s worth because of having a diabetes or asthma. It is a very serious matter that using it to disgrace a person must not be tolerated.

It is important to educate the people that mental health illnesses must not be taken lightly. People should stop from using such terms without being properly aware of how complex and sensitive it is. People with mental health issues never wished to have it within their system. Nobody wants to feel bad about one’s self, and yet it is often the great struggle of those who are suffering from such illnesses.