On multiple crime-based TV shows, the term “narcissist” is often used to refer to criminals who display psychopathic/sociopathic tendencies. In everyday life, “narcissist” is defined as being vain or thinking too highly of oneself. However, narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is an actual psychological diagnosis that occurs more often than people think. Displaying confidence in oneself is not what characterizes NPD. Instead, just like other personality disorders, NPD has […]
Category: Mental Health
Inside the Brains of Psychopaths
Continuing on from my last mental health blog post “Sociopaths are not Psychopaths,” this blog post will focus in on one specific difference between the two groups of -paths. One major physical difference is discovered in the human brain in relation to how much brain activity a person exhibits. Many psychopaths display a distinctive pattern of brain activity after receiving PET scans. The scans below display reduced activity in an […]
Sociopaths are not Psychopaths
A common topic that psychology is known for falls under a variety of names: sociopathy, psychopathy, and popularly presented serial killers and/or mass murderer phenomenon in TV shows and movies around the globe. However, as much as most of America’s younger generations seem to be intrigued by fictional psychopathic vampires or even non-fictional, yet infamous serial killers that have since been executed. One example is Ted Bundy, who is often […]
The Effects of Schizophrenia
Although 1% of the American population may not statistically express a large number of people, it actually calculates to be over 2.2 million people. That is the number of Americans 18 and older affected by schizophrenia that may commonly experience debilitating symptoms. Schizophrenia is a chronic and very severe mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. They are often described as having lost touch with reality […]
What is Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)?
Rice University’s perspective on mental health is incredibly positive and helpful to students. As a student myself, I truly believe I would not be in a stable state without Rice’s Wellbeing Center. In my first semester, I learned about Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Many people I love have either suffered from BPD or known someone who deals with it now or has in the past. One of my close friends […]