Agitation therapy for antisocial and psychopathic personalities: an outline

In this paper, a hypothetical model of agitation therapy for some categories of antisocial and psychopathic patients/offenders is presented. Agitation therapy is mainly meant for very problematic and aggressive individuals who do not (or hardly) respond (in some periods) to any other type of psychotherapy, neurofeedback, and/or psychopharmacotherapy. The author makes an attempt to develop an adequate model of agitation therapy that makes optimal use of learning moments in controlled conflict situations. During agitation therapy the aggressive antisocial or psychopathic individual will be exposed to external agitation of other patients in a controlled manner in order to increase his/her self-knowledge; awareness of his or her intolerable behavior and limitations; sublimation of aggression/anger; the willingness (and insight in the necessity) to change; feelings of responsibility and emotional, social and moral development. Agitation therapy is not intended to be an isolated form of psychotherapy, but it may be rather often successful in combination with other types of psychotherapy, neurofeedback, and/or psychopharmacotherapy.