Introduction

A sadistic personality disorder is one of the several personality disorders in which the affected individual exposes sadistic, aggressive, manipulative, and cruel behaviors on others (Levesque, 2018). Unlike normal individuals, the person feels pleasure by inflicting pain in others. In most cases, people with this mental illness cannot keep peaceful relationships because they would rather see other people sad or in pain. In short, sadistic people have a tendency of doing harmful things to others, including the use of sharp objects and other pain-inflicting actions with the aim of causing pain.

Causes of Sadistic Personality

According to studies, there are no specific causes of sadistic personality disorder. However, some theories claim that the condition results from the way an individual is brought up. For example, unfavorable experiences at a young age play a huge role in being diagnosed with mental illness. For example, a person who went through painful experiences in the early phases of sexual development is likely to become a sadist who can inflect sexual pain to others. Also, sadistic personality may develop through conditioning (Buckels, 2018). In this regard, a continuous connection between a certain activity such as sexual satisfaction with pain or misery can lead to sadism. More so, some researchers have stated that some biological factors play a certain part in causing the disorder. Since there is no exact cause of the mental illness, an emphasis has been put on the way individuals are brought up.

Symptoms of Sadistic Personality Disorder

            Patients with sadistic personality disorder report to mental healthcare centers with a range of symptoms that are relied on by psychiatrists to confirm the diagnosis. Firstly, sadistic individuals have a tendency to humiliating others in public. The shame and disgrace that others feel in return makes them feel good. Also, sadistic people assume that all people are under them (Levesque, 2018). They always want to have dominance over others in every place they go to be it at home, in hospitals, workplaces, or even in prison. They end up hating those that try to challenge them. Furthermore, individuals with sadistic personality disorder enjoy hurting others physically. Seeing other suffer in pain due to their action makes them feel satisfied.in cases where a sadistic person is a manager in a company, he/she ensures that all activities are done as per his/her wishes by frightening employees. Lastly, gets amused on watching any forms of violence, martial arts, and fights that involves all types of weaponry. They also like seeing people get injured during fights.

Examples of people with Sadistic Personality Disorder

            Identifying people with sadistic personality is possible as long as the psychologists are aware of the major symptoms of people with such illnesses. As such, there are examples of people that can be diagnosed with sadistic personality disorder. Firstly, a person who always has a strong urge to kill an animal or a person without any valid reason to do so can be classified among sadists. Such a person is capable of causing harm to others for his or her own pleasure and satisfaction (Sopromadze, & Tsiskaridze, 2018). Besides, such people feel sad if they are denied a chance to harm or kill an animal or even a human being. Secondly, sadists include those people who are always ready to inflict harm to any person they meet on the way or any other public. In this case, they aim to hurt anyone including those that are not aware of what they are up to. They can even go to the extent of following them, so that catch them up and harm them.

Sexual sadists are other examples of people with personality disorder. Unlike others, they cause pain to others or themselves during a sexual act. For example, they may choose to beat their partner on be beaten vigorously without complaining. According to them, pain during sex is a form of satisfaction on its own. Being the most diagnosed form of sadism, its cause is linked to unfavorable upbringing, especially relating to sexual reproduction parts (Longpré, Guay, & Knight, 2018). Also, conditioning is a common cause of sexual sadism whereby individuals get used to painful sex after being introduced to it several times. The last example of sadists falls into the class of explosive sadists. Explosive sadists refer to people who have faced disappointments in their lives such that they easily lose control when they are frustrated with others. As a result, they end up expressing violent behaviors to all those who are close them, including family members. One thing about them is that they are unpredictable in that they may start violent behaviors at any time and at any place.

Conclusion

Following the discussion above, it is clear that people with sadistic personality disorder aim at causing harm and pain to others. Although there is no exact cause of mental illness, inappropriate upbringing can have a great impact on getting diagnosed with the condition. Therefore, psychologists should be aware of the different examples of people with sadistic behaviors so that they can be in a position to diagnose and recommend for further management in mental healthcare units.

Reference

Buckels, E. E. (2018). The psychology of everyday sadism (Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia).

Levesque, R. J. (2018). Sadistic Personality Disorder. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 875-879.

Longpré, N., Guay, J. P., & Knight, R. A. (2018). The developmental antecedents of sexually sadistic behaviors. Routledge International Handbook of Sexual Homicide Studies.

Sopromadze, S., & Tsiskaridze, A. (2018). Violent Behavior. In Neurologic-Psychiatric Syndromes in Focus-Part II (Vol. 42, pp. 106-121). Karger Publishers.