15. Psychopathic behaviour (perceived as asocial, egocentric)
Children described as ‘AS’ and ‘zebras’ are often perceived as self-absorbed and egocentric. I had never observed children with such intense concentration and such pronounced obsessions. They seem to exclude others, turning in on themselves in every gesture, like a horse whose gaze, fixed in one direction, seems even more sensitive and attentive to what is happening around it.
Their brains and perception are so absorbed by the demands of survival and everyday functioning that the other person's presence becomes almost nonexistent. Thus every social interaction meets with great frustration for the person making the effort to communicate.
Without an explicitly established identity, they cling to the slightest opportunity to reveal their talent, which, like their passions, ends up forming the very essence of their being. Managing social information and sharing prove to be a difficult mountain to climb, a learning process that takes time. Nevertheless, the multiplicity of emotional responses, exacerbated by a hostile climate that excludes difference, often leads to the emergence of behaviours marked by cruelty and domination.
Supporting these children then becomes an absolute necessity.
When I felt my integrity threatened — whether by illness or trauma — and faced my inability to cope with this ordeal, I observed a complete dysfunction of my being. This experience was accompanied by extreme panic, a genuine catastrophic reaction.
Source: Pierre-Alain JOSEPH, University of Bordeaux
Overall, recurrent manifestations of psychosis in various forms and degrees of severity are possible.
Definition: psychosis/neurosis
A profound alteration of the person's consciousness (disorganisation of thought) and their relationship with reality.
In neurobiology, it has recently been discovered that the origins may lie in dopamine as well as over- and undermethylation.