ABSTRACT
It is well-known that antisocial behavior and depression are not mutually exclusive. This patient presented with clear-cut symptomatology, partially documented by prison resources. The careful clinician must always factor in his or her own personal responses to a patient. The stereotype of the violent, young Black man is a powerful one among some Whites in American society, one that arouses considerable fear and hostility. When confronted with a living example of this stereotypical "Other," the evaluator is all too likely to diagnose malingering and to overlook signs of genuine affective disorder. There is a temptation, no matter what the person's ethnicity, to label anyone who has committed a violent crime as antisocial. By assuming that the patient is malingering for the sake of some kind of primary gain, such as time out of prison, the evaluator avoids having to empathize with someone whose actions are repugnant. This is a defense that effectively isolates the evaluator's own unconscious aggression and undoes its potency. The more alien the person thus categorized, the easier the unconscious process.
