Louise Belcher is the youngest in the family, but that doesn’t change how much trouble she can get her and her siblings into. Antisocial personality disorder is when someone lacks regard for their safety and others, meaning that they are more likely to engage in risky behaviors, break laws, and lie. ASPD is the same as “sociopath” but in the psychology world, that’s an outdated term.
Louise isn’t a terrible person like most people think when they hear antisocial personality disorder, but she is very manipulative. There are numerous episodes where Louise is seen tricking her siblings for her own benefit. For example, there is an episode where their school puts on a Thanksgiving play and they allow her sister, Tina, to write the play. However, Louise has her own idea in mind because she wants to prove a point to Mr. Frond. Tina does not know that Louise has another plan in the works, so she is blindsided by Louise when the play happens, and the ending is not at all like how she had written it. Louise does this by talking to Tina like everything is normal, she reassures Tina before the play saying its going to go great and how she’s proud that Tina is putting on the play, but that was all Louise lying to her face because she sabotages her and messes up the ending.
She is also known for being a little hostile at times. In one of the first episodes, Louise and two of her friends from across the street are at the pier in their town. Louise loves money and will do anything to make money, so while at the pier she sees vendors selling things and notices how many people stop and buy something. This triggers an idea in her head that she could be making money by selling things at the pier as well. However, she is not the one making the products, she forces her two friends into painting pictures. They try to get up and stop, but she yells at them and makes them stay sitting down painting for the whole day. She keeps them there by verbally abusing them basically, by yelling at them if they tried to move.
Antisocial personality disorder doesn’t mean that someone is going to be a serial killer, it can manifest in different ways. In children, a lot of the warning signs, Louise displays; including manipulation, lack of empathy for others, lying, and much more.
October 18, 2021 at 3:57 pm
This was a very interesting post to read; I really liked the way you connected Louise to ASPD through her hostile and manipulative behavior. I actually didn’t even know that antisocial personality disorder was the correct term for “sociopath” so that was new information to me. I didn’t realize how often children can display early signs of ASPD (like Louise) and I think this post did a great job of bringing that idea to light.