The Good Son Psychological Analysis

Henry’s Affliction with Conduct Disorder Conduct Disorder can be defined as a persistent pattern of antisocial behaviors and violation of age-appropriate societal norms by a child. Children with conduct disorder often display antisocial behavior such as severe aggression toward people and animals, destruction of property, deceitfulness, theft, and serious violation of rules. Antisocial behavior is characterized by anything that would be considered unacceptable behavior by the majority of people. In contrast, prosocial behavior is defined as balancing the needs of others with one’s own, and displaying what is commonly thought of as acceptable behavior. Additionally, children with conduct disorder also lack a range of prosocial emotions, such …show more content…
Throughout the movie, Henry displays behaviors that strongly correlate with that of conduct disorder, such as extreme cases of lying and manipulation, successfully murdering and attempting to murder his siblings, and an ability to create incredibly intricate and well thought out schemes. A biological cause for conduct disorder lies in the frontal lobe of afflicted children, which is often abnormally large, and impaired in a way that prevents them from learning from negative experiences (“Conduct Disorder”, 2015). In addition, permissive parenting, also known as indulgent parenting, is characterized by parents who place very few restrictions on their children, which can be a very prominent cause in the development of conduct disorder (Cherry, 2014). The leniency of Henry’s parents enables him to behave the way he does, and most likely heavily contributed to his development of conduct disorder. However, if Henry were to grow up and continue his antisocial behavior, his condition would no longer be identified as conduct disorder, but rather be termed antisocial personality