Izaya does not have ASPD.
He is certainly neuro divergent.
He's definitely traumatized. And I don't mean the Shizuo trauma, I mean childhood trauma.
It's incredibly easy to make a case for him having C-PTSD but it's practically impossible to determine if that's all that's going on. There could easily be a personality disorder or autism in the mix.
Yet, I'm sure it's not ASPD.
If you're reading this I assume you've already read somebody make a case for why he does have ASPD, so I'm not going to extend on the diagnostic criteria, but essentially important is that it is definitely possible to make a convincing and well argumented case for him having it. He does display various signs and fulfills enough criteria to get the diagnosis from an inexperienced therapist for sure.
However, he's missing one that's very critical to the disorder, pretty much at the core of what makes it different from the other cluster B disorders, since a lot of the other symptoms are shared.
- Lack of remorse
Izaya shows remorse. Izaya regrets his actions, Izaya does not enjoy the way people end up hurt because of him. It's shown more clearly in the Novels, especially the ever famous 9th novel, but it's shown in the anime too, it's just incredibly subtle. Yet you can see it clearly if you watch for the timing of his expression changes, and analyze when he uses which tone of voice. Izaya also clearly hides it, since after all, in his position it pays to be immune to such things. You don't deal with experienced and dangerous Yakuza with your belly up, that much should be obvious.
He however shows a strong sense of justice... It's just a hopeless mismatch compared to what people typically see as 'just'.
Additonally the whole suicide girls thing is often used as an example of why he's remorseless. It's true he didn't feel remorse for doing that, but why would he? These actions didn't actually hurt anyone, they didn't actually have negative consequences for those girls at all. They're all alive and well. (Remember, the whole Rio thing is NOT canon)
"But it's a mean thing to do!"
Maybe, but he does it out of compassion for those who in his eyes deserve the pity that these, in his eyes undeserving, girls are asking for. Izaya does not regret that compassion. Not regretting compassion sounds healthy to me!
- there's also several points about not caring for or bothering with social norms.
This is a standard for anyone who has an IQ outside the normal range. People with an extremely low IQ are not capable of understanding the social norms, and people with an extremely high IQ can see past the superficial reasoning and end up creating their own value system, which is generally very well argumented and reasonable, which they measure their actions against instead of the common norms. And of course those values are shaped by life (childhood) experiences as well. Therefore it's impossible to use these points as proper diagnostic criteria, without first figuring out what the new norms are. A good institute can do that, but a single therapist typically cannot either, nevermind some backyard psychology nerd like most of us here!
I feel like I didn't quite explain this well enough but sadly i don't have time to write a proper essay, so feel free to ask questions and I'll get to it when I can!
