People with ASPD can experience polarized shifts in how they perceive other people, but these shifts do not necessarily resemble the classic black-and-white idealization/devaluation pattern commonly associated with BPD or, in a different form, NPD. In some cases, the shift may be more closely tied to perceived control, shame, status, ego injury, or the practical value of the relationship.
A person may go from viewing someone as “alright” to finding them intolerable after a relatively minor provocation, particularly when the relationship is distant, transactional, or already emotionally detached. The other person may be experienced as a hindrance, someone who has taken something from them, threatened their image, diminished them, or interfered with their sense of control.
The resulting change can sometimes feel less like an emotional pendulum and more like a decisive change in appraisal. Someone who was previously regarded positively may become the object of intense hostility, contempt, or exasperation after an ego injury or perceived threat to control. Conversely, once the person is no longer considered worth the attention, the hostility can give way to complete apathy or indifference.
In that sense, what looks like “splitting” from the outside may not necessarily involve the recurrent idealization–devaluation cycle often described in BPD. For some people, it can be comparatively abrupt and final: the person’s perceived value or meaning changes, and there may be little motivation to restore the previous relationship or emotional state.