The idea that Conduct Disorder and ASPD don't just appear out of nowhere was the point I was making earlier. It's possible LS's antisocial conduct at early ages was hidden. But it does appear we have no evidence she exhibited antisocial behaviors at early ages unless we are willing to say because those existed at 18 (assuming we count the known criminal violations) those behaviors must have existed at earlier ages too. I'm not willing to say that. And I guess none of the evaluators have been either-- none of them mentioned ASPD or even antisocial traits that I know of.
I think something significant may have happened to LS in early to mid-adolescence. Much too late to create DID, of course.
JMO
I'm pondering all that too. Even if LS was 17 when she threatened the school/the principal, that's just one set of scrapes with the law. I do believe I read somewhere (here on WS) that people who knew her as a child say she lied constantly. She apparently still performed well in school.
I find it odd that no one pulled in Antisocial PD and instead, there's a mention of malingering. That makes me think that on her personality inventories she recognized some of the questions pointing to ASPD and tried to influence the results (I think it was the second psychologist who testified more about LS having a score that could include malingering/attempt to manipulate the test).
I read here yesterday (I think) that the State was confined to using experts who had seen her within the corrections system. If anyone has more information about this, I'd be much obliged.
If the Dx that the Defense eventually goes with is Borderline PD, then your hypothesis about something happening during adolescence is a very good one, as BPD usually as its onset in late adolescence or early adulthood and can be triggered by adolescence or childhood trauma (along with a certain kind of upbringing, IMO). Did we ever hear what she spent AS's $8000 on?
ASPD and BPD have symptoms that overlap, but the extreme rage and "Periods of stress-related paranoia and loss of contact with reality, lasting from a few minutes to a few hours" (DSM-V) are specific to BPD. Anyway, BPD seems to explain more than either DID or ASPD. Disassociation is a feature of BPD and not ASPD, so it overlaps with DID in that regard. Both BPD and DID are associated with childhood trauma as well. To me, it gives a more complete picture of LS to use BPD.
I tried to find any articles that showed a relationship between BPD and a legal insanity defense. Several states have apparently banned use of ASPD in an insanity defense, but I don't think any state has banned BPD. What I did find were articles stating that BPD should not be considered legal insanity:
as well as articles saying it should be considered grounds for legal insanity:
Should a Personality Disorder Qualify as a Mental Disease in Insanity Adjudication? - Volume 38 Issue 4
www.cambridge.org
The insanity defense has been criticized with consequences for individuals with real mental illness. In the United States, several states have redefined the insanity defense by excluding antisocial...
www.tandfonline.com
The last article also has data on successful use of BPD in a NGRI defense (it is successful less frequently than an Axis I diagnosis but it can be successful). This last article proposes metrics (a continuum) that would place severe BPD in the same category as Axis I, based on symptoms but also citing "frontolimbic abnormalities" (something wrong in the wiring of the brain, basically).
IMO.