is currently defined in (''soul, breath hence mind'') and
Pathos (''to suffer''), and was once used to denote any form of
Mental Illness , often being confused with
Psychosis . The term is often used interchangeably with ''sociopathy'' and ''
Antisocial Personality Disorder '' e.g. Arthur S. Reber. ''Penguin Dictionary of Psychology''. 2nd. ed. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1995, but many authorities in the fields have argued that there are important differences among the three (see sect. 6 below).
Though in widespread use, psychopathy has no precise equivalentHare, R. D.
Psychopathy and Antisocial Personality Disorder: A Case of Diagnostic Confusion, Psychiatric Times, February 1996, XIII, Issue 2 Accessed
June 26 ,
2006 in either the
DSM-IV-TR , where it is most strongly correlated with
Antisocial Personality Disorder , or the
ICD-10 , where it is correlated with
Dissocial Personality Disorder . Some
Experts are working toward
Listing psychopathy as a unique disorder. However, only a minority of diagnosable psychopaths are violent offenders Belmore, M. F., & Quinsey, V. L. Correlates of psychopathy in a noninstitutional sample. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 9(3), 339-349 1994 Hersh, K., & Gray-Little, B. Psychopathic traits and attitudes associated with self-reported sexual aggression in college men. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 13(4), 456-471 1998. The manipulative skills of some of the others are valued for providing audacious leadership Hercz, R 'Psychopaths among us.' 2001 retrieved from
Some have argued that psychopathy is adaptive in a highly competitive environment, because it gets results for both the individual and the corporations Babiak, P. Psychopathic manipulation in organizations: Pawns, patrons, and patsies. In D. J. Cooke, Rache 71-99, lizbet1998; A. E. Forth, J. P. Newman, & R. D. Hare (Eds.), Issues in criminological and legal psychology: No. 24, International perspective on psychopathy (pp. 12-17). Leicester, UK: British Psychological Society. 1996 they represent Mealey. L. 'The Sociobiology of Sociopathy: An Integrated Evolutionary Model' retrieved from [http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/official_culture.htm . However, these individuals will often cause long-term harm, both to their co-workers and the organization as a whole, due their manipulative, deceitful, abusive, and often fraudulent behaviour Babiak, P. From darkness into the light: Psychopathy in industrial and organizational psychology. In Herve, H. & Yuille, J.C. (Eds.), The Psychopath: Theory, Research and Practice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 2007.
In current clinical use, psychopathy is most commonly diagnosed using the s and expectations without guilt or remorse" Hare, Robert D, Psychopaths: New Trends in Research. The Harvard Mental Health Letter, September 1995. "What is missing, in other words, are the very qualities that allow a human being to live in social harmony."Hare, Robert D. ''Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of Psychopaths Among Us,'' (New York: Pocket Books, 1993) pg 2.
Research into a group of individuals that could be described as psychopathic was first completed by
Philippe Pinel almost 200 years ago. Pinel described patients as "insane without delirium," which he characterized as a lack of restraint and remorselessness for their actions. Pinel felt that his patients were morally neutral, reflecting his
Humanistic approach to mental illness.Hare, Robert D. ''Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of Psychopaths Among Us,'' (New York: Pocket Books, 1993) pg 25. The 19th century term used for such individuals was "moral imbecile" David Kelley, "Stalking the Criminal Mind", ''Harper's'', Aug. 1985, 53-59.
The next most distinctive work on psychopaths was done in
1941 by
Hervey Cleckley in his book ''The Mask of Sanity'' (significantly expanded in the second edition of 1950). Cleckley offered a broad range of case histories, from all corners of society, all of which showed patients with the common characteristic of "emotional emptiness."Cleckley, Hervey. ''The Mask of Sanity,'' pg 92. Cleckley probed the psychopath's attitudes and thought patterns in search of a meaning for their unusual behaviour; however, according to Robert Hare, Cleckley's most important contribution was in providing the framework of emotion for most future research into this disorder.Hare, Robert D. ''Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of Psychopaths Among Us,'' (New York: Pocket Books, 1993) pg 19.
The prototypical psychopath has deficits or deviances in several areas: interpersonal relationships, emotion, and self-control. Psychopaths lack a sense of guilt or remorse for any harm they may have caused others, instead rationalizing the behavior, blaming someone else, or denying it outright. Psychopaths also lack empathy towards others in general, resulting in tactlessness, insensitivity, and contemptuousness. All of this belies their tendency to make a good, likable first impression. Psychopaths have a superficial charm about them, enabled by their low self-consciousness, a willingness to say anything without concern for accuracy or truth. This extends into their pathological lying and willingness to con and manipulate others for personal gain or amusement. The prototypical psychopath's emotions are described as a ''shallow affect'', meaning their overall way of relating is characterized by mere displays of friendliness and other emotion for personal gain; the displayed emotion need not correlate with felt emotion, in other words. Shallow affect also describes the psychopath's tendency for genuine emotion to be short lived and egocentric with an overall cold demeanor. Their behavior impulsive and irresponsible, often failing to keep a job or defaulting on debts.Millon, Theodore; Davis, Roger D. "Chapter 11: The Five-Factor Model of Personality, pp. 173-177. ''Psychopathy: Antisocial, Criminal, and Violent Behavior.''
Since psychopaths cause harm through their actions, it is assumed that they are not emotionally attached to the people they harm; however, according to the
PCL-R Checklist , psychopaths are also careless in the way they treat themselves. They frequently fail to alter their behavior in a way that would prevent them from enduring future discomfort. Dr. Joseph Newman contends that the behavior displayed by psychopaths is the result of "an inability to process contextual cues." Newman, J
Psychos need a little sympathy Wired News
It is thought that any emotions which the primary psychopath exhibits are the fruits of watching and mimicking other people's emotions. They show poor impulse control and a low tolerance for frustration and aggression. They have no empathy,
Remorse ,
Anxiety or
Guilt in relation to their behavior. In short, they truly are devoid of conscience. However, they understand that society expects them to behave in a conscientious manner, and therefore they mimic this behavior when it suits their needs.
Most studies of psychopaths have taken place among prison populations. This remains a limitation on its applicability to a general population but that has not prevented fiction writers from popularizing psychopaths in the
Movies .
Cleckley defined psychopathy thus:Cleckley, H, 1941
The Mask of Sanity (pdf Download 1.38mb)
It has been shown that punishment and behavior modification techniques do not improve the behavior of a psychopath. They have been regularly observed to respond to both by becoming more cunning and hiding their behavior better. It has been suggested that traditional
Therapeutic approaches actually make them, if not worse, then far more adept at manipulating others and concealing their behavior. They are generally considered to be not only incurable but also untreatable.
Psychopaths also have a markedly distorted sense of the potential consequences of their actions, not only for others, but also for themselves. They do not, for example, deeply recognize the risk of being caught, disbelieved or injured as a result of their behaviour.
Psychopathy has quite separate
Legal and
Judicial definitions that should not be confused with the medical definition. Various states and nations have at various times enacted
Law s specific to dealing with psychopathic offenders, and many of these laws are active, on statute, today:
- Washington State LegislatureWashington State Legislature Revised Code of Washington (RCW) Accessed June 26 , 2006 defines a "Psychopathic personality" to mean "the existence in any person of such hereditary, congenital or acquired condition affecting the emotional or volitional rather than the intellectual field and manifested by anomalies of such character as to render satisfactory social adjustment of such person difficult or impossible".
- California enacted a psychopathic offender law in 1939 Statutes and Amendments to the Codes of California 1939, page 1783, ch. 447, enacted June 6, 1939 that defined a psychopath solely in terms of offenders with a predisposition "to the commission of sexual offenses against children." A 1941 law Statutes and Amendments to the Codes of California 1941, page 2462, ch. 884, enacted June 28, 1941. attempted to further clarify this to the point where anyone examined and found to be psychopathic was to be committed to a state hospital and anyone else was to be sentenced by the courts.
- In the , 2006 as, "a persistent disorder or disability of mind (whether or not including significant impairment of intelligence) which results in abnormally aggressive or seriously irresponsible conduct on the part of the person concerned."
Primary psychopathy was defined as the root
Disorder in patients diagnosed with it whereas secondary psychopathy was defined as an aspect of another psychiatric disorder or social circumstances
6. Today, primary psychopaths are considered to have mostly Factor 1 traits from the PCL-R (arrogance, callousness, manipulativeness, lying) whereas secondary psychopaths have a majority of Factor 2 traits (impulsivity, boredom proneness, irresponsibility, lack of long-term goals) .
Mealey uses the term "primary psychopathy" to differentiate between psychopathy that is biological in origin and "secondary psychopathy" that results from a combination of genetic and environmental influencesMealey, L. (1995). The sociobiology of sociopathy:An integrated evolutionary model. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 18, 523–559.. Lykken prefers sociopathy to describe the latter.
Sellbom and Ben-Porath (2005) describe the distinction succinctly:
:Some people who engage in violent behavior possess psychopathic personality traits, such as callousness, grandiosity, and fearlessness, and presumably engage in such conduct because they care little about others. Others are impulsive and experience considerable anger, anxiety, and distress and may commit violent acts as a reaction to negative emotions, which are sometimes referred to as "crimes of passion." Indeed, the distinction between primary and secondary psychopathy (including so-called neurotic psychopathy) has long been noted in the psychopathy literature (Karpman, 1947; Lykken, 1995).
7
This distinction closely resembles the distinction between instrumental and impulsive/reactive crime/violence in the field of
Criminology .
Joseph P. Newman ''et al.'' have validated David T. Lykken's conceptualization of psychopathy subtypes in relation to Gray's behavioral activation system and behavioral inhibition system.
8
On the
MMPI-2 Restructured Clinical Scales (RC), primary psychopathy (as measured by the Psychopathic Personality Inventory, Factor 1) is negatively correlated with RC2 (low positive emotions), RC7 (dysfunctional negative emotions), RC4 (antisocial behavior), and RC9 (hypomanic activation). On the MMPI-2 Personality Psychopathology Five (PSY-5) scales, primary psychopathy was positively correlated with aggression (Specifically, grandiosity and interpersonal dominance, and instrumental aggression). and DISC(onstraint) (specifically, fearlessness) while being negatively correlated with NEGE (negative emotionality) and INTR(oversion).
Newman ''et al.'' found measures of primary psychopathy to be negatively correlated with Gray's behavioral inhibition system, a construct intended to measure behavioral inhibition from cues of punishment or nonreward.
Secondary psychopaths show normal to above-normal physiological responses to (perceived) potential threats. Their crimes tend to be unplanned and impulsive with little thought of the consequences . They have hot tempers and are prone to reactive aggression. They experience normal to above-normal levels of anxiety but are nevertheless highly stimulus seeking and have trouble tolerating boredom. Their lifestyle may lead to depression and even suicide.
For the secondary psychopath especially prominent are the Factor 2 (in the
Two-factor Model ) PCL-R items of impulsivity, weak behavioral controls, irresponsibility, lack of realistic long-term goals, proneness to boredom/need for stimulation, parasitic lifestyle, early behavioral problems, juvenile delinquency, and revocation of conditional release (breaking probation).
Sellbom and Ben-Porath (2005) found that secondary psychopathy (as measured by the Psychopathic Personality Inventory, Factor 2) shows opposite correlations to primary psychopathy in many cases. On the MMPI-2 RC, secondary psychopathy is positively correlated with RC4 (asb), RC7 (dne), and RC9 (hpm). It was also found to be correlated with the MMPI-2 PSY-5 scales of AGGR(ession) and DISC(onstraint).
Newman ''et al.'' found measures of secondary psychopathy to be positively correlated with Gray's behavioral activation system, a construct intended to measure sensitivity to cues of behavioral approach.
See Also: Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R)
The PCL-R has allowed for a differentiation between individuals with psychopathy and
Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD).
