Effects Of Psychopaths

Expert witnesses from the case of Kjeldsen (1981) state that even though psychopaths are not able to experience remorse or guilt for their victims, they have the mental abilities to appreciate the nature and quality of the actions (Verdun-Jones, Criminal Law in Canada, 2015, p. 209). That is, in other words, psychopaths are to have capabilities to understand as well as foresee the physical consequences of their actions, despite not being able to understand the psychological damage created towards their victims (Verdun-Jones, Criminal Law in Canada, 2015, p.

Psychopaths are typically devoid of emotion, and have an inherent sense of superiority that drives them to take actions that society considers

While they are aware of the awful crimes they commit, they are completely unable to feel bad about it. This is why they commit such violent acts. They do not see why murder is an unethical option, so once the idea of killing another person pops into their head, they act on it. When a psychopath seems like they feel empathy or normal emotions, they are faking it, it is simply simulation. They are essentially lacking in the ability to feel as most people do and often times have been taught that different things are right and wrong, such as abuse being normal.

The causes of psychopathy remain unknown. In a study at University of Wisconsin, Madison conducted by UW-Madison psychiatry Professor Michael Koenigs, UW-Madison psychology Professor Joseph Newman, and Dr. Kent Kiehl of the University of New Mexico, brain scans revealed that psychopathy in criminals indicated a disconnection between the amygdala (a part of the brain that controls fear and anxiety), and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), a region in the frontal lobe responsible for the control of sentiments such as empathy and guilt. “When there is a weak connection between these two regions or the connection is disrupted, the amygdala doesn’t process the negative stimuli into negative felt emotions. So, when an individual with psychopathy does something bad they do not feel nervous, embarrassed, or sad when other people suffer (Koenigs

One problem with these arguments provided by Kennett, McGeer, and Nichols, is that none explicitly address why psychopaths are deemed amoral versus immoral. The term “rational amoralist” is used by Nichols, but is not differentiated between what it means to be an immoralist. Amorality is conceptualized as the inability to differentiate between right and wrong, whereas immorality is conceptualized as knowing what is right versus wrong, but not being motivated to act accordingly. Psychopaths, as described in each of the sources, seem to fit the idea of being immoral rather than amoral in this way. They are capable of understanding the motivations and emotions of others, but do not care to engage with others in such a way that is motivated by their well-being. It may be the case that I have an incorrect interpretation of these ideas.

The fact that the offender was a psychopath meant he probably had no self-control or was impulsive because of observed behavior or learnt behavior. A theory called the self-control theory explains this impulsiveness for criminals. Pardue states, "Self-control theory assumes that the lack of self-control is natural and that self-control must be learned through the process of socialization". (Pardue, 2013 p. 124). This meaning that if the criminal lack self-control as a child and wasn't taught it by friends, family, etc.

Of all the psychiatric disorders, none are more chilling to the world then the psychopaths and sociopaths. These two disorders, categorized as antisocial personality disorders, bring about the absolute worse people and killers that the world has ever known. The infamous serial killers, the people who do the unimaginable, were all psychopaths. The ability of these people to do what they do and know that what they are doing is wrong, is perhaps one of the most chilling and shocking characteristic of these people. Psychopaths and sociopaths are very often thought by most to be the same disorder, yet they are different when classified by many psychiatric researchers. The people classified as psychopaths and sociopaths are separated by one main difference, and that is if they were born with a lack of the ability to empathize or if they were affected as children in a traumatic environment. Although both of these horrible disorders derive from a different area, the reality is that they are unpredictable, undetectable and most importantly, they can be very dangerous.

The researchers, based at King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, said the differences in psychopaths' brains mark them out even from other violent criminals with anti-social personality disorders (ASPD), and from healthy non-offenders. The study showed that psychopaths, who are characterised by a lack of empathy, had less grey matter in the areas of the brain important for understanding other people's emotions.

Due to its primary role in processing memory and emotional reactions, over the last decade and a half psychologists have been linking the amygdala to psychopathy. It is involved in aversive conditioning and instrumental learning and is thus involved in all the processes that, when impaired, produce the same functional impairments displayed by psychopaths. Two famous studies conducted by Tiihonen and Kiehl respectively have confirmed this. Tiihonen used a volumetric MRI to test and confirm the positive correlation between low amygdaloid volume and a high degree of psychopathy in violent criminals (measured by the Hare checklist-revised) while Kiehl used a functional MRI to prove reduced amygdala response during an emotional memory task in individuals who scored high on the Hare checklist-revised. However, both these studies along with numerous others were conducted using violent offenders as subjects rather than individuals with psychopathy. Although many psychopaths do exhibit violent tendencies, not all violent offenders are necessarily psychopaths. A study conducted by Raine is one of the few that did focus only on individuals exhibiting psychopathy. In his study Raine was able to show reduced prefrontal grey matter in his test subjects. Unfortunately though, he was unable to differentiate between grey matter in different regions of the prefrontal cortex. It is however clear that there is one region of the frontal cortex that could be

There are various physical and behavioral differences between a psychopath and an average person. In the book The Social Brain: Evolution and Pathology, doctors of psychiatry Hedda Ribbert and Wulf Schiefenhövel explain psychopath’s core features as a lack of empathy, persistent disregard for the feelings of others, reduced emotion, and have autonomic hyperresponsivity to sad and fearful

When most people hear the word psychopath their mind forms a picture of a wild-eyed, rambling, lunatic who is often restrained in a straitjacket. The media has helped this belief along the way with slasher horror films and grisly CSI episodes depict these strange humans. However, the average psychopath is much harder to spot than most people believe. In fact, most of them are extremely difficult to distinguish from ordinary humans. They outwardly appear normal and many do not find it difficult to blend into common society. They can interact with others, hold successful jobs, and effectively keep themselves out of trouble. Most are not the sadistic killers many people think they are. Psychopaths are people born with problems (Bartol 105) or

They are ended whenever necessary or when it suits them, and the relationships are without depth or meaning, including marriages” (Wood). Psychopaths have an innate ability to seek out and discover weaknesses in people, and make it a personal goal to target those weaknesses. They tend to carry a very low level of anxiety, and are rarely stressed. They are unlikely to hold a job for any length of time, as they begin to question the ways of their employers and they become uninterested in the tasks assigned to them. Their impulsivity keeps them from planning long-term, which results in a high occurrence of debt-fault (Wood.)

Psychopathy is a disease of the mind, in which the psychological state of someone has emotional or behavioral problems serious enough to require psychiatric evaluation. Psychopaths have no concern for the feelings of others and a complete disregard of any sense of social obligation. Psychopaths are characterized by lack of empathy, poor impulse control and manipulative behaviors. They use charm, manipulation, intimidation, and the use of severe to mild violence to satisfy their own needs.

The primary advantage of gathering information from “Why psychopaths are more successful” is the used of the lay languages or nonprofessional languages to clearly convey the scientific information to the audiences. Right at the beginning of the article, the author used phrases like “behaving like a psychopath could help you in your career and love life” to clarify the uncertainty of what the article going to be about to the audiences. Furthermore, authors also used lay languages to make his argument “the lack of fear which characterizes psychopaths could also help people in the workplace” which audience can understand easily in the context of the article. Therefore, implementation of the lay language in the popular articles can win a larger

Some people who have acted in an evil sense have grown up with abusive parents, drugs and molestation but their past made no difference in who they became in the future. They could use their past to make themselves stronger or use it to tear them down. As a whole, we recognize evil acts as being those committed by individuals who have abandoned society, individuals who commit rampage style shootings, those who target children for sexual exploitation, those who target vulnerable women for rape, terrorists, and so on. These are acts which, regardless of their root cause, have no seed of good within them. They are committed solely for the purpose of delivering pain, suffering, and torture to the victims, with no redeeming value to society, and without remorse.