Psychopaths

Psychopathy is condition in which an individual has a wide array of negative personality traits. The trait that stands out the most is that they enjoy the suffering of others, as well as compulsively, and very skillfully, lying to others. Also, their sense of superficial charm causes people to gravitate toward them. Psychopaths are also known for their lack of general remorse and empathy for any wrongdoings they may commit. They are known to deny responsibility for actions they commit, as well as maintaining a parasitic lifestyle; figuratively speaking they feed off of those around them that can contribute to their desires. This condition, while it may seem like it is extremely rare, this is only due to the fact that these people are very good at blending in with normal people, making it hard to judge who is truly a psychopath.

Psychopaths have a conscience and lack morality. Sociopaths have a conscience and sense of morality.Psychopathy and sociopathy are non-diagnosable conditions. People who show psychopathy traits are more than likely to receive a diagnosis of mental health disorder.Mental Disorders more commonly known as DSM is used to diagnose mental health disorders. Psychopathy often confused with psychosis. Psychosis is involved in a break with reality and can be associated with certain disorders like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Whereas psychopathy is involved with symptoms of personality traits that include a lack of conscience and morality. People who are diagnosed as psychotic, have experienced delusions, hallucinations, and even paranoia. They believe, see and hear things that are not really there. A person who is psychotic sometimes hears voices that will command them to be violent. Psychopaths have no issues seeing reality from non-reality. There are no voices inside their heads. They are fully aware of their behavior, the choose to be violent if they feel it is necessary. New evidence shows that violence has a biological or genetic connection

They’re distinctive traits include living a parasitic lifestyle, lack of responsibility for their actions, glibness, and a lack of realistic long term goals (“Psychopathic”). They do not learn from their experiences and cannot form meaningful relationships. They continuously engage in antisocial behavior, punishment does not have an affect on their behavior, and they are emotionally immature (Hare, Psychopathy 9). They find it hard to control their impulses and commonly hold many short-term relationships, often engaging in promiscuous sexual behavior. (“Psychopathic”). Frequently, they fail to plan ahead, have a low frustration acceptance, and have no problem lying blatantly to someone’s face. Psychopaths don’t feel remorseful if they mistreat or hurt someone, in fact, the person’s safety, as well as their own, is disregarded in order for the psychopath to get what they want (Hare, “Psychopath vs. Antisocial”). An easy way to describe a psychopath is a human who lives a predatory lifestyle (“Psychopathic”).

Psychopaths is the clinical or diagnostic group of individuals who demonstrate certain behavioral, cognitive, and neuropsychological characteristics that are not usually found in the general population. The term psychopath refers to an individual who exhibits a discernible pattern that differs from the general population in its level of sensitivity, empathy, compassion, and guilt. The psychopath term is misused in a numerous amount of ways because people do not know the true meaning. There are different ways a psychopath differs from anyone else. Surprisingly, a psychopath seems to be friendly, sociable, outgoing, likeable, and alert. They are also well-educated, knowledgeable, and interested in a variety of things. I would have never been

A psychopath has the ability to act normal. They have no real emotions, but they have the ability to mimic emotions and thoughts of normal people. They cannot form attachments with others, but they can falsify them. Many psychopaths received a well-rounded education and maintain steady jobs. These tend to be very organized killers.

Psychopaths, in their brains, are wired differently. This leads to almost no remorse for any crime they commit as well as never feeling guilty for their choices. A psychopath view people in their daily lives and society as pawns to be played with. Psychopaths are given the capability to “play” with their “pawns” due to the personality they portray to the outside world. Often viewed as charming and trustworthy, a psychopath gains entrance into the lives of those they wish to manipulate.

As with all personality disorders, emotions are the main focus. Psychopaths are characterized by their lack of empathy, a ‘callous unconcern for the feelings of others.’ They have very shallow emotions, they especially fail to shame, guilt, embarrassment, and fear in situations that would normally trigger those emotions in others. Psychopaths also blame others, they do not admit to their faulty actions, it’s always someone else’s fault. They also lie profusely, they have “what some researchers call a shallow sense of word meaning”; and they also possess overconfidence, a ‘grandiose sense of self-worth.’

While the characteristics associated with psychopathy indicate inherent violent tendencies, cross-sectional studies of criminals confirm that a high percentage of psychopaths are involved in violent crimes and are more likely to reoffend. Most serious crime is committed by a disproportionate few of the criminal population. In fact, as evidenced by longitudinal studies, about 5 percent of criminally active subjects are responsible for over half the offenses recorded. To this end, psychopaths appear more prevalent in the criminal community. While psychopaths exist in the general public at an estimated 1 percent, this estimate jumps to a startling 15-25% in the incarcerated population.

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.

Studying behavioral characteristics of a certain group of people is a fascinating aspect of psychology. The psychopaths are some of the most extreme characters that intrigue psychiatrists. In many criminal cases involving psychopaths, it is required that a psychiatric examination is performed on the accused.

“Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by an inability to form human attachment, aggressive narcissism, and antisocial behavior defined by a constellation of affective, interpersonal and behavioral characteristics, most of which society views as pejorative” [1]. Some of these characteristics include irresponsibility, grandiosity, cunning, deceitfulness, selective impulsivity, sexual promiscuity, lack of empathy, etc. People who are psychopathic display not only antisocial behavior but also emotional impairment such as the lack of guilt. They are able to prey on others using their charm, deceit, violence or any other methods that allow them to get what they want. A strong feature of most of the behavior

This author uses the definition provided by the Oxford Dictionaries Online for psychopath: a person suffering from a chronic mental condition with abnormal or violent social behavior. This author has chosen to use the criteria provided by Dr. Hervey M. Cleckley, an American psychiatrist and pioneer in the field of psychopathy. His book, The Mask of Sanity published in 1941, details his research into the realm of psychopathy, his assertion that psychopaths are capable of providing a charming and benevolent face to the world while hiding a mental disorder, and the criteria by which he (Hervey) determines the psychopathy. Cleckley’s book became a seminal work on the subject, and his criterion is still used today. Cleckley’s list includes: Superficial charm and good intelligence; Absence of delusions and other signs of irrational thinking; Absence of nervousness or psychoneurotic manifestations; Unreliability; Untruthfulness and insincerity; Lack of remorse and shame; Inadequately motivated antisocial behavior; Poor judgment and failure to learn by experience; Pathologic egocentricity

Psychopathy is usually defined as a personality disorder characterized by antisocial behaviour, lack of empathy and remorse and bold superficial behaviour. A checklist developed by Dr Bob Hare identifies the key traits of a psychopath which is used universally to identify psychopaths. The main features of psychopaths include:

Some use the term to include environmental circumstances as contributing to psychopathy, but generally, psychopaths are said to be differentiated from sociopaths by their ability to function within society. Psychopaths are grouped together by a determined set of identifiers including, but not limited to, a lack of empathy, irresponsibility, “shallow emotions”, being insincere, charisma, a “failure to follow any life plan”, and most distinctively, a tendency toward violence and selfishness. Often bored, they are pathological liars that thrive on drama, or anything to supplement their stimulation, frequently including being sexually promiscuous. When examining the immediate connotations of this list of symptoms, it is clear that psychopaths are those who might be most hated and feared in society. We compile visions of some of the most notorious, callous human beings from Ted Bundy to Adolph Hitler in our minds. However, it is widely accepted that around 1 in 25

The Psychopathic Disorder is commonly known as the Psychopaths in this day of age. Although studies have not shown these results, many people commonly associate the psychopathic disorder with serial killers. It is a well-known truth that humans tend to associate certain characters and words with people. The characteristics of a psychopath are, but not limited to male, charming, lacking in conscience and feeling for others, intelligence, unreliability, lack of shame and remorse, drug addictions, impulsive, emotional, superficial love relationships, and poor judgement.