Psychopathy: A Psychological Disorder

Psychopath is a disorder that can be seemed as a normal social behaviour. A primary psychopath is charming, intelligent, and socially well behavior. However, underneath a psychopath’s personality show a difference compared to others. Psychopaths tend to have a lack of emotion, and responsibility. They do not feel fear or regret of a murder.

Psychopathy is a personality disorder defined with symptoms that include the inability to experience empathy or remorse, reduced concern for others and, antisocial behavior. Psychopaths are thought to be loners and antisocial but most psychopaths can appear successful and normal externally. Not all psychopaths grow into criminals or serial killers. An example of one of the psychopaths turned serial killer is Jeffrey Dahmer. Dahmer’s murders included violent sodomy, necrophilia, dismemberment, and cannibalism. As Dahmer committed his horrendous crimes he lacked remorse and acted on impulse, classic signs of psychopathy. Although it may seem obvious to some that the brain of a psychopath functions differently, one important question to ask is how exactly a psychopaths brain is different compared to a normal brain.

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 concept of psychopathy originated in the 1800s to describe individuals that consistently failed to conform to societal norms and exhibited antisocial behavior that did not fit the concept of mental illness of the time period. While, psychopathy was a common term used to describe individuals suffering from this disorder other descriptions were coined such as “Pinel’s term “manie sans delvie” meaning mania without delirium in the 1700s, to describe patents whose ‘affective faculties were disordered’” or Pritchard’s term “moral insanity” (Ogloff 520). In the 1930’s Partridge argued that psychopathy was a social rather than a mental disorder and proposed that the concept of sociopathy be introduced as a more accurate description. The American Psychological Association adopted Partridge’s term for their Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel in 1952. However, in 1968 the American Psychological Association changed the diagnostic label from sociopath to “personality disorder, antisocial” for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel – II that continued through to the DSM - III in 1980 and the DSM - III-R in 1987 and the DSM - IV in 1994. Today the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel categorizes antisocial personality disorder as a personality disorder and it is named as such. Unfortunately, not much research has been conducted

Psychopaths are prevalent in almost every aspect of life. They are at school, in the office, and at the grocery store. People view psychopaths as socially removed and isolated, but many with psychopathic traits lead normal lives with their own quirks. Functional psychopathy has become more and more normalized, as it has been featured in different aspects of pop culture. Many people hope to break the stereotype associated with psychopathy in order for society to become more inclusive of mental disorders, and also to educate more people about psychopathic behavior through popular shows and movies.

Introduction The purpose of this study is to compare and contrast the constructs of psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder. The aim is to highlight whether the terms psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder reflect the same construct or whether they differ. Furthermore, recommendations for treatment of criminal behavior will be explored. For the purposes of this evaluation some definitions need to be highlighted: Criminal offence is an act that breaks a law, which relates how to behave in society. The harm caused by the act is seen to be against society as a whole, not just a specific person. Sometimes it refers to the specific law that was broken (Herring, 2009). Crime is the breach of rules or law for which some authority

“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

A psychopath is traditionally defined as someone with a personality disorder characterized by persistent antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, disinhibited, egotistical traits. In society, psychopaths display specific characteristics such as lack of empathy, which may identify and explain how they respond in certain situations.

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 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

Psychopathy is defined as a personality disorder, which is the section of the DSM V that will be focused on. DSM V makes use of five criteria to diagnose each personality disorder.

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 term psychopathy refers to a personality disorder that includes a cluster of interpersonal, affective, lifestyle, and antisocial traits and behaviors. These involve deception; manipulation; irresponsibility; impulsivity; stimulations seeking; poor behavior controls; shallow affect; lack of empathy, guilt, or remorse; sexual promiscuity; callous disregard for the rights of others; and unethical and antisocial behaviors (Babiak, et al. 2012).

According to studies led by King’s College researchers, it has been confirmed that “psychopathy is a distinct subgroup of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD)” (Gregory et. al n.p) and similarly to psychopathy, the more severe ASPD behavioral patterns are, the symptoms can be referred to as sociopathic or psychopathic. Furthermore, according to Nigel Blackwood, Ma, MD.MRCPsych, “MRI scans...found that psychopaths had structural brain abnormalities in key areas of their ‘social brains’” (Gregory et. al n.p). The areas of the brain, in which are deficient in psychopaths, are important when comprehending an individual emotions’, intentions, and moral

Psychopathy is a topic that receives more than its fair share of attention in the media. The very concept of psychopathy simultaneously fascinates and terrifies people as they attempt to understand the motivation of people who they deem to be very different than themselves. However, people rarely stop to consider the physiological differences in individuals with psychopathy, focusing instead on outward displays of sensational aggression. In order to assess the physiological components of psychopathy, it is necessary to consider theories on the physiological etiology of psychopathy, the ways in which the prefrontal cortex and amygdala work together to enhance psychopathic symptomology, and the ways in which lesions on the prefrontal cortex