Similarities And Similarities Between A Psychopath And Politician

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

However, more recently, a study led by King’s College London has claimed that there are differences between the brains of psychopaths and other criminal offenders diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. Dr. Nigel Blackwood who led the research is quoted as saying “We describe those without psychopathy as 'hot-headed' and those with psychopathy as ‘cold-hearted’.” This statement shows a clear distinction between what should be interpreted as a lack of self-control and ability to repress impulses and what should be diagnosed as psychopathy.
The study took MRI scans of 66 men, two thirds of which were offenders who had been diagnosed with antisocial personality whilst the other third were non-offenders considered to not have any personality disorders. Of the 44 offenders, 17 met the diagnosis criteria for psychopathy (ASPD+P) assessed by the guidelines stated in the DSM-IV. Researchers saw that the members of the study diagnosed as psychopaths had notably less grey matter in areas associated with moral behaviour and understanding other peoples’

Psychopaths have been around for more than a century, and have found themselves to be able to make the public fear them. Belle Gunness, the Zodiac Killer, and John Wayne Gacy are all examples for the character traits compatible with psychopathy and have been able to provide more reason to the research of psychopaths. Statistically, psychopathy is found in three percent of the male population and in one percent of one percent of the female population. A psychopath’s behavior of exploitation, lying, recklessness, and arrogance has been studied to further understand how their brain structure is different in MRI scans and how they are able to use special abilities to catch its victims. Many research studies have been able to provide more information

Unfortunately, changing the biological composition of their brain is not as easily achieved. Studies have found multiple areas of interest when studying the brain structures in psychopaths. These minor differences provide a world of knowledge into what composes a psychopath. Since each area of the brain serves a specific function, determining the effects of abnormalities correlates to the area of interest. Due to the major costs associated with many tests, they are not performed unless indicated. Brain imaging research on psychopathy: Implications for punishment, prediction, and treatment in youth and adults provides us with the very new research that has been conducted on both adult psychopaths, and juveniles that display callous unemotional traits (CU) and have disruptive behavior disorder (DBD) (Umbach et al., 2015). Research done has not given conclusive results that fits for each and every psychopath, but an area of commonality is the amygdala. “In addition to their finding of significant bilateral volume reductions in psychopaths, Yang et al. (2009) identified localized surface deformations in four of the 13 nuclei: the basolateral, lateral, cortical, and central nuclei.” (Umbach et al., 2015, p.296). The paralimbic structure is seen as the emotion processing center of the brain, controlling all emotions including empathy and conditioned fear

Moving forward into the 20th century, Hervey Cleckley made a contribution to the knowledge and research of the psychopathic brain. He wrote a book called, “The Mask of Sanity” (1976) where he described psychopathy as a configuration of interpersonal and behavioral features. He found that not only do psychopaths contain an antisocial behavior, they also have many negative characterizations and traits such as being manipulative, fearless, impulsive and lacking empathy as well as remorse or guilt. He also found that psychopathy is not only in those who show criminal behavior, however psychopathy may be present in those who appear to be successful and socially fit individuals.

Generally defined, psychopathy is a personality disorder that is characterized by a combination of superficial charm, strong antisocial behavior, and extreme sensation-seeking and impulsivity. Psychopaths make up approximately 15% of the prison population while between 50% - 80% of that prison population could be diagnosed more broadly with antisocial personality disorder (Ogloff, 2006). While the percentage of those diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder is high, the percentage of psychopaths in prison is extremely overrepresented compared to the average population which hovers between 1% - 4% (Ogloff, 2006). While it would be disingenuous to say that all psychopaths are dangerous, their overrepresentation in the population of violent

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

A scientific study in England compared the brains of psychopaths with a group of mice. The result of this experiment directly correlates with the mental and physical behaviors of psychopathic humans. One mouse

The definition of psychopathy involves deficits in areas of functioning, such as, selective attention, anxiety and fear processing, moral reasoning, and criminal violations of society’s rules (Vien & Beech, 2006). Furthermore, there are a number of personality qualities linked with psychopathy, which include, interpersonal and affective traits such as, lack of empathy, shallow affect, callousness, shallow emotions, grandiosity, superficiality, manipulation, and charisma(De Brito, Viding, Kumari, Blackwood, & Hodgins, 2013; Murrie, Boccaccini, Caperton, & Ruffino, 2012). In addition, other

The direct definition of a psychopathes is someone who is mentally unstable. Psychopaths are known for their originalities in murderers. Even in the media psychopaths are portrayed a crazy people who are locked up in the most secure prison in the world. But the things is they know what their doing and know the outcome

According to Professor Thomas Joseph Bouchard Jr. (2007), it was shown in his study of twins reared apart that psychopathy is 60% inheritable. This leads to the assumption that abnormality in the brain can be the immediate source of psychopathic traits. Indeed, this assumption is supported by the Michael Koenig's study (2011) on prisoners' brain. In the scan of prisoners' brain an important difference between those who were diagnosed as psychopaths and those who weren't showed that psychopaths have reduced connections between their ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), the part of the brain responsible for sentiments such as empathy and guilt, and amygdala, part which mediates fear and anxiety. This dysfunction leads to a person being incapable of feeling guilt, remorse, or empathy for his actions .This is the reason for psychopaths being incapable of feeling normal emotions like love, and often showing extreme egocentric and narcissistic behavior as told by Charles Montaldo in his article "characteristics of the psychopath personality" (as cited in Raven, 2009).Accordingly, a severe head injury at an early age can also result in frequent psychiatric disorders. In a study by Danish doctor Malene Breusch Hansen (2014, January, 3), it was found that there is a link between head traumas such that concussion and skull fracture and the following risk

All rights reserved The Psychopath meaning Psychopath means a group of personality characteristics consisting of lack of remorse or embarrassment, charming, manipulative, repeated law violations, overconfidence, and low tolerance to frustration. Psychopaths’ characteristics may overlap with sociopath’s but criminal psychopaths’ are far more severe and dangerous than their sociopaths. Psychopaths features, reckless self-taking, narcissism, dishonesty, lack of guilt or remorse, cunningness, lack of empathy.

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

Psychopaths can seem just like you or me, but when you are not around them this is when their mental disorder kicks in. Psychopaths that have been put in jail committed three times as many crimes per year then non-psychopaths. 97% of convicted psychopathic criminals cause at least one violent crime compared to 74% of non-psychopaths. Psychopaths are shown to be more violence throughout their entire life compared to a regular people. Psychopaths tend to have a greater chance of failing on parole and mandatory supervision and have a faster rate of failing then non-psychopaths. Psychopathy predicts recidivism on conditional release as well as or better than do actuarial risk instruments. Psychopaths recidivate at a rate of three to four times higher than that of non-psychopaths.