Overall, it was, in my opinion, a great reading. I was impressed how I have heard the term psychopathy, but it is startling how complex this personality disorder is. Of course, as the reading mentioned, oftentimes psychopaths are portrayed as cold-blooded, serial killers, etc. Indubitably, this might happen in some cases but the complexity it implies to determine if an individual is a psychopath is far beyond the reach a non-professional psychologist or psychiatrist. Therefore, this is the most interesting and surprising aspect of the reading and psychopathy itself, how hard it to identify a psychopath. In addition, the ways it is presented to people, not only by their personality traits and behavior but their ability to appear as charming …show more content…
It helps evaluate the personality traits and behaviors of an individual based on a scaled determined by an in-depth interview. But does it means everyone can determine if someone is a psychopath? The answer is not. Of course, someone can identify some of the personality trait and behaviors listed in the PCL-R but it does not mean that individual is a psychopath. In addition, the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL-SV), a derivative and shorter version of the PCL-R can also be used for such purpose. Already stated, the most startling aspect of the reading was how difficult it was to identify a psychopath. For such reason, these tests should be used carefully. It must be a psychologist or a psychiatrist who makes the judgment and determines if the traits and characteristics apply to the person being assessed. It is impossible to think that anyone can label someone else as a psychopath. I believe it must be taken seriously when applying certain traits to someone and label that person a psychopath. The simple fact that a certain individual has some of the traits, behavior or characteristics of a psychopath does not mean that it is such a thing. Of course, the behavior of that person may be …show more content…
This misinterpretation, whether at work, family, or friends may cause several consequences, the main one affecting that person psychologically and damaging his personality. I personally have not been in a situation or known someone with such personality, or better say, I didn’t notice it because of I didn’t have the knowledge or the information I have obtained after reading this textbook about psychopathy. From now on, I am sure that I will pay more attention to the personality of the people I interact with. I think that although it is difficult if I were to be in a situation where someone I know with such personality, more than tempting to label that person as a psychopath, it would be intimidating to know or suppose with great certainty that you know a psychopath. Certainly, there are many psychopaths out there and/or people that would score higher on the PCL-R. Whether it’s in the workplace, the abusive, controlling, threatening, deceitful, and aggressive behavior of psychopaths are harmful to the family and in a professional relationship. So, this brings me to the last question whether a psychopath must be kept in prison. I believe that if some individual is arrested,
Psychopathy as a mental disorder or construct, although not included in the presently valid classification systems, is gradually fascinating the experts and investigators involved in the field of mental health. Curiosity in psychopathy has mainly grown after the declaration of the new classification system DSM V in which psychopathy is mentioned as a clear diagnosis in the context of six new personality illnesses.
Annotated Bibliography Citation List Englebert, J. (2015). A new understanding of psychopathy: The contribution of phenomenological psychopathology. Psychopathology, 48(6), 368-375. http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.gsu.edu/10.1159/000437441 Jerome Englebert, Department of Psychology and Clinics of Human Systems, University of Liège, provides a theoretical analysis towards a new understanding of psychopathy by way of phenomenological psychopathology. Seeking the meaning structure and the meaning that links different signs of the disorder, Englebert examines both mania and psychopathy through the lens of major theoretical works by Schneider, London, Cassel, Cleckley, Hare, and Cooke et.
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
Psychopathy; a term used to describe an individual with the ability to differentiate between right and wrong and acknowledge the rules of society, but are impervious to the moral foundation of these rules. Unlike other mental disorders such as sociopathy and schizophrenia, psychopathic individuals are able to understand actions that violate the law or go against social norms (Glenn 1). Although, they may be able to accurately judge moral and/or legal violations, one major factor that they lack is – emotional capacity. It is estimated that about 1% of the general population is made up of psychopaths, which is a considerable risk when it comes to crimes (Parry n.p). Therefore, the way in which the law responses to psychopathic individuals is an important moral and empirical issue. With that being said, should psychopaths be held criminally responsible for their behavior? Due to psychopathic individuals failure to meet criteria necessary for moral responsibility, such as the lack of understanding of the human race, predetermined biological structures of the brain and the fact that psychopathy is
Psychopathy is a personality disorder; a psychopath is a person with this personality disorder. The one aspect of psychopathy that continues to amaze me is that people think of these individuals almost like unicorns. They think they will be able to spot them because of their physical appearance. And of course this is not so. Psychopathic individuals look just like me and they look like you. Terms like “monster” or “evil” have no behavioral meaning, and their implication is that the psychopath is not a human being. Psychopaths are human beings, but they are human beings with a callous lack of guilt for their actions and a stunning lack of empathy for their
First of all, when a person suffers from psychopathic behavior, they manifest superficial charm while concealing deep rooted anger. In other words, psychopaths have the tendency to be smooth, charming, slick, and engaging, while hiding their true intentions toward the other. You could clearly see this behavior in my client. My client explains that his actions to Fortunato were unquestionable, as h treated Fortunato with great politeness and as a friend, but Montresor states that Fortunato has wounded him many times and
In fact,because psychopaths are not able to feel empathy involuntarily, they are able to turn the feeling on. It is very common for psychopaths to have “ a false belief in their own superiority, a sense of entitlement and a complete disregard for social norms” (Paula, year). Psychopathy had recently been changed into ‘antisocial personality disorder’ in the updated version of the FBI’s mental health book, DSM-III. It was changed for the reason of the personality not always being reliable, as well as psychopathy symptoms crossing over antisocial personality disorder symptoms. Another reason for the change was because it is believed that focusing on behavior instead of the why helped identify the disorder easier. The new research was highly and widely discussed among many physicians because some felt unsure of the change, but they were also for the change with consideration of the evidence that was found. The usual psychopath is not found to be violent. If they are violent, they are considered more dangerous than others and will most likely reoffend sooner and worse than the first time. Between psychopaths and non psychopaths, psychopaths have a longer criminal history which varies in crimes. Their patterns are unique when compared to a non psychopath, but due to their inability to have emotion, they are able to be more observant on their next chosen
While growing up the words, “ Think before speaking,” were placed in people’s mind. There are few people that don’t consider this and this phrase is meaningless to them. The thoughtless words they speak may sometimes affect the people around them. Being thoughtless makes people be selfish and cruel too because they only care about themselves. They don’t show consideration for the needs of others. Sometimes these particular behaviors can consider a person to be a psychopath or it may not. Psychopathy is described as a personality behavior considered by suffering from antisocial behavior, lack of remorse and empathy, and not being afraid of any risk. To determine if someone is a psychopath there is psychological assessment. For instance, in the book The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson, he informs the readers about a Canadian psychologist called Bob Hare; who designed a psychopath test to diagnose psychopaths (Ronson 59). This checklist test will help me diagnose if my older brother
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
The comment that business people are successful psychopaths and the criminals are unsuccessful psychopaths does make sense to me. In my eyes, it is basically stating business people encompass many more of the traits of a “psychopath” than criminals themselves. Psychopaths are known to be charming, self-interested, and unsympathetic. In my opinion, psychopaths use their personality traits to simply get what they want in life whether it is at the expense of others or not. With that being said, numerous managers or business people merely use their personality traits to get what they want in life or out of their job. For example, to get what they want business people can manipulate others, use their charm, and so on. This quote is not necessarily
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.
“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.
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.
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.