What is psychopathy?
Psychopathy is a poorly understood concept that often evokes images of notorious serial killers in the minds of the public at large. It is traditionally defined as a distinctive personality disorder that is characterized by superficial charm; dishonesty; callousness; diminished empathy; lack of foresight; lack of fear, guilt, and remorse; lack of anxiety; and excitement seeking.
Psychopathy is diagnosable by the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). PCL-R, developed by Dr Robert Hare in the early 1990s, is a psychological assessment and diagnostic tool comprised of a 20-item inventory of recorded behaviours and perceived personality traits. It was originally designed to measure levels of psychopathic tendencies in accused or convicted criminals. An alternative version was developed in 1996 by Lilienfeld and Andrews, called the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI), but the PCL-R remains the most commonly used. The twenty traits assessed by the PCL-R score are:
- glib and superficial charm
- grandiose sense of self
- need for stimulation
- pathological lying
- cunning and manipulativeness
- lack of remorse or guilt
- shallow affect
- callousness and lack of empathy
- poor behavioural controls
- sexual promiscuity
- early behaviour problems
- lack of realistic, long term goals
- impulsivity
- irresponsibility
- failure to accept responsibility for own actions
- many short term marital relationships
- juvenile delinquency
- revocation of conditional release
- criminal versatility
Psychopaths are social predators, and masters of deception, who casually victimize others as naturally and as thoughtlessly as you and I blink. They con, lie, and cheat to get what they want; without ever experiencing a microsecond of guilt, regret, or remorse. Psychopaths will always rationalise and minimise their misdeeds; because as far as they’re concerned they are justified in their actions. They simply are not capable of caring, for they don’t have the capacity to care. They don’t identify with our emotional pain, but they do enjoy it and feed off of it. They can’t understand empathy, compassion, or sympathy – and they usually don’t want to. Psychopaths see these qualities as weaknesses to be exploited in any cruel way imaginable. What the psychopath CAN do is pretend to feel these emotions him/herself, through the use of “mirroring” and mimicry. This “mask of normality” is what allows the psychopath to move through society undetected, which invariably ends in disastrous results for those who happen to encounter the psychopath.
PCL-R from: Hare R. D. (1993). Without conscience: The disturbing world of the psychopaths among us. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
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