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Psychopathy is a personality disorder or antisocial personality disorder. Psychopaths are unemotional. They do not care about the emotions or rights of others. They show almost no empathy, and do not try to conform to social norms. They lack a conscience and do not feel guilt. A similar term is sociopathy.

Many psychopaths are charming and often manage to have superficial ties with other people. They use other people for their own benefit. Psychopaths often show other antisocial behaviour as well, including sadism, violence and deception. They are very selfish and discard people whom they have no further use for. They tend to have many children by many partners.[1]

The definition of psychopathy has varied. Different definitions are used. They only partly overlap and sometimes seem contradictory.[2]

There are efforts to use behaviour therapy to treat psychopaths; very often, this is done in prisons.

Some people are mislabeled as psychopaths, but have no problems with social norms, but they are good at influencing people.

References[change | change source]

  1. Dutton, Kevin 2012. The Wisdom of Psychopaths. Scientific American / Farrar, Straus & Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-70910-5 (e-book)
  2. Skeem J.L. et al 2011.. "Psychopathic personality: bridging the gap between scientific evidence and public policy". Psychological Science in the Public Interest 12 (3): 95–162. doi:10.1177/1529100611426706.