While Hollywood often portrays psychopaths as serial killers, not all psychopaths are that evil. Many of them exhibit psychopathic traits to a much lesser degree. In fact, you've likely encountered a few psychopaths in real life.
Yes, research shows there are “good” psychopaths. Many people in positively heroic professions have strong psychopathic traits.
Psychopathy is associated with several adverse life outcomes as well as increased risk of disability and death due to factors such as violence, accidents, homicides, and suicides.
Unlike sadists, psychopaths don't harm the harmless simply because they get pleasure from it (though they may). Psychopaths want things. If harming others helps them get what they want, so be it. They can act this way because they are less likely to feel pity or remorse or fear.
Although both biological and environmental factors play a role in the development of psychopathy and sociopathy, it is generally agreed that psychopathy is chiefly a genetic or inherited condition, notably related to the underdevelopment of parts of the brain responsible for emotional regulation and impulse control.
Twin and adoption studies have suggested that callous-unemotional traits in childhood have a genetic basis, and that anti-social behaviour coupled with callous-unemotional traits is more influenced by genes than anti-social behaviour alone.
Although sociopathy and psychopathy cannot be diagnosed until someone is 18, one of the hallmarks of both conditions is that they usually begin in childhood or early adolescence. Usually, the symptoms appear before the age of 15, and sometimes they are present early in childhood.
Of course, they can also get angry, especially in response to provocation, or get frustrated when their goals are thwarted. So Villanelle is right, to some extent. You can hurt a psychopath's feelings, but probably different feelings and for different reasons.
Like healthy people, many psychopaths love their parents, spouse, children, and pets in their own way, but they have difficulty in loving and trusting the rest of the world.
Individuals with psychopathy, though, don't make this connection and go on to become adults who aren't deterred from harming other people. Neuroscientists trace this lack of empathy in part to a deficit in the amygdala, a part of the subcortex which processes emotional stimuli.
Key traits
Some of the red flags that someone is a psychopath include a lack of empathy, a charming personality to fool others, disorganisation, a tendency to blame others, a lack of fear, and being cold-hearted. “Making a clinical diagnosis of psychopathy is rather hard, actually,” Erikson said.
There are some areas where psychopaths may experience normal emotions and grief is one such area. In response to death of a person with whom there is a bond, some psychopaths can experience sadness and this may even bring about feelings of guilt which are otherwise impossible to feel. Crying may be a part of this.
A psychopath has an inflated view of themselves. They see themselves as important and entitled. Psychopaths often feel justified to live according to their own rules, and they think that the laws don't apply to them.
That said, psychopaths do appreciate their relationships in their own way. They do suffer pain, feel loneliness, have desires and feel sadness if they do not receive affection.
As it turns out, psychopaths actually do feel regret under the right circumstances. What differentiates them from people who don't compulsively act out, the study found, is their ability to use those feelings to make better decisions.
Ramani Durvasula, a licensed clinical psychologist and professor of psychology, says to take a peek at their relationships. “Psychopaths don't have any really close friends or family members that they have good relationships with,” she says, “but they have lots of acquaintances and 'connections. '”
Referring to antisocial personality disorder as the present-day iteration of psychopathy, the APA states that antisocial personality disorder may be accompanied by a depressed mood. It further states that antisocial personality disorder can co-exist with depressive disorders, including major depression.
The only clinical condition associated with an increased risk for instrumental aggression, psychopathy, is also at elevated risk for reactive aggression [12,13]. Notably, the clinical description of psychopathy emphasizes an individual with reduced empathy but intact or possibly exaggerated anger [14].
Consumers who exhibit psychopathy are likely to seek out revenge and actively engage in negative WOM and vindictive complaining.
The behavioral manifestations of such deficits in psychopathic individuals are diverse, encompassing pathological lying, interpersonal manipulation, and the absence of guilt, remorse, and regret following decisions that cause harm to themselves or others.
Most people mellow out with age, but in the case of psychopaths and those suffering from similar antisocial personality disorders such as sociopaths, bad behavior tends to get worse, according to new research from New Zealand's University of Otago.
Warning signs
While children are not labeled psychopaths, the markers that predict a high probability a child will develop a psychopathic personality include many of the same characteristics: lack of guilt; lack of empathy; lack of concern about performance; and shallow or insincere emotions.
Research suggests that 1 percent of the population meets the criteria for psychopathy. That may not sound like a lot, but it means that 1 in every 100 people you know is a psychopath. That could include your neighbor, your co-worker, your friend, or maybe even your favorite blogger.