aftermath-surviving-psychopathy.org • Index page

View unanswered posts | View active topics

Aftermath Resources

A Primer on Psychopathy
-- By David S. Kosson and Robert D. Hare

The concept of psychopathy or psychopathic personality has been around for a long time under a variety of different names and with several different but overlapping definitions. The first conceptualization usually linked to the modern concept of the disorder was Philippe Pinel's description of manie sans delire, which is loosely translated as "insane but not delirious." (Delirium refers to a state of severe mental agitation and confusion). The modern view of the psychopathic individual as suffering from a specific personality disorder originated in the clinical descriptions of several psychiatrists during the first half of the twentieth century, particularly those provided by Hervey Cleckley in his book, The Mask of Sanity, (1941/1976). Cleckley postulated that psychopathy involves difficulty in understanding the meaning and significance of human behavior and leads to a pervasive deficit in the experience of emotion. The title of the book conveys Cleckley's view that psychopathic individuals do not appear insane in the usual sense of the word. Read the entire article...

What Psychopath Means
-- Scott O. Lilienfeld and Hal Arkowitz
Reproduced with permission. © 2007 Scientific American Inc. All Rights Reserved.

We have all heard these phrases before. "Violent psychopath" (21,700). "Psychopathic serial killer" (14,700). "Psychopathic murderer" (12,500). "Deranged psychopath" (1,050). The number of Google hits following them in parentheses attests to their currency in popular culture. Yet as we will soon discover, each phrase embodies a widespread misconception regarding psychopathic personality, often called psychopathy (pronounced "sigh-COP-athee") or sociopathy. Indeed, few disorders are as misunderstood as is psychopathic personality. In this column, we will do our best to set the record straight and dispel popular myths about this condition. Read the entire article...

Jeffrey Dahmer. Ted Bundy. Hannibal Lecter. These are the psychopaths whose stunning lack of conscience we see in the movies and in tabloids. Yet, as this report makes abundantly clear, these predators, both male and female, haunt our everyday lives at work, at home, and in relationships. Here's how to find them before they find you. Read the entire article...