psychopath diagnostic primer

Psychopath - Diagnostic Primer

Equinox - Psychopath

48 min 49 sec - Nov 27, 2007

Channel 4 - 7th December 2000.

According to popular wisdom, psychopaths are crazed and

bloodthirsty serial killers. The reality is not so simple.

While many psychopaths do commit violent crimes, not all

psychopaths are criminals and not all criminals are psychopathic.

Psychopaths are found in many walks of life and are often

successful in competitive professions. However they are also

ruthless, manipulative and destructive.

Equinox reports on techniques developed by psychologists to work

out whether a person is psychopathic and shows how brain scientists

are coming close to mapping the malfunctions in the brain that

cause a person to be a psychopath.

In Britain one person in 200 is likely to be a psychopath. However

psychopaths are thought to be responsible for half of all reported

crimes and to make up between 15% and 20% of the prison population.

The programme looks at the most recent research into the brains and

behaviour of psychopaths and assesses the prospects for the

treatment or containment of this antisocial group of people who

create such a disproportionate amount of destruction.

Psychopaths who have been convicted of appalling crimes explain

with disturbing clarity what motivated them in their violent and

destructive behaviour. They speak without shame, guilt, remorse or

empathy with their victims.

Though they are articulate and, at times, plausible and charming,

they lack the range of emotions experienced by the rest of society.

They know the difference between right and wrong but they do not

feel it.

Robert Hare, Professor of Psychology at the University of

Vancouver, has devised a system of assessment called the

Psychopathy Checklist. In specialised interviews, psychologists

assess individuals on a scale of 0 to 40 for a series of character

traits, including callousness, superficial charm, lack of empathy

and many others (for more detail look at How to recognise a

psychopath).

Anyone whose score is greater than 26 is diagnosed as psychopathic.

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Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R)

This is a clinical rating scale with 20 items. Each of the items in

the PCL-R is scored on a three-point (0, 1, 2) scale according to

specific criteria through file information and a semi-structured

interview.

A value of 0 is assigned if the item does not apply, 1 if it applies

somewhat, and 2 if it fully applies. The items are as follows:

1. Glibness/superficial charm

2. Grandiose sense of self-worth

3. Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom

4. Pathological lying

5. Conning/manipulative

6. Lack of remorse or guilt

7. Shallow affect

8. Callous/lack of empathy

9. Parasitic lifestyle

10. Poor behavioral controls

11. Promiscuous sexual behavior

12. Early behavioral problems

13. Lack of realistic, long-term goals

14. Impulsivity

15. Irresponsibility

16. Failure to accept responsibility for own actions

17. Many short-term marital relationships

18. Juvenile delinquency

19. Revocation of conditional release

20. Criminal versatility

The items are then summed in order to obtain a total score. The cutoff

for psychopathy is 30 points or greater (25 in some studies).

Source: Cassiopedia, The True Encyclopedia

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1. Neurobiological basis of psychopathy

2. Early Signs of Psychopathy: New Study of Toddlers Identifies

Antecedents of Antisocial Behavior