Psychopathy is a personality disorder that affect a person’s social skills in a very dangerous way. The world has coined the term ‘Psychopath’ to refer to those who suffer it. Psychopaths have affected the world in many ways. Sadly, few of these “ways” were positive. I wish to take a deeper look at Psychopathy by looking at what psychopathy really is, the definition of empathy, famous psychopaths and what they were capable of, the biology of a psychopath’s brain, and how they’re dramatized by the media. These main points can give me and you, dear reader, the information we need to know to truly expand our understanding of psychopathy.
So let’s dive into the deep, dark minds of Psychopaths. Shall we? What is Psychopathy? The Merriam Webster Online Dictionary defines it as “a mental disorder especially when marked by egocentric and antisocial activity”. An article called “What is a Psychopath” on Cassiopaea says, and I quote, “Psychopaths cannot be understood in terms of antisocial rearing or development. They are simply morally depraved individuals who represent the “monsters” in our society. ” By this definition, we can safely say that psychopaths are individuals whose personality lacks a conscious or empathy.
As we’ve learned, this disorder can only be diagnosed if it shows any real harm to the individual or to other around them. Psychopaths can even fit into society as normal human beings. You can interact with one without ever knowing. They’re of often defined as cold and calculated. They manipulate the world around them. I find that most people associate psychopaths with murderous tendencies thanks to media and TV shows. Yes, many serial killers are psychopaths. No, not all psychopaths are serial killers. More on that later though. Let’s Look at the four kinds of psychopaths, shall we?
Primary psychopaths are ones who don’t feel the negative feelings we do from punishment or stress. They can hide can show these responses but on when it benefits them in some way or another. Secondary Psychopaths are more likely to respond to stress simply because they expose themselves to more of it. They do this by being extreme risk takers and are often described as fearless. Distempered Psychopaths, which is actually a subdivisions of the ones mentioned before, are the ones who you sometimes see on TV, entering states of blind fury and violent tendencies.
They also can be described as a sex fiend. Lastly, we have the Charismatic psychopath. Another subdivision of the first two that are chronic liars and will attempt to flatter others. Children often show early signs of this antisocial disorder. These signs included hurting other people, animals. Siblings usually take the brunt of this abuse. They may also run away from home and they may grow up to be aggressive , liars, and have a hard time holding a job. Psychopaths have impulsivity, a lack of any real goals, are often juvenile delinquents, and many more traits that are used to diagnose it.
If you wish to see this extensive list just look up the psychopathy checklist. This system is perfect but individual who score 40 or higher are often considered a psychopath. As we’ve learned from crash course, with Hank Green, about how we call people psychos or schizos when in reality they’re not. After looking into it I find that psychopathy is a very hard thing to misinterpret now. The signs are so obvious to me now and I’ll probably even correct my TV shows now. Of course we can say a psychopath lacks empathy all we want. But what really is empathy?
Empathy Merriam Webster’s Online Dictionary defines it as “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; also : the capacity for this” Empathy in short is feeling for others even if you have no direct reason to feel that way. My favorite example, that most guys can relate to, is the almighty nut shot.
One guy gets hit in the junk and every guy in the room will wince. This is empathy in effect. When we are comfortable we often see a dramatic drop in most people’s capacity for empathy. I hypothesize this happen in what I’m going to call the “Good Vibes Cushion”. Yes, I made that term up myself. Essentially what this means is that when we’re going through times of happiness our brain region dedicated to empathy will ‘cushion’ the blow to better suit the host of the brain. I think this is a defense mechanism for our brain to combat stress.
Psychopaths lack empathy which means they feel nothing for you or me as “Their emotionlessness reflects a detached, fearless, and possibly dissociated state… ” This lack of empathy is the real reason psychopaths can be so terrifying. They’re the “unstoppable and untreatable predators” when they take actions against other around them. This make them capable of dastardly things such as theft, murder, and other heinous crimes. A good example of this Vlad the Impaler, the true inspiration for Dracula. He was most notorious for his form of punishment against his enemies back in 1462.
His enemies would be impaled on stakes, hence the name, and left to die wherever they had been impaled. He tortured foreign enemies and domestic enemies both in this vicious way. He would leave thousands impaled to deter enemies. He is a prime example of psychopath from history. His lack of empathy allowed him to perform this acts with no real guilt or disgust. Another good example for the acts of psychopaths and proves the statement that “They are Unstoppable and Untreatable Predators” is Jack the Ripper. Jack the Ripper was the first serial killer that caught media attention and was also never truly caught.
We can only speculate about who he was but there are obvious signs of psychopathy in his actions. He was fearless; he would send letters to the police and would leave his gruesome murders against prostitutes in the streets of london. Jack was one of the world’s most capable psychopaths, seemingly not fearing death or capture. Lastly, let’s look at Jeff Dahmer, a cannibalistic serial killer who actions still plague the minds of survivors and and the families of the victims. Jeff Dahmer reign or terror happened only 18 years ago.
A good example of his lack of empathy for other can be seen in the speculation of Ms Bass, who Jeff Dahmer had given a sandwich. She said in a film dedicated to the horrors that “I have probably eaten someone’s body part”. Jeff is Probably is a Primary Charismatic Psychopath due to the observation of how he could live in a neighborhood and eat people without much suspicion for such a long time. Jack the Ripper is probably harder to diagnose due to the lack of evidence of his identity but I can guess he is probably a Secondary Distempered Psychopaths.
I think this due to his fearlessness and the gruesomeness of his crimes. It’s also safe to say that he had a sex drive thanks to the fact he preyed on prostitutes. As for Vlad, I think he is a Primary Distempered Psychopath. He seemed to impale and torture a massive amount of people in his rage of battle and furthermore didn’t understand much about the consequences of his actions. These three men are great examples as to why psychopaths can be terrifying monsters. What made these men and other psychopaths capable of such atrocities?
Obviously the brain in psychopaths functions differently than of a normal individual. Some theorize that it’s the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) along with the amygdala. As we learned in class, the amygdala is dedicate to fear, sex and aggression. I can safely assume that an abnormality in this could cause one to feel no fear while having much more of the other two emotions. The OFC is dedicated to decision making, which psychopaths don’t seem to care much more, as they don’t weigh their choices and consequence.