New research rethinks trait set and highlights positives
Some psychologists argue that the focus on violent and criminal psychopathic behavior has overshadowed the study of so-called «successful psychopaths» — people who who have psychopathic tendencies, but who can stay out of trouble and even derive some benefit from these character traits.
Researchers have not yet reached a consensus on what traits separate successful psychopaths from serial killers, but they are working to figure out what they say is a misunderstood part of human behavior. Some even want to return and rehabilitate the very concept of psychopathy.
“Most people think of psychopaths in a completely different way than what psychopathy actually is, — says Louise Wallace, a lecturer in forensic psychology at the University of Derby. — It's not glamorous. This is not a spectacle.» According to her, psychopathic traits are inherent in everyone to one degree or another, and they should not be glorified or stigmatized.
In the 1941 book «The Mask of Sanity» Influential American psychiatrist Hervey Cleckley described the personality profile of a psychopath: an outwardly charming but self-centered and unreliable person hiding an antisocial essence.
Cleckley (who later called the famous serial killer Ted Bundy a psychopath) took his ideas from the stories of people who he saw in psychiatric centers. His descriptions of psychopaths included people who could hide the worst aspects of their behavior. For example, he sketched a portrait of a psychopathic businessman who worked hard and seemed normal, except for bouts of adultery, callousness, rampant drinking and risk-taking.
In subsequent decades, researchers who wanted to study psychopathy often did so in prisons. And so the image of the psychopath, according to psychologists, has become closely associated with dangerous and violent criminals in both the public and academic spheres.
This view is now being questioned. Over the past 15 years or so, psychiatry has adopted what is called a multidimensional approach, based on the idea of scales and spectrums of severity of signs and symptoms.
Looking at psychopathy from a different perspective has opened up new possibilities for researchers. Now they could recruit groups from the general population, identify psychopathic traits in them, and study the behavior and biology of people with severe or mild forms of psychopathy.
“Most psychopaths just live next to us,” — summarizes clinical psychologist Desiree Palmen.
Psychopathy — it is a combination of several interacting traits. The traditional model of the psychopathic mindset focuses on meanness and disinhibition. From a psychological point of view, meanness — it is an aggressive search for resources without regard for others. Disinhibition manifests itself as a lack of impulse control. People with both qualities show virtually no empathy and find it difficult to control their actions, which often lead to cruel consequences.
As part of a recent rethink, psychologists have introduced a new factor: courage, which they define as a combination of social dominance, emotional stability and entrepreneurship.
“You can think of courage as fearlessness that occurs in areas of interaction with other people, where you are not easily intimidated, you are more assertive, even dominant over other people,” — explains longtime psychopathy researcher Christopher Patrick.
A bold person is not necessarily a psychopath, he says, but add boldness to a high degree of meanness and disinhibition, and you get a psychopath who can use his social confidence to disguise himself. extremes of his behavior and thus will succeed in leadership positions.
Other psychopathic personality traits can also benefit people in certain professions: for example, meanness often manifests itself as a lack of empathy.
«In the corporate world, you want someone who can work under pressure and make decisions quickly, perhaps not while showing a high level of empathy, because he must be able to make the toughest decisions,” — says Wallace.
For example, a 2016 study of Australian advertising agency employees found that senior executives scored higher than junior employees on measures of behavior associated with psychopathic traits, such as initial charm, poise and calmness, but also self-centeredness. ruthlessness and lack of self-blame.
The idea that some psychopathic traits can be positive is not everyone's cup of tea.
According to Klaus Jay Templer, critics disagree with the inclusion of courage as a defining psychopathic trait. In a 2021 study, more than a thousand students were asked to agree or disagree with statements to identify personality traits such as meanness («I don't mind if someone I don't like gets hurt»), disinhibition ( “I took money from someone else’s wallet without asking.”) and courage (“I am a born leader.”)
Results suggested that increased levels of meanness and disinhibition may explain differences in reports of antisocial behavior such as aggression, rule breaking, and drug use. In other words, courage was largely misplaced.
Part of the problem, says Louise Wallace, is that researchers trying to study the positive traits of psychopathy do not have their own version of a screening tool used to identify more severe cases.
To address this gap, Wallace was able to develop a successful 54-item Psychopathy Scale designed to identify and assess psychopathic traits in the general population. The psychologist hopes that over time, this scale will help more people realize that it is not always worth fearing a person with psychopathic traits.
«There is so much we don't know about people who have typical psychopathic traits, and that , how they cope with their daily life, — she concludes. — And that's because we're caught up in this idea of Hannibal Lecter.»
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