Free Custom «Psychopathy» Essay Paper

Definition

According to Cooke  et al (1997)“Psychopathy is a socially devastating personality disorder defined by a constellation of affective, interpersonal, and behavioral characteristics, including egocentricity, manipulativeness, deceitfulness, lack of empathy, guilt or remorse, and a propensity to violate social and legal expectations and norms” (p.105). This therefore suggests the fact that the elemental definition of psychopathy as a mental illness essentially falls within the confines of the existing jurisdiction on the description and analytical perspectives of socially acceptable behavior with regard to extremes of such acts. For instance, psychopath victims are known to engage in potentially cold blooded instrumental behaviors (Cooke et al, 1997).

Why it is worse than antisocial personality disorder?

Psychopathy is essentially worse than anti-social personality disorder due to the occurring unique levels of extremes by which the disorder is known to occur in most instances. There is also a developing concern that psychopathy has an inherent ability to progress into more serious stages in which the individuals are capable of committing gruesome crimes compared to antisocial personality disorder. Moreover, according to recent adoption studies the behavioral aspects of psychopaths are next to impossible in terms of management compared to the antisocial personality disorder counterparts.

In addition, psychopaths tend to display potentially threatening behavioral traits as opposed to antisocial personal disorders. For instance, according to Cooke et al (1997), “Their expression of remorse are unconvincing to astute observers, and their use of emotional words and phrases seem like mere mimicry” (p.105). This suggests that by virtue of the level of their destabilized emotional centers psychopaths are capable of participating in very damaging activities of criminal nature, for instance, numerous counts of homicide without any development of an emotional perspective. This in comparison to antisocial personality identity who exhibit relatively better emotional centers, and are easier to manage even in clinical situations.

Differences between Psychopathy and Antisocial Personality Disorder.

These differences between the two disorder essentially emerge from the arising descriptions and comparisons based on the respective environmental and biological dispositions and factors leading to their proliferation according to the exhibited behavioral traits.  “While most other psychiatric diagnoses focus on the individual behavior with only secondary concern for the social impact of that behavior, a diagnosis of pyschopathy is heavily imbued with, and fundamentally rests upon, social concepts. A central concept is social normalcy versus social deviation. For example, one of the most important DSM-IV criteria of psychopathy is ‘disregard for and violation of the rights of others…as indicated by…failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors” (Kantor, 2006 ). Therefore the subjective inclusion ‘lawfully acceptable behaviors’ and focus on social concepts as opposed to individual contexts further serve to expound on the emerging difference between the two diseases conditions.

Moreover, according to Cooke et al (1997), “Indeed, some researchers and theorists argue that psychopathy is best represented by a multi-dimensional model or as a maladaptive variant of common personality traits found in everyone” (p.106). This therefore suggests that psychopathy is essentially not categorized based on individually derived variables in comparison to anti personality disorder which is based on the provision of individual descriptions.

In psychopath there is a strong element of generalization with regard to the identification of distinct personalities associated with the element of group psychology. The condition is essentially an entity that encompasses several members and combinations of traits, behaviors, and dispositions, all of which occur in different degrees as seen in critical clinical conditions (Cooke, 1997). In direct opposition the characterization of antisocial personality disorder involves the development of descriptions which are not based on the identification of distinct personalities since more focus is placed on the individual perspectives.