“Psychopaths” are very popular in modern and movies. When mentioned they usually are referring to characters such as Patrick Bateman played by Christian Bale in the movie “American Psychopath”. In this movie, he is a psychotic killer who rapes, murders, and dismembers strangers and acquaintances without provocation or purpose.

However, the actual disorder of psychopathy (older term used to describe sociopathy as define in the “Dictionary of Psychology”) or sociopathy is very misunderstood. This personality disorder has a specific set of personality traits and behaviors. Psychopaths tend to make good first impressions on others as they are superficially charming and strike observers as being incredibly normal. However they are tend to be self-centered, dishonest, not very dependable, and, at times, engage in irresponsible behavior for the fun of it. They tend to have interpersonal deficits such as grandiosity, arrogance and deceitfulness, show a lack of guilt and empathy (will routinely offer excuses for reckless actions while placing the blame on others instead), and have impulsive and criminal behaviors such as sexual promiscuity and stealing. There are variations in the types of behavior engaged in and the intensity of different behaviors among people with this disorder, but these are the basic characteristics.  

Psychopaths tend to be overrepresented in prisons (about 25% of inmates), but there are still many that lead ordinary lives. Chances are that you know a sociopath or have met one before.

Most psychopaths are male and are found in both eastern and western cultures. Despite much research on the subject, misconceptions about psychopathy abound.

One widespread myth is that psychopaths are violent. There are some famous examples of people, such as Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy who have shown psychopathic traits including superficial charm and a profound absence of guilt and empathy. However, studies still show that most psychopaths are not violent.

Unfortunately the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR), does not help when it comes to addressing the confusion associated with this disorder. It describes antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), characterized by a long history of criminal and physically aggressive behavior, as being synonymous with psychopathy even though measures of psychopathy and ASPD only moderately overlap. Furthermore, some experts believe that ASPD includes many things such as narcissism while others believe that ASPD is the same thing as sociopathy, even though the diagnostic criteria used to describe and diagnose ASPD is different than the criteria used to describe sociopathy.

Antisocial Personality Disorder:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001919/

For purposes of clarity we will stick with the definition of psychopathy outlined in the opening paragraph as this is the definition used in the most well-established measure of psychopathy, the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R).

A second myth about psychopathy is that all psychopaths are psychotic, when they rarely are. On the contrary, as opposed to people with psychotic disorders like schizophrenia, who will often lose contact with reality, psychopaths are almost always rational. Instead, they tend to simply shrug off illegal or inappropriate actions while fully aware that they are wrong.   

The final myth is that psychopathy is untreatable. Psychopaths are often unmotivated to seek treatment and their core personality traits are very difficult to change. However, their criminal behaviors may be very responsive to treatment. Therefore, it may be to our advantage to consider these findings when it comes to coping with people displaying psychopathic traits and learning how to live with people with deficits associated with psychopathy.