Various Meanings of Psychopathy

Ha, Jee Hyun; Yu, Jaehak

Abstract

'Psychopathy' is the name of personality disorders which was first introduced in the field of psychiatry. The modern classification system categorizes the disorders into 'conduct disorders' observed in children and adolescents and 'antisocial personality disorders' in adults. However, as clinicians often meet patients whose personality is closer to psychopathy than antisocial or narcissistic, the diagnostic criteria has been criticized for missing original concepts of psychopathy by focusing only on criminal behaviors of subjects. Thus, the authors tried to explore the meaning of psychopathy's original concepts, developmental aspects, and neurobiological findings. Then, we drew a novel and useful image of psychopathy with the spectral view of antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders under the influence of borderline personality organization. Though the term, 'psychopathy' is old, but its clinical usefulness can be still valid, if its various meanings are fully understood.