Psychological profile of a psychopath: definition and symptoms

Psychopathy is a set of personality characteristics that have aroused a high interest in the community of psychologists because of their difficult understanding. It is curious and chilling at the same time to see how psychopaths they can perform the most cruel and cold deeds without even feeling a hint of remorse.

There is a lot of information and mystery around these types of people. Do they have a mental illness? Have you learned to be that way from experiences in your past? How does a psychopath behave in love? If you want to know what is the psychological profile of a psychopath, its definition and symptoms, we recommend you read this interesting article on Psychology-Online.

Index

1. How to identify a psychopath: 5 main traits
2. Meaning of psychopath according to psychology
3. What is a psychopath?
4. Profile of a psychopath in the couple

Although psychopathy is one of the disorders that is most talked about in the different In the media, few people really know what a person diagnosed with psychopathy. As with many personality disorders, the media has interfered with the collective unconscious and most people understand that a psychopath is simply a murderer to trusty blood. However, despite the fact that they can be aggressive and impulsive people,

First of all and according to the DSM-V^[1], psychopaths suffer from a disorder known as "antisocial personality disorder"This disorder is characterized by a pattern of attitudes far from social norms, aggressiveness inability to plan ahead, impulsiveness, lack of remorse and irresponsibility. Later, we will list all the symptoms of this disorder.

Psychological profile of a psychopath

If you want to know how a psychopath acts or you suspect that someone in your circle may be, pay attention to the traits that we offer you below:

1. They have a certain level of personal charm, they seduce people and then manipulate them. However, this charm is only superficial.
2. They are usually cold people and calculatorsThey plan each act for personal gain and manipulate everything around them at will.
3. Despite having a cold temper, if something doesn't go their way, psychopaths they can be very aggressive and impulsive. When something goes out of their plans, they become a time bomb, which is why they are associated with highly aggressive crimes.
4. They do not care about other people even if they are loved ones, lack empathy and they are unable to feel whether or not they are hurting a person with their actions. However, they are observant people and know the limits, another issue is whether or not they decide to exceed them.
5. They usually act outside the legal norms, it is possible that during their adolescence (stage in which we are more impulsive by nature) they have committed a minor crime. They do not usually reoffend since they learn to live in society. However, as we have already mentioned, if they lose their temper, they can become potentially dangerous people.

As we introduced at the beginning of this article, psychopathy it is a disorder open to debate. The psychological community has many ways of understanding the behaviors of a psychopath and many times, the diagnosis can be contradictory.

It is true that the label psychopath has been used very lightly for a long time, and it is that it is not difficult to meet people who behave in a cold and calculating way with the the rest. However, it is important to differentiate between a psychopathic personality style and what it really is psychopathy.

Some authors like Robert Hare (1991)^[2] (creator of psychopathy test famous that exists), define psychopaths as people with the following behavior pattern:

• Talkative / superficial charm
• Impulsiveness
• No realistic goals
• Cruelty, lack of empathy
• No deep emotional ties
• Pathological lie
• Poor self-control

However, other authors such as Garrido (2004)^[3]they consider that an essential trait of the psychopath is the lack of affection in the interpersonal sphere. Is affective dysfunction It could be related to insensitivity, lack of empathy, and lack of remorse. As far as we can say that there is a consensus in the psychological community regarding these last characteristics.

Symptoms of antisocial personality disorder

Once again, we turned to DSM-V to do a personality profile. This time, we make it true that a person with psychopathy suffers from an antisocial personality disorder. This disorder can be diagnosed with the following criteria:

TO. A general pattern of behavior characterized by contempt and violation of the rights of people who surround you, this pattern must occur from the age of 15 and you must register three or more of the following features:

• Inability to follow the rules social and high illegal behavior, for which on some occasion you have committed a crime (either of a lesser or greater degree)
• Lies Compulsive behavior, dishonest behavior, scams and unethical behavior for personal gain or just for pleasure.
• Impulsive behavior, unable to plan for the long term.
• Lack of control about their aggressiveness, physical fights and attacks on people or animals.
• Lack of concern for your own integrity or for the safety of other people.
• Irresponsible behavior, little constancy in their working life and inability to take charge of financial obligations.
• Lack of regrets, little expression of emotions when having harmed, mistreated or stolen from other people.

B. The person for whom the diagnosis is made must have at least 18 years.

C. There are records and evidence that such a person has had a conduct or similar disorder before the age of 15 years.

D. The antisocial behavior cannot be explained by another psychopathology or by the abuse of drugs and / or psychotropic drugs.

Now that we know what is the psychological profile of a psychopath, we may wonder how a psychopath acts in love.

According to many films and literary works where psychopathy is discussed, a person with antisocial personality disorder he is an unscrupulous abuser who constantly hurts people and can commit murder in anger. However, we must bear in mind that an individual with this personality style deviates slightly from the expectations proposed by the media.

What is really a psychopath with your partner?

To understand a relationship with a psychopath, it is important to comment that many of them are people integrated into society, so we cannot detect them as soon as we meet them.

Psychopathic people consider their partners as an object that provides them love, company, good conversations and sexual relations. By this we do not mean that they do not feel affection for their partners, but the lack of strong emotional ties (characteristic of a psychopath) makes healthy couple dynamics very difficult.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Psychological profile of a psychopath: definition and symptoms, we recommend that you enter our category of Personality.

1. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-5. Editorial medica panamericana, 2014.
2. Hare, R. D. (2003). The psychopathy checklist – Revised. Toronto, ON.
3. Garrido, V. (2004). Treatment of the psychopathic aggressor. In J. Sanmartín Espulges (Coord.), The Labyrinth of Violence: Causes, Types and Effects (pp. 321-330). Barcelona: Ariel.

• López Miguel, M. J., & Núñez Gaitán, M. D. C. (2009). Psychopathy versus antisocial personality disorder. Spanish Journal of Criminological Research (REIC), (7, Article 1), 1-17.