The word ‘psychopath’ strikes terror into the hearts of most of us. We associate psychopathy with wildly deviant and criminal behaviour. But are we correct to do so? Not necessarily claim the experts.
Psychopathy is a personality disorder associated with shallow emotions, a lack of empathy/guilt, coldheartedness, egocentricity, superficial charm and manipulativeness, among a plethora of other traits. As such, it is not a disorder restricted to the criminal classes, but can be found in all walks of life and may confer a competitive advantage in business and commerce for example.
In this University of Wisconsin video, Joseph Newman, Professor of Psychology talks candidly about this fascinating personality disorder that we all need to know about: