This Is What a Psychopath Really Is
We use the term psycho all the time, but what does it really mean?
There are many misunderstandings about mental health, and the careless use of deeper terms can help spread them further. So let’s get down to business. In this case, using a fictional character as a template for a concept that most of us tend to misunderstand in real life. Fansplainer – this channel on the YouTube, created by comic book enthusiast Evan Geary (full disclosure: a friend of this writer), in which he explains the real science and politics behind the popular comic books and characters. Just like the science of psychopathy.
In his latest video, Geary tests the Joker score on Robert Hare ‘s 20-point psychopath checklist : the list includes behaviors such as impulsiveness, high self-rating, lack of empathy, and scores them on a scale of 1 to 3. Anyone who scored more than 30 glasses is in the danger zone. If you are familiar with the Joker, you would probably guess that he has already passed the tipping point. But you hardly know too many real Jokers.
Signs
You may not be able to resist running on the Hare’s checklist even if you know it’s inappropriate to diagnose someone other than a doctor! (And to be clear: it is absolutely inappropriate to engage in diagnostics in the armchair of people in your life, be they colleagues, friends, or even public figures.) But the real list of markers of psychopathy is quite extensive; while many people exhibit some or many of these traits, few cover them all. You might be better off looking at them and seeing that perhaps the person you are worried about is just a run-of-the-mill jerk. Common traits of a true psychopath include:
- lively and superficial charm
- grandiose (overestimated) self-assessment
- need for stimulation
- pathological lie
- cunning and manipulative
- lack of remorse or guilt
- shallow affect (superficial emotional responsiveness)
- callousness and lack of empathy
- parasitic lifestyle
- poor behavior control
- sexual promiscuity
- early behavior problems
- lack of real long-term goals
- impulsiveness
- irresponsibility
- not taking responsibility for one’s actions
- many short-term marital relationships
- juvenile delinquency
- parole cancellation history (i.e. parole interrupted)
- criminal versatility
Complexity of diagnosis
One of the reasons you probably don’t know too many real psychopaths is that there aren’t many; they make up about one percent of the total population, although Giri says there are usually more in certain places, such as prisons or among CEOs.
It is also difficult to make a diagnosis. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders places psychopathy under the broader general term antisocial personality disorder. Some psychiatrists combine sociopaths and psychopaths, while others define psychopaths as being born with the condition, while sociopaths are of a nature but mostly to blame for their problems. As Geary points out, we don’t know the exact origin story of the Joker, so it’s hard to tell if he was born that way.
Other options
Mislabelling someone with a very specific mental disorder ultimately changes our understanding of what the disorder is. For example, there is a common misuse of the word “psychotic” in colloquial speech, which clinically means that you are suffering from delusions and hallucinations. If someone who has had a psychotic episode committed a violent act, they could recover with time and with medication and then experience remorse or empathy. A psychopath wouldn’t.
Psychopathy is measured along a spectrum because many markers of the condition overlap with other problems, such as the self-centeredness of the narcissist or the risky behavior of a person in a manic episode. These people are still not psychopaths! Your co-worker who cooks fish in the microwave is probably not like that either. However, the Joker is definitely, according to Geary, a 20-point checklist and some bat-clad man who has problems of his own to print out.