Psychopath

The perverse and cruel atheist Marquis de Sade in prison, 18th century line engraving. See also: Atheism and psychopathy and Atheism and sadism

A psychopath is someone with an anti-social personality disorder characterized by violent, perverted or immmoral behavior often leading to criminality. Psychopaths have little or no concern for other people. Some psychopaths equate love with sexual arousal.

Psychopathy is strongly correlated with crime, violence, and antisocial behavior.

The Mayo Clinic defines antisocial personality disorder thusly: "Antisocial personality disorder, sometimes called sociopathy, is a mental health condition in which a person consistently shows no regard for right and wrong and ignores the rights and feelings of others. People with antisocial personality disorder tend to purposely make others angry or upset and manipulate or treat others harshly or with cruel indifference. They lack remorse or do not regret their behavior."

A psychopath is someone with an anti-social personality disorder characterized by violent, perverted or immoral behavior often leading to criminality. Some psychopaths equate love with sexual arousal.

When one turns to psychopathy, one tends to reject all emotions except for anger and hatred, the latter one feels toward mankind in general. All other emotions are faked to the benefit of the psychopath. This leads to the complete rejection of the social order, and the belief that the only crimes that are wrong are the ones one in which one gets caught; all morality is also abandoned.

Subclinical psychopathy

See also: Subclinical (psychology)

Subclinical psychopaths "are highly skilled in the art of manipulation and can size someone up within minutes of meeting him or her. They're called subclinical psychopaths, and the only difference between them and their better known clinical counterparts is in degree, not kind. Are they dangerous? Definitely. They have no compunction using others to get what they want and are masters at it. These people engage in dishonest activities, never committing a crime serious enough to warrant an arrest. Instead of becoming part of the criminal justice system, they skirt around the edges of it. Are there any sub clinical psychopaths who become serial killers like Henry Lucas and his lover Ottis Toole? No. While sub clinical psychopaths have no conscience, they're not apt to murder; rather, they're most likely to freeload and take money from someone who is lonely."

Causes of psychopathy

There is no single cause of psychopathy, but factors such as genetics, trauma, brain structure, exposure to violence during childhood, and environmental conditions are potential/possible contributing factors. Also, every person has free will and ultimately has responsibility for their actions.

Symptoms of psychopathy

Some of the characteristics of psychopaths are being angry, rash, impulsive, and oppositional (among others).

Reduced empathy, often seen in psychopathy, increases the prevalence of goal-directed aggression. Psychopaths have a greater risk of suffering from irritability/reactive aggression. Both decreased empathy and increased anger are associated with maladaptive aggression.

Signs of psychopathy include:

• Behavior that conflicts with social norms
• Disregarding or violating the rights of others
• General disregard toward safety and responsibility
• Superficial charm
• Emotional detachment
• Lack of empathy and remorse. Alternatively, psychopaths can switch their empathy on and off
• Impulsivity
• Chronic, uncontrolled anger/temper
• Low tolerance for boredom. Intense craving for excitement, novelty, and reward
• Pathological lying
• Fearlessness
• Dominance
• Self-centeredness
• Entitlement
• Arrogance
• Psychopaths lack realistic, long-term goals
• Psychopaths were problematic as children
• Psychopaths are unpredictable
• Psychopaths are more likely to engage in promiscuous behavior and avoid romantic commitments
• Psychopaths are more likely to engage in criminal behavior
• Psychopathic behavior is a pattern

Psychopathy and the dark triad of personality traits

The three Dark Triad personality subtypes are subclinical narcissism, Machiavellianism and subclinical psychopath.

"The “Dark Triad” personality traits are a toxic amalgamation of various negative traits and behaviors, such as they are domineering, violent, volatile, manipulative, remorseless, cynical, deceitful, etc."

Health.com states concerning people with dark triad traits and one of the best ways to deal with them: "...people with dark triad personality traits may be able to change, but the likelihood of that happening is "minuscule," noted Hokemeyer. "The personality traits that make up a dark triad are deeply ingrained in their psyche and highly resistant to any sort of challenge that would manifest a change. The best strategy is to move away from them as quickly as possible." Unlike the other personalities in the Dark Triad, Machiavellianism is not referred to in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for mental disorder V (DSM V).

The dark triad personality traits and their various sub-traits.

Atheism and psychopathy

The serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer engaged in cannibalism. He was an atheist while he committed these acts. See also: Atheism and cannibalism

See also: Atheism and psychopathy

A 2016 study relating to atheism and psychopathy published in Plus One indicates:

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Similarly, a survey of 312 college students examining the relationship between Religious/Spiritual Well-Being (RSWB) and ‘dark triad’ personality traits found that “RSWB was confirmed to be negatively correlated with these negative aspects of personality, in particular with subclinical psychopathy.” ...moral concern is associated with a spiritual worldview.

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According to the 2014 journal article Correlates of psychopathic personality traits in everyday life: results from a large community survey published in the journal Frontiers of Psychology lack of belief in God is positively associated with psychopathy.

Social science research on antitheists

See also: Antitheism and antisocial behavior and Atheism and narcissism

Social science research indicates that anti-theists score the highest among atheists when it comes to personality traits such as narcissism, dogmatism, and anger. Furthermore, they scored lowest when it comes to agreeableness and positive relations with others.

See also

• Irreligion, psychopathy, crime, violence and antisocial behavior
• Psychobabble

External links

• What is Psychopathy?, Dr. Todd Grande
• Inside Cornell: Analyzing the words of psychopaths, Cornell University
• Psychopaths | The Dark Triad Personality Types, Medcircle