James Silver

The difference between these people and a true psychopath is that the psychopath will have exhibited a pattern of manipulating, conning, and perhaps violence in multiple settings—not just on the campaign trail or in the rug market—in a manner that is considered antisocial in his or her culture. No thought, no weighing of moral pros and cons is involved. Psychopaths are on automatic pilot, and their moral compass is either absent or, if present, always pointing in the direction of their self-interest.

other words, perhaps the main difference between psychopaths and the rest of us is that they are not concerned about the difference between right and wrong. They know the difference; they just don’t care—their only concern is what’s “right” for them. Psychopaths target the vulnerable, steal from the unwary, and deceive the weak (or, even more to the

Bill is obviously not your average person with a few quirks. But why is he a psychopath as opposed to, say, an obnoxious guy with an anger management problem? The answer to that question lies in understanding what a psychopath is, how a psychopath is different from the rest of us, and the current measures that mental health professionals use to identify a psychopath.

What Is Psychopathy?

Worse, psychopaths are often superficially charming and glib; they are frequently able to take advantage of others because they know that acting genuinely friendly and helpful can be a useful strategy for getting what they want. While violence may be an option, a psychopath is just as willing to use a well-timed compliment, a subtle misstatement of the truth, or an exaggerated apology to achieve his or her self-serving goals. To a psychopath, a punch in the face and a lie hidden behind a friendly smile are merely separate tools to be employed as dictated by circumstances.

Psychopathy Is Not the Same Thing as Psychosis

People who are psychotic do not necessarily lack compassion and empathy for others; any immoral or antisocial behaviors on their part are more likely the result of their difficulty in assessing reality than their lack of a moral compass. (That said, individuals with psychotic disorders can also be psychopaths—what one of our colleagues has referred to as schizopaths.)

They are also generally more violent during the commission of crimes than are other offenders.17 As previously noted, psychopaths are more likely to employ instrumental aggression than nonpsychopaths who commit similar crimes; a 2002 study found that murderers who were psychopathic were significantly more likely to have committed premeditated (planned) murder than murderers who were not psychopathic, who were more likely to have killed in “the heat of passion

Psychopathy Is Not Antisocial Personality Disorder

college scholarship had he stayed in school, and the reason he left school was that he was too advanced and was just plain bored. Even

illiam March, author of The Bad Seed, put it well:

[G]ood people are rarely suspicious; they cannot imagine others doing the things they themselves are incapable of doing; usually they accept the undramatic solution as the correct one, and let matters rest there. Then too, the normal are inclined to visualize the [psychopath] as one who’s as monstrous in appearance as he is in mind, which is about as far from the truth as one could well get…. These monsters of real life usually looked and behaved in a more normal manner tha