Psychopathy is often mistakenly equated with criminality. Usually the first thing that comes to mind is violence, brutality, bloodshed, serial killers. But even though we can find a higher percentage of psychopaths in the prison population, this does not mean that all criminals are psychopaths, nor that there are no psychopaths outside of prison.
Contrary to popular belief, psychopaths are not socially conspicuous or bizarre. On the contrary, they can appear very charming, open and social. But that charm always has a background. The background of manipulation and exploitation of other people, all in order to satisfy personal needs and desires. Others are used. However, this is not easy to detect, because the absence of any nervousness, discomfort due to lying and exploitation, the absence of any “insane” features, all contribute to their behavior being inconspicuous. They wear a “mask of sanity“.
However, behind that mask is an impoverished emotional world. There is no sadness, no sympathy with and concern for others, no conscience and shame. Most of all, however, there is no fear, no anxiety. Hence, it becomes impossible to socialize and generate a social fear. The cold house of psychopathy is built on the absence of either personal or social brakes. What you get is an unstoppable machine designed to fulfill your desires, with no emotional brakes on the way. Is it any wonder then that any neurotic or psychopathic symptoms are absent in psychopathy?
Behind the fulfillment of one’s own capricious and changing desires, there remains a social wasteland. At any moment, they can impulsively change your behavior when you realize that there is a better or exciting opportunity. Relationships are instrumentalized – used for their own ends. The motives may be different, but certainly one’s own greatness is something behind such predatory behavior in which others are used as instruments of one’s own gain. Whether the sexual desire will be satisfied through the violent rape of a minor, or whether they will kill their parents in cold blood for the sake of collecting the inheritance, is completely irrelevant.
Hence, this combination of own size, combined with the absence of emotional brakes, is very suitable for antisocial destructive behavior. Some researchers refer to psychopathy as an extreme version of antisocial personality disorder. But there are differences – you won’t find psychopathy in psychiatric manuals. Psychopathy really consists of behaviors that can be characterized as antisocial – impulsivity, lying, irresponsibility, disobeying rules, violence. That would be the thread that connects them. However, while people with antisocial disorder may react in this way due to underlying emotional turbulence (e.g. trauma, depression, anxiety), people with psychopathic traits are characterized by the absence of an emotional landscape. While emotions in antisocial disorder react like “fuel to a fire”, in psychopathy there are no emotional brakes of shame or guilt to prevent impulsive desires. After the committed act, psychopaths do not feel remorse, shame, depression, anxiety.
Photo author: Ana Batrićević
Most incarcerated people are not characterized by psychopathy
Within the prison environment, these social disorders take on a special significance. Successful psychopaths can maneuver through complex relationships, exploiting for personal gain while maintaining the facade of an opportunity for acceptability (e.g., reporting suicidal thoughts so that the person can avoid retribution from another aggressive inmate by moving to a safer setting). Sometimes deceiving other inmates or employees is an end in itself, reveling in one’s own manipulative abilities through charm and control.
Also, true psychopathy is very difficult to treat. Research in which psychotherapy was used with the prison population shows that psychotherapy of psychopaths can even have a counter-effect. Psychopaths seem to learn additional skills in therapy that they use to successfully manipulate and exploit people.
However, the term psychopathy is used too easily today. Psychopathy is unccomon. And although it is more present in prison, it is not easy to come across true psychopathy. Most prisoners, on the contrary, are preoccupied with surviving in the prison setting. They are usually preoccupied with thoughts that are focused on the family, on remorse for the committed act, on the substance they are addicted to, on avoiding the retribution of others, on bearing the burden of depression, confrontational thoughts, and the like.
On the other hand, the approach and treatment of the prison population can be better directed if it is approached by analyzing the factors of psychopathy. In modern research, psychopathy is not treated as a one-dimensional factor, but as consisting of three dimensions: emotional coldness, deception and recklessness. Although intertwined, these features of psychopathy can be approached separately, and the treatment itself can be directed depending on these dimensions. The pronounced dimension of recklessness and antisocial behavior, and the absence of emotional coldness has a promising result, while it is most difficult to work with strongly expressed emotional coldness. Also, new research tests the quality of the prison environment.
Although the majority of prisoners are not characterized by psychopathy, for those prisoners who have psychopathy, the question arises of how to approach them, how to work with them, because the methods we have available are not adequate for optimal understanding and access to such individuals.
Nikola Drndarević