The Truth About Psychopaths. “There Are a Lot of Stereotypes Behind this Concept”

Psychopaths and Crime: The Case of America

Anna Bobrowiecka: The crimes committed by psychopaths that echoed the loudest happened in the United States, mainly during the 20th century. Were they so exceptionally common there, more so than in other parts of the world?

Jan Gołębiowski^*: I think the key issue here was the influence of the local media and American mass culture. The term “psychopath committing a crime” itself is very “clickable,” and eye-catching. Americans are at the forefront of this media marketing. They quickly use all these drastic and shocking stories, making the term “psychopath” commonly understood as a synonym for a brutal serial killer, often associated with American TV series. The media, entertainment, and film industries maximize the monetization of such stories, and through all these pop-culture productions we can get the impression that all psychopathic murderers or criminals are Americans.

Beyond Media Stereotypes

The media, cultural image of a psychopath – how much truth is there in it?

As far as professional terminology is concerned, the term “psychopathy” is no longer used today, and does not appear in official classifications of mental disorders and diseases. We are talking, for example, about dissociative personality disorder. This terminology is also used in teams created by psychiatrists when they deal with the diagnosis of a given case. Psychopathy, in the medical and clinical sense, is considered one of the dissocial personality disorders. Americans use the term “antisocial personality disorder.” A “psychopath” is nowadays a more literary, media term, under which there is often a very colloquial or stereotypical understanding that may have little to do with reality and what the characteristics of a person with an actual disorder are.

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Psychopaths and Crime: Diagnosing the Disorder

How do we know that we are dealing with crimes committed by a person with such a disorder?

At the investigation stage, such a diagnosis usually holds little importance, because we rarely encounter any serial, patterned commission of crimes. In such a situation, we would probably have to understand the motivation and reasoning of that person. Typically, this diagnosis becomes relevant only during the court process, particularly when determining guilt, awareness and accountability at the time of the offense, which may influence the severity of the penalty. While personality disorders, such as being labeled a “psychopath”, do not exempt individuals from criminal responsibility, psychiatric evaluations are often conducted to provide a comprehensive understanding of the perpetrator and their motivation.

Debunking the Myths

But when it comes to the actual characteristics of psychopathy, it’s important to distinguish them from stereotypes. An example of this is the belief portrayed in movies and media about some superior intelligence of a psychopath. Psychopathy, however, has no connection with intelligence, these are completely different qualities of a person – one is a personality trait while the other is a cognitive function. There are psychopaths who are quite primitive or even intellectually disabled, as well as those who are of average intelligence, which is the most common case since most people fall within that range.

And there is also a small group of above-average intelligent psychopaths, but this is not the norm. High intelligence is not a defining, distinguishing feature of a psychopath. Instead, the key trait is a strong egocentrism – satisfaction of one’s needs at the expense of others, coupled with indifference, and ruthlessness toward the environment and its needs. Here, intelligence will have a “practical” meaning, because the intelligent and primitive psychopaths satisfy these needs slightly differently.

What Creates a Psychopath?

What makes a person have psychopathic traits? Is it innate, results from genes and physiology, or is it a matter of not adapting to society and one’s traumas?

In fact, it is often a combination of both factors, making it difficult to identify a single determining factor. This genetic and biological background plays a significant role in the development of a dissocial personality because a person is born with certain predispositions and brain conditioning. In the case of a psychopath, this manifests as a so-called “strong nervous system”. It is resistant to stimuli and even requires stimulation. Thanks to this endurance it functions well in stressful situations.

Psychopaths typically also exhibit low levels of anxiety or sometimes none at all (it should be noted, however, that psychology distinguishes anxiety from fear, and these are two different distinct concepts). Of course, if someone threatens a psychopath with a gun, then they feel that fear, but it has a mobilizing effect on them. Therefore, psychopathic personality has an innate basis. However, socialization also plays a significant role.

Psychopathy as a Spectrum

We have to remember that psychopathy is not a zero and one binary condition, but rather a kind of spectrum, like any personality disorder. It has varying degrees of intensity. One person can be more or less psychopathic, and the other can be extremely psychopathic. Socialization, upbringing in the family home, and the nature of social interaction in adolescence and early adulthood will affect the development of a dissocial personality in a person with innate predispositions.

Clinical studies – including neurological research – have confirmed that psychopaths, and individuals exhibiting similar behaviors, also appeared in a community that did not violate legal norms. Numerous scientific publications have been written about psychopaths in law enforcement, business, politics, and even among scientists. They are often successful people, due to their high resilience and determination in their work. Steve Jobs is often cited as a famous example of a psychopath. According to many accounts of his environment, he was a visionary, but at the same time, a very despotic man focused on his goal and not considerate of others, sometimes even bending social norms. A social norm is not always codified and enforced by legal sanctions, it can be something simply accepted as moral and ethical.

This element of socialization and adaptation to life in society is also important because not every psychopath becomes a criminal – for example, a businessman, a politician, a policeman, or a soldier may exhibit psychopathic traits but still function as a “tough” individual without necessarily committing crimes.

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Psychopaths and Crime: The Awakening

But we know that psychopaths are insensitive, cold people. Does this make them secretly capable of committing crimes? Is it something “dormant” and can be awakened by some impulse?

Not necessarily. Psychopaths do not have to actively harm others, but they can serve, for example, as the “brains” of certain operations, or lead criminal organizations. There are instances of this happening – people who may not directly harm anyone, but were able to manipulate the environment, enforce obedience, and enter the role of a leader. These are the characteristics typical of people with psychopathic traits – an exceptional calculation and a tendency to manipulate people (this can also apply to more primitive individuals, who may use equally primitive methods of manipulation).

The Role of Impulsivity

What pushes a psychopath to harm is often high impulsivity. However, some are able to control their impulses. Very often they are the more intelligent individuals who know how to postpone gratification – i.e. wait for the goal to be achieved, or the benefit to be gained. For a large group of psychopaths, this is not easy, but the more intelligent and more calculated ones can bite the bullet and wait easily for the “right moment.”

So this impulsivity, which we often associate as a constant indicator of psychopathy, is also in fact variable. What remains a constant and fundamental feature of a psychopathic personality is a strong egocentrism and a focus on one’s hedonistic needs. Psychopaths treat other people instrumentally and use them to pursue their interests and needs. They may feel emotions – but only those related to themselves. Rarely do they feel anxiety, instead they tend to manipulate and deceive. They lack compassion and empathy and are generally insensitive to the feelings and needs of others.

* Jan Gołębiowski – criminal psychologist, court expert, and author of numerous publications on profiling unknown perpetrators of crimes. He is the author of the first monograph in Poland on criminal profiling – Profilowanie kryminalne. Wprowadzenie do sporządzania charakterystyki psychofizycznej nieznanych sprawców przestępstw (“Criminal profiling. Introduction to the compilation of psychophysical characteristics of unknown perpetrators of crimes”). During his work in the police, he made, together with Dariusz Piotrowicz, several dozen profiles of unknown perpetrators of crimes. He appeared as an expert in the documentary series Syndykat Zbrodni i Polskie Prywatne Zbrodnie (“Crime Syndicate” and “Polish Private Crimes”).

Translation: Marcin Brański

Polish version: Kim tak naprawdę jest psychopata? „Pod tym pojęciem kryje się wiele stereotypów”