Born a psychopath

What is Psychopathy?

Psychopathy is a neuropsychiatric disorder characterised by insufficient emotional responses, lack of empathy and poor behavioural control. This may result in persistent antisocial deviance and criminal behaviour. Though the terms “sociopath” and “psychopath” are synonyms of one another, there is a slight difference between them; sociopathy refers to a person with antisocial tendencies which are caused by social or environmental factors, whereas psychopathy refers to a person whose traits are like a sociopath’s, but are thought to be more innate. It is estimated that 1 in 100 people are psychopaths. However, there are different levels of psychopathy, meaning not all psychopaths are violent.

Certain behaviours are associated with psychopathy, however, it is completely normal to exhibit one of these behaviours, and just because you exhibit more than one does not make you a psychopath. There are a few diagnostic criteria for psychopathy, the main one being the psychopathy checklist developed by Dr Robert Hare several decades ago. To diagnose psychopathy, you must fulfil multiple traits, which include “glib and superficial”, “egocentric and grandiose”, “lack of remorse or guilt” and “deceitful and manipulative”.

Nature vs Nurture?

Research indicates that psychopathy results from a complex combination of genetic and environmental factors. For example, it has been seen that psychopathy is often passed down through families. Even if a parent does not outwardly exhibit psychopathy, they may carry recessive genetic variants that increase their child’s chance of developing it. This therefore means that some children are born with a higher risk of becoming a psychopath. To show this, brain scans have found differences in the activity in some parts of the brain between violent psychopaths and non-psychopaths.

However, often an environmental factor is needed to ‘trigger’ the psychopathy gene. The most common environmental trigger is trauma, which is often seen as childhood abuse. Other factors that increase the risk of psychopathy include perinatal factors and not experiencing a warm and responsive relationship with parents or guardians in early childhood. Perinatal factors include smoking during pregnancy, high-stress levels during pregnancy or birth complications.

Brian Dugan

When Brian Dugan, a serial killer who showed classic symptoms of psychopathy from an early age, plead guilty to the rape and murder of multiple victims, he showed no remorse. To understand the reasons for this, Dr Kent Kiehl, a neuroscientist, performed brain scans on Dugan’s brain. The results showed that his brain is much less dense in the para-limbic system, which includes the amygdala and the pre-frontal cortex, which are areas associated with the processing of emotions, than the brain of the average person.

This therefore implies that psychopathy involves a lack of development in these regions – which may be genetically determined. The amygdala is a brain region that is important to the development of psychopathy as it is involved in social responsiveness, empathy and outcomes related to fear. Psychopathic individuals have a smaller or less active amygdala, which may be why psychopaths are relatively fearless and less socially responsive compared to the ‘average’ person. Just like how some people have a lower intellectual ability, psychopaths simply lack emotional ability, meaning that Dugan has no concept of the harm he has caused. This has a powerful influence on the legal system, in which this area of criminal law is referred to as “neuro-law”.

  However, Dugan also claimed that he was sexually abused by John Wayne Gacy, another American Serial Killer, when he was just 15 years old. Therefore, this could be the reason why his psychopathy gene was ‘activated’. Furthermore, this also provides a reason why most of his victims are children – he experienced childhood abuse which he never fully recovered from, so he projects this trauma through his own crimes.

Conclusion

 In conclusion, having a genetic predisposition to psychopathy does not necessarily make you a psychopath. Environmental influences can also increase or decrease the risk of people developing into psychopaths. Therefore, although there are genes which are associated with the development of psychopaths, those born with the genes or brain structures of a psychopath are not guaranteed to become one, and likewise those who suffer from childhood trauma or abuse are not guaranteed to become psychopaths.