“People tend to think
of psychopaths as criminals. In fact, the majority of psychopaths aren’t
criminal.”
--Dr. Robert Hare
In his seminal treatise The
Mask of Sanity: An Attempt to Clarify Some Issues About the So-Called
Psychopathic Personality (1941), Hervey Cleckley theorized that sociopathy
was due to an underlying impairment in emotional processing, e.g. an emotional
colorblindness.
Common manifestations of this impairment included emotional disconnectedness:
- · lack of feelings of guilt
- · shallow emotions
- · self-centeredness
- · lack of empathy
- · insincerity
- · lack of awareness or understanding of their own emotional states
- · failure to imbue sexual behavior with emotional meaning
Adaptive (positive)
traits:
- · intelligence and social aptitude
- · absence of irrationality
- · boldness and confidence
- · low incidence of suicide
And maladaptive (negative)
traits:
- · deceitfulness
- · unreliability
- · impulsivity
- · failure to learn from experience
- · unrealistic expectations that things will work out
- · recklessness, especially when intoxicated
- · atypical sexual behavior
Modern researchers would call Cleckley’s sociopath a “Factor
1 psychopath”. Factor 1 traits make up the first half of Robert Hare’s
Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R) and/or the similar set of personality
traits in Scott Lillienfeld’s Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI).
Factor 1 sociopaths are associated with:
·
High social abilities and emotional resilience. Hall
et al. (2004).
·
High five-factor model (FFM) extraversion,
openness, and conscientiousness. Id.
The Five-Factor Model includes the five major personality traits that all
people share in different levels: extraversion, openness to experiences,
conscientiousness, neuroticism, and agreeableness. These standardized traits
are used to compare different personality types or reflect the prevalence of
certain personality characteristics in particular populations, like sociopaths.
o
FFM extraversion is associated with social
confidence, social adeptness, and charm.
o
FFM openness is associated with novelty seeking,
adventurousness, and openness to unconventional beliefs and behaviors.
o
FFM conscientiousness is associated with an
awareness of the effects of one’s actions.
·
Low FFM neuroticism. Id.
o
FFM neuroticism is a preoccupation with avoiding
negative experiences or punishment, worrying, focusing on problems, and an
inability to cope with every day stressors. People low on neuroticism are much
more influenced by positive rewards than punishment.
·
High verbal intelligence and personal and
parental socioeconomic status. Id.
·
High self-interest and self-regard, prone to
manipulation and Machiavellian behaviors. Harpur, Hare, & Hakstian, 1989;
Hare, 1991; Verona et al., 2001.
·
Long-term planning to use people and things in
an instrumental way to achieve the psychopath’s desired aim. Patrick &
Zempolich, 1998; Porter & Woodworth, 2006.
·
Low empathy. Hare, 2003.
·
Social dominance. Hare, 1991; Harpur et al.,
1989; Verona et al., 2001.
·
Low fearfulness, distress, and depression.
Harpur et al., 1989; Hicks & Patrick, 2006.
·
Low physical responses to fearful situations. Cf.
Patrick, 1994, 2007.
Patrick, Fowles, Krueger (2009).
Are you surprised at how many positive characteristics there
are? It’s easy to imagine how traits like emotional resilience and social
dominance could promote success. Or how low fearfulness and depression might
improve overall mood? How extraversion and adventurousness might help in love,
business, and overall life satisfaction? Indeed, I receive several emails a
month asking me to help the writer become more sociopathic.
Noticeably absent in Cleckley’s sociopath are traits like
intentional cruelty, sadism, misanthropy, or even violence. Id. In fact, only three out of fifteen
of Cleckley’s sociopaths showed high interpersonal aggressiveness. Id. They were no one’s angels, but nor
were they devils. Instead, they were “charming ne’er-do-wells who harm others
incidentally rather than deliberately.” Id. Cleckley even argued that sociopaths
are less prone to violence because they’re less likely to be emotionally
triggered. Id.