The Psychopathic Personality - a Study

In forensic psychology, professionals may be required to perform neurological or psychological assessments. Much of what a psychologist may find, might lead them to believe someone suffers from a psychopathic personality. A psychopath is a person that suffers with a disorder that includes interpersonal and behavioral discrepancies. These discrepancies can lead to criminalized behaviors and violence in communities (Douglas & Gatner, 2016). Psychopaths lack the ability to show remorse and guilt for their actions. As well, these individuals have egocentric and impulsive thinking. They are experts at lying, and manipulating people emotionally. Characteristics of this personality also include: short-tempered, arrogant, and cannot form emotional bonds with the people around them (Douglas & Gatner, 2016).

May and Beaver (2014) described psychopaths as living a parasitic lifestyle meaning they use everyone around them for their own benefit and view people as objects. Psychopaths continuously break social norms causing concerns for the safety of themselves and the people around them (May & Beaver, 2014). Many studies have shown psychopathic personality is influenced by biological and genetic factors. Predisposition to environmental factors such as abuse, parental denial, and maltreatment during childhood also play a role in the development of a psychopath (May & Beaver, 2014).

Psychopathic Personality can be considered a severe mental illness. A psychopath cannot be cured but the symptoms can be managed. Yet, many psychopaths are less compliant because they do not have fear of consequences. With this being said, psychopaths do not feel obligated to get treatment (May & Beaver, 2014). Family members would be unable to convince their potential loved ones to get help because they battle with shallow emotions. It is a severe mental illness because these people pose great harm to society and participate in many other high-risk behaviors. As well, the development of a psychopath is a continuum (May & Beaver, 2014). Without early recognition, a child will progressively get worse without proper assistance from a professional. As the child worsens, they become harder and harder to help and will likely take up criminal activities in their adolescent years and for years to come. According to brain topographies, a psychopath has a reduction in the grey matter in the prefrontal cortex (Douglas & Gather, 2016). This is a biological factor that cannot necessarily be prevented, making it even harder to try and treat.

An example of a psychopath is Gary M. Heidnik. Heidnik dropped out of high school and eventually joined the army. He worked as a medic for 14 years but was dismissed when diagnosed with schizoid personality disorder (Blanco, 2017). His mother committed suicide when Heidnik was 27. It is clear that Heidnik had a family history of mental illness. Heidnik got married but his marriage was not a healthy one. He cheated on his wife and would make his wife have sex with the women he brought back (Blanco, 2017). For three months, Heidnik beat and raped his wife until she finally left. Heidnik’s first criminal charge was aggravated assault and the offenses grew in time including charges of “kidnapping, rape, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, involuntary deviant sexual intercourse, and interfering with the custody of a committed person” (Blanco, 2017).

In Philadelphia, Heidnik held six women captive in his basement, raping them and torturing them. He would feed them dog food mixed with the dismembered body parts that were ground up with a food processor from another women he killed (Blanco, 2017). He also put the limbs of the dead women inside the freezer and ate her head and ribs. Heidnik was caught when one of the captured women convinced him to let her free to go and capture another victim. She went to the authorities and Heidnik went to trial and was executed on July 6, 1999 (Blanco, 2017). Heidnik was clearly suffering from a psychopathic personality so severe that it caused him to commit criminal acts that are unforgivable to society. Hopefully, research will continue to work towards a treatment plan that will prevent scenarios like this from continuing to occur.