Core traits of psychopathy

We have seen a lot lately about the misuse of such clinical terms as trauma, victim, and gaslighting, e.g., Nicole Daniels in the New York Times (February 11, 2022). Psychopath may be another such term. In a recent article in Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, Crego & Widiger (2022) attempt to identify the core traits of psychopathy. They chose to examine Ted Bundy, Clyde Barrow, Bernie Madoff, James Bond, Chuck Yeager, and Sherlock Holmes each of whom has “been described as being a psychopath.” 

Before presenting the rest of the abstract, let me note that “the Cleckley criteria” are based on Cleckley’s 1941 book. A psychiatrist, he defined psychopathy as deep-rooted emotional pathology concealed by the outward appearance of good mental health. He believed that true psychopaths are unable to experience authentic emotions. His original list of sixteen traits was variously criticized and revised over time. Hare developed a 22-item checklist in the 1970s and later popularized and sensationalized the term. While several others have used a similar approach, Crego & Widiger used nine data collections in which they provided biographical summaries of each person, then collected data for three cases (Bundy, Bond, and Holmes) from participants who had indicated that they knew the person well enough to provide ratings without the biographical history.

Here’s the rest of the abstract:

Each person was described with respect to the five-factor model, the Cleckley criteria, and additional traits from more recent models of psychopathy (e.g., boldness and fearlessness). Traits evident across all six persons were fearlessness, boldness, feels invulnerable, thrill-seeking, and excitement-seeking. However, this includes persons who would not be said to be psychopaths. The traits that were most specific to psychopathy were traits of antagonism, such as callousness, manipulativeness, dishonesty, arrogance, and cruelty. 

First, I like their caution that a number of characteristics often attributed to psychopaths can easily describe other people. Second, I like this latter emphasis on antagonism. Since Antisocial Personality Disorder is the diagnostic category most similar to the popular notions of psychopathy, antagonism seems to be a helpful general trait that doesn’t presume illegal behavior.