The term “psychopath” was introduced by J.L.A. Kock in his 1891 monograph “Die Psychopathischen Minderwertigkeiten” in his description of “psychopathic inferiorities”.
In 1939, Henderson described psychopaths in his book “Psychopathic States” as individuals afflicted with an illness:
- “the term psychopathic state is the name we apply to those individuals who conform to a certain intellectual standard, sometimes high, sometimes approaching the realm of defect but yet not amounting to it, who throughout their lives, or from a comparatively early age, have exhibited disorders of conduct of an antisocial or asocial nature, usually of a recurrent or episodic type, who, in many instances, have proved difficult to influence by methods of social, penal, and medical care and treatment and for whom we have no adequate provision of a preventive or curative nature. The inadequacy or deviation or failure to adjust to ordinary social life is not a mere willfulness or badness which can be threatened or thrashed out of the individual so involved, but constitutes a true illness for which we have no specific explanation
In 1953, Thompson described psychopaths, in “The Psychopathic Delinquent and Criminal” as “such persons as those who seek momentary gratification, lack discretion, and fail to profit from experience, which leads to repeated failures.”
In Cleckley’s 1976 book, “The Mask of Sanity”, he outlined 16 characteristics of psychopaths:
- intelligent
- rational
- calm
- unreliable
- insincere
- without shame or remorse
- having poor judgment
- without capacity for love
- unemotional
- poor insight
- indifferent to the trust or kindness of others
- overreactive to alcohol
- suicidal
- impersonal sex life
- lacking long-term goals
- inadequately motivated antisocial behaviour
Currently, we use what is considered the best methodology in measuring criminal psychopathy, which is Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist.