A pretty good definition of the word Psychopath.

Psychopathy – The Third and Final Stages of Insanity

Psychopathy as a personality disorder is characterized by enduring antisocial behavior, Lack of Empathy and remorse, and disinhibited or bold behavior. Behaviorialists suggest that different conceptions of psychopathy emphasize three main observable characteristics to varying degrees:

1. Boldness. Low fear including stress-tolerance, toleration of unfamiliarity and danger, and high self-confidence and social (alpha) assertiveness. Fearless dominance. May correspond to differences in the amygdala and other neurological systems associated with fear responses.

2. Disinhibition: Poor impulse control including problems with planning and foresight, lacking affect and urge control, demand for immediate gratification, and poor behavioral restraints. Impulsive antisociality. May correspond to impairments in frontal lobe systems that are involved in such control.

3. Meanness: Lacking empathy and close attachments with others, disdain of close attachments, use of cruelty to gain empowerment, exploitative tendencies, defiance of authority, and destructive excitement seeking. Coldheartedness (black hearted) and meanness may possibly be caused by either high boldness or high disinhibition (a lack of restraint) combined with an adverse environment.

Psychopathy Checklist; Factors, Facets, and Items

Facet 1: Interpersonal 

  • Glibness/superficial charm

  • Grandiose sense of self-worth

  • Pathological lying

  • Cunning/manipulative

Facet 2: Affective

  • Lack of remorse or guilt

  • Emotionally shallow

  • Callous/lack of empathy

  • Failure to accept responsibility for own actions

Facet 3: Lifestyle

  • Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom

  • Parasitic lifestyle

  • Lack of realistic, long-term goals

  • Impulsivity

  • Irresponsibility

Facet 4: Antisocial

  • Poor behavioral controls

  • Early behavioral problems

  • Juvenile delinquency

  • Revocation of conditional release

  • Criminal versatility

  • Many short-term marital relationships

  • Promiscuous sexual behavior


A Clinical Profile of Psychopathic Behaviors:In his book The Mask of Sanity, Hervey Cleckley described 16 "common qualities" he thought were characteristic of the individuals he termed psychopaths:

  • Superficial charm and good "intelligence"

  • Mental rigidity or thought addiction to rational thinking

  • Absence of "nervousness" or psychoneurotic manifestations

  • Unreliability

  • Untruthfulness and insincerity

  • Lack of remorse and shame

  • Inadequately motivated antisocial behavior

  • Poor judgment and failure to learn by experience

  • Pathologic egocentricity and incapacity for love

  • General poverty in major affective reactions (low responses to outward emotions or feelings)

  • Specific loss of insight

  • Unresponsiveness in general interpersonal relations

  • Fantastic and uninviting behavior with drink and sometimes without

  • Suicide threats, sometimes used as control over others and rarely carried out

  • Sex life impersonal, trivial, and poorly integrated

  • Failure to follow any life plan.

This information has been shared from here.