Psychopathy: Guilty Mind or Guilty Brain, Paperback

Psychopathy is one of the most puzzling clinical diagnosis and has been defined as an enduring pattern of inner experience and behaviour that deviates markedly the individual's psyche. Psychopathy is usually a stable and long-lasting untreatable condition, and its onset traces back to the early childhood or adolescence. Psychopathy cannot be synonymous with the criminality or violence, nor all psychopaths inevitably engage in criminal activities, and not all criminals are psychopaths. Many psychopaths are persons 'under the mask' and quite successful in their occupation, despite having a clinical construct evident by a constellation of interpersonal, affective and lifestyle characteristics (irritability, hostility and aggressiveness). Most psychopaths could be recognised because of their grandiose sense of self-importance, beliefs that they are 'special and unique', preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance; they are ignorant and arrogant, exploitive and manipulative, taking advantage of others with no remorse or empathy.