My understanding is, as with most characteristics, that psychopathy is not an either / or, but rather a “to what degree” . Give a psychopathy test to anyone and they will score somewhere between highly psychopathic and a low level psychopath ( even if at certain times ) . I think that the character traits involved, including a lack of empathy for the suffering of others, are the result of an emotional shut down or wall of defence brought about do to various levels of trauma and emotional pain experienced. At the root are psychological survival tactics, however misguided, as well as pain avoidance. Psychopaths learn that goal achievement for them is increased by taking feelings out of the equation. The harder the door is slammed on their feelings and the longer it remains so, the less likely it will be reopened. So psychopathy is not caused by a lack of empathy but rather, a lack of empathy, to varying degrees, is a resultant characteristic of emotional disconnect.
Actually psychopathy is notable as a category in that the distribution is very much bimodal. The majority of people get very low scores on the tests. A few get very high ones.
My understanding is, as with most characteristics, that psychopathy is not an either / or, but rather a “to what degree” . Give a psychopathy test to anyone and they will score somewhere between highly psychopathic and a low level psychopath ( even if at certain times ) . I think that the character traits involved, including a lack of empathy for the suffering of others, are the result of an emotional shut down or wall of defence brought about do to various levels of trauma and emotional pain experienced. At the root are psychological survival tactics, however misguided, as well as pain avoidance. Psychopaths learn that goal achievement for them is increased by taking feelings out of the equation. The harder the door is slammed on their feelings and the longer it remains so, the less likely it will be reopened. So psychopathy is not caused by a lack of empathy but rather, a lack of empathy, to varying degrees, is a resultant characteristic of emotional disconnect.
Actually psychopathy is notable as a category in that the distribution is very much bimodal. The majority of people get very low scores on the tests. A few get very high ones.