Emotional deficiency and psychopathy.

Aside from an antisocial life-style, the concept of psychopathy is based on character features which can be described in terms of specific patterns of interpersonal, behavioral, and, in particular, affective characteristics. Concluding from studies which have dealt with the affective domain in psychopaths, emotional deficiency may predispose to violence in several ways. (1) Poor conditioning implicates a failure to review the harmful consequences of one's actions leading to a deficit of avoidance behavior. (2) Emotional detachment prevents experiencing feelings, which naturally inhibit the acting out of violent impulses. (3) Emotional deficiency is closely associated with a general underarousal, leading to sensation seeking. Current data suggest that there may be a close association between difficulties in emotional processing and poor prefrontal functioning. From a psychosocial perspective, psychopaths were shown to have been exposed to severe familial and societal difficulties. Whether biological or environmental factors dominate in the etiology of this personality disorder, psychopathy does not per se justify the assumption of decreased legal responsibility. Copyright 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.