[Happy Camper]

My feeling is that there is a minimum "depth" requirement to have full empathy and/or a moral code. If you want to imagine having neither, it's like being a creature (not human); answering only to you, with no other bonds. Your motivation for doing things need only that it's felt they're worth doing. In some ways, like a small kid that doesn't know better. but also denying full responsibility for actions.

I had wanted to post in this thread
Constructing morals without empathybut it was considered too old so a mod made my post there into a a new topic, so I'll change the subject, too.

Does anyone have an opinion on how psychopathy is not considered a diagnosis outside forensic settings? Currently I'm only aware of callous/unemotional as an additional descriptor for the DSM under anti social personality disorder. I feel psychopaths do exist separately, but progress is slow because they have to sort through a population that has a lot of functional members (many psychopaths not strictly disordered). Unfortunately, the message we seem to get is as though only ASPD exist.

[Yaowen]

Dear Happy Camper,

Interesting ideas. I don't know enough to even have an educated opinion about the subject though.

Sincerely yours, Yao Wen

[AliceKate]

Originally Posted by Happy Camper

I had wanted to post in this thread
Constructing morals without empathybut it was considered too old so a mod made my post there into a a new topic, so I'll change the subject, too.

Does anyone have an opinion on how psychopathy is not considered a diagnosis outside forensic settings? Currently I'm only aware of callous/unemotional as an additional descriptor for the DSM under anti social personality disorder. I feel psychopaths do exist separately, but progress is slow because they have to sort through a population that has a lot of functional members (many psychopaths not strictly disordered). Unfortunately, the message we seem to get is as though only ASPD exist.

There's a book, "snakes in suits" about business psychopaths and there is a student of Robert Hare (Robert Hare invented the pcl-r) who does a lot of research on psychopathy outside of the criminal law setting. Maybe you should check it out

There are studies that deal with the distinction between ASPD and Psychopathy if I remember correctly. And there are scientists in that field that deal with it. It just doesn't make it in the DSM I guess, so your average psychologist/ psyvhiatrist/ therapist doen't work with it.

[Atypical_Disaster]

Ignore the labels, the APA was barking up the wrong tree with this "antisocial personality disorder" bs.