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As stated in an article in
the Harvard Mental Health Letter, psychopathy is plainly described as an antisocial personality disorder. This disorder requires
at least three of the following symptoms: a failure to conform to and abide by social norms, habitual deceitfulness, impulsiveness,
and procrastination, irritability and aggressiveness, a constant disregard for family and work as well as the safety for oneself
and others, and, finally, a lack of regret or remorse. Keep in mind that most all psychopaths have an antisocial personality
disorder, but not all people with an antisocial personality disorder are considered psychopaths.
The biggest underlying problem of a psychopath is the lack of emotional depth. While most people
feel shame, guilt, anger, sadness, and happiness, psychopaths lack most of these feelings in different ways. They are usually
quick to anger as they are very irritable, but this anger is mostly stemmed from the inability to get what they want or having
a road block in the way of one of their schemes. They are usually oblivious to the harm they cause others and refer to severely
threatening acts of violence as something quite small and harmless. Psychopaths do not have relationships with others. This
may be a consequence of their fear to tolerate anxiety within themselves as well as others according to some psychotherapists.
The closest thing to a relationship that psychopaths experience is the relationship with those they feel need to be overcome
or eliminated. They see these people as ways to help themselves out in selfish ways by using the relationships to get things
they want.
Psychopaths are in no way intelligently disabled. In fact, many psychopaths
are very verbally intelligent even though they lack emotional intelligence. The verbal intelligence comes into play with
manipulation against their victim's feelings and needs. They are very persuasive in order to get what they desire.
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