The Place of Psychopathy along the Spectrum of Negative Personality Types

Abstract

This article denotes psychopathy to be one among a number of negative personality organizations on a continuum. Psychopathy is understood as falling at the extreme end of this continuum. The article discusses the issue of “evil,” sociopathy, and psychopathy, and a variety of negative personality organizations, including narcissistic, paranoid, antisocial, sadistic, and psychopathic personality types; their characteristics, dynamics, and potential for treatment. Brief clinical examples of some personality types are provided to enable the reader to better understand how these types differ.

Keywords:

• psychopathy
• evil
• negative personalities
• narcissism
• sadism
• antisocial

Notes

1 The Psychopathy Checklist-revised (PCL-R), designed by Hare (2003), is a 20-item assessment tool used to evaluate the presence of psychopathic traits among individuals in high security psychiatric units, prisons, and other forensic settings.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michael H. Stone

Michael H. Stone, M.D., is a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. His psychiatric training was at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. He is a graduate of the Columbia Psychoanalytic Institute. He served as associate director of the long-term psychotherapy unit at the Institute, specializing in patients with Borderline Personality; and as clinical director of psychiatry at the University Health Center in Connecticut, and director of research at the Mid-Hudson Forensic Hospital. He is the author of 260 papers and chapters, and 12 books—including Abnormalities of Personality and The Anatomy of Evil.