Wild Paper Claims Psychopathy May Not Be a Mental Disorder, But Something Else

A lack of remorse, aggression, and disregard for the wellbeing of others have been associated with mental illness for more than half a century.

The line between broken and useful can be hard to discern in biology, and it's possible that a malfunction might have been promoted by natural selection.

We might find it hard to think of evolution benefiting people who are not nice, but nature has no problem with freeloaders.

In a study published last year in the journal Evolutionary Psychology, a team of Canadian researchers argued that psychopathy should be considered more like a function than a disorder because it lacks certain hallmarks.

Their conclusion is based on an analysis of existing research with measures of psychopathy together with details on the person's handedness, which is an outdated correlation from the early days of criminal psychology.

The links between being left-handed and a sinister personality were all but given. The early models of mental illness and sociability considered handedness to be a sign of an individual's degeneracy.

Science doesn't consider left-handed people to be bad people, but the question of how handedness might pair with other physical and psychological characteristics remains a common one in research.

The age-old question of nature versus nurture is at the center of it all. Genetics appears to play a role in handedness. It is possible for a person to fit into a community that favors the right-handed if they favor one hand over the other.

Stress, nutrition, and exposure to pollution while in the womb are just some of the environmental nudgings that can push a person's handedness into one direction or the other.

The researchers found no evidence that psychopathic subjects were less likely to be right-handed, so it is likely that their development hasn't been affected by their environment.

The researchers describe it as an "alternative life history strategy" for those who inherit genes that are evolution elected.

There are many reasons to hold judgement on the entire debate. The conclusion of the study was based on just 16 studies, which combined data on just under 2,000 individuals.

It is difficult to limit variables in studies of this nature, making it impossible to exclude the possibility of muddying the waters.

There is a question of what makes differences in our form and function a disease in the first place. The author of this article wrote whole books about the changing definitions of health and illness.

Psychopathy can be prized in one set of circumstances and unwanted in another. It can be an alternative strategy to survive, helping in some social contexts before becoming a disorder in another.

Disease is a convenient box we try to wrestle a complicated system into.

APD was included in the second edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1968.

The results of studies like this one will have an effect on whether or not we continue to view psychopathy as a disorder.

Psychopathy can play a role in behaviors that disrupt and destroy the wellbeing of many.

We could all benefit from knowing more about how it works and how to help those with it.

Evolutionary Psychology published this research.