<p><strong>Psychopathy is no longer a diagnosis </strong>in the<strong> Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders</strong> as of the third edition. Rather the diagnosis would be antisocial personality disorder with psychopathic traits. These psychopathic traits are characterised by <em>“a lack of anxiety or fear and by a bold interpersonal style that may mask maladaptive behaviours”</em>, <em>e.g. not adjusting adequately or appropriately to certain environments or situations. </em></p>
<p><strong>Psychopathic traits</strong> are assessed using a variety of measurement tools, most famously<strong> Robert D. Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist</strong><em> (PCL-R)</em>, brought to the mainstream by author <strong>Jon Ronson</strong> in his book<strong> The Psychopath Test</strong>. Dr Hare’s checklist is a list of <strong>20 </strong>traits which the assessed is scored on a three-point scale, for example, <strong>item 6</strong> is lack of remorse or guilt and the recipient is assessed, giving a grade of <strong>0</strong> for no match, <strong>1</strong> for a partial match or <strong>2</strong> for a good match. If someone scores above <strong>30 </strong>on the checklist, they are considered to have psychopathic traits, for instance, serial killer/serial rapist <strong>Ted Bundy</strong> was evaluated at <strong>39/40</strong>.</p>
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