---
title: "History of psychopathy"
chunk: 6/6
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_psychopathy"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:00:22.648437+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

== Overall trends ==
One exhaustive analysis by a Canadian psychologist describes the various lines of work as 'a psychopathy project' attempting to establish psychopathy as an object of science. Overall this was found to have suffered from 'a number of serious logical confusions and deliberate mischaracterizations of its scientific merits' - including its early basis in degeneration theory, tautological definitions and associated neuroscience findings, routinely unclarified assumptions and shifting levels of explanation about the core concept, and exaggerated statistical claims such as based on Hare's use of factor analysis. It was noted, however, that some of the limited research findings may prove useful in a better explanatory framework (i.e. not necessarily under the umbrella of 'psychopathy').
Swedish sociologist Roland Paulsen has further placed the more recent resurgence in popular coverage of psychopathy in the context of "the Enlightenment project" to use rationality and technology to deal with problems in human life and society. A Scottish sociologist of biomedical ethics has suggested that the DSM's attempt to develop different standards for Antisocial Personality Disorder have been limited and modified by path dependence on the concept of psychopathy/sociopathy, due to the latter being embedded in diverse sociotechnological networks and thereby demanded by various users.

== See also ==
History of mental disorders

== References ==