S u m m a r y

 

Auvinen-Lintunen L (2008)

Psychopathy &endash; from conceptualization,assessment and treatability

Psykologia 43:277&endash;285. Vammala ISSN 0355-1067.

Psychopathy represents a severe form of psychopathology that is concealed by an outer fa_ade of normality. It is not classified as a personality disorder according to any disease classification, but the main personal-ity disorders related to it are a narcissistic personality and an asocial personality. The present definition of psychopathy is based on the clini-cal descriptions of psychopathic characteristics made by Hervey Cleckley, which gave impetus for the PCL and PCL-R assessment of psychopathy devel-oped by Robert D. Hare. The etiology of psychopathy has not been resolved yet. It is thought that psychopathy develops in the interaction of an in-herited vulnerability and of early environmental factors. The results of treatment approaches have been poor. However, there is some evidence that positive treatment outcomes among adolescents with psychopathic fea-tures are not that impossible.

 

Keywords: psychopathy, conceptualization of psychopathy, assessment of psychopathy, treatment outcomes of psychopathy.

 

Laura Auvinen-Lintunen, M.A. (psych.), psychotherapist, Department of Psychiatry, P.O. Box 590, FIN-00029 HUS, University of Helsinki, Finland