Psychopaths are People Too - A growing empathy for empathy disorders

Moral development involves increasing the categories of people who are inside one’s circle of compassion.

At the green postmodern stage, we include people who have been marginalized because of race, looks or sexual identities, as well as folks with mental and emotional conditions that deviate from behavioral norms (which are themselves questioned).

One of the most challenging frontiers in the mainstreaming of abnormal behavior is the “anti-social personality disorder,” which includes psychopathy and sociopathy. These conditions range from people who lack empathy and capacity for guilt, to people who lie and bully, to violent criminals.

In this episode, I look at two examples of our culture’s reconsideration of people who exhibit this spectrum of traits:

1. The author of last Sunday’s New York Times’ Modern Love column, “He Married a Sociopath: Me”, who describes her journey from a sociopathy diagnosis in her early twenties to a functional life today as a wife, mother and doctor of psychology (specializing in anti-social personality disorders).
2. A certain resident of the White House.

Hope you enjoy!