Hear the word psychopath and most of us think of violent, dominant men. There are lots of male psychopathic monsters from movies to illustrate this point. Think Alex in A Clockwork Orange, or Patrick Bateman in American Psycho.
But we do have some female examples: Annie Wilkes in Misery, and who could forget Alex Forrest’s bunny-boiling character in Fatal Attraction? These frightening fictional femme fatales stay with us – I’ve heard the term “bunny boiler” used to signify a woman behaving irrationally and violently – but they are unusual. We largely expect psychopaths to be men.
Research indicates there are likely to be fewer female psychopaths than male. This may well be true. However, a compounding factor leading to the underestimation of the true occurrence rate of psychopathy in women could be behavioural differences that cause them to slip under society’s radar. This is important to acknowledge as female psychopaths can be just as dangerous as their male counterparts.
What is psychopathy?
Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterised by a number of abnormal behavioural traits and emotional responses. These include lack of empathy, guilt or remorse, and being manipulative and deceitful. People with psychopathy are often irresponsible and have a disregard for laws or social conventions.
Listen: David Gillespie explains what happens when a psychopath has a child. (Post continues after audio.)
Psychopaths often get away with these behaviours because they can be superficially quite charming. They are true observers of human behaviour, often being able to mimic love, fear, remorse and other emotions well enough to go undetected.
Current thinking suggests psychopaths’ behaviour patterns result from variations in the structure of their brains at birth. A recent study from Harvard University indicated their brains are wired in a way that can lead to violent or dangerous actions.
Researchers used MRI scans to determine if activity and connections between areas of the brain associated with impulsivity and assessing the value of choices differed between those who scored highly for psychopathy and those who didn’t. The scans showed psychopaths make more short-sighted, impulsive decisions based on short-term gain, when compared to non-psychopaths, and that it is the structure of their brains that leads them to make these kinds of poor decisions.
Add this to their lack of empathy and it means if violence or dangerous behaviour will help a psychopath achieve a short-term goal, that is the path they will take. There is also evidence genetics are at least partly responsible for the development of psychopathic traits. In essence, psychopaths are born, not made.
Read more: Psychopaths versus sociopaths – what is the difference?
Case studies
Certain case studies show how women psychopaths present in the real world. “Amy” is a 20-year-old female serving a life sentence for murder. She has been diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder with psychopathic traits.
Top Comments
We would save a lot of taxpayers money down the track if neurologists amd neurosurgeons could work on a cure.