TY  - JOUR
PY  - 1996//
TI  - Without conscience or without active conscience? The etiology of psychopathy revisited
JO  - Aggression and violent behavior
A1  - Porter, S.
SP  - 179
EP  - 189
VL  - 1
IS  - 2
N2  - Despite an impressive body of research spanning seven decades, the causes of psychopathy and psychopathic violence remain enigmatic for mental health professionals and society as a whole. A keystone of the disorder is the absence of normal human emotional experience. In recent years, a predominant view has been that a genetic predisposition is essential to its formation while environmental factors determine the course of the disorder. The present paper proposes an alternate, less common pathway to psychopathy in which environmental factors are critical ("secondary psychopathy"). Clinical and empirical evidence is reviewed supporting the hypothesis that negative childhood experiences can profoundly affect emotional functioning in adulthood. Specifically, certain individuals who are severely traumatized or disillusioned by loved ones might over time learn to "turn off" their emotions as an effective coping mechanism, later emerging as psychopathic personality disorder. It is argued that, with continued validation of the hypothesis, secondary psychopathy should be considered a distinctive dissociative disorder based on this detachment of emotion and cognition/behavior.<p />
LA  - en
SN  - 1359-1789
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -