Psychopathic personality as a genetical concept

In recent discussions of the subject by Curran and Mallinson (1) and by Kinberg (2), emphasis has very properly been laid on the inextricable confusion that at present prevails in the use of the term “Psychopathic Personality.” Very many attempts have been made, for instance by Henderson, Cleckley, Cheney, Levine, Bullard and others (1), to characterize a syndrome. The characteristics of the syndrome have been seen in the make-up of the personality and its social relationships. But every authority disagrees with every other, and if there is any feature in common in all the definitions that have been provided, it is a lasting, but otherwise unspecified, incapacity to build up satisfactory social relationships. The confusion has gone so far that Kinberg has suggested that the term should be dropped altogether, particularly as it promotes a fatalistic attitude in the clinician and does not dispose to enthusiasm in therapy.