4 ms·
People don't like it because medical terminology tends to morph in the public dictionary as a caricature of the original meaning. A psychopath doesn't mean an e
by slver 6y ago
People don't like it because medical terminology tends to morph in the public dictionary as a caricature of the original meaning. A psychopath doesn't mean an evil person with delusions who committed significant crimes.
We have some evidence psychopaths handle large scale organizations better, because empathy has evolved for close relationships with small number of people. Doesn't mean they're cruel, rather they think differently about it.
Also psychopathy is both dynamic (can change during the course of a lifetime) and a spectrum (non-binary). In general if we'll be open and non-discriminating towards our racial and so on features, we need to also allow for various thinking models, and address problems only directly when they occur.
- klyrs 6y agoIndeed, the word "psychopath" itself has fallen out of favor for the reasons you've listed
- slver 6y agoThe semantic treadmill is tiring. We constantly need to invent new words for the same concepts. And the most damaging moment in this transition is when original connotations get coupled with later meanings. I.e. "psychopaths do not use empathy" gets equated with "psychopath bad and dangerous". It's a bit like the argument that if you're not religious, you're amoral, as you have no emotional reason (fear & shame of God) to be moral. Which is obviously not the case.
- ClumsyPilot 6y ago"psychopaths handle large scale organizations better" I would argue that this just proves how messed up are our large scale organisations
- slver 6y agoOnly if you believe psychopathy is being "messed up" which, as I said, in strictly medical sense, is not that clear. Remember homosexuality was also classified as a mental illness until relatively recently. What if it turns out modern society need psychopaths to operate properly? I know, an odd notion given the popular meaning of "psychopath", but once again... the popular meaning is kind of arbitrary and self-defeating.