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Psychopathy and Suicide: A Reexamination of Cleckley’s Criterion

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Suicide Risk Assessment and Prevention

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Abstract

Psychopathy is among the most intriguing syndromes of personality pathology, perhaps because of the harm psychopaths cause to other people and society more generally. Psychopathy is characterized by an absence of fear and other aversive emotional experience combined with a callous, instrumental way of thinking about and interacting with other people. Another hallmark of psychopathy in its original clinical description is the absence of completed suicide. This is consistent with a thought about the primary reasons for suicide being the avoidance of emotional pain (which psychopaths do not experience) and the lack of connection to/being a burden on others (neither of which psychopaths seem to mind). However, recent research on the association between psychopathy and suicidality has conflicted with this. Part of this conflict may have to do with clarifications in the conceptualization of psychopathy, which increasingly emphasizes the impulse control components of the syndrome in addition to the affective and interpersonal components. In this chapter, we will review the respective theoretical literatures on psychopathy and suicide, evaluate research on the association between psychopathy and suicide, and propose a new framework for understanding suicidality in the context of psychopathy. We will also suggest implications for future research and clinical intervention with psychopaths at risk for suicide.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Palo Alto University, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    Amber M. Stewart, Ryanne M. Dehart & Matthew M. Yalch

Authors
  1. Amber M. Stewart
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  2. Ryanne M. Dehart
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  3. Matthew M. Yalch
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Correspondence to Amber M. Stewart .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosciences, Sapienza University of Rome, ROMA, Roma, Italy

    Maurizio Pompili

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Stewart, A.M., Dehart, R.M., Yalch, M.M. (2021). Psychopathy and Suicide: A Reexamination of Cleckley’s Criterion. In: Pompili, M. (eds) Suicide Risk Assessment and Prevention. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41319-4_94-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41319-4_94-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-41319-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-41319-4

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