Abstract
This chapter introduces psychopathy and the interrelated issues concerning its use, validity, and status, as investigated in the other chapters in the collection. Psychopathy is a condition that is typically characterised as a personality disorder with low affectivity, a manipulative and deceptive interpersonal style, and a persistent pattern of antisocial and even criminal behaviour. Measures of psychopathy have been extensively applied in different countries, in forensic and other contexts, to support treatment, management, prediction of violent recidivism, general evaluation of risk and criminal accountability. These uses, that can have a serious impact on the lives of persons, raise different questions concerning the scientific robustness of these measures and the disorder status of psychopathy. We highlight the interdisciplinary nature of the investigations needed to address these questions. To delineate the general framework guiding the collection, we also delineate briefly how the interaction between the scientific study of psychopathy and philosophical insights, coming from philosophy of science and philosophy of psychiatry, can contribute to answering these questions.
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Malatesti, L., McMillan, J., Šustar, P. (2022). Introduction to the Volume. In: Malatesti, L., McMillan, J., Šustar, P. (eds) Psychopathy. History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences, vol 27. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82454-9_1
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