Abstract
Psychopathy, also known diagnostically as sociopathy and antisocial or dyssocial personality disorder, can be described as a chronic constellation of callous, immoral, manipulative, aggressive, or violent personality traits and behaviors. While antisocial tendencies have historically been extensively studied through various lenses, exceedingly little has been written regarding psychopathy from the perspective of existential psychology and psychotherapy (see Diamond SA, Anger, madness, and the daimonic: the psychological genesis of violence, evil, and creativity. Foreword by Rollo May. State University of New York Press, 1996; Diamond SA, J Appl Psychoanal Stud 5:21–45, 2003; Diamond SA, Violence as secular evil: forensic evaluation and treatment of violent offenders from the viewpoint of existential depth psychology. In: Mason T (ed) Forensic psychiatry: influences of evil, Humana Press, pp 179–206, 2006). Thus, this chapter explores the phenomenon of psychopathy from the frame of reference of contemporary existential therapy and seeks to shed light on how the existentially inclined forensic clinician evaluates, conceptualizes, and conducts treatment with psychopathic or antisocial patients. It provides brief definitions and descriptions of both psychopathy and existential therapy, examines the existential roots of the frustration, anger, rage, resentment, hostility, and hatred that can lead to psychopathic cruelty, malevolence, depravity, and destructiveness, and considers how the existential approach to psychopathy differs fundamentally from most mainstream therapies today. Further, this exploration delves deeply into psychopathy not only from the standpoint of existential psychotherapies in general (see, for example, Cooper M, Existential therapies, 2nd edn. SAGE. (Original work published 2003), 2016), but from that of a specific form of existential therapy the author refers to as “existential depth psychology” (Diamond SA, Anger, madness, and the daimonic: the psychological genesis of violence, evil, and creativity. Foreword by Rollo May. State University of New York Press, 1996). Drawing and building upon the existential psychoanalysis of Rollo May and the author’s own more than four decades of professional experience as a clinical and forensic psychologist and practicing psychotherapist (see Diamond SA, Anger, madness, and the daimonic: the psychological genesis of violence, evil, and creativity. Foreword by Rollo May. State University of New York Press, 1996; Diamond SA, Existential Analysis, 10, 27–41, 1999; Diamond SA, J Appl Psychoanal Stud 5:21–45, 2003; Diamond SA, Violence as secular evil: forensic evaluation and treatment of violent offenders from the viewpoint of existential depth psychology. In: Mason T (ed) Forensic psychiatry: influences of evil, Humana Press, pp 179–206, 2006; Existential therapy: confronting life’s ultimate concerns. In Tinsley H, Lease S, Giffin Wiersma N (eds) Contemporary theory and practice in counseling and psychotherapy. SAGE, pp 323–352, 2016; Diamond SA, J Humanist Psychol, 2018), existential depth psychology synthesizes, integrates and reconciles the “depth psychology” of Freud, Adler, Rank, and particularly, Carl Jung’s analytical psychology, with existential analysis or existential therapy (Diamond SA, J Humanist Psychol, 2018, online).
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Diamond, S.A. (2022). Existential Perspectives of Psychopathy. In: Vitale, J.E. (eds) The Complexity of Psychopathy. Dangerous Behavior in Clinical and Forensic Psychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83156-1_16
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