The Psychopath: Emotion and the Brain

211 Pages·2005·2.02 MB·English

by  James Blair

THE
PSYCHOPATH
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“The psychopath always fascinates, and this new book rises to the challenge of
its subject. The book exhaustively covers everything known about psychopathy
to date. It also brings an exciting new theory, exploring the neuro-biological
underpinnings of psychopaths’ broken emotions. The Psychopath will be an en-
grossing read for any clinician, scientist or student who wants to understand
that mysterious individual, the criminal psychopath.”
Professor Terrie Moffitt, Institute of Psychiatry, London
“A gem of a contribution to the field of psychopathy, this wonderful resource
provides a highly coherent and integrative review of developments in cognitive
and affective neuroscience and their implications for understanding the nature
of psychopathy. The authors are passionate about their research and this book
presents their personal assessment of the field in a remarkably powerful, read-
able, and detailed manner. The book is an extraordinary accomplishment and a
boon for the field.”
Professor Joseph Newman, Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin
“This timely book represents an exciting new synthesis which has taken into
account emerging data on the biology of psychopathy, including its neuro-
cognitive basis. The authors lucidly describe discoveries about emotional process-
ing in psychopaths and new thinking about its psychiatric nosology. They have
performed a notable service in providing this highly readable survey, which
summarises objectively the strengths and weaknesses of various theoretical ac-
counts, including their own, and the implications for forensic, adult and child
psychiatry.”
Trevor Robbins, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Cambridge
“A comprehensive summary of recent research on the cognitive, emotional, and
neurological correlates to psychopathy. One of the few resources to consider
the manifestations of psychopathy throughout the lifespan.”
Professor Paul J. Frick, Director, Applied Developmental Psychology Program,
University of New Orleans
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THE
PSYCHOPATH
EMOTION AND THE BRAIN
James Blair, Derek Mitchell,
and Karina Blair
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© 2005 by James Blair, Derek Mitchell, and Karina Blair
BLACKWELL PUBLISHING
350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK
550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia
The right of James Blair, Derek Mitchell, and Karina Blair to be identified as the
Authors of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs,
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright,
Designs, and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher.
First published 2005 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
1 2005
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Blair, James, MD.
The psychopath : emotion and the brain / James Blair, Derek Mitchell,
and Karina Blair.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN–13: 978–0–631–23335–0 (hard cover : alk. paper)
ISBN–10: 0–631–23335–0 (hard cover : alk. paper)
ISBN–13: 978–0–631–23336–7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN–10: 0–631–23336–9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Antisocial personality disorders. 2. Psychopaths. I. Mitchell,
Derek Robert. II. Blair, Karina. III. Title.
RC555.B56 2005
616.85′82—dc22
2005002631
A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
Set in 10/12.5pt Dante
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Printed and bound in Great Britain
by TJ International, Padstow, Cornwall
The publisher’s policy is to use permanent paper from mills that operate a sustainable
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text paper and cover board used have met acceptable environmental accreditation
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For further information on
Blackwell Publishing, visit our website:
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CONTENTS
List of figures and tables vi
Acknowledgements viii
1 What Is Psychopathy? 1
2 The Background Facts 18
3 What Is the Ultimate Cause of Psychopathy? 28
4 The Psychopathic Individual: The Functional Impairment 47
5 Cognitive Accounts of Psychopathy 67
6 Neural Accounts of Psychopathy 81
7 A Neurocognitive Account of Reactive Aggression 96
8 A Neurocognitive Account of Psychopathy 110
9 Conundrums and Conclusions 141
References 156
Subject index 187
Author index 196
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FIGURES AND TABLES
Figures
2.1 Percentage of total arrests as a function of age (figures taken 22
from Crime in the United States, Federal Bureau of Investigation
and Department of Justice online report, 2003).
3.1 A schematic illustration of the architecture mediating reactive 31
aggression.
4.1 The strongest of the distress cue stimuli used by Blair et al. 54
(1997).
4.2 In the Blair et al. (2002) study, participants were presented with 55
a facial stimulus displaying a neutral expression.
5.1 A simplified representation of the Desimone and Duncan (1995) 70
model.
5.2 The behavioral inhibition system postulated by Gray (1982). 74
5.3 The violence inhibition mechanism postulated by Blair (1995). 77
6.1 (a) Two main subdivisions of the frontal lobes: dorsolateral 85
prefrontal cortex and orbital frontal cortex. (b) The third
subdivision of the frontal lobes, medial frontal cortex, consisting
of anterior regions of the cingulate as well as the cortex
immediately surrounding the cingulate.
6.2 Differential activations for CS 1 and CS 2 in the orbital frontal 91
cortex for (a) the healthy comparison individuals, (b) patients
with social phobia, and (c) individuals with psychopathy (p < 0.01
uncorrected for visualization). From Veit et al. (2002).
7.1 Neural and neurotransmitter systems involved in the basic 97
response to threat.
7.2 The proposed architecture mediating response reversal and 100
social response reversal.
7.3 A simplified causal model of the development of reactive 108
aggression.
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Figures and tables vii
8.1 A causal model of the development of psychopathy. 111
8.2 A coronal slice showing the location of the amygdala within 112
the brain.
8.3 The integrated emotion systems model. 114
8.4 A subset of components of the integrated emotion systems (IES) 118
model involved in the emotional modulation of attention.
8.5 The violence inhibition mechanism position embedded within 125
the IES.
8.6 Data from the differential reward/punishment task. 130
9.1 The task context module model of Cohen et al. (2000). 144
9.2 A causal model of the development of psychopathy and its 147
potential relationship with ADHD.
9.3 A causal model of the development of ADHD representing 148
the hypothesized explanation for the increased risk of reactive
aggression that may be seen in some patients with this disorder.
Tables
1.1 Two-factor model of psychopathy (Harpur et al., 1989) 9
1.2 Three-factor model of psychopathy (Cooke and Michie, 2001) 10
1.3 Three-factor structure of the APSD 11
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors and publishers gratefully acknowledge the following for permission
to reproduce copyright material:
Table 1.1: from T. J. Harpur, R. D. Hare, and A. R. Hakstian (1989), Two-factor
conceptualization of psychopathy: Construct validity and assessment implica-
tions, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1, 6–17. Copyright © 1989
American Psychological Association.
Table 1.2: from D. J. Cooke and C. Michie (2001), Refining the construct of
psychopathy: Towards a hierarchical model, Psychological Assessment, 13, 171–88.
Copyright © 2001 American Psychological Association.
Figure 4.1: from R. J. R. Blair, L. Jones, F. Clark, and M. Smith (1997), The
psychopathic individual: A lack of responsiveness to distress cues? Psychophysiology,
34, 192–8. With permission from Blackwell Publishing.
Figure 4.2: from R. J. R. Blair, D. G. V. Mitchell, R. A. Richell, S. Kelly,
A. Leonard, C. Newman, and S. K. Scott (2002), Turning a deaf ear to fear:
Impaired recognition of vocal affect in psychopathic individuals, Journal of
Abnormal Psychology, 111(4), 682–6. Copyright © 2002 American Psychological
Association.
Figure 6.2: reprinted from Neuroscience Letters, 328(3), Veit, R., Flor, H., Erb, M.,
Hermann, C., Lotze, M., Grodd, W., & Birbaumer, N., Brain circuits involved
in emotional learning in antisocial behavior and social phobia in humans, 233–6.
Copyright © 2002, with permission from Elsevier.
Figure 9.1: figure 1 in Jonathan D. Cohen, Matthew Botvinick, and Cameron S.
Carter, Anterior cingulated prefrontal cortex: who’s in control?, Nature Neuro-
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Acknowledgements ix
science, 3(5), May 2000, 421–3. Copyright © 2000 Nature Publishing Group.
Reprinted by permission of the authors and Nature Publishing Group.
The publishers apologize for any errors or omissions in the above list and would
be grateful to be notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in the
next edition or reprint of this book.
The views expressed in this book do not necessarily represent the views of
National Institutes of Health of the United States.
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