Psychopathy and Robert Hare's Without Conscience: A Review

Introduction

Most people would be both terrified and perhaps intrigued by the word psychopath, visualizing images of cold-blooded and remorseless murderers or offenders as depicted in television series or films. However, Dr. Robert D. Hare — arguably the most well-known researcher of psychopathy — describes such people as those who essentially suffer from a personality disorder but are very aware of the results of their actions and understand the difference between right and wrong (Hare, 2011). Such individuals are often hardly distinguishable in everyday life and seem just like anyone else in society until their cruel side emerges.

Hare discusses these aspects of dual consciousness, cruelty, and the violence of psychopaths — who act with full knowledge of the consequences — in his book Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Amongst Us. The book describes, through real-life examples of patients and offenders that Hare met and interviewed during his professional career, the traits and characteristics of psychopaths. Many consider this book to be a self-help guide that can be used to identify psychopathic behavior in others (Kiehl, n.d.).

The book is of value to general readers and would help verify suspicions about whether people in their lives display psychopathic characteristics, as described by Hare — people who "have no real feelings or conscience" and are "relentless users" (Hare, 2011), always devising tricks to manipulate others. The book also delves into the scientific causes of psychopathic behavior and the ways in which psychopathic behavior can be measured through forensic science (Davies, 2008).

Psychopathic Characteristics

Hare describes the majority of psychopaths as people who may not have committed any crime in the eyes of the law during their entire lives and yet cannot be trusted. There is always a lurking concern about what such people might do once they are identified as psychopaths (LaHaye and LaHaye, 1994). Hare calls such persons "social predators" who mingle in society with outwardly normal behavior, using it to conceal their true nature.

Hare advocates the use of his Psychopathy Checklist to identify and discover true psychopaths within society and among the people around us. He claims this checklist can serve as a tool for predicting the probability that a criminal will reoffend. Hare also contradicts the common notion that the concept of antisocial personality disorder or conduct disorder in children cannot be used to describe psychopaths (Endres, 2004). He instead suggests identifying psychopaths according to the stricter criteria he advocates in his checklist.

Hare describes typical psychopaths as absolutely self-centered individuals who tend to be impulsive. Such persons have a tendency to lie about many things — even mundane everyday issues — with the sole aim of manipulating other people for personal gain. They often resort to violence to get what they want or, in extreme cases, to derive pleasure from it (Hare, 1999). Hare claims that psychopaths frequently engage in behaviors that amount to law-breaking and land them behind bars. Despite all of these traits, psychopaths are often described as charming and manipulative — a charm they use to dupe people and to impress authorities in order to secure early paroles.

Hare raises a key question at this point: are psychopaths merely calculating, or are they impulsive and acting on instinct? Another critical issue is explaining the absence of conscience among psychopaths. Hare's research has convinced him that psychopaths feel little to no sympathy for the persons they hurt or injure (Ablow, 2003). He raises the further question of whether such people are driven by the absence of any "bad" feeling, or whether being non-sympathetic is itself a personality disorder.

Hare observes that most of the psychopaths he interviewed were not in the habit of breaking the law and had probably never done so during their entire lives. However, such persons never miss an opportunity to bend and twist situations for personal gain. They manipulate those around them so that their broader plans can be achieved. The primary instinct among psychopaths, Hare argues, is a desire to dominate others and have their way.

Hare further claims that such people are to be found throughout society, hiding their true nature behind a veil of charm and apparent simplicity (Davies, 2008). He argues that only a minuscule percentage of psychopaths actually end up behind bars, as most live outwardly normal lives. He contends that such people are more harmful to society than convicted criminals, precisely because they are free to move about and cause harm. The book describes individuals with psychopathic criminal records and histories of violence, but also those who appear thoroughly normal on the surface while concealing psychopathic traits. Hare suggests that such people could manifest their psychopathic characteristics at any moment and yet not be readily identifiable as psychopaths.

Scientific Reasons for Psychopathy

There are several schools of thought regarding the causes of psychopathic behavior. Hare claims that some causes are genetic, while others are non-genetic.

Hare discusses the Arousal Theory, which attributes psychopathic behavior to low levels of autonomic and cortical arousal combined with a high rate of activity compared to non-psychopathic individuals. The theory holds that psychopaths exist in a constant state of under-arousal and therefore seek stimulation. This, according to Hare, explains why psychopaths do not react in the way non-psychopaths do to stimuli that would normally be considered stressful, exciting, or frightening. As a result, psychopaths require greater intensity and variety of stimuli to raise their arousal to a functional level.

The theory assumes that a certain level of arousal is functionally optimal for non-psychopathic individuals when responding to a sensory stimulus. When arousal falls below that optimal level, stimulation-seeking behavior occurs in order to raise it. Since the functionally optimal arousal level in psychopaths is higher than in typical people, they require a greater sensory stimulus to reach that threshold (Brytting, Minogue, and Morino, 2011).

The neurobiological theory of psychopathy suggests that such individuals are biologically different from normal people. Hare appears to partially endorse this theory, which holds that the complex brain structures in psychopaths function differently and that psychopaths do not show appropriate neural differentiation between abstract and concrete stimuli. Studies, according to Hare, suggest a moderate relationship between genes and psychopathic behavior. While fearless dominance and impulsive antisociality are uncorrelated with each other, both were found to be linked genetically to a moderate degree. He also notes that while the development of psychopathic behavior is influenced by genetic factors, environmental influences shape some of the specific traits that psychopaths develop over time (Cohen et al., 2014).

Other studies have linked psychopathic behavior to high levels of testosterone combined with low levels of cortisol and serotonin. Research suggests that this hormonal combination heightens psychopathic behavior. These hormones have been associated with a reduction in fear, increased sensitivity to rewards, and approach-oriented behavior. Some studies referenced by Hare indicate a relationship between testosterone and antisocial or aggressive behavior, while others suggest that testosterone alone does not cause aggression. Thus, there appears to be a lack of conclusive proof that any single factor can be definitively linked to psychopathic behavior, though there is sufficient experimental evidence to suggest a link between biochemicals and psychopathy. Other studies have also examined the ratio between HVA (a dopamine metabolite) and 5-HIAA (a serotonin metabolite) in relation to psychopathic behavior (Glannon, 2008).

Conclusion

Without Conscience by Robert D. Hare is, according to experts in psychopathic behavior, an enriching work that provides detailed insight into the world of psychopaths. Through real-life examples, the author describes the major characteristics of psychopaths as well as the subtler traits and behavioral tendencies that define them. Hare, one of the most respected researchers and investigators of psychopathic psychology, also examines the scientific and environmental factors that influence and shape psychopathic behavior. Recent studies have indicated — though not conclusively — a possible role for genetic and biochemical factors in determining psychopathic behavior, violent tendencies, and other traits in individuals.

Beyond his psychopathy checklist, Hare also discusses the various scales used by forensic science to measure the degree of psychopathic behavior and to assess the likelihood that an individual will reoffend or act violently in the future. He maintains that not all psychopaths are necessarily violent, and that a large number of them conceal their psychopathic traits behind a façade of charm and outwardly normal behavior. In this context, Hare advocates for the use of his psychopathic behavior checklist as a tool to identify and detect individuals with psychopathic disorder. It can also serve as a self-evaluating instrument to assess the risk of violent behavior and the likelihood of reoffending among people suffering from psychopathic disorder.

Works Cited

Ablow, Keith R. Psychopath. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003. Print.

Brytting, Tomas, Richard Minogue, and Veronica Morino. The Anatomy of Fraud and Corruption. Farnham: Ashgate Pub., 2011. Print.

Cohn, Moran D. et al. "Incentive Processing in Persistent Disruptive Behavior and Psychopathic Traits: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study in Adolescents." Biological Psychiatry (2014). Web.

Cooke, David J. "Psychopathic Disturbance in the Scottish Prison Population: The Cross-Cultural Generalisability of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist." Psychology, Crime & Law 2.2 (1995): 101–118. Web.

Craft, Michael. Psychopathic Disorders. Burlington: Elsevier Science, 2013. Print.

Davies, David Stuart. Without Conscience. New York: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Minotaur, 2008. Print.

Edens, John F., Marcus T. Boccaccini, and Darryl W. Johnson. "Inter-Rater Reliability of the PCL-R Total and Factor Scores Among Psychopathic Sex Offenders: Are Personality Features More Prone to Disagreement Than Behavioral Features?" Behavioral Sciences & the Law 28.1 (2010): 106–119. Web.

Endres, Johann. "The Language of the Psychopath: Characteristics of Prisoners' Performance in a Sentence Completion Test." Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health 14.3 (2004): 214–226. Web.

Forsman, Mats et al. "A Longitudinal Twin Study of the Direction of Effects Between Psychopathic Personality and Antisocial Behaviour." Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 51.1 (2009): 39–47. Web.

Glannon, Walter. "Moral Responsibility and the Psychopath." Neuroethics 1.3 (2008): 158–166. Web.

Hare, Robert D. Without Conscience. New York: Guilford Press, 1999. Print.

Hare, Robert. Without Conscience. New York: Guilford Publications, 2011. Print.

Herve, Hugues, and John C. Yuille. The Psychopath. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2007. Print.

Kiehl, Kent A. The Psychopath Whisperer. Print.

LaHaye, Tim F., and Beverly LaHaye. A Nation Without a Conscience. Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 1994. Print.

Malatesti, Luca, and John McMillan. Responsibility and Psychopathy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Print.