I never really met a psychopath myself but I always wonder if they are really that dangerous as portraied in movies and TV-shows.
If not can you please explain me why in simple words as I don’t understand much about this topic?
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First – psychopathy is not a diagnosable condition as it were, but more a description of personality traits. You don’t really diagnose someone as a “psychopath” from a mental health perspective, but you do talk in terms of traits. Certainly the broad model of psychopathy include a level of disinhibition (poor impulse control) and a lack of empathy (failure to recognise or understand the emotions of other), and with that lack of empathy/close attachments comes a higher tendency to be “mean.” Being charming, manipulative, target-focused, intent on fulfilling own needs and desires, and a disregard for the impact on others, tends to make a “psychopath.”
Are they dangerous? Well, for a given value of “danger.” Certainly someone with the traits and “symptoms” of being a psychopath means they are more likely to be psychologically, emotionally and socially harmful to others, and yes physically harmful. But it will be a person-by-person basis, and how those traits are actually manifested. Again the difficultly is that there is no consensus as to what a “psychopath” actually is – neither the International Classification of Diseases or the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (ICD and DSM respectively) recognise a distinct disease by that name.
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