A theory–based treatment model for psychopathy

The most salient characteristic of the psychopath is the propen.sitv to engage in maladapti,,e and inappropriate behavior of all sorts, including antisocial and criminal actions. Consequen&', there is " considerable interest--particularly, in the field of criminology--in determining what sorts of treatment intmwentions are like & to be effi, etive in modijS.'ing the problematie behavioral tendencies of this d![ficult population. We suggest that interventions ate most likely to meet with success if lh~, are based on an accurate understand-ing of the cog~zitive deficits that underlie paTchopaths ' tendency to engage in maladaptive and iUegal acts. Herein, we describe a theo-retical fiamework for co~ceptualizing psychopaths ' information processi,zg deficits (in which the concepts of automatic inJbrmation processing and implicit cognition play central,vies), then diseuss implications of this formulation for the design and implementation o [ treatment inte~wentions. A THOUGH PSYCHOPATHS superficially appear to be reasonable--even charming--individuals, closer examination typically reveals that they are prone to ex-ceeding poor behavioral judgment. Specifically, psycho-paths ' most conspicuous characteristic s their propensity to engage in maladaptive and inappropriate behavior of all sorts, including antisocial and criminal actions (e.g., Cleckley, 1976: Grant, 1977). Indeed, although not all psychopaths are criminals (e.g., Cleckle> 1976), much of the current interest in psychopathy is due to its associa-tion with violations of legal standards of behavior. For example, psychopaths are significantly more likely than nonpsychopaths to commit serious criminal acts (Hare, 1996), and they reoffend following release at two to five times the rates of their nonpsychopathic counterpart