A Sociological Theory of Psychopathy

The concept of psychopathy has had a long development in psychopathology. Earliest usage centered around such terms as "moral imbecility"; more recently, the designation "psychopathic personality" has been favored. There has been much argument about the validity of the concept "psychopathy" but relative agreement about the behavior which it specifies. This behavior may be called "asocial." It is expedient to use a sociological approach in its analysis. The sociological theory of role-playing provides a synthesis of the known facts of psychopathy, in addition to suggesting deductive hypotheses which may be submitted to empirical test.