The Ten Subtypes Of Psychopathy

This should be fun...

Ooo can you feel it in the air? It’s debunking time. I have a few articles that I would like to go through, but we will start with one I was sent over on Quora. This article:

The 10 types of psychopaths, according to Kurt Schneider

is what we will be going through today. now, we aren’t going to go too hard on Kurt here, because Jurt died in 1967, so we are dealing with 1967 knowledge, not current knowledge. Instead, we will enjoy but also be bemused by the article’s subtitle:

The types of psychopaths described by Kurt Schneider are classics in criminology. His description was very accurate and evidence-based.

The man died in 1967. What on earth are we still relying on from 1967 when it comes to neurology? I don’t know, but I imagine not a great deal. You will see quickly that the article and the so-called subtypes are laughable at best, but the author wants to pretend that this is relevant to today’s information, so let’s do this. Also, the article is originally in Portuguese. I don’t know what is going on in Portugal, but come on people, if the dude died over fifty years ago, it's time to look at updated information.

Kurt Schneider was a German doctor, psychiatrist and philosopher who pioneered the classification of types of psychopaths. He is considered the main representative of the Heidelberg School, along with Karl Jaspers.  His work left an important mark on the history of psychopathology

Let’s be frank, the dude was an expert in schizophrenia. I hope he was better trained in that area, because his work on psychopathy is not a good indicator for well… much. He, “pioneered the classification of types of psychopaths”, obviously that didn’t have any staying power, and the fact that these subtypes are not even spoken about now should have been an indicator that perhaps they are a bit outdated. Anyway, moving on.

The Heidelberg School was characterized by an approach to mental disorder that emphasized biological factors. In the members of this current, there was a strong influence of Emil Kraepelin, who made an effort to classify disorders from the point of view of its manifestations, and not of its causes.

Kurt Schneider's classification of the types of psychopaths had a great influence on the later developments of psychiatry. It is based on the idea that a psychopath is someone who ambiguously deviates from normative behavior. From this point of view, there are ten types which are as follows.

…That is not how you do things scientifically. People’s behavior can be very similar in appearance, but the reasoning behind the behavior is where the money is. If you don’t know the cause, you are blind to the treatment. This is not groundbreaking to figure out, it’s logical. Don’t make me whip out the *fever analogy, article. Because I’ll do it…

All right, this next bit doesn’t seem to have much to do with the actual article. It’s a quote from some dude I am unfamiliar with, but it’s pretty funny, so we are including it:

“The lack of empathy suffered by the psychopath prevents him from feeling pleasure when observing happiness in others. The pleasure of others only causes envy and greed”.
-Vicente Garrido Genovés-

Umm…no. Not even a little. Psychopaths don’t care about the pleasure or pain of others. We would first have to think of them, and then that would have to matter to us. Both are low on the priority list. Actually, no, the first part is low on the priority list, the second will only ever be an intentional action. None of us are wired to care about someone’s emotional state. It is a nonfactor to us. Back to the article of doom.

Ooo… number one:

The main types of psychopaths

1. Hyperthymic

The first type of psychopath is hyperthymic, who is characterized by having a happy, active and impulsive mood. Schneider said that this type of person is the “light-blooded man’s sanguine temperament.” He defines them as friendly and charlatans,prone to misdemeanors such as insults , falsehoods, frauds and petty transgressions.

No. Psychopaths might act friendly and approachable when masked, but there is no part of us that is naturally “hyperthymic”. I had never even heard the word before, so I looked it up.

Hyperthymia is a constant state of mild mania, meaning you have a high-energy, enthusiastic, and overactive personality. Hyperthymia is a long lasting state of being that could be considered a personality type.

That has nothing to do with psychopathy. Number one is silly, but not really here nor there on the harmful spectrum. Some psychopaths are frauds and tell lies, sure, but that’s a choice, not hardwiring. They aren’t that way because they are a psychopath, but it probably makes the choice easier to make. No empathy and all that.

2. Depressive

2. Depressive

It is one of the types of psychopaths with a dark spirit, although it is not always easy to recognize this characteristic in them, as they tend to hide what they feel. In some, melancholy prevails, while in others, bad mood or paranoia. Both this type and the previous one are prone to alcoholism. The paranoid depressive can become very insensitive.

Nope. Not even a little. Psychopaths are immune to depression. We are starting to see why this sort of categorization is overinclusive and nonsensical. We are also immune to addiction and drinking and drugs do not provide the high or the escape that it does for normally wired people. This is why neuroscience is a better measurement of psychopathy than someone postulating nonsense.

Next type… this is getting fun.

3. Insecure

Within this group, there are two types of psychopaths: sensitive and anankastic. The former are very impressionable, but have difficulty expressing their emotions.

Anankastics transform their insecurities into obsessions, which become very rigid and inflexible. Although these types of personalities are “strange” and sometimes “suspicious,” they rarely commit a crime.

All right, this one is just sad. No psychopath is sensitive, and as for anankastic:

of, relating to, or arising from compulsion especially in an obsessive or compulsive neurosis

Psychopaths cannot be insecure. That is one of the fundamental facts regarding how we are wired. We also aren’t inflexible. One of the things that psychopaths lean towards is, “Let’s try that because it looks like fun”. If a person is inflexible, they aren’t going to be like that.

Psychopaths rate at zero on the neuroticism scale. We also cannot be obsessed with anything, and a strange personality is simply that. Lots of people are strange. It doesn’t mean that they are psychopathic, and if they have any of the things listed in this subtype group, that person is certainly not a psychopath.

4. Fanatic

In this case, there is a set of overestimated ideas that are experienced with great emotional intensity. There are passive fanatics and fighting fans.

In general, this typology occurs in mature men or women. They may commit minor crimes, depending on their convictions, but generally they only carry out acts that disrupt social life.

Oh good lord… seriously? How is this article written in this age? How is a person so out of touch with what psychopathy is that they are bringing up this outdated work and putting it out there like it should be read by people still? I mean, sure, if you are looking to see how wrong people used to have things, I could get that, but the notion that this guy had scientific methodology is silly.

Do I need to go through this one? All right, for the newcomers I will, but for those of you who have been here a while, you can skip to number five. Psychopaths have NO emotional intensity It’s a none thing in psychopathy. No emotion for a psychopath is going to be intense. If it shows up at all, that is the rarity. We lack some emotions and the rest are very muted in volume. I don’t know what is meant by:

There are passive fanatics and fighting fans.

But psychopaths like stuff. That’s the extent of it. We don’t have the ability to feel deeply enough to be a “fan” of anything. We like it, or we don’t like it. Sometimes we don’t care about something, but there is no emotional investment in any of these things.

5. Vain in search of recognition

The distinguishing characteristic of this type of psychopath is vanity. They need to appear more than they are, both to themselves and to others. They deliberately tell lies and believe them.

They falsify their emotions and therefore they are unable to establish intimate bonds and do not know how to love. There are eccentrics (they attract attention with unusual acts), braggarts (they boast) and pseudologists (they organize structured fantasies to deceive others).

Nooo, that’s narcissism, not psychopathy. It may be other personality adaptations as well, but this has nothing to do with psychopathy. Psychopaths don’t care what other people think. It can be a problem, and I mean a serious problem, because people in general care what others think of them. That doesn’t fire for us, and due to that, we can make mistakes on what is socially expected. While we don’t care what other people think, we have to operate in society as a whole, and that society is constructed by neurotypicals. Standing out or causing ourselves trouble would be counterintuitive to utilizing society for a good life, which overall is what we want. How a “good life” is defined, depends on the individual, psychopaths included.

6. Labile

This is one of the types of psychopaths that can be confused with depressives. However, in this case, the person goes through very intense episodes of sadness or bad mood, like storms, but which then pass almost unexpectedly. They are often addicted and may commit emotional or occasional crimes. It is typical of the very young or the very old.

Oh no… *head on desk* no…not even a little bit.

Psychopaths are immune to depression and cannot feel sadness. What this paragraph describes is an emo teenager. Despite what many of them would like to cosplay, emo teenagers are definitely not psychopaths. It seems to be their lifelong dream, as they message me all the time trying to get me to tell them that they are indeed psychopathic, but they are not.

Again, psychopaths cannot be addicted to anything and I have no idea what an “emotional crime” is. I don’t even know what to do with that one.

When a psychopath gets old, they do not suddenly have the ability to feel things that our brain lack the wiring for. That’s not how the real world works.

Next type.

7. Explosive

Explosive psychopaths have a violent mood, which is triggered even by insignificant reasons. In most cases, it corresponds to women under 50 years of age.

They tend to get involved in crimes of various types: they disrespect, disobey and are harmful to their surroundings. They are childish personalities, undeveloped and with little self-control.

Nope. Psychopaths are ‘cold’ emotionally. That means that there is no emotional response to really… anything. Nothing that happens in our lives causes emotional outbursts. We can pretend, if the situation calls for it, but that’s all it will be, pretend. This paragraph seems to be describing an antisocial person, perhaps a sociopath who is antisocial, but just someone with ASPD in general. Not a psychopath.

8. Soulless

…Are they serious? Yes? All right, let’s see what a “soulless psychopath is”. Just so you guys know, I write this as I read it. I am reacting to what I am reading paragraph by paragraph, so you’re reading this the same way I did.

Its characteristic feature is a low development of consciousness. They tend to be taciturn, cold and antisocial.

They commit all types of crimes and misdemeanors, many of which can include brutality. However, many of them are able to live their unscrupulousness without formally violating the law.

That’s… just a criminal. Could this describe an antisocial psychopath? Sure, but it could describe anyone who commits a terrible deed. Does this description mean that they are under the impression that all the other subtypes have empathy and therefore souls? There is no argument here that details why this subtype is considered to have no soul, but hyperbolic reigns supreme it seems.

Moving on. Almost to the end.

9. Abulic

I had to look it up as well. I’ll save you the trouble:

a·bu·li·a

/əˈbo͞olyə/

noun PSYCHIATRY

an absence of willpower or an inability to act decisively, as a symptom of mental illness.

I haven’t even read the description of this type yet, but I can already say no. Does not apply.

They are extremely influential people, permeable to all types of stimuli. They are affable, reasonable, but fickle and malleable. This personality type is very often associated with theft, embezzlement, fraud and prostitution. They may commit crimes only due to pressure from their group or environment. Normally, it corresponds to young people.

Oh my, this one is funny. Psychopaths are not malleable at all. Reasonable, sure, we are very logical, but a lot of this definition seems to contradict itself. Reason does not go with malleability in my experience. If a person is reasonable, they make their decisions based on logic and said reason, not peer pressure. Psychopaths, again, don’t care what people think of them. We are not swayed by others, nor are we convinced into things. We are the ones that do the convincing, at times to other people’s detriment.

10. Asthenic

Again, I looked for you. I figured it had to do with aesthetics, and go figure, I was totally off the mark:

as·the·ni·a

/asˈTHēnēə/

noun MEDICINE

noun: asthenia

abnormal physical weakness or lack of energy.

"the asthenia of chronic respiratory disease"

That also has nothing to do with psychopathy. It has to do with a person having a disease or physical problem. Why would the effects of a physical issue be considered psychopathic? Even for the time period, this one is weird. Let’s see what they say, shall we?

There are bodily and psychic asthenics. Both maintain a vigilant observation of themselves, the first focused on the body and the second on the mind. In both cases, there is a feeling of strangeness before you. They often begin to suffer from imaginary illnesses due to their hypervigilance. They are rarely involved in crimes and are usually fairly frequent hospital patients.

I don’t know what this relates to, but it is not psychopathy. I am not a psychologist, but I am certain that patients like this exist, and I am also certain that they qualify for a psychological diagnosis. However, no professional with brain cells that are holding hands and have the ability to read would ever think, “You know, I think this person is a psychopath.”

The article concludes with:

Kurt Schneider's classification of types of psychopaths is currently considered outdated. However, several of his approaches served as the basis for later developments, which did not negate this categorization, but adjusted it.

Nope. None of this is used anymore. I don’t know what timeline you are living in, but no one thinks any of this has to do with psychopathy, or if they do and they are in the field of neurology or psychology, they should have their license stripped immediately. None of this is helpful to understand… well… anything. They are overly broad, nonsensical categorizations that throw so much in that they are just describing people. The only thing that they got correct in terms of psychopathy would be this partial sentence:

low development of consciousness

Psychopaths do have a low development of consciousness. It takes time to develop cognitive empathy, it takes work as well. Not all psychopaths are going to bother. It’s to their detriment, but you do you boo boo.

If you thought this article was bad, wait until the next one. I will tease you with the title:

WHAT IS AN EMOTIONAL PSYCHOPATH, AND HOW CAN YOU AVOID THEM

Yeah…

*The fever analogy:

Can you imagine going to a doctor and having them say to you;

“Well, you have a fever. Have a nice day!” and then promptly leaving the room with no further follow up questions at all?

Not;

“Have you any other things going on?”

or

“How long have you been feeling poorly?”

They just sent you on your merry way with a temp of 105°, and just don’t care why at all. That would be a pretty sh*tty doctor and you probably wouldn’t go back to them. That’s what ASPD is as a diagnosis. It’s;

“Well you behave this way, and we call that way ASPD… have a nice day.”

Actually… it’s worse than that. It’s;

“You behave this way, and we call that way ASPD. However, we also oh so helpfully took two other diagnoses, psychopathy and sociopathy, and shoved them right along with the ASPD thing. Now, you have ASPD, but you might or might not be a psychopath or a sociopath, and while a psychopath or a sociopath can frequently both exist without ASPD, and most ASPD will have nothing to do with psychopathy or sociopathy, we just thought it looked super cool all together like that, and it make our jobs easier. Sure, it makes your life way more confusing, mucks up research into all three, and generally makes a mess, but you know… we have car notes to pay off, and want to get home to our families early today, so voilà! APSD.”

“Oh, and by the way, even though this is obviously a crap diagnosis, and we really can’t defend it when it comes down to it being challenged by the slightest scrutiny, we are going to oh so helpfully discredit people that point that out, and say that they are wrong… until we concede a little bit and add in ‘with psychopathic features’, even though that really isn’t a very helpful qualifier, and we are making our mess bigger.”

“But don’t forget, we did wish you a nice day, so at least we’re sort of nice about it unlike Hare that will sue you for questioning him and his precious PCL system.”

That whole bit seems like a mess, right? Go figure, and that’s because it is.