The present research makes an original contribution to knowledge as it is the first piece of research to provide data regarding the prevalence of psychopathy and a mean PCL-R score for a South African offender sample. This is a worthwhile contribution as the overwhelming majority of research on psychopathy has been conducted with Canadian and American offenders and so it is not known whether there are differences in psychopathic features across cultural groups (Hare, 1991). The findings of the present research contribute to the literature surrounding the
comparison of PCL-R ratings across cultures, which has been dominated by studies comparing British and North American offender samples; the present findings indicate that South African male offenders convicted of murder receive higher PCL-R ratings than their British counterparts.
The present research also makes an original contribution to knowledge as it is the first piece of research to compare the lifetime traumatic experiences of British and South African offenders.
This is important in a study which sought to explore a potential relationship between trauma and psychopathy. Although other studies have investigated the traumatic experiences of British offenders (e.g. Sarkar et al., 2005) and South African offenders (e.g. Abrahams & Jewkes, 2005), these studies have focused on childhood abuse (rather than lifetime trauma) and have not been comparative in their approach. Furthermore, the research makes an original contribution to knowledge as it is the first piece of research to explore the dissociative experiences of South African offenders convicted of murder (and hence to compare the dissociative experiences of British and South African offenders). Given that murders are often committed during dissociative episodes (e.g. Lewis, 1998; Tanay, 1969), this is a worthwhile contribution.
The present research makes an original contribution to knowledge as it is the first attempt to explore associations among trauma, dissociation and psychopathy among offenders in a cross-cultural study. Although two other studies to date (Skeem & Poythress, 2004; Poythress et al., 2006) have systematically explored associations among these constructs, both of these studies used samples of offenders in the US who were not selected on the basis of offence type. In addition, both of these previous studies looked at early abuse rather than lifetime trauma. The present research therefore, makes an original contribution to knowledge as it involved offenders outside of the US selected on the basis of offence type (i.e. murder) and explored associations among lifetime trauma, dissociation and psychopathy. In addition, the present research represents the first attempt to explore associations among these constructs in a British offender sample, Furthermore, it represents the first attempt to test the vicarious conditioning and diminished affective responding models using structural equation modelling on a sample of male murderers.
The present research provides fresh insight in a field which has, to date, been dominated by research surrounding abuse and psychopathy. Findings indicate that the diminished affective responding model may only explain the development of psychopathic features among individuals who have experienced high levels of trauma and dissociation. As suggested earlier in this thesis, the present findings suggest that there may be a threshold or a ‘cut-off’ level at which witnessing or experiencing crime-related trauma becomes detrimental for the
psychological health of an individual (i.e. only high levels of crime-related trauma lead to experiences of absorption and subsequently the affective features of psychopathy). These findings have implications for object relations theory. As suggested in chapter two, the psychopath could be seen as someone who relates to part objects and this is why they are perceived as selfish and callous. It is possible therefore, that different subtypes of psychopathy, characterised by different constellations of personality traits, may reflect different degrees of part-object relating depending on the type and/or severity of trauma they have experienced. This idea is in keeping with Kleinian theory (see chapter two for a discussion), which posits that individuals may revert to paranoid-schizoid tendencies such as part object relating when they experience trauma. This might help to explain why secondary psychopaths have supposedly experienced a dissociation of a developing affective nature and conscience, as suggested by Porter (1996). If an individual sees others as part objects rather than as whole beings, it is easier to feel less concern for them.
The psychopathic features of the secondary psychopath may also be explained from the viewpoint of Fairbairn (see chapter two for a discussion). Unlike Freud who believed that individuals are divided at birth, Fairbairn believes that we are whole and undivided at birth, but that trauma results in us becoming divided (Gomez, 1997). He refers to this division as the schizoid position and believes that inner conflict structures the self. Trauma results when the infant feels that an object (e.g. their mother) does not accept their love as love. The only way in which they can cope with this feeling is to separate the traumatic experience and relocate it internally.
Fairbairn saw the schizoid position as the basis for all personality development and claimed that individuals in a schizoid state feel cut-off and unreal as though separated from the world and their own feelings (Gomez, 1997). As noted previously in chapter two, this description of the schizoid person can be likened to descriptions of the dissociative experience of depersonalisation. Because the schizoid person has experienced intolerable relationships with others, they substitute inner relationships which are themselves problematic (Gomez, 1997).
They scorn physical need and emotions and tend to treat others as part objects. As Gomez notes, the schizoid indifference for others led Freud to believe that such individuals could not be treated through psychoanalysis as they were unable to form a useful transference with the analyst. The characteristics of the schizoid person are consistent with certain characteristics associated with psychopathic individuals (e.g. disdain for emotional contact, or indifference or contempt for others), and it is noteworthy that a number of theorists in the present day believe that psychopaths are untreatable psychoanalytically. As mentioned above, the description of the schizoid person can be likened to descriptions of the dissociative experience of
depersonalisation, and it is interesting that Fairbairn himself, as Gomez (1997) notes, drew a parallel between the schizoid state and the state of dissociation. These parallels suggest that it is plausible that object relations theory, particularly Fairbairnian theory, may be invoked in an attempt to explain the phenomenon of secondary psychopathy.
Also relevant to the phenomenon of secondary psychopathy is Winnicott’s object relations theory. As discussed in chapter two, Winnicott sees aggression as a part of relating which becomes distinct from love over time, rather than as a separate instinct like Freud and Klein (Gomez, 1997). Over time, an infant builds an integrated picture of an object as loving and hating, loveable and hateable and begins to take more responsibility for their part in the relationship. However, children who have not experienced stable care find it more difficult to integrate the different aspects of relationships and therefore create a coherent sense of self. A specific failure in a relationship at the stage when the child is able to perceive their own independence leads to a fault in the development of the capacity for concern, which Winnicott refers to as deprivation. Winnicott’s theory can be likened to Porter’s (1996) belief that abuse or abandonment lead to disillusionment and interfere with an individual’s ability to form attachments. Although the secondary psychopath is “born with” the capacity for “empathetic responding” and positive attachments with others, they cope with trauma by dissociating their emotions (Porter, 1996). Winnicott’s theory provides another example of how object relations theory may be used in an attempt to understand the features of psychopathy. More recently, theorists have advocated that disturbed object relations are central to personality disorder (e.g.
Kernberg, 1996), including psychopathy (e.g. Gacono et al., 1990; Meloy & Gacono, 1998 – see chapter two for a discussion of these studies).
Previous studies have made little reference to other types of trauma. For example, research is lacking with respect to the investigation of psychopathy among political dissidents. A variant of psychopathy called dyssocial psychopathy, which is believed to arise from allegiance to a culturally deviant subgroup (Lilienfeld, 1994; Lykken, 1995), has received little attention in the literature due to its deviance from the “Cleckleyan traits” (Stone, 1993, p.306). As Skeem, Poythress et al. (2003) note, many gang delinquents and political dissidents who use violence as a means of accomplishing their goals are presumably dyssocial psychopaths as such individuals are capable of loyalty to people, political causes, or both. Research which has found that Mexican American gang members receive low psychopathy ratings on the PCL:SV (Valdez et al., 2000) suggests that many gang members do not possess the interpersonal and affective features of primary psychopathy (Skeem, Poythress et al., 2003). Given that dyssocial psychopaths exhibit antisocial and aggressive behaviours which they have learned from their culture (Bartol, 1995) and South Africa has been referred to as a “culture of violence”
(Vogelman & Simpson, 1990), it is possible that a proportion of the sample of the present research may be described as dyssocial psychopaths. As Barlow and Durand (2004) suggest,
“many former gang delinquents fall into this category, as may some members of the Cosa Nostra and some ghetto guerillas in South Africa” (p.435).
Dyssocial psychopaths appear to be similar to the conceptualisation of the secondary psychopath in the literature who are characterised by the behavioural features of psychopathy and who have the capacity for guilt and love (Lykken, 1995). However, unlike secondary psychopaths, dyssocial psychopaths presumably have not experienced a dissociation of a developing affective nature in light of Culwell’s (1998) comment that: “Dyssocial psychopaths can be said to have come about due to Bandura’s social learning theory and his model for observational learning. They were effectively made antisocial by their environment” (p.8). It could be argued that although secondary psychopaths may have experienced a dissociation of a developing affective nature and conscience (Porter, 1996), the psychopathic features of dyssocial psychopaths may be explained in terms of a vicarious conditioning model.
The identification of subtypes of psychopathy poses important questions for the theoretical construct of psychopathy. Much of the literature on psychopathy refers to ‘psychopaths’
(typically identified by a cut-off score of 30 on the PCL-R as recommended by the instrument’s developer). However, given emerging evidence that subtypes of psychopathy exist, an important question to ask is: “What actually is psychopathy?” Does the term apply only to criminals or deviant individuals, or can it also apply to individuals who do not actually do something criminal/socially unacceptable, but who possess the core personality traits of the psychopath?
An example of this latter group is Hare’s (1993) subcriminal psychopath who is believed to:
Never go to prison or any other facility. They appear to function reasonably well – as lawyers, doctors, psychiatrists, academics...without breaking the law, or at least without being caught and convicted. These individuals are every bit as egocentric, callous and manipulative as the average criminal psychopath; however, their intelligence, family background, social skills and circumstances permit them to construct a facade of normalcy and to get what they want with relative impunity.
(Hare, 1993, p.113)
Because the PCL-R is used widely in criminal justice systems around the world to undergird risk assessment, it is easy to lose sight of what it attempts to measure. The danger of associating the PCL-R with measures which assess risk for crime and violence is that it may become less of a measure of the core personality traits of psychopathy and more of a measure of criminality,
which some theorists dispute. For example, Johansson et al. (2002) claim that the construct of psychopathy should be “uncontaminated with criminality and socially deviant behavior, because these...can be considered to be strong correlates to psychopathy rather than core features and part of the definition of this disorder” (p. 82). These questions have important implications for individuals in the criminal justice system.