I have made the core teaching materials for a course based on my book, Psychopathy Unmasked, openly available under a 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗖𝗖 𝗕𝗬 𝟰.𝟬 license, including free 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗣𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗲𝘀. The materials are designed for third- and fourth-year undergraduate students in psychology, criminology, and related disciplines, but they can also be adapted for graduate-level teaching. The course integrates empirical research, p

I recently sat down with Paul Rand from the Big Brains Podcast to talk about the legal system’s problematic use of psychopathy assessments (such as the PCL-R). We discussed how the psychopathy diagnosis, despite its scientifically dubious status, continues to shape sentencing, parole, and even death penalty decisions – often in ways that raise serious questions about fairness and justice. We also explored deeper questions behind Psychopathic Personality Disorder itself, incl

Psychopathy research is a rich interdisciplinary field, with scientists pursuing a wide range of important questions. However, as I outline in Psychopathy Unmasked, the field has nevertheless made remarkably little progress in recent decades. In fact, we are today facing a sort of impasse where almost all of the common claims about psychopathy have either been difficult to corroborate or outright falsified So, what explains this lack of progress? Before answering this main qu

For more than two centuries, scientists and clinicians have described people diagnosed with psychopathy as morally colorblind—as if they...

What’s the difference between these three terms? This is easily one of the most common questions I get from the hundreds of forensic...

The short answer is: No… That might sound surprising, because the idea that “psychopaths lack empathy” is deeply baked into the public...

Psychopathy Unmasked in the Media I’m always grateful when Psychopathy Unmasked is featured in the media. Each piece helps bring wider...

Hervey Cleckley’s The Mask of Sanity is often held up as a foundational text in modern psychopathy research. It’s frequently cited with...

Psychopathy Unmasked in the Media I’m always grateful when Psychopathy Unmasked is featured in the media. Each piece helps bring wider...

Inspiration often comes from unexpected sources… Back in November 2015—when I was still very much a “green” researcher trying to find my...

It’s the fall of 2019, and the metaphorical penny has finally dropped: I realize that the central claims in psychopathy research just...

The idea that psychopaths are real—that some people are born with a morally dysfunctional psychological makeup—can seem almost...

In the previous posts, I’ve tried to put words to the events and relationships that propelled me onto the path of writing Psychopathy...

Becoming a researcher in the academic world is never a “one-person” show. You can try to do it on your own—and I certainly did at...

In my previous post, #5 Kindling Skepticism, I described how, in the middle of 2015, a seed of doubt began to take root. I had spent...

Psychopathy Unmasked is the first book ever to offer a sustained, critical examination of both the scientific research and forensic...

At some point, anyone who ventures into the study of psychopathy hits a wall. I see it happen to my students today, and it happened to me...

Much of science begins with a mystery: An observation about the world that resists easy explanation. Psychopathy research is no...

There’s a big difference between what fascinated me about psychopathy when I began my research in 2012 and what fascinates me today in...

I’m often asked how I ended up researching psychopathy. This question almost always comes up when people find out that I’m not a...