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, philosophy of...

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, including why the...

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 question, consider...