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Painting: Vincent Van Gogh, “Corridor in the Asylum”

For the benefit of those who have seen so many serial killer thrillers they’ve begun to think Satan is speaking to them through the neighbor’s dog, The Straight Dope explains the difference between sociopaths, psychopaths, and serial killers.

Sociopath. The term is no longer in use. It has been replaced by “antisocial personality disorder” (APD), which is characterized by “a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others occurring since age 15 years, as indicated by three (or more) of the following: failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors; deceitfulness; impulsivity or failure to plan ahead; irritability and aggressiveness; reckless disregard for safety of self or others; consistent irresponsibility; lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another.” If this describes you, thank you for taking time to read this. Now go away.

Psychopath. The term is not in the DSM, but is used by some criminologists. Psychologist Robert Hare has prepared this checklist to measure psychopathy: Glibness/superficial charm, Grandiose sense of self-worth, Pathological lying, Cunning/manipulativeness, Lack of remorse or guilt, Shallow affect, Callous/lack of empathy, Failure to accept responsibility for own actions, Promiscuous sexual behavior. (Hey, I think I went out with that guy.)

Hare estimates that 1 percent of the general population is psychotic, which means we’ve already elected most of them into office.

The difference between psychopathy and APD is that psychopaths are characterized by a lack of empathy, grandiosity, and shallow emotion that are not necessary for a diagnosis of APD. 

Serial killings. “Serial killer” is not a mental disorder. In American criminal law, “the term “serial killings” means a series of three or more killings, not less than one of which was committed within the United States, having common characteristics such as to suggest the reasonable possibility that the crimes were committed by the same actor or actors.” And by “actor” they do not mean Kevin Spacey or Anthony Hopkins.

Hare notes that not all psychopaths are violent criminals: they thrive in corporate environments without killing people (just their souls). For supplemental reading I recommend “American Psycho” by Bret Easton Ellis—relevant again in the current financial debacle.

Michelangelo’s tomb, Firenze, originally uploaded by Koosama.

“Between 1974 and 1985, seven couples—fourteen people in all—were murdered while making love in parked cars in the hills of Florence. The case was never solved, and it has become one of the longest and most expensive criminal investigations in Italian history. More than 100,000 men have been investigated and more than a dozen arrested, and scores of lives have been ruined by rumor and false accusations. There have been suicides, exhumations, poisonings, body parts sent by post, séances in graveyards, lawsuits, and prosecutorial vendettas. The investigation has been like a malignancy, spreading backward in time and outward in space, metastasizing to different cities and swelling into new investigations, with new judges, police, and prosecutors, more suspects, more arrests, and many more lives ruined. It was an extraordinary story, and I would—to my sorrow—come to share Spezi’s obsession with it.”

A writer’s obsession with a serial killer leads to his being charged with obstruction of justice, planting evidence, and complicity in the killings. The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston in The Atlantic.

This one caused crumbs to shoot out of my nose. From McSweeney’s: Cookie Monster Searches Deep Within Himself and Asks: Is Me Really Monster?

“Me was thinking and me just don’t get it. Why is me a monster? No one else called monster on Sesame Street. Well, no one who isn’t really monster. Two-Headed Monster have two heads, so he real monster. Herry Monster strong and look angry, so he probably real monster, too. But is me really monster?”

(Note: My definition of “funny” is “causes food to enter wrong passage and come out of nose”.) Me is friend of Carlo the baker, and Carlo name juancas for Juan Carlo and rickoise for Ricky, but me still have no cookie named after me.