The Social Significance of the Psychopathic

Abstract

T HE problem given me of presenting the significance of the psychopathic -that is, of those borderline conditions between mental health and sicknessin social life, demands first a clear statement of what is meant by psychopathic. In this, in view of the purely practical goal before us, we can do without a strict, scientifically formulated definition, and instead choose one that will prove practically usable, making it possible, on the basis of simple and easily recognizable symptoms, to understand the psychopathic in everyday life. It is, therefore, enough for our purposes to distinguish as psychopathic all those individuals in general who show in a moderate degree dispositionally conditioned, constitutional, psychic deviations, and especially such as are located in the spheres of feeling, will, and instinct-to put it briefly, in the entire sphere of character. By this definition it is sufficiently possible to distinguish these psychopaths from the really insane, although to distinguish them from the normal remains just as difficult as before, since there exist fundamental varying transitions to the normal.