What Makes a Psychopath?

Recently, Josef Fritzl, the Austrian father who imprisoned his daughter Elisabeth in an underground enclosure and fathered all seven of her children, was sentenced to life imprisonment himself. Ironically he was to receive the same sentence that he had hoped to give to his child and grandchildren for many more years before being discovered by health authorities. Realistically, we will never know what drove this man to do this, or indeed other psychopaths to do what they do. Their behavior, by definition, goes beyond the norm and therefore becomes difficult for us to understand. But thee are characteristics that many … Continue reading