Psychopathy

This book explains the ethical and conceptual tensions in the use of psychopathy in different countries, including America, Canada, the UK, Croatia, Australia, and New Zealand. It offers an extensive critical analysis of how psychopathy functions within institutional and social contexts. 

Inside, readers will find innovative interdisciplinary analysis, written by leading international experts. The chapters explore how different countries have used this diagnosis. A central concern is whether psychopathy is a mental disorder, and this has a bearing upon whether it should be used. 

The book’s case studies will help readers understand the problems associated with psychopathy. Academics and students working in the philosophy of psychiatry, bioethics, and moral psychology will find it a valuable resource. In addition, it will also appeal to mental health professionals working in forensic settings, psychologists with an interest in the ethical implications of the use of psychopathy as a construct and particularly those with a research interest in it.

Luca Malatesti is an Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Rijeka (Croatia). His research interests are in the philosophy of mind and philosophy of psychiatry. He was Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Applied Ethics, Hull (2005-2007). Some of his recent publications are: “The societal response to psychopathy in the community” (with Jurjako and Brazil), International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, forthcoming; “The insanity defence without mental illness? Some considerations” (with Jurjako and Meynen) International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 2020; “Biocognitive classification of antisocial individuals without explanatory reductionism” (with Jurjako and Brazil) Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2020; “The Moral Bioenhancement of Psychopaths” (with Baccarini) Journal of Medical Ethics, 2018. He has co-edited with John McMillan Psychopathy andResponsibility: Interfacing Philosophy, Law, and Psychiatry (Oxford University Press, 2010) and he is currently co-authoring with him the book Methodological Issues in Neuroethics: The Case of Responsibility which is under contract with Cambridge University Press.

John McMillan is a Professor at the Bioethics Centre at the University of Otago. He has worked for several years broadly within the area of mental health ethics. He is an editor of Empirical Ethics in Psychiatry (Oxford University Press, 2008) and Psychopathy and Responsibility: Interfacing Philosophy, Law and Psychiatry (OUP, 2010). He is a co-author of the Assessment of Mental Capacity: A New Zealand Guide for Doctors and Lawyers (VUP, 2020). His most recent monograph is The Methods of Bioethics: An Essay in Metabioethics which was published by OUP in 2018 and he is currently co-authoring the book Methodological Issues in Neuroethics: The Case of Responsibility which is under contract with Cambridge University Press. He is the current Editor in Chief of the Journal of Medical Ethics.

Predrag Šustar is a Professor at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Rijeka. He was a Fulbright visiting scholar at Columbia University (2006-2007) and elected visiting professor at the University of Padua (2015-2016). His main interests include general philosophy of science, Kant, and, in particular, philosophy of biology with a special focus on the topics of functions, genetic information, biological laws and adaptationism. His recent publications include: “Explanatory Hierarchy of Causal Structures in Molecular Biology” (with Brzović and Balorda) European Journal for Philosophy of Science, forthcoming; “Postgenomics Function Monism” (with Brzović) Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 2020; Harmonia mundi: Kant’s Account of EmpiricalCognition (in Croatian), 2019; “The Kindness of Psychopaths” (with Brzović and Jurjako) International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 2017; “Molecular Challenges to Adaptationism” (with Brzović) in Evolutionary Biology, Pierre Pontarotti ed., 2016; “Natural Selection and the Function Debate: Between ‘Cheap Tricks’ and Evolutionary Neutrality” (with Brzović) Synthese, 2014.