When we think of the term “psychopath”, what image comes to mind? Probably, that of a male, between twenty and thirty years old, lacking in remorse and cold as an ice floe ; and with irrepressible impulses towards the most barbaric and sadistic acts we can imagine.

But to what extent do we project a stereotype promoted by the media, is it really a pathology with a greater incidence in the male gender? Recent research provides new information about subjects with this disorder, including what it is really like to fall in love with one of them .

Related article: “Psychopathy: what goes on in the psychopath’s mind”

Love and psychopathy: an impossible binomial?

Psychopathy takes many forms, one of which includes a subclinical variety of people with outstanding scores on personality tests that measure their predisposition towards psychopathic tendencies (although not as behaviour per se ). If it is interpreted as a continuum in which the scores to be obtained are modifiable, it is possible to perceive how the degree to which the subject has psychopathic tendencies is linked to other aspects of his or her psychology and interpersonal relationships.

Psychopaths and Love Relationships: Scientific Literature

There is a reason to think that subclinical psychopaths might have difficulties in their intimate relationships . According to a study carried out at Laval University (Quebec) in 2015, common criminals adopt an insecure (avoidant) style of attachment, which makes it difficult for them to create deep relationships with others.

Those who fit the classification of “psychopathic personality disorder” (regardless of whether they incur in criminal behaviour or not) usually manifest behaviours associated with an avoidant attachment style , thus being clumsy to establish any kind of intimate relationship. Two of the key indicators of this disorder, emotional detachment and lack of empathy, are also associated with maladaptive attachment styles.

Yes, psychopaths can also have relationships

Even so, subjects with typical psychopathic manifestations can commit themselves in romantic relationships , without necessarily implying that they will later marry or not, or that they will establish a more serious bond of commitment. It is true that these relationships may not be the result of real psychological intimacy in the strict sense, but of the convenience of a couple with a common point of view of the world that would justify that both try to get the most out of the rest of the people.

The lack of empathy and the inability to express emotions of a certain psychological depth could lead to the disintegration of their bond due to the adoption of destructive patterns of interaction between the two that would increase. In extreme cases, there may even be abuse and violence, but this would not be common.

Even those couples that a priori seem doomed to failure are able to prosper if the more psychologically balanced individual is able to exert his or her influence on the other. With time , this would allow them to form a bond that would favour the development of a greater degree of trust , even to be able to observe situations from the other’s perspective.

Attachment and Psychopathy

When we think of the term “psychopath”, what image comes to mind? Probably, that of a male, between twenty and thirty years old, lacking in remorse and cold as an ice floe ; and with irrepressible impulses towards the most barbaric and sadistic acts we can imagine.

But to what extent do we project a stereotype promoted by the media, is it really a pathology with a greater incidence in the male gender?
Recent research provides new information about subjects with this disorder, including what it is really like to fall in love with one of them .

Related article: “Psychopathy: what goes on in the psychopath’s mind”

Love and psychopathy: an impossible binomial?

Psychopathy takes many forms, one of which includes a subclinical variety of people with outstanding scores on personality tests that measure their predisposition towards psychopathic tendencies (although not as behaviour per se ). If it is interpreted as a continuum in which the scores to be obtained are modifiable, it is possible to perceive how the degree to which the subject has psychopathic tendencies is linked to other aspects of his or her psychology and interpersonal relationships.

Psychopaths and Love Relationships: Scientific Literature

There is a reason to think that subclinical psychopaths might have difficulties in their intimate relationships .
According to a study carried out at Laval University (Quebec) in 2015, common criminals adopt an insecure (avoidant) style of attachment, which makes it difficult for them to create deep relationships with others.

Those who fit the classification of “psychopathic personality disorder” (regardless of whether they incur in criminal behaviour or not) usually manifest behaviours associated with an avoidant attachment style , thus being clumsy to establish any kind of intimate relationship. Two of the key indicators of this disorder, emotional detachment and lack of empathy, are also associated with maladaptive attachment styles.

Yes, psychopaths can also have relationships

Even so, subjects with typical psychopathic manifestations can commit themselves in romantic relationships , without necessarily implying that they will later marry or not, or that they will establish a more serious bond of commitment.
It is true that these relationships may not be the result of real psychological intimacy in the strict sense, but of the convenience of a couple with a common point of view of the world that would justify that both try to get the most out of the rest of the people.

The lack of empathy and the inability to express emotions of a certain psychological depth could lead to the disintegration of their bond due to the adoption of destructive patterns of interaction between the two that would increase.
In extreme cases, there may even be abuse and violence, but this would not be common.

Do we have to think that this correlation necessarily implies a cause-and-effect relationship? The structure of the study made it possible to examine conclusively those paths of psychopathy that predict attachment and, inversely, which are the paths of attachment that predict this disorder. In summary, the qualities of the psychopathic personality should be understood from a binomial perspective and more as predictors of insecure attachment styles, and not vice versa.

By way of conclusion

So, from all that has been said so far, what ideas do we have to stay with?

For those women who date men who tend to be insensitive and emotionally hardened at the end of the psychopathic spectrum: be alert, for the worst is yet to come. Your partner’s inability to empathize with you will only lead to you finding refuge in yourself.

Regardless of whether you are the man or the woman in the relationship and whether your spouse is highly impulsive, the couple will tend to suffer significant ups and downs . If you are the one showing typical psychopathic behaviour, your (already poor) ability to relate intimately to the person you have committed to will be diminished over time.