Emotion in Criminal Offenders With Psychopathy and Borderline Personality Disorder

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Abstract
CURRENT research aims to identify psychological and psychopathologic dimensions underlying violent behavior in personality disorders.1 In particular, the style of emotional response is regarded as one of the most important psychological mechanisms constituting normal and abnormal personality, including a person's interaction with the environment. Whereas the DSM-IV category of antisocial personality disorder2 does not provide a description of specific emotional features, the classic diagnostic criteria for psychopathy by Cleckley3 include a specific emotional style that can best be described as a generalized emotional deficit or emotional detachment.4,5 Some data from experimental studies on emotions in criminal offenders with psychopathy already exist. However, to our knowledge, studies have not yet been conducted on the problem of diagnostic specificity. Therefore, this article focuses on investigating emotional responses, not only in psychopaths but also in criminal offenders diagnosed as having borderline personality disorder (BPD). Although individuals with BPD have been reported to be at risk for engaging in criminal, antisocial behavior,6-8 experimental studies of emotion in offenders with BPD are hardly available.