Psychopath: 반사회적 성격의 현황과 공감발달의 기독교적 접근

Psychopath: An Overview and A Christian Approach of Antisocial Personality Disorder

The function of emotions is an important factor to determining one’s mental health. When one’s emotional disturbance leads to violation of the law and harmful actions towards others, one needs a special attention and care. The frequent news reports on serial killers astonish people. People wonder what makes the killer repeat such brutal behavior. They are shocked by the report that those criminals feel nothing for their victims. Psychopath is one of the personality disorders that is related to antisocial behaviors. Research found that there was a strong overlapping relationship between psychopath and violent criminals. There are different aspects of understanding the cause of psychopath. Researchers have made efforts to understand psychopath from the various perspectives. However, there is no specific treatment that has been provided This study pursues to examine psychopath from the Christian viewpoint. In order to do that, this paper includes general characteristics of psychopath first. After that, studies on etiology and treatment of psychopath will be examined. Since studies indicated that a deficit of empathy is one of the causes of criminal behavior of psychopath, this study presents the various ways of understanding empathy; biological, psychological, and biblical. Next, from the perspective of empathy, the writer will re-examine the cause and treatment of psychopath. Finally, some practical guidelines of treatment from the Christian viewpoint will be shown.