ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the major theoretical positions regarding emotions and psychopathy, review relevant empirical studies, and provides preliminary suggestions for clinicians working with psychopaths, as well as suggestions for future research directions. It demonstrates the simple and widespread assumption that psychopaths are relatively emotionless is contradicted by the complexity of research findings on psychopathy. The chapter suggests that, to the extent that assumptions regarding the absence of emotions significantly impact management or treatment strategies, generalizations are potentially maladaptive or dangerous. It considers the research findings on emotion and psychopathy and how they fit with these theoretical perspectives. The unusual emotional experiences associated with psychopathy occupy a central role in many descriptions of the disorder. Psychopaths also rated the anxiety scenarios as more threatening and the anger scenarios as less threatening. Film studies of psychopaths' capacity for emotion may be confounded by psychopaths' inability to empathize with film characters.
