PSYCHOPATHY: NEUROBIOLOGICAL BASIS AND ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES

Abstract

Academic-scientific research advances with new techniques in order to understand the causes of psychopathic personality. The neuroscientist James Fallon identified in his own neuroimaging, a similar pattern of a ‘psychopath’s brain’. However, he did not present traits associated with psychopathic behavior. We analyzed his case and the concept of ‘psychopathy’, a controversial issue that raises philosophical, psychological, biological and social discussion. Doubts about the relationship between genes and the environment persist. We evaluate the use of neuroimaging, genetic and biochemical tests in people with psychopathic traits. We recommend caution and consider that dystopian scenarios, as exposed in the movie Minority Report (2002), may not be so far from reality. Is this the future we want?