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The Natural History of Psychopathic Disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Michael Craft*
Affiliation:
Oakwood Park Hospital, Conway, Caerns

Extract

As Mr. Justice Marshall said recently when making the appropriate hospital order: “The interests of the public are best served by curing the patient”, but with psychopathic disorder some still believe cure to be virtually impossible (Cleckley, 1953; Gould, 1959) and others doubt whether the condition can be treated at all. Genetic endowment (Heaton-Ward, 1963), damage to the developing foetus (Stott, 1962) and early adverse childhood experiences (Scott, 1963) have been thought to militate against later treatment success. Unfortunately all writers in this field are handicapped by the lack of long-term follow-up studies on the natural history of the condition.

Type
Clinical
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1969 

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