I recently took the psychopath test, otherwise known as the Hare Psychopathy Checklist. I scored fairly high on it. Which leads me to question the substance of psychopathology and bipolar disorder. There is a caveat, this is a self test and not one administered by a professional, so it has to be taken with a grain of salt. But I’m approaching the test as though I don’t know that I’m bipolar. And what I find is that most of the questions fit bipolar mania really well. Even just accepting that I have bipolar and filling in the blanks with 1s to say that they partially fit (as in half of my life is spent in some manic state right now) gets me very close to saying that I have “criminal tendencies.” Which, I guess I do. I’ve done a few things in the past that I won’t reveal here for self incrimination purposes. But the point remains, I score fairly high compared to normals.
But does that really mean that I’m a psychopath? I don’t think so. I think it means that I’m bipolar. In fact, most of these questions were similar to the ones asked by my psychiatrist in diagnosing me with bipolar. Take for instance some of the diagnostic criteria: Impulsivity, Juvenile Delinquency, Irresponsibility, Lack of Realistic Long Term Goals, Poor Behavioral Control, Promiscuity, Proneness to Boredom, Grandiose Self Worth, Superficial Charm, Early Behavioral Problems. All of these fit mania and bipolar disorder! Throw in a dash of mild violent behavior associated with mania and voila, apparently I’m a psychopath. Well, I’m not that high on the list, but I’m getting there. But I’m not a psychopath, I’m bipolar!
In reality, I see this as having a lot of false positives for people who have more mania oriented bipolar disorder. But that’s beside the point, what I’m also concerned with is how this impacts people’s understanding of mental illness and psychopathology. I have a sense that an appreciable amount of people with bipolar are scoring above 20 on the list. Talking with other people, they all score relatively low, below 20. One of my friends scored about 12, and she was worried about how high that was. But if people take this in any was as a definitive test of psychopathology, then it appears to me that lay people will be misdiagnosing people who have bipolar as psychopaths. And this worries me because it just adds to the stigma of being bipolar. No longer are we just mentally ill, we’re all crazy dangerous psychopaths (though, in fairness, it is not the case that all psychopaths are violent individuals who are a menace to society, despite the common perception that they are all serial killers and CEOs).
The whole point of this is that it worries me on two fronts, the misdiagnosis by lay people and the stigma of psychopathy. Even reading through some quick forum posts, I saw people confusing psychopathy with schizophrenia. And given that mental illness is already so poorly understood by the general public, I feel that exposure to simplified tests such as this only makes it more difficult to have a mental illness. I don’t have any grand ideas about how to solve this, the only thing that I can think of is that this highlights the need to be even more outspoken about mental illness.
Philosophy, Science, Bipolar I, and Life
I recently took the psychopath test, otherwise known as the Hare Psychopathy Checklist. I scored fairly high on it. Which leads me to question the substance of psychopathology and bipolar disorder. There is a caveat, this is a self test and not one administered by a professional, so it has to be taken with a grain of salt. But I’m approaching the test as though I don’t know that I’m bipolar. And what I find is that most of the questions fit bipolar mania really well. Even just accepting that I have bipolar and filling in the blanks with 1s to say that they partially fit (as in half of my life is spent in some manic state right now) gets me very close to saying that I have “criminal tendencies.” Which, I guess I do. I’ve done a few things in the past that I won’t reveal here for self incrimination purposes. But the point remains, I score fairly high compared to normals.
But does that really mean that I’m a psychopath? I don’t think so. I think it means that I’m bipolar. In fact, most of these questions were similar to the ones asked by my psychiatrist in diagnosing me with bipolar. Take for instance some of the diagnostic criteria: Impulsivity, Juvenile Delinquency, Irresponsibility, Lack of Realistic Long Term Goals, Poor Behavioral Control, Promiscuity, Proneness to Boredom, Grandiose Self Worth, Superficial Charm, Early Behavioral Problems. All of these fit mania and bipolar disorder! Throw in a dash of mild violent behavior associated with mania and voila, apparently I’m a psychopath. Well, I’m not that high on the list, but I’m getting there. But I’m not a psychopath, I’m bipolar!
In reality, I see this as having a lot of false positives for people who have more mania oriented bipolar disorder. But that’s beside the point, what I’m also concerned with is how this impacts people’s understanding of mental illness and psychopathology. I have a sense that an appreciable amount of people with bipolar are scoring above 20 on the list. Talking with other people, they all score relatively low, below 20. One of my friends scored about 12, and she was worried about how high that was. But if people take this in any was as a definitive test of psychopathology, then it appears to me that lay people will be misdiagnosing people who have bipolar as psychopaths. And this worries me because it just adds to the stigma of being bipolar. No longer are we just mentally ill, we’re all crazy dangerous psychopaths (though, in fairness, it is not the case that all psychopaths are violent individuals who are a menace to society, despite the common perception that they are all serial killers and CEOs).
The whole point of this is that it worries me on two fronts, the misdiagnosis by lay people and the stigma of psychopathy. Even reading through some quick forum posts, I saw people confusing psychopathy with schizophrenia. And given that mental illness is already so poorly understood by the general public, I feel that exposure to simplified tests such as this only makes it more difficult to have a mental illness. I don’t have any grand ideas about how to solve this, the only thing that I can think of is that this highlights the need to be even more outspoken about mental illness.