George E. Partridge

Psychopathy studies

Starting in 1928 he published a series of studies conducted at The Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital in Baltimore on the 'psychopathic personality' — a broad category used somewhat differently from some predominant definitions today. He postulated three subtypes: delinquent (commonly in males), inadequate (commonly in females), and the generally incompatible or emotionally unstable. He speculated that the first two were likely more biologically determined while the latter appeared to be more linked to early upbringing. He then published a brief paper in 1929 outlining the negative social effects of the "legion of deviates" vaguely classed as having psychopathic personalities, while noting the difficulty in discerning the interaction between cultural patterns and personality patterns, and suggesting that groups as a whole could also become pathological, perhaps most strikingly so in national motivations for war. He concluded: "The thesis here is that the thorough and adequate investigation of the individual consciousness in its pathological manifestations yields us precisely the background needed for the study of the group consciousness — that is, for the development of a scientific socio-pathology."

Sociopathy concept

In a 1930 review from the Research Service of the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital, Partridge identifies confusion in the definition and application of the diagnosis of psychopathy, as at the time the term could cover almost any kind of personality deviation acutely or chronically, or only certain more specific conditions, or act virtually as a holder for any otherwise unclassified mental disorder. He also argues that the practice, then common, of calling psychopathy "constitutional" was speculative (in fact very little being known about its causes); and that bisecting personality into the "normal" and "abnormal" is simplistic for something complex, finely nuanced, and individual.

However, he concludes that a consistent factor linking most cases is persistent social maladjustment with a motivation towards behavior with adverse effects on others, and he suggests that sociopathy would therefore be a more accurate and appropriate term. Partridge suggests that the term psychopathy no longer be used at all, having no usefulness in application to the antisocial group more accurately described as "sociopathic," nor much use for the various remaining conditions not inherently chronically antisocial, and certainly not to cover both groups at once.

The Oxford English Dictionary (2011) definition of sociopath quotes from his 1930 article: "We may use the term ‘sociopathy’ to mean anything deviated or pathological in social relations" and "We may exclude from the class of essential sociopaths those whose inadequacy is primarily related to physical weakness, fear, hypersensitiveness, shyness and self-blame."

In fact, however, the first part of the quotation in full is: "If we may use the term ‘sociopathy’ to mean anything deviated or pathological in social relations, whether of individuals with one another, or within or towards groups, and also in the relations of groups to one another, we have a fairly communicable meaning, and a term which may apply descriptively to a great number of persons." The phrase essential sociopath was Partridge's attempt to describe the type with the most deep-rooted chronic antisocial motivations.

The American Psychiatric Association created a diagnosis of "Sociopathic Personality Disturbance" in the first edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1952, which included four subtypes dubbed "reactions": antisocial, dyssocial, sexual, and addiction. The antisocial description was shaped by criteria advanced by psychiatrist Hervey Cleckley, who used the term psychopath. The DSM-II in 1968 moved the diagnosis of antisocial personality into a new section on personality disorders, below which dyssocial behavior was also listed.

In 1976 psychiatrist Richard L. Jenkins (who wrote the child and adolescent behavioral disorders section of the DSM-II) pointed out that although sociopathy had become widely used as a diagnosis, it was not a diagnostic term per se in the DSM-I or II. In 1980 the full term Antisocial Personality Disorder was listed, with some of Cleckley's traits removed and new behavioral criteria in their place. Nevertheless, the term psychopath gradually came into wider clinical use, partly through the influence of Canadian psychologist Robert D. Hare's Psychopathy Checklist, which revived and modified Cleckley's criteria in a criminological context. Both the DSM-IV and DSM-5 noted: "The essential feature of antisocial personality disorder is a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood. This pattern has also been referred to as psychopathy, sociopathy, or dyssocial personality disorder."

Select bibliography

• An Outline of Individual Study. New York: Sturgis & Walton, 1910.
• The Nervous Life. New York: Sturgis & Walton, 1911.
• Studies in the Psychology of Intemperance. New York: Sturgis & Walton, 1912.
• A Reading Book in Modern Philosophy. New York: Sturgis & Walton, 1913.
• The Psychology of Nations: A Contribution to the Philosophy of History. New York: Macmillan, 1919.
• Story-Telling in School and Home: A Study in Educational Aesthetics, Revised Edition. New York: Macmillan, 1920 (with Emelyn Newcomb Partridge).
• Genetic Philosophy of Education. New York: Macmillan, 1925.