Psychopathy and Sexual Fantasy

This video attempts to answers question: Can I discuss the relationship between psychopathy and sexual behavior and sexual fantasies? The construct of psychopathy is interesting. It's not a mental disorder, although it has a relationship to antisocial personality disorder, which is a Cluster B personality in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Psychopathy is really a set of personality traits and it's measured on a continuum.
Psychopathy has a subclinical component, so somebody could have psychopathic traits and not qualify for a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, but also there appears to be a clinical element at the higher expression of psychopathy.

There two different types of psychopathy: Factor 1 and Factor 2 (sometimes called primary and secondary). Factor 1 has superficial charm, grandiosity (similar to what we see with narcissism), callous/unemotional, pathological lying, manipulation, and a lack of remorse.
Factor 2 psychopathy we see some of the traits that more closely aligned with antisocial personality disorder like impulsivity, irresponsibility, and engaging in criminal behavior.


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Anderson, S. L., Zheng, Y., & McMahon, R. J. (2017). Predicting Risky Sexual Behavior: The Unique and Interactive Roles of Childhood Conduct Disorder Symptoms and Callous-Unemotional Traits. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 45(6)

Lawing, K., Frick, P. J., & Cruise, K. R. (2010). Differences in offending patterns between adolescent sex offenders high or low in callous-unemotional traits. Psychological Assessment, 22(2), 298–305