RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Psychopathic disorder: a category mistake?
JF Journal of Medical Ethics
JO J Med Ethics
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Institute of Medical Ethics
SP 77
OP 85
DO 10.1136/jme.17.2.77
VO 17
IS 2
A1 C A Holmes
YR 1991
UL http://jme.bmj.com/content/17/2/77.abstract
AB Although the concept of psychopathy retains its currency in British psychiatry, apparently being meaningful as well as useful to practitioners (1), it is often taken to refer to a purely legal category with social control functions rather than a medical diagnosis with treatment implications. I wish, in this brief article, to suggest that it is essentially, and most usefully, an ethical category which stands outside the diagnostic framework of present-day psychiatry.