With this broad framework in place—the interplay of anxiety and power—we can turn to several specific ways in which psychopathy was identified as a form of social deviation—and even as a crime. I first address the relationship between psychopathy and poverty, and then address the relationship between psychopathy and “polite society” as well as that between psychopathy and alienation. I conclude by exploring the powerful and pervasive societal connection between psychopathy and both social control and social class.
Psychopathy and Poverty
Erving Goffman (1986) wrote several revelatory books about how societies operate. One of these books was called Stigma. It is to this term that I first turn. It seems that psychopathology and poverty are both stigmatized. Especially in the European Protestant Church, poverty was often viewed as a sign either of laziness (sloth) or ignorance (stupidity). These were framed as the “sin of poverty”—with the decision to be poor viewed from the perspective of an internal locus of control. With poverty being a choice rather than an outcome of societal malfunction, there was reluctance on the part of most leaders of European societies for many centuries to do much about addressing the terrible costs of poverty: malnutrition, inadequate housing and miserable medical care. There were some acts of charity—but these were mostly engaged to blunt any social uprising (or at least reduce petty crime).
The Theology of Poverty
It should be noted that there was a competing appraisal of poverty in European societies that were strongly influenced by the Protestant ethic and, in particular, the theological precept called “pre-destination.” This precept offered a more “charitable” account of poverty—engaging an external locus of control perspective as a way of reframing this condition. It was God’s will and decision that some people would be assigned to an after-life in heaven and some to an after-life in hell.
John Calvin, co-founder of the Protestant Church (with Martin Luther) lived in Geneva, Switzerland, the watch-making capital of Europe. Calvin was a lawyer. This was a “perfect storm” for framing a theology that was highly ordered, rational and controlling. If God is perfect (like the maker of a high-priced watch and a well-prepared lawyer), then he (not she) would certainty not leave anything up to chance. God would have determined before someone is born what their post-life status would be: there would be none of this messy free will with mere human beings determining where they go after death. There must be order in the court and a properly ticking watch in one’s pocket!
