## Metadata - Author: [[Rasmus Rosenberg Larsen]] - Full Title:: There Are No Psychopaths - Category:: #🗞️Articles - URL:: https://aeon.co/essays/psychopathy-is-a-zombie-idea-why-does-it-cling-on?utm_source=rss-feed - Read date:: [[2026-02-28]] ## Highlights > scientists have never found persuasive evidence of the existence of psychopaths. We have never convincingly documented individuals with a disorderly psychology that renders them incapable of empathy, emotions, impulse control and so forth. There are, of course, individuals who *appear* to fit all these descriptors when we engage with them in clinical settings, but that is not the same as them *actually* being this way. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kjjm7vz3bp7k37shfd8ar315)) > perhaps the strongest evidence that psychopathy is a zombie idea: for as long as scientists have been studying the idea there has literally been no advancement in evidence-based knowledge. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kjjma9jhjzanygyzqf2wcn84))