Psychopathic Disorders and Their Assessment

"The term Psychopathic Disorder is a new one in English law, and this book describes the new concept and the recent advances in treatment and diagnosis which have been made. It describes the background of the concept into operation in 1959 in the new Mental Health Act, how it has been used and the numbers of patients involved since this date. The book sets out to describe how psychopaths are caused, what the term means, various special tests which can be used in this diagnosis and the history of the law on the subject in England; there is an account of the Royal Commission's findings on the subject by the Minister of Health. Lord Longford discusses his approach in an introduction and various doctors, experts in their field, have described how they treat patients suffering from the disorder. The book includes a valuable section consisting of a classification and discussion of psychological methods of assessing psychopathy and the psychopath. It will prove extremely useful to university departments of psychology and sociology, to workers in these fields including probation officers, and to general readers with an informed interest" -- Dust jacket.