| 释义 |
psychopath|ps-, ˈsaɪkəʊpæθ|
[f. psycho- + Gr. -παθής, f. πάθος suffering. Cf. neuropath, etc.]
One affected with psychopathy; a mentally deranged person. Cf. psychopathy.
1885Pall Mall G. 21 Jan. 3/2 Psychopathy... We give M. Balinsky's explanation of the new malady. ‘The psychopath..is a type which has only recently come under the notice of medical science... Beside his own person and his own interests, nothing is sacred to the psychopath’. 1890Univ. Rev. 15 Mar. 310 He was what Russians call a ‘psychopath’, a being whom Russian laws refuse to punish even for murder. 1902W. James Var. Relig. Exper. 7 From the point of view of his nervous constitution, Fox was a psychopath or détraqué of the deepest dye. 1927New Republic 21 Sept. 128/2 Terms not so long ago confined to specialists are handled familiarly by the laity: moron, inferiority complex, mental age,..paranoid delusions, psychopaths. 1955D. J. West Homosexuality ix. 106 Psychopaths are the last people to try to battle against their instincts; they just obey first impulses regardless of social codes. Being incapable of prolonged or deep personal attachments, they seek only an immediate outlet for their lust. 1967Listener 20 Apr. 529/3 The term psychopath is bandied about in such a way as to make it cover almost any mental disorder... However the psychopath has now achieved legal status in the Mental Health Act of 1959 as having ‘a persistent disorder or disability of mind..which results in abnormally aggressive or seriously irresponsible behaviour’. 1967M. Argyle Psychol. of Interpersonal Behaviour i. 21 It is one of the marks of the psychopath that he will engage in social behaviour in so far as it is..profitable to do so, but he has no intrinsic attraction to other people at all. For the psychopath there is no particular difference between people and things. 1972Observer 31 Dec. 23/4 If she's a psychopath I'm a fruit cake. She's just a girl who needs love. |