António Damásio e a neurobiologia das emoções na psicopatia ensaio acadêmico

Abstract

The present work is an approach to psychopathy based on António Damásio's neurobiology of emotions perspective. It is an academic essay and it is expected to demonstrate how the research in the emotional neurobiological field may in some way contribute to the understanding and discussion about psychopathy. At first, it is intended to show the evolution of the concept of psychopathy since its appearance in the psychiatric context until nowadays according to the handbook Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-5. Accordingly, bibliographic info was collected in order to find out the main references related to psychopathy. In the following section the functional neuroanatomy of the brain of a psychopath is investigated, as well as behavior, socialization and language related to neuroanatomy, in order to introduce Damásio's findings concerning neurobiology of emotions and then try to show connections and interfaces between Damásio's researches and the present concepts of psycopathy. In other words, it is intended to verify if there is interaction between Damásio's researches and the concept of psychopathy. Two specific cases were included in this section: Phineas Gage and Weinstein with the aim of highlighting the importance of researches on the frontal lobe of psychopaths. According to Damásio (2011, p. 140), it is important to make a distinction between emotion and feeling for they are distinctive processes. In this sense, more studies about emotions and feelings in psychopathy are necessary to deeply understand actions and behaviors classified by DSM-5 and by Robert D. Hare, who developed the PCL-R, the handbook used to diagnose this disorder. Raine (2015) says, emotions in psychopaths are primitive responses to immediate needs. Through studies made by Raine (2015) and Hare (2013), among other authors quoted in this essay, we can conclude that the mistery in psychopathy still remains. Several disorders are found in psychopaths, like OCD for instance, making it harder to find the origins of the symptoms and diagnosis (HARE,2013). Few systematic researches have been developed about psychopathy. Studies about neurobiology of emotions are done separately and generalized to every living being, not specifying the antisocial disorder of psychopathy. We conclude that are necessary several researches and studies involving emotions and feelings correlated to psychopathy in order to understand better the disorder itself and trace possibilities of socialization.