Dr. Liane Leedom and I spent last weekend, May 19-21, at the 4th Biennial Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy in Montreal, Canada.
Approximately 200 people were at the conference, including the biggest names in psychopathy research: Robert Hare, Paul Babiak, Paul J. Frick, Kent Kiehl, David Kosson, Joseph Newman, Christopher J. Patrick, and many, many more. Also in attendance were graduate students and researchers from all over the world—nine different countries were represented.
It was an opportunity to learn about the latest research going on in the field. A total of 46 researchers made 15-minute oral presentations of their work. An additional 91 groups of researchers presented their work on posters.
Dr. Leedom and I were among those presenting in poster form. We summarized the findings of the survey we did last year in response to the request for public feedback on the draft of the new American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5). (See Lovefraud’s comment about sociopaths for the DSM-5.)
I designed a poster, 6 feet long and 3 feet tall, which briefly described the survey, the findings, and the conclusions that we drew. The title of the poster: When Psychopaths Say “I Love You.” Dr. Leedom also presented another poster on Familial Attachments and Parenting Behavior of Psychopathic Individuals. Our posters were displayed right next to each other, and as people came around to look at them, we explained what we learned.
The reaction to our work was very positive. The majority of research in the field is done either on college students or prisoners. The information that Lovefraud readers provided about their relationships with disordered individuals is highly unusual, and very important. Thank you to everyone who participated.
I also designed a tri-fold brochure version of the poster information. If you’d like to take a look at what we presented, you can download a pdf of either the poster or the brochure. Don’t worry, the poster pdf will scale down to fit on your computer monitor. If you’d like a printed version of the brochure, just send an email with your mailing address to donna@lovefraud.com.
Donna and Liane,
Congratulations! I especially like the brochure as a tool to legitimize the findings of anecdotal reporting as a source to inform the diagnostic construct.
Would have loved to have been at this conference. If i had known it was happening, I would have gone.
I trust that you will be posting about the information you gleaned.
Donna – thank you. Very interesting reading and well done you for your awareness campaign.
Good Job! You ladies should be very proud of yourselves. Thank you for everything you do.
Best of wishes ~
Interesting observations of the traits, and the observations made by the people who thought they were associating with a psychopath….very interesting in fact!
Good poster BTW—conveys a great deal of information and easy to read and understand.
So….
who’s gonna be the one to send the brochure to Maria Shriver????
GOOD QUESTION SKY?
Don’t look at me, Oxy! I don’t have her address. I hear she is staying in a hotel near LA. someone could just dro this off at the front desk.
Lolololol
Skylar,
Has your BF heard of Niaomi Wolf? She is pretty good.
OH, Skylar,
Are you there? Time for me to go to bed. I would have loved to here your answer…maybe tomorrow. Gnite!