Why Are People Drawn To Psychopathy?

I watched Seven Psychopaths recently, and picked up on a quote by Christopher Walken:

"You're the one who found psychopaths so interesting. They get pretty tiresome after a while don't you think?"

I've been thinking about it for a couple of days now, because I've known plenty of people who are fascinated with psychopathy. I've also known a few people who are or claim to be psycho/sociopaths, and I have met the odd genuine sociopath. Literature is filled with Dexter type detached personalities and the like. The protagonist in the novel I'm working on would probably be fall into a definition of psycho/sociopath, so I'm guilty of being drawn to it too. So why are psychopaths so damn interesting?

Let's define it first. Google, what's a psychopath?

noun

1. a person suffering from chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behaviour

And a sociopath?:

noun

1. a person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behaviour.

Okay thanks Google. 

So looking at these two definitions, personally I think the second one is far too vague. It catches far too many people in it's net. So after a bit of further digging (well a quick look at Wikipedia anyway) we see that Robert Hare, the founder of the 'psychopath checklist', insists that there are a number of traits displayed by psychopaths. When scored out of 40, an official 'psycho' scores 30 or above, or 25 or above if he/she is in the UK, oddly enough. I'm not entirely sure why it requires less effort to be a British psycho than an American psycho, but I digress.

So if we flick through the items on the checklist, there's a few behavioural factors, but parts that stand out the most is the lack of emotion, or rather the detachment of strong emotion. Lack of remorse, glibness, manipulation. I think these kind of things identify with many people.

I think people's fascination with psychopathy, is not merely an attraction to 'the dark side' as it were, because by that token we would have just as many people fascinated by paedophiles and rapists. There isn't that many people fascinated by paedophiles and rapists, not that I've experienced anyway. So what is it? Why psycho/sociopaths? 

I think the answer lies in the emotional side of what makes a psycho/socio tick. The lack of remorse, empathy, and all round emotion, and I truly believe that those people who think they may be psychotic or convince themselves they lack emotion, have a reason for it. Bear in mind that Robert Hare said himself that capitalism rewards the traits necessary to be a psychopath. With that in mind, I think that those who are fascinated with the idea of a lack of emotion, do so because they care about the world. 

Let's face it, those you truly care about the world, aren't in for a nice ride. There is a ton of shit, and I'm not going to go on a rant about everything that is wrong with the world, because that's not what I'm trying to say. What I'm trying to say is that I think the lack of vision, or the inability to deal with or change ones perceived threats in the world, leads to a fascination with psychopathy. I think that this fascination can in fact lead people on dark paths, not because they genuinely have no emotion, but quite the reverse. People who get emotional about the state of the world, can find solace in the idea of not caring at all. Some end up not caring, some just get excited about characters who don't. Some find the idea of a person who can put 'bad people' in their place quite appealing, cue Dexter.

If I look at it objectively, I think I've met one person who genuinely lacked all emotion, and the truth is, he wasn't a bad person. Quite boring in fact. Because when you meet a person who genuinely doesn't care either way, what is the purpose of them acting out? Surely the people we view to be 'detached' emotionally, or sociopaths are really just struggling to deal with the fact that they do have emotion. 

Statistically speaking, true sociopaths tend to fall in the upper strata of the ruling class anyway, and even then, they're still a victim of their circumstance, despite how little sympathy they draw from the rest of us.