Horizon

What Makes a Psychopath?

Directed by Rebecca Harrison
TV-PG
S54 • E12    Aug 28, 2017    60m
6.1
Psychopaths have long captured the public imagination. Painted as charismatic, violent predators lacking in all empathy, they provide intrigue and horror in equal measure. But what precisely is a psychopath? What is it that drives them to cause harm, even kill? And can they ever be cured?

Presented by psychologist Professor Uta Frith, this is an in-depth exploration of the psychopathic mind including one of the most notorious of all, Moors murderer Ian Brady. Through an ongoing correspondence between the Horizon team and Brady, the film features some of the very last letters he wrote. The film also features a series of candid interviews with prison inmates who not only describe their crimes but why they think they committed them.

Horizon explores not only how each individual's crimes were shaped by their own life experiences, but also gives an insight in to how these people think and behave. Working with the world's experts in the field, the film sheds light on the biological, psychological and environmental influences that shape a psychopath. And it looks to the future, with groundbreaking research that suggests a lifetime of incarceration is not the only option to manage violent and dangerous psychopaths.

Where to Watch What Makes a Psychopath?

Cast of What Makes a Psychopath?

  • Uta FrithSelf - Presenter
  • Jeremy CoidSelf - Forensic Psychiatrist
  • Molly CrockettSelf - University of Oxford
  • Kent KiehlSelf - University of New Mexico & Mind Research Network
  • Ryan KlugSelf - Murder, Sentence: 60 years
  • David Michael KruegerSelf - Killer and Rapist
  • Scott LilienfeldSelf - Emory University
  • Mark MoyeSelf - Child Molesting, Sentence: 30 years
  • Robert Sonneborn Jr.Self - Kidnapping, Escape, Battery, Aggravated Battery, Sentence: 38 years
  • Gregory Van RybroekSelf - Mendota Mental Health Institute
  • Essi VidingSelf - University College London
  • Joshua WrightSelf - Murder, Rape, Burglary, Moving Body from Scene of Death. Sentence: 100 years
  • Ian BradySelf
  • Rebecca HarrisonDirector / Producer

 

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