Can a Psychopath be saved?

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This is honestly a question which has been puzzling me for a while now. It would seem plausible that they could, by way of rationally aligning themselves with the letter of God’s law, but the Bible says that God judges the heart, which psychopaths don’t seem to have in the biblical sense. Is going to Mass every Sunday and not committing any obvious sins really enough to save them? Is love therefore a bonus and not necessity?

Here’s some bullet points to consider

Pros
  • Being emotionless, they have complete mastery of will; Everything considered must first pass a rational exam before being executing.
  • Being emotionless, it’s plausible that they could simply follow the letter of the law to a T and God would meet them halfway
  • Being emotionless, if they channel their rationality for the Biblical concept of “good”, they could potentially increase merit faster than normal humans, being completely unrestricted by their emotions.
  • Being emotionless and rational beings, they likely aren’t prone to “impulse sins” such as impulse murdering, stealing, dishonoring, etc.
  • Being emotionless, they are likely untethered by lust, anger, desire (and possibly pride), allowing for greater self-control and mortal-sin avoidance in general.
  • Being emotionless, they are unshackled by the grips of fear, and therefore could evangelize better than us normal folk.
  • Since Psychopathy is a mental disorder (a powerful one at that), they would have something huge to unite to the Cross… if they so chose.
Cons
  • Being emotionless, they have complete mastery of will, meaning that a Christ-conscious one even committing the slightest offense would rival even Adam/Eve in sinfulness.
  • Being emotionless, they could simply read the entire Bible and find it “uninteresting”, thus placing them in an even worse spot than before.
  • Being emotionless, even verbal and behavioral offenses would be infinitely graver than that of ours. They may not acknowledge God and the Eucharist with the proper reverence demanded of them.
  • Being emotionless, they likely are fully culpable for every sin they commit (assuming Christ-consciousness), meaning that they’d be repaid the full extent of God’s wrath in the afterlife unless they make it to confession.
  • Being emotionless and untethered by emotion, there exists no “gray area” for them. They either commit an act or they don’t, meaning that if one committed a mortal sin and died before reaching confession, they’d have no buffer space to appeal with; The matter of whether they intended to go or not would be definitive: Yes or No.
  • Being emotionless, they are void of love, sadness, grief, and guilt, providing them several avenues to commit heinous sins that would otherwise be nigh-impossible for the normal man. This means that not only is it possible that they have full culpability, but also that they are more prone to sinning in general.
  • Being emotionless, they may not be able to truly repent in the manner of which is required them.
The Neutral
  • Christ can always heal them.
Thoughts?
 
I’ve wondered this as well. Obviously their mental state would drastically reduce their culpability in sins regarding lack of compassion, empathy, etc.

One of those things we can’t know the answer to definitively.
 
Are psychopaths emotionless? St. Thomas Aquinas considers emotions ‘passions of the soul’. I don’t know that psychopaths don’t have this.
 
Psychopaths and sociopaths are aware that what they are doing has been declared to be wrong, even if they do not agree. The public/authoritative appeal to them is made on the basis that certain wilful acts, i.e. murder are bad for them as it subjects them to punishment. The appeal to self is how progress is made against their behavior in many cases. Empathy and compassion are not generally valid arguments to make with a psychopath as they have an underdeveloped or missing sense of either.

Many, many arguments have been made in both directions, but they have wills, knowledge and consent. Rationalization notwithstanding, they are aware that risk attaches to their actions.

A problem is that they cannot be neatly categorized into definitive groups. Some may lapse partially into the psychosis, in which reality is distorted. In such cases, knowledge is flawed, incomplete or absent.

As it is with each of us, their ultimate fate is in the hands of the Just Judge.
 
Generally speaking, I would say that if the psychopathy is due to a growing sin, it doesn’t mitigate, it is a consequence and compounding. This is why the common excuse from a drunk that he was drinking or on drugs doesn’t help his case. The warnings of society are the initial faux pas to be heeded.
But a head injury that he doesn’t know about or results from a disease are not accountable(studies show that head trauma can cause certain negative effects in personality), or, they can lessen the severity of the conviction. If he can override his impulses to any degree, he would be responsible to the same degree.
 
Psychopaths don’t seem to be inherently drawn to evil, though, just themselves. Combine this with their emotionless nature and it would appear that they’d be more culpable than us. They essentially have complete control over their actions. Yes, some moral concepts may be skewed for them, but they’re never going to, say, bash a brick across someone’s head due to “seeing red” or being “too angry”. Those concepts don’t exist. If a Psychopath decides to do something, it must pass a rational exam before being executed. Whether a Psychopath/Sociopath laughs, cries, screams, or “explodes”, it’s all expedient. From this I’d go as far as to argue Psychopathy to be a gift if used for Holy purposes. Complete Self-Control combined with a thirst for God is a powerful tool for the Kingdom… However, this Self-Control also means that there’s no excuse for any of their sins, whether venial or mortal.

I agree with you; There is no definitive answer. However, if they are taught about the Bible in a complete and honest way, and know the Word of God, I doubt they’ll be any less culpable than us (in fact, they may be more so).
 
Perhaps YouTube apologist Acts17/David Wood, is a good example of Psychopath to Christian 🤔

He’s a widely popular case study for such a question.
 
True psychopathy is likely a mental illness. Mentally ill people are not making entirely free will decisions and thus may have diminished responsibility for what they do. Only God knows for sure, and will judge the person based on his or her capabilities.
 
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It’s definitely a mental disorder, however I don’t believe there is a way to prove this. I personally (at least) have never seen a Psychopath state that they “lost control” or “didn’t have control over [themselves]”, they typically state that everything was part of their elaborate scheme. Psychologists also haven’t (in my experience) mentioned anything about impaired decision making, simply that they likely don’t have emotions and shouldn’t be trusted.

Remember that evil is simply the absence of good; A Psychopath’s situation is less of an evil-proclivity, and more of the absence of proclivity itself. It’s not that they can’t help doing evil, it’s simply that good/evil means nothing to them. Perhaps that could mitigate culpability, but humans are still free, especially emotionless ones.
 
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The thief’s name is St. Dismas by the way. 'Love that man. His story is truly a touching one.

Digression aside, this is true. But not everyone gets divinely shaken like Saul, Dismas, Apostles, Moses, Noah, etc. This question is directed more towards the common populace than God’s “chosen” ones. So yes, God can and has worked through even psychopaths and other heinous criminals (such as Ted Bundy), however these are exceptions and not the rule.
 
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TheNeutral said:
It’s definitely a mental disorder, however I don’t believe there is a way to prove this.
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I’m sure that God is able to deal with it in his usual just and merciful way.

I don’t think it really does us any good to speculate on “can a psychopath” (or any other category of people) “be saved?” Ultimately it’s God’s decision and he makes it based on the individual person. I’m sure God has “saved” some of everything under the sun, and probably some of everything under the sun has been d**mned too. (Asterisks because if I say “that word” the post automatically goes to a mod for review which means it never shows up.)
 
Completely possible.
The question I have is are they truly emotionless? I would say no. We WANT our emotions to flow forth from rationality, and not be thrown every which way by winds of emotion.

Repentance is not a mere feeling, but a decision. You don’t want to offend God, so you don’t want to sin any more.
 
What about that Neurologist who discovered he was a psychopath? He seemed pretty normal, had a family. I don’t think their incapable of loving, they just have a hard time understanding the pain in others.
 
Thinking about this further your points are based on whether psychopaths have emotions. I think they do. But let’s say they don’t. I don’t see how it can matter. The Angels don’t have emotions, yet many of them fell and will be sent to Hell.

A point you could make against this is that it is proper to human nature to have emotions. But I don’t see that as being an excuse as having emotions are a mitigating factor for when we do sin.
 
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