Episode #129
Episode 129: Dr. Rasmus Rosenberg Larsen on the PCL-R and the Myth of the Psychopath
Dr. Rasmus Rosenberg Larsen has spent years reviewing the research behind the Hare Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R), a tool that helps shape parole, prison placement, and even capital sentencing decisions. What he found is that many of the core claims about psychopaths aren't supported by the evidence. Dr. Jeremy Koenig sits down with Larsen, a philosopher of science at the University of Toronto Mississauga and author of Psychopathy Unmasked, to look at what the psychopathy diagnosis actually rests on. Larsen's group is building a database to synthesize the roughly 2,300 studies that use the PCL-R. He explains why common claims, like psychopaths lacking emotion or empathy, haven't held up in that research. He traces the idea back to a 1786 speech by Benjamin Rush and walks through how a score of around 30 out of 40 can follow someone through the justice system, even though there's no solid evidence those individuals are meaningfully more dangerous than other offenders. That leaves forensic psychology with an uncomfortable question: if most human wrongdoing comes from psychologically ordinary people, why is the psychopath still treated as a separate category? Dr. Rasmus Rosenberg Larsen is an Assistant Professor of Forensic Epistemology and Philosophy of Science at the University of Toronto Mississauga and author of Psychopathy Unmasked: The Rise and Fall of a Dangerous Diagnosis (MIT Press, 2025). Website: https://www.rasmusrosenberg.com | LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rosenberglarsen LINKS: https://www.drjeremykoenig.com/ https://www.instagram.com/drjeremykoenig/ https://www.youtube.com/@drjeremykoenig Here's the link for this week's episode: https://drjeremykoenig.substack.com/ .
