We can test children and get an estimate of the existence of psychopathic tendencies in them. To be clear, these tendencies don’t make a psychopath by themselves, but the more there are, the more “psychotic” a kid is.
Should a kid be able to be diagnosed with psychopathy?
To give my anecdote, I’m diagnosed borderline psychotic and I whent through therapy as a child and all the way to my adulthood to “fit in” without becoming a danger to anyone. My case is not too bad, since I only have trouble interpreting other people’s emotions instinctively and have ocasional emotional detachement, but a psychopath can cause real harm in society, from bankrupting companies to murder.
james fallons the psychopath inside is a great book about this very subject (sort of). Many C.E.Os lawyers politicians Drs etc would test positive for psychopathy but the number that actually go on to kill or try to hurt people is small so im not sure what good would come labelling a child with that very provocative title once it was applied there would be no taking it back and as we know people are just the worst at jumping to conclussions based on nothing but what they know so no i think it would be a shockingly bad idea
I think it needs to be taken more seriously, at least provided adequate public resources.. Even if a child is borderline ‘anything,’ it can begin some early treatment which would likely go neglected until it became acute in later life. As for the obvious cases, what could/ would be do with a little hitler, or trump, exhibiting their first signs of malignant narcissism..?