Psychopathy

Psyhopathy is a medical condition which affects about 1% of humanity from birth. It may be due to a variety of causes, but the main symptom is an inability to empathise with other people and form long lasting connections them - a lack of conscience. Psychopaths lack not only empathy for others but some dimensions of self-control, causing their behaviour to be risk seeking and impulsive. As the film The Corporation points out, the lack of responsibility and single focus of corporations incentivies psychopathic behavior by them. Arguably, this is true of all dealings carried out through centralised money, and few economists would argue with the psychopathic nature of the Homo economicus model which underlies modern economics.

Sociopathy
Although some authors use sociopathy interchangeably with psychopathy, David T. Lykken and others draw an important distinction between innate disorder (psychopathy) and one which is not in born but due to environmental factors such as neglect or abuse. The latter he terms 'sociopathy' and in contrast to psychopathy, it is treatable.

Institutional Advancement
The hierarchical nature of modern institutions, particularly those which are organised using money and which operate principally through money, favors the advance of psychopaths for a variety of reasons. The inbuilt expertise of psychopaths to dissimulate (since they have no conscience giving them second thoughts about this) assists their advancement as political leaders, while again, lack of conscience assist their advancement in company hierarchies since their decision making is unencumbered by considerations other than self-advancement.