Blowing glass flowers: How gender shaped psychopathy in American psychiatry,1906–1941

In 1941, Hervey Cleckley’s The Mask of Sanity crystalized 35 years of American psychiatric negotiation of psychopathy with a durable image of a superficially charming but inherently destructive man. American psychiatric institutions began classifying some patients as psychopaths in 1906 when prominent psychiatrist Adolf Meyer imported the concept from Europe. Initially, American psychopaths were a diverse group of delinquent misfits, weak of will and ill-suited to social life. In the ensuing decades, the psychopath morphed from an unattractive, suggestible failure into a hypermasculine, pitiless achiever. This article traces the concept of psychopathy in American psychiatric literature between Meyer’s introduction and Cleckley’s articulation to show how the ideals of mental hygiene and the narrative power of Cleckley’s portrait contributed to this gendered winnowing of the category.