There seems to be a lot of glorification of and misinformation about psychopaths in the media these days. (The clinical diagnosis of psychopathy is actually antisocial personality disorder, or APD.)
One misconception is that psychopaths have no emotions, like someone who is autistic. Psychopathy is not a neurological disorder, it's a behavioral disorder. And people with autism have emotions, they just have trouble communicating and connecting.
Another misconception is that psychopaths have no emotions, and that makes them superior and powerful. Psychopaths, though they are largely disconnected from their emotions, especially empathy and remorse, do have some emotions, primarily anger and some fear/anxiety. So the idea that being a psychopath is really cool, because you have no emotions is wrong on two different levels. Psychopaths do have some emotions. And the idea that having no emotions would give you some kind of advantage is wrong.
What are the disadvantages of not having emotions?
- You hurt people around you. Since you have no empathy and no remorse, you don’t care that you hurt people. So you lie and manipulate to meet your needs with no concern about how it affects them. You are callous and calculating, manipulative and deceptive, and can't understand why people around you are angry with you.
- You can’t form deep, meaningful relationships with others. Which makes you alone, and that is sad.
- You don’t have your instincts, or gut feeling. And that leaves you fairly defenseless for knowing when things are going on around you. You have to rely solely on reading other people and other people may miss something you would have noticed.
- You miss out on life. Our emotions are how we experience the world. Without emotions you aren’t moved by music, or the smile of your grandchild or a beautiful sunset. You watch other people reacting to these things, but can’t understand why or how or what exactly they are experiencing. So you go from activity to activity trying to feel something, trying to enjoy something - but failing.