Diagnosing deviance: psychopathy and the rise of child psychiatry in denmark

In the early twentieth century, the diagnosis of psychopathy was among the most frequently employed in child psychiatry. The issue of "psychopathic children" also attracted considerable attention in the Danish press and political sphere, where proposals for the establishment of specialized homes for such children were actively debated. The history of childhood psychopathy exemplifies how a once-popular psychiatric diagnosis can fall into disrepute within a relatively short span of time. Yet little scholarly attention has been paid to this process. This article argues that psychopathy not only played a central role in the development of child psychiatry in Denmark, but also emerged as an important political topic that brought deviant children into the public spotlight. Drawing on psychiatric case records, institutional documents, and other archival sources, the article examines how the diagnosis was applied, interpreted, and debated both in clinical practice and in the public domain. It also situates the Danish case in a broader international context and discusses possible reasons for the abandonment of psychopathy as a diagnostic category in child psychiatry.