I forgot to point out the other night that I was a little disappointed they labelled the POTW a "psychopath" for the whole episode, without once referring to any other disorder. I get that it's TV and "psychopath" is easier to understand for the majority of laymen TV watchers, but it's not like House (the show) ever shies away from using real, technically complicated medical jargon. Psychopath is often used colloquially in situations like this POTW, but technically what she displayed was sociopathy, or more technically, an antisocial personality disorder. She was more of a sociopath than a psychopath, I think. She did have a small display of violence, if she did indeed poison that guy, but I still think she fits more with sociopathy.
But isn't "psychopath = violent killer" itself a media myth? Medically speaking, psychopathy is defined as a personality disorder characterized by the lack of empathy and conscience. Quoth Wikipedia: One percent -- that's tens of millions of people in the US alone. Clearly most of them can't be serial killers and supervillains or the whole world would be in chaos (well... more than it is already). Real psychopaths are generally just people who are only out for themselves and don't give a damn about others. Which probably encompasses a large percentage of successful businesspeople, athletes, celebrities, and politicians. So I'd say the characters were using the term accurately while they believed her personality disorder was innate. As it ultimately turned out, her antisocial tendencies were the result of an illness in adolescence, which by the definition above would make her a sociopath rather than a psychopath. But the way psychopathy was defined in this episode was a lot more accurate than the way it usually is in the media.
While there are doctors who have ascribed a diagnostic and definitional label on psychopathy, it generally isn't considered a medical diagnosis by use of the DSM. When I mentioned violence, I didn't mean people labelled psychopaths are all serial killers, but when used colloquially, which professionally psychopath usually is, it's generally because violence is involved. I think in a professional environment, they would probably stick to the DSM-IV. Ic ould be wrong.