Would publicly disclosing a psychopathy diagnosis affect how you viewed a developer's work?

Henrik Andersen — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 22:00:10 +0000

I'm an independent developer working on programming languages, compilers, formal methods, static analysis and software security.

I'm considering publicly disclosing that I have been diagnosed with psychopathy. Before making that decision, I'd like to understand how other developers would actually react to knowing this about someone whose technical work they encounter.

My main question is: would knowing about the diagnosis change how you evaluated the person's technical work?

For example, would it affect:

how seriously you took their programming-language or compiler research;

your willingness to collaborate with them;

your willingness to use software they developed;

how you interpreted their behaviour in an open-source project;

or would you judge the work primarily from source code, reproducible tests, benchmarks, formal arguments and independent verification?

There is also a personal reason I'm considering disclosure. I went through a very difficult period involving psychiatry and trying to understand what was happening to me. I was fortunate to receive help from physics professors. Without the help I received, I don't think I would still be alive today.

That experience is one reason why being open about what happened matters to me. At the same time, I understand that once a diagnosis like this is publicly associated with someone's name and professional work, that association may be effectively permanent.

So I'm interested in candid answers, particularly from developers, researchers, security people and open-source contributors:

Would the disclosure itself change your view of the developer or their work? If so, in what way?

I'm not asking anyone here to assess the diagnosis or provide medical advice. I'm specifically interested in the professional and technical consequences of making such information public.

DEV Community: Henrik Andersen

Would publicly disclosing a psychopathy diagnosis affect how you viewed a developer's work?