Psychopath

Oh, there's Dr Grande! Spent many happy hours listening to him on YT. He gets particularly interested in guns, cars and films.

Ex husband. He was a facade of a person - looked the part but there was nothing behind the image.

I think I've known three.

1. an academic who got in trouble for faking data and who offered students drugs. Just the tip of the iceberg.
2. a woman successful in the arts in a Northern city. When she lived in a Southern city, conned a lot of people out of money.
3. A neighbour. Nefarious behaviour with money and lies.

In all three of them, gift of the gab, charisma, quick to anger.

Martha Stout in the Sociopath Next Door says they use the Pity Play to make others feel sorry for them.

I’m surprised it is only 1%.

But I then is used to work in the finance and that probably attracts more than most.

I work across government agencies collecting information to pull together a picture about serious crimes.

there are plenty of genuine psychopaths in all walks of life. Just as there are plenty of people with brains damaged by severe trauma, unable to comprehend consequence, control impulse and regulate their own emotions.

then you have the untreated mentally ill, undiagnosed cognitive disabilities, chronically addicted.

sometimes you have a mix of all of the above.

I hold my wonderful partner and beautiful child close every night.

I've confused myself actually because I thought that they were both two separate presentations of ASPD but its actually more complex than that
i did abit of research and it seems that some psychologists view psychopathy as being more genetic but can be triggered by trauma,
sociopathic people are more likely to break the laws,
this video explained it better than i can

whenever i think of a psychopath I think of a CEO type person and when I think of a sociopath I think of a drug lord

Boris Johnson, either Psychopath or Village Idiot low IQ hard to tell.

@truthhurts23 thats what I’d been trying to say, I’d thought you’d meant sociopathy was not part of ASPD, sorry for the confusion.

I know that ASPD is the diagnosis and people use the terms sociopathy and psychopathy interchangeably,
but they can have different meanings.
“Sociopath” is an unofficial term to describe a person who has antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), whereas psychopathy describes a set of personality traits. However, ASPD and psychopathy can overlap.

That is so true god knows what happened in detail the throttling sounds like she did something that happened to her.

Yes I do.
In his early 20s, everyone thought he was fabulous. He took quite a bit of pride in having been told once that he was a psychopath. Apparently met the criteria for diagnosis.
Hes pushing 40 now, and it all fits the bill. I feel terrible for his ex wife, his kids, his ex girlfriend, his parents, his siblings.
Seems no one has had a relationship in any capacity with him without being used and abused.
What he did to his wife and parents is like a horror story.

And bear in mind, this happened to her in the years before she turn 10 and committed the murders that she has never, since her original trial, denied or excused.

Mary Bell was unwanted and neglected. Her extended family offered to care for her but her mother refused to allow that, despite not wanting to care for her properly herself. She claims to have been prostituted by her mother (who Bell says was a domatrix prostitute) to men who used her in sadistic sexual acts. If that is true then it would explain the obsession with throttling, and the idea that it was an exciting or fun thing to do.

She was never going to grow up into a happy healthy person.

I'm not sure it's right to say psychopaths don't feel emotions. I think they do, but not from the same triggers. I think the defining trait though is they believe their needs trump other people's. I'm generally quite selfish in an antisocial kind of a way and l tend not to 'feel guilty' for doing my own thing even though I know it upsets people. For example I wouldn't invite a relative round because 'they're on their own' at Xmas....but I want to be on my own and its my Xmas too. My needs outweigh theirs. I do however think I'm fair and if it was me that didn't want to spend Xmas alone, l wouldnt expect an invite.
I don't think psychopaths are fair. Their behaviour differs from say a 'bog standard' PD in that they chose to behave that way. They can modify their behaviour but the don't want to.
I've never met a psychopath....well lm sure I have, but no intimate dealings. I bet many are just seen as successful driven men and whilst things are going to plan they probably seem very nice. Would we actually know?

@truthhurts23 sociopathy is ASPD, it’s on the same spectrum as psychopathy. They’re the same disorder.

I've always thought that cases of child on child murder can't always be put down to the transgressor being a psychopath. Small children just don't have the capacity to grasp the magnitude of the consequences of their actions. Killing another small child would be not much different to them than pulling the wings off a fly.

The concerning thing is that I can somewhat understand a six year old smothering their infant brother. I know I am not a psychopath because I have been assessed, and the possibility discounted, however, like @10HailMarys I also tend to be completely emotionally detached, and although I'm perfectly capable of empathy, it's strictly conditional, and I find it impossible to muster any for things I don't consider deserving of it.

I have a much younger sibling that I can recall contemplating throttling on a number of occasions. The only reason I didn't is because I knew I'd likely be caught, and I didn't want to face the consequences. I had absolutely no time for them then, I still do not, and the only feeling they have ever invoked in me is 'irritant'. I can't recall any feeling of concern at my sibling no longer being around, on the contrary, I found that prospect quite attractive and desirable.

I have absolutely no time or empathy for any small children. The only thing I feel when I hear a baby crying is complete revulsion, and an urge to move as far away from them as I can, as quickly as I can. I have no urge to harm children, but I simultaneously have no urge to placate or soothe them either.

I do not feel this way with adults, in fact, I tend to be overly empathetic and care a bit too much. The emotional detachment helps me in my job, but I also think a total inability to empathise would make it impossible for me to do my job. I've never had any complaints about how I interact with people, nor have I ever had someone say they did not wish to work with me again even though it's made abundantly clear to them that is an option if they aren't comfortable with me. On the contrary, I am constantly given positive feedback, and management returns glowing reports.

Perhaps that's all just smoke and mirrors, but I don't think so. I'm just a bit perturbed as to why I can only feel empathy for adults and not children, but maybe that comes back to having a poor relationship with my own siblings, and only ever resenting them. I have no idea.

its actually a misconception that people who have ASPD are murderers, and its more sociopathic people who would kill someone , no psychopathic people

got to be careful with this one because some autistic people also dont do this social yawning , because they dont interpret the facial cues
actually alot of autistic traits can be mistaken for ASPDs psychopathy and NPD

Oooh very interesting thread! I’ve always thought there are psychopaths who aren’t always murders/commit crimes but ‘have it in them to do so’ and then the ones who do….

I have met a person with sociopathy being part of their personality disorder. I found them very unnerving. I feel emotion strongly, I would not choose to be close to someone with those traits again, it feels extremely unnatural to me that a person cannot feel emotion or that they can be entirely lacking in empathy at all.

Psychopaths do have emotions, but they tend to experience emotions in a different way to others and not always at the time you’d expect, and feel some emotions more strongly than others. Also psychopathy is a spectrum so it will be more severe in some than others.

I am definitely not a psychopath (I lack the recklessness and the confidence and I do have a sense of right and wrong) but I can be very emotionally detached in certain situations.

That is shocking the case of Mary Bell always interested me she murdered two little boys. She would go to the families houses in the weeks afterwards watching there pain. I havent a clue how she was caught she was only 10 at the time. It is terrifying to think she is somewhere with a name change and actually had a child herself.

My DM taught a child who murdered his baby brother by suffocating him with a pillow. He said he found the baby crying annoying.

He was six years old. DM said that he was a ‘cold’ child with few friends, but not intellectually backwards or physically disadvantaged. I don’t know what happened to him. It was more than fifty years ago.

I watched a program on Paris Bennett on netflix it is scary to think a true psychopath could be a family or friend. This boy looked so normal in videos smiling and acting like any other child. He murdered his 4 year old sister after tricking the babysitter to leave early.