Diagnosed Psychopath. AMA.

[AMAatall]

I have antisocial personality disorder. This is a spectrum. I fall to one extreme of the spectrum which is referred to as psychopathy. I am a 33 year old woman with a professional career. AMA.

The mistake people are making here is assuming that all psychopaths are the same and respond the same. My brother is a diagnosed psychopath and is a career criminal but he is also life and soul of the party, super generous (though In a slightly narcissistic way) and weirdly a great dad and very patient teacher of various sports (but awful, basically abusive stepdad). He gives no shits about animals but wouldn’t ever hurt them and got quite angry about a local cat killer. He’d hurt people who got in his way/hurt his family. He has a strict black/white moral code but it’s different to ours. Eg he abhors mistreatment of vulnerable people and especially children, but has violently attacked business rivals and the guy who assaulted a female relative. He sees himself as the great arbiter of justic (narcissism trait again there!)

Basically, it’s like autistic people, or people with downs. Yes, some similarities exist with the particular condition, but every single person is an individual and much more than their genetic/personality disorder. Don’t forget, too, that family background, education and gender socialisation impacts personality disorders - see, for eg, how many women are socialised in a way that ‘masks’ or minimises ASD.