Have any of you met a true 'psychopath'

[Hearnoevilspeaknoevil]

Just wondering.
I watched Des last week and found it chilling. The utter ordinariness of Dennis Nielsen and the normalising his awful crimes.
I was thinking how terms like psycho are so overused and often used to describe overly angry or irrational behaviour.
I believe it's more about a very controlling person who operates outside any 'normal' behaviour boundaries.
I've only met one person who I would say is a psycho. Some with narcissistic traits, plenty of angry people but that cold dead reasoning and complete lack of empathy or even humanity, is much rarer.
Interested to see what others think. Or have experienced.

Yes, when I worked in youth justice.

cold eyes
I can think of a few "cold eyes" people, I can think of a couple of people who had narcissistic and sociopathic traits but I don't know if they were The full Monty🤔
Loads and loads of selfish arrogant bastards

A few. It goes with the territory in my line of work, although the reason I work with them is not specifically because they are psychopaths.

Yes, l have. All professionally. They are / were dangerous and good at what they do. A fair few were arsonist

No, but I'm absolutely certain that someone I know is a sociopath

Yes - an ex manager of mine. Very charming and generally well-liked.
Pity about their many and varied psychopathic traits. Honestly made my blood run cold; I left rather than directly work with them anymore because they really enjoyed manipulating and gaslighting the team and pitting people against each other. It was all a game and we were the pieces. Utter lack of empathy.

They are in a very, very senior role now. Still makes me shudder; I've rarely been scared by people, but they really frightened me.

Sounds exactly like something my autistic sister would say. She's otherwise lovely but doesn't experience mourning in the same way neurotypical people experience it. It would be incomprehensible to her to mourn or feel sadness about the death of someone entirely unknown to her. What would be the point?

She would verbalise great sadness at no longer being able to see a close relative who had passed because she would be sad about it, but she wouldn't really reminisce or yearn for them to not be dead or be emotional about memories or lost futures with a person, because how would that be of any use to her?

If it's autism then it's just logic rather than being 'scary'.

This is me. I don't go to funerals because I see them as pointlessly maudlin. I didn't go to my own fathers and I wont attend my mothers when she goes either.

I'm autistic, and I did wonder for a while whether I was a psychopath, but I've been assured I'm not.

Yes

I work in forensic mental health. And no they are not all charming it’s a myth. The are not all like Ted Bundy. Some have felt quite threatening and enjoy that they are others not so much some charming others and other have little in the way of social skills Some appear to form some form of relationship(s) others not even form superficial relationships

Have also worked with many that certainly have less empathy or quite highly narcissistic (ruthless very horrible bosses I worked in finance) but i don’t believe they were psychopaths

[quote ThirteenRed]@PurplePansy05 Yep[/quote]
Wowser😲

My dad. Not just without a conscience, but without any concept of what a conscience is or why other people might have one. He played the role of daddy pretty well when i was a kid, but when I grew up, he told me straight out he preferred me as a kid because I didn't have opinions then. He told me he was glad he had a child, but he wished it wasn't me. He has no idea of why a parent ought not to say things like that.

He manages to be an empty shell of a man and at the same time, have very strong belief that he is always right, and the whole world is wrong. Haven't spoken to him for years.

@XDownwiththissortofthingX

Sounds exactly like something my autistic sister would say. She's otherwise lovely but doesn't experience mourning in the same way neurotypical people experience it. It would be incomprehensible to her to mourn or feel sadness about the death of someone entirely unknown to her. What would be the point?

She would verbalise great sadness at no longer being able to see a close relative who had passed because she would be sad about it, but she wouldn't really reminisce or yearn for them to not be dead or be emotional about memories or lost futures with a person, because how would that be of any use to her?

If it's autism then it's just logic rather than being 'scary'.

This is me. I don't go to funerals because I see them as pointlessly maudlin. I didn't go to my own fathers and I wont attend my mothers when she goes either.

I'm autistic, and I did wonder for a while whether I was a psychopath, but I've been assured I'm not.

Oftentimes you go for other people, to support them when they need. To just not go because you find them maudlin is very cold indeed, not everything is about you.

@Heffalooomia I won't elaborate but it was amazing to watch!

Not knowingly, no.

OuiOuiKitty Many with a diagnosis of autism experience the world in a different way to those that don’t

We should be encouraging that someone can express what they are feeling or expressing Their thoughts rather than just expect them to feel or think in a way that’s considered the norm

Oftentimes you go for other people, to support them when they need. To just not go because you find them maudlin is very cold indeed, not everything is about you

It's not just because they're maudlin. I refuse to be an active participant in indulging other people's bizarre notions of spirituality and rituals involving corpses. The entire thing is utterly ridiculous. There are plenty of other people available to provide 'support' for people who feel the need of it.

I believe the CEO at where I used to work was one. Totally dead in his eyes, absolutely zero empathy, a narcissist and a complete control freak. Very charming when it suited him. Also a total sleazebag calling women darling and touching them on the arm 🤢🤮 He was truly vile.

Yes I believe I have met someone with Narcissistic Personality Disorder and they would make inappropriate comments about death, joke about the funeral you had attended, blame people for dying in accidents for being fools.
It’s very different to someone on the autism spectrum I have to say, an autistic person wouldn’t say such things staring you down in a quiet corner then switch to a kindly concern when another person passes by.
I’ve said it before, this woman once flew off the handle (about nothing, as per) threatened to attack me, and stared me down and I knew then that if she could do it and get away with it, she’d kill me, no doubt.
Fortunately or unfortunately I’ve met two more since then. It is as a pp said fascinating to watch them “perform” and weave together half-truths, arrogance, contradict themselves and admit to doing so whilst not admitting to anything. And all the time with the wrong emotions flickering across their face. Glee when they should be worried or upset.

A relative of mine is a Psychiatrist and has worked in secure units (not broad or but similar) He can only speak in general terms but has said that some of the backgrounds of some of the most seriously disturbed people are often unbelievably awful. He says it’s weird as he can feel sorry for them at the same time as thinking they are truly evil.

He has also commented that arson is more popular than you would imagine.

Not all psychopaths are criminals, if they had a good upbringing and a stable home life, you will find them working very successfully in Wall Street.

The author of the Hare test always said that he regretted spending so much time learning about psychopaths in prison when there were so many out here working in high flying positions.

Psychopathy is part of the B group cluster of mental disorders and like all mental disorders there is a spectrum. One doesn't have to be a crazed serial killer to be a psychopath. Studies say at least one % of the population are psychopaths and as many as one in five corporate bosses are, so it's possible, if not probable that many of the MN's posters who say they know one know very well what they are talking about. The behavior of even a 'mild' psychopath is so different to the norm that it's very easy to spot those behaviors again once you have experienced a relationship with one personally.

The bloke that raped me. Rape was more exciting for him than sex, he got off on it.

Oh and how my ex laughed when he said my family shouldn't hate him,

'They should be glad I'm around as the fact I'm around shows you're well, because when you're ill, I withdraw- ha ha ha!'

He thought that was hilarious.

@Polyxena

This thread will be full of people MNer have taken a dislike to and decide to armchair diagnose as psychopaths. Just the same as every exH and Mil is a narc.

Expect a lot of chills (multiplying), Bad Feelings, Genuine Beliefs, Read About It Online and other spurious assertions

Pretty much what I was about to post