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.

[Student133]

Statistically we'll all have run in to psychopaths, as unfortunately they are more common than we may care to think. I do know ome bloke who is a diagnosed psychopath, but has found a way to live with the condition almost treat it as something he has to control. Hes a lecturer in mental health, and so I suspect this has enabled him to rationalise hiw to overcome his instinct to dominate and exploit, which he says come quite naturally to him. Fortunately he's lived his life to societal good, but something like .5% of the population (more of them men than women) mean that predators are always going to be with us as a species, and quite frankly explains why a lot of the dodgy stuff in human history has occurred, especially as they are normally rather clever.

[Inkpaperstars]

Some of us have probably been operated on by psychopaths, apparently surgeon is a profession known for them.

[TitsOutForHarambe]

Yes. I ended up living in a house share with him. It took me months to realise. He seemed lovely at first - so charming, would do anything for anyone. Gradually I started to feel very uncomfortable around him and eventually that turned into a fear of him. He never actually "did" anything as such - no violence or anything like that. It was more just the slow realisation that he was a very cold and calculated person, and clearly had a lot of experience in manipulating people to get what he wanted. He was from another country and I think he had a dark past, but I never found out what happened in his home country. I don't think I want to know. He seemed to take some interest in me but I moved away to another area (for work, not because of him) and I didn't hear from him again. I don't think it had gotten far enough for him to bother with me. I have no doubt that if he'd especially wanted to find me and insert himself into my life that he absolutely would have done.

[Susannahmoody]

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

^^

Bit off topic, but why IS arson so popular?

[Crinklyoldhag]

My aunts husband. Cruel bastard takes pleasure in his power. Very successful in his field and comes across as the lovely family man but he’s poison.

[AsPerMyLastEmail]

Yes, professionally. A teenager convicted of a heinous rape and murder of a vulnerable person. I had to interact with him and his gleeful grin, dead-eyed look, and behaviour gave me the chills.

However I also also felt sorry for the him; his background was horrendous.

[Thatbliddywoman]

Psychopathy does not necessarily mean someone is nasty and/or will do awful things to people. Some top surgeons for example may be psychopathic in tendency. There's no room for emotion when absolute logic and concentration of technique is required.

However, on the subject, my ex. After I'd being thrown down the stairs in such a way that only luck meant I wasn't killed, told me that they felt 'robbed of emotion ' because no thrill was felt by them and they expected the emotional high of all highs having done it shudder .

[Nenevalleysigns]

Well @Polyxena upthread says it all really.
It’s not easy to differentiate between a psychopath, narcissist, sociopath or a common or garden gaslighter, unless you’re qualified.

My tuppenceworth is my ex. As he strangled me, he was calm, not breathing heavy, not angry, dead behind the eyes (as always). I was going black (passing out) but then spewed up my dinner so he stopped. Whatever I ate that day saved my life probably. I went on to have children with him. Such is the power of emotional manipulation behind him.

There’s numerous other incidents. Yet everyone thinks he’s unassuming, amusing, friendly. His nickname is ‘Mad Max’ in that he’d do irresponsible stuff with cathode rays and body parts, or dangle off ledges.

Pattern is outward charm and false modesty, inside supremely egotistical. They hide behind something big I believe. Their successful career, big personality, perfect family life or charity work, hidden in plain sight.

[MrsTerryPratchett]

In some careers it's basically a requirement. See; surgeons and racing drivers.

There's a test that they do for psychopathy which is this... You show the person one of three types of pictures. Nice, neutral and nasty. e.g. nice is a kitten, neutral is a chair, nasty is a hurt eyeball or similar. Then you puff some air into their eye. A 'normal' person reacts weakly to the puff of air (slow blink, not very crunched up eye) for the nice, more strongly to the neutral and strongest to the nasty (fast blink, very scrunched eye). It's impossible to fake because it's an automatic reaction. People high on psychopathy also have a normal blink for the normal picture but have a weak blink for both the nice AND nasty picture. The hurt eyeball pictures make them less reactive not more. It's kittens to them.

Surgeons and racing drivers feel good slicing into people or getting close to other cars (drivers) at 100 mph.

Next time you watch Saw in a room of people, say "BOO!". The ones that don't jump are the ones to watch

[PurplePansy05]

ThirteenRed

If there's a grain of truth in what you posted, you must know it was entirely inappropriate to post this.

[MrsTerryPratchett]

Bit off topic, but why IS arson so popular?

I've worked with arsonists a bit. IMO (not academic) it presents very like sexual offending. It's compulsive and linked to deep childhood trauma. Difficult to treat. One arsonist had the saddest and most disturbing story I've ever heard. Massively unique so I can't tell it but it was Edgar Allan Poe weird.

[PyongyangKipperbang]

@PurplePansy05

ThirteenRed

If there's a grain of truth in what you posted, you must know it was entirely inappropriate to post this.

Why?

It was not identifying in anyway and anyone who works in the legal profession will meet a far higher number of known psychopaths than the rest of the population.

[frogface69]

Yes, my first husband. Diagnosed in Prison.
I can’t begin to say what he did to his family, me, my pets.
When he died even his parents said well, he can’t destroy any lives now.
No reason could be found as to why he was like that.
A relative is in a secure unit. Been there for 16 years and will not be released any time soon. She would be a terrible menace. Again, no reason. From being very small she was amazingly cunning, calculating and honestly frightening with what she did. Awful as she was so young and only a child.

[Tillygetsit]

Yes. He was a colleague and a friend. He ended up in prison where he was happy and manipulative. A very good looking chap,actually. He was diagnosed with psychopathic tendencies. I actually saw footage of one of his crimes on Crimewatch and said to my friend "That looks just like Simon Bloggs" ( not real name obviously) and we laughed at how ridiculous it would be to see him committing armed robbery on tv. Three days later he wasn't at work. He manipulated one workmate horrendously whilst awaiting trial. Too outing to tell the story but all very nasty indeed.

[MayLeaveADentInYourSofa]

Not sure about him being a psychopath but a kid I knew some years back had some serious issues.

He was about 6 years old at the time and his family moved into my street. My son was the same age and naturally they started playing together. The kid was always troublesome - he'd break things, make a mess, blame it on someone else. Things like that.

But he then tried to kill both my kittens. Luckily they survived their injuries. I also found out he had persuaded another kid in the street (who was about 2 years old I think) to climb up onto a high wall and jump off. The kid climbed up but his mum came before he could jump.

Luckily we moved out not long after these incidents.

[PutThemInTheIronMaiden]

Yes. A child. He gave me the "chills" (which should thrill a couple of posters).

What he disclosed, in the calmest manner, I will never forget.

[Plesky]

@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

Yes, exactly.

[blisstwins]

My ex-husband who is a physician. He left in a cold and calculated way and completely abandoned his children. There are two things he used to say that seemed weird and out of character while we were married, but I realized were revealing later. He used to say he never loses his cool or gets frustrated because he knows he could kill whoever he wanted whenever he wanted and would never get caught because physicians know how and he used to say that everyone eventually ends up in the hospital and he decides who gets pain relief quickly, slowly, or not at all. During our divorce he started to do and say very strange stuff and I came close to moving because I was scared of him. Something is very very wrong and you would never guess it. Also, my cats only ever died when I was not home, always with him. I would not be surprised if he killed him.

[fantasmasgoria1]

Check out athena walker on quora (not her real name). She describes what it's like to be a psychopath etc she's interesting. She also said sometimes people confuse psychopathy with sociopathy.

[Chocaholic9]

I grew up with a sociopath who was diagnosed with a personality disorder.

[Chocaholic9]

...That disorder was NPD. He was so extreme in his abuse and violence I believe he was a sociopath.

[MrsPworkingmummy]

I teach what I describe as the 'hidden' children. Those who have been through the education system and have failed to cope in mainstream, SEN or PRU. We are a step before prison/secure unit. Some of the children are truly chilling and are most certainly the psychopaths/killers of the future

[Lazysundayafternoons]

Working in accounts, I had been in a job for a couple of months and had to ring a client for some information.

He answered the phone and we talked and I just felt really uncomfortable. His voice sounded cold and it just gave me a really bad feeling.

After the call the receptionist told me that the client had been arrested for a nearby murder and had been released. He was later arrested for the same murder again and the case is ongoing.

Before the murder he had been stalking the man's girlfriend, including stealing her underwear from her washing line.

[Goatinthegarden]

I’m not qualified to make any diagnosis, but I had a little boy in my class a few years ago with a very troubled background. He was a very disturbed little boy who had been through much trauma. He has close family members in prison for terrible violence and I have no doubt he also has potential to grow up to do terrible things to other people.

He had a very charming side and was very good at manipulating other children. I cared about him fiercely and tried so hard to help him, but he’s a teenager now and I hear things are not going well for him. I dread to think what he is capable of and worry that I will see his name in the news one day.

I’m not sure whether or not that constitutes as psychopathic though. Certainly a large element of his behaviour is down to the fact that our system has failed him.

[MsTSwift]

A friend of my mothers knew Dennis quite well through their dogs - he was very pleasant she had no qualms about going for walks with him just the two of them. He loved his dog.