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, work colleague who gave me the creeps. Seemed quite proud of his cruelty to local cats. He murdered his wife

I don't know for certain but I had the misfortune of being associated with someone who had pretty much all the traits.

This person lacked empathy and found it amusing that he was hurting someone.
Was abusive psychologically and emotionally.
Did the idealise, devalue and discard cycle over and over.
Ignored moral values and and asked "what's right, what's wrong" when you pointed out behaviour that was definitely morally wrong.
Had no problem lying about anything and everything.
Extremely manipulative and would plant ideas in your head and told you they were your thought and feelings. Basically a gaslighter.
Would confuse you. You don't know where you stood with this person.
Very limited topics of conversation usually about himself or how everyone else was against him because they were envious of him.
Popular with some colleagues. Very good at bantering.
No respect for others' boundaries or privacy.
Extremely selfish and callous. Would do everything to get what he wanted even if it had damaging consequences for others.
Different person in front of others.
Would blame others if things did not go his way or if he did not get what he wanted.
Would do something very shitty and if it didn't work, would blame the other person to make the responsible for the shitty thing they did.
Zero conscience.

Like I said, I can't be certain but after reading up about sociopathy and psychopathy, it made a lot of sense to me and explained why I never felt safe around this person but felt too scared to withdraw.

Yes I believe so.
I once had dinner with my friend’s uncle and his new wife and baby. She had begun writing to him while he was in prison serving 12 years for a frenzied fatal knife attack on his girlfriend.
He was very personable, warm, funny, wanted to make a good impression. I just keep looking at the girlfriend thinking ‘what the fuck are you doing...and a baby too?!’

I don't think I ever have but I find them fascinating. I watched Psychopath on Netflix and it was chilling. It's a Piers Morgan interview, he goes to a prison and interviews a diagnosed psychopath who stabbed his 4yr old sister to death when he was 13, just to upset his mum. The weirdest/chilling thing is his mum says despite what he did, she still loves and cares for him and she visits him regularly. She also has another child now and she allows this child and the psycho one to chat on the phone

So sorry Digadoo. [sa]

These people aren't ill, they're just made differently from the rest of us, and it truly is like dealing with an alien, who looks and talks like a human, but hasn't really learned properly about the finer points of human emotion

^^

V good description I have not known anything like it - I ve never come across anyone like it - I hope I never see him again but its how to protect my dc.

The weirdest/chilling thing is his mum says despite what he did, she still loves and cares for him and she visits him regularly.

I understand you finding this chilling but it really isn't that weird. You love your child even if you hate what they have done. And if the child has done terrible things as a result of a diagnosed condition, you love them and hate their condition.

@unmarkedbythat it's more the fact she allows contact between her younger child (who was 6 at the time of the interview) and the one locked up, despite knowing he is still a danger and that he is up for parole in a few years so will likely be released.

@diggadoo

I ended a relationship with someone I suspect was a psychopath. It was a very peculiar experience. She sat down on the sofa (in my house) and looked shocked, and then her face emptied of all expression. She never said a word. She stayed there for FIVE HOURS without moving. She was looking at the opposite wall steadily the whole time. It was like a mannequin was sitting there. I had no idea what to do, and eventually got on with some housework while she sat there. Eventually, she stood up and left without saying anything, and I've never heard from her since.

The emptiness is completely alien. Like a stepford wife.

These people aren't ill, they're just made differently from the rest of us, and it truly is like dealing with an alien, who looks and talks like a human, but hasn't really learned properly about the finer points of human emotion

Former boss of mine was just like this. Real high flyer in his career (although turned out he’d not done all he claimed but was on to the next job before being found out). Had a few chosen protégés who he was great to because they were his protégés and linked to him. Downright vicious to other people. If he took a dislike to someone he would just go after them, relentlessly, for years.

One person at work he was having an affair with and then treated really horrendously badly, and this all came out in public because it was work. And he picked up that people were really shocked and disapproving of what he’d done. And it was like he was puzzled by it, it really was. Like he just couldn’t grasp why anyone would care.

It’s not the bad way he treated people that stands out to me, it’s that total absence of understanding about why anyone would have a problem with it. Just something missing.

[quote AintNobodyHereButUsChickens]@unmarkedbythat it's more the fact she allows contact between her younger child (who was 6 at the time of the interview) and the one locked up, despite knowing he is still a danger and that he is up for parole in a few years so will likely be released.[/quote]
If he's still a danger he may not be released. Is he in the prison estate or under a 37/41 in the secure mental health estate?

Or maybe because she thinks he will one day be released she's weighed it up and decided the best way of protecting the younger sibling is not to show any "favouritism" (that's a terrible word but I can't think of a better one) towards them and encourage the elder to build a relationship with them so as to see them as a person and not a thing to be damaged?

I don't know. Anyway it's v interesting! Which documentary was it?

Worked for a corporate psychopath.

She was sadistic, dishonest, manipulative and narcissistic. Cold, cunning, calculating..,. Utterly charming until she got what she wanted and then the mask would come off.

She broke the law every single day by employing people illegally. She stole my money and never paid it back. She owed money everywhere and had a habit of ripping off small businesses and vulnerable people.

So many examples of her evil behaviour...

She was a con artist and even used a false name. Even her few friends acknowledged that she used people.

I left after six months and it took me a long time to recover from the experience.

Yes because I used to work on locked wards in psychiatric hospitals and in prisons and they are terrifying, no morals at all, no empathy and eyes like cold fish. Most of them would have thought nothing of taking you apart bit by bit to satisfy their curiosity.

@madcatladyforever You got to see the worst of a bad bunch. What's the opposite of the creme de la creme?

Yes, I had a boss who I, and others, were convinced was a psychopath. I was on maternity leave and heard Jon Ronson describing his new book "The Psychopath Test". It was as though it was written about my boss.
We all started looking into it and she ticked every box.
Very similar to the description of other bosses here.
She was extremely charming. One of the giveaways was rarely she would react completely inappropriately. Would cry at completely uncalled for and awkward moments. I remember reading that psychopaths often dont feel emotions for others but have learned that showing particular emotions makes people like them or gets them what they want. So for example they may must-read a situation and think "ok I should cry now because people will think it shows empathy and it will gain something for me" but their reaction is totally overblown and unnerving.

@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

I never jump when people jump out on me - my big sister used to do it all the time when I was little so I trained myself to not react .

@butterer yes he was convicted and sentenced to 2 life terms.

@unmarkedbythat it's just called Psychopath, it's on Netflix. Unfortunately you do have to endure Piers Morgan.

Piers Morgan? - not envy

But thank you, it really does sound interesting and I'm going to watch it :)

That’s interesting because dd is being assessed. When my grandfather died she just said ‘well he was really old it isn’t a shock.’ When I go into hospital for me, she tends to get quite cross about it and I can always guarantee she will ‘play up’ when I go in.

@Colycola I tend to be pragmatic about older relatives dying but I’m not sure it makes me a psychopath.

Playing up at you going into hospital is probably anxiety.

I believe I was raised by one. :(

I've known three. Completely soulless and absolutely no idea how to feel anything. One really makes an effort and was trying to grow with interpersonal skills. One was a bully and still is absolutely vile.