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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To wonder how many Sociopaths you have come across?

221 replies

Impsandelves · 14/02/2012 22:58

Just read The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout after hearing it mentioned in another thread.

I feel as though I could list possibly 2 family members, a couple of friends past and present, as sociopaths to some degree.

Am I being unreasonably paranoid?! Or do you feel you have come across a few too?

OP posts:
MixedBerries · 15/02/2012 12:50

For what it's worth, it is a bugbear of mine that mental health diagnoses are bandied about and used to refer to behaviour that is completely within the normal spectrum. Bipolar seems to be a popular one in the media at the moment. Or people saying "Oh my God, I had a panic attack" when they didn't actually have a panic attack. They were flustered or worried. Or people saying "I'm so depressed about it" when they're not. They're a bit down or upset temporarily.

Chubfuddler · 15/02/2012 12:50

Well I haven't written to my fathers GP to demand my armchair analysis is entered on his medical records, so I fail to see the harm or danger you warn against.

TheParan0idAndr0id · 15/02/2012 12:50

Um, thats debated by the top experts in the field, and is still not properly defined. Whats the basis for your assertion?

MixedBerries · 15/02/2012 12:52

Sorry Lyingwitch, I didn't realise you were quoting from further up. Apologies.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 15/02/2012 12:54

No problem, MixedBerries, I should have said so. I don't think that 4% is accurate anyway, there's too much variability, degrees of condition, undiagnosed/wrongly diagnosed. The mind boggles!

Lunabelly · 15/02/2012 12:54

Edna - maybe people wish to 'diagnose' because the thought that someone has a disorder is easier to deal with than the thought of someone being pure evil.

I've pored over the criteria and ExNDN certainly ticks all the boxes.

Her MO is this. Become your friend. Draw you out. Worm her way in, convince you she's your best friend, take over your life, go after your husband, then when you find out and take objection, she'll stalk and harrass you, bully you because A) you object to this behaviour and, of course B) it's all your fault anyway. She'll bombard you with texts, letters, go in your garden and pull plants up etc, make your life hell because you don't want to be her friend anymore, display terrifying behaviour in YOUR home (that the police tell you warranted a 999 call) cackle through the walls until fuck'o'clock, try to turn people against you, shadow your every move, and get her husband (who is fully aware of what she's done, to you and others) to have a go at you outside the school because you were apparently giving her dirty looks (I wasn't and I always wear shades out anyway so how would anyone know); I told him some home truths.

The ONLY reason I forgave DarlingHusband was because I discovered we were simply the latest in a long line. It's what she does, it's what she's doing right now.

The annoying thing is that the previous Christmas I had a niggling feeling that she wasn't as sweetness and light as she made out. Stories that didn't add up, the long line of ex-best-friends, things like that. But I dismissed my subconscious thought. Of course, I would go through it all again because ultimately, repairing the marriage led to the birth of my monderful son. However, if I had my time again, I would have dialled 999 on 'the night of the demon', and I would have bitchslapped her before hopping into the removal van. (I think she instinctively knows how to choose victims who won't retaliate though Angry )

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 15/02/2012 12:56

But there's a danger of making the criteria 'fit', lunabelly. Little knowledge really is a dangerous thing. It doesn't mean that the person you're referring to is or isn't one, just that you don't know.

TheParan0idAndr0id · 15/02/2012 12:57

It might be easier but its not OK. Inaccurate and loose labelling makes the perception of mental health issues more difficult, and life harder for those that have them.
You wouldn't confidently assert someone was autistic from a list on a website, or that they had cancer, or anything else other than a MH problem.

Its unfair, its inaccurate, its knobbish.

Megatron · 15/02/2012 12:58

I don't think so. Have met plenty of total bastards over the years though.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 15/02/2012 12:59

yy to knobbish... very apt.

pourmeanotherglass · 15/02/2012 13:01

I don't think I've met one. Reading the profile someone linked to, I don't think I know anyone that extreme. I'm assuming it is quite rare?

redrubyshoes · 15/02/2012 13:02

I had a boss once who was such an astonishingly glib liar that it took your breath away to witness it, he was also emotionally very, very cold and sarcastic and I swear he hated women.

The most chilling part was he could literally turn 180 degrees in a split second if someone appeared on the scene that he wanted to impress. It was as if he had two totally separate personalities and he could produce them on cue, his whole manner and demeanour changed before your very eyes.

He left to retrain to become a pastor of his church.

I genuinely hated him.

Lunabelly · 15/02/2012 13:03

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe - I am more than happy to call ExNDN an evil cuntbitch from hell instead Grin :( Angry :) But she told me things that - if true - certainly bolster my sociopath opinion...

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 15/02/2012 13:06

Luna... great idea, find a shortform that you like of 'evil cuntbitch from hell'... Grin

Lunabelly · 15/02/2012 13:09

I do not think it's knobbish to try to find a reason why someone would set out to drive you to the brink of suicide. As I said, I think most people find a 'label' reason easier to deal with than the thought of someone being wicked or personally attacking them. It's easier to think someone 'can't help it', imho.

(For the record, I live with MH issues - depression and anxiety etc)

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 15/02/2012 13:13

I know what you mean Luna but a misplaced 'label' can do an awful lot of damage.

It's human nature though, I think, to want to know the reason for things being the way they are.

PerryCombover · 15/02/2012 13:14

One

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 15/02/2012 13:17

My mother does this; it drives me mad and makes me disregard much of what she says because she's already analysed and put her slant on so many things, they're not 'authentic' anymore.

Ten years ago she was reading up on ME, diagnosed herself with it, got muddled up and told me she had MS. I was beside myself - and then in a fury about it. When I visit her, she's 'scannng' me, analysing... saying things like "Oh, your eyes look puffy, your blood pressure must be high". I remind her that it's low, has always been so, checked recently (by a doctor)... and she then says, "Oh, they must be puffy because it's low then"... what can you do with someone like that? Confused

I love my mum dearly but if she were on this thread she would have taken it over by now and diagnosed everybody on it... Grin

BalloonSlayer · 15/02/2012 13:21

I don't think I know any.

So it makes sense that someone else knows "my" four, IYSWIM.

TheParan0idAndr0id · 15/02/2012 13:22
  1. something, not 4.
Lunabelly · 15/02/2012 13:25

I see what you mean LyingWitchInTheWardrobe, but is EvilCuntbitchFromHell any better? :o

We're all human, and as you rightly say, it's human nature to want to know reasons why. Centuries ago, some conditions were blamed on demonic possession. Now they tend to have medical or psychiatric labels. A god drove his chariot across the sky to bring the sun. Now we say it's (insert complicated science here).

Speaking as someone on the receiving end of ECBFH, my mind finds it easier to believe that she can't help it, than to think my family was targetted. Does that make sense to anyone apart from me?

toodles · 15/02/2012 13:26

I don't think I've met one. Met a few people who fit bits of the criteria though, which I think is normal.

TheParan0idAndr0id · 15/02/2012 13:26

You can tell yourself she can't help it, but you can't diagnose a psychiatric condition. Its that simple.

Proudnscary · 15/02/2012 13:27

I think many, many A list celebrities are sociopaths. The traits are probably very useful when you want to get to the top in an utterly ruthless world.

Lunabelly · 15/02/2012 13:28

An unknown psychiatric reason why someone can't help it?