To ask how many genuine sociopaths/psychopaths you've actually met?

[WillGymForPizza]

I strongly suspect that I'm working with someone who is possibly a sociopath. Obviously I'm not a psychiatrist so can't properly diagnose, but Ive met some dodgy and unlikable people in my time and this person takes it to a whole level. I genuinely believe her to be evil. She doesn't appear to have a moral compass and seems to take great pleasure in publicly humiliating her staff. They are all utterly terrified of her.

Most disturbingly of all I work in a Primary School and this person is this person is the headteacher....

How common is this kind of thing? Ive never come across anyone like this before.

And if you read this, I've posted enough info for you to work out who I am.

Virtually nobody outside of your carefully selected group of friends likes you

Plenty of people voluntarily told me this when I outed your shit behaviour. Have a nice life!

I'm surprised at the number of people who are able to successfully diagnose personality disorders on this thread

I don't think anybody has diagnosed. Well, because it's not possible but when you know the signs and know a person they can be quite easy to spot and accurately recognize them for what they are.

People on here have been in close relationships with them so it's a bit off to make out they're all armchair psychiatrists. Although diagnosis is very specialized, they're only going off a tick list themselves with a historical background, which lots of people on here have of a person.

I have met a psycopath, went to school with him.

He’s in prison for rape and murder. I was kind of surprised and kind of not surprised. He’d seemed more “together” as an adult when I’d bumped into him, but evidently he’d just gained masking skills. Turned out everything we’d chatted about whenever we’d crossed paths was a lie though! He was so convincing, it was easy to see how the poor woman who died was taken in.

Is it Mrs Trunchball? She was head at our school. People left in droves. You'll be pleased to know she was eventually escorted from the premises one day!

Yes, an ex friend. He took everyone in for years but has since been unmasked for the vile human being he is. No longer in my life thank god

I have a family member who is a psychopath (official diagnosis from the criminal psychologist on his offender management team, not my armchair diagnosis). He has always come across as very peculiar - prior to his criminal conviction I put it down to his abusive childhood and him being a bit screwed up as a result (not that the two are unconnected: there's research to suggest that displaying psychopathic traits is an epigenetic thing - you need both the genetic predisposition, and childhood trauma to activate the expression of those genes).

One of the things that's interesting about him is that he is actually now more plausible post-therapy than he was before (something the professionals on his management team warned me about; often the result of therapy is to give the offender a nice set of psychobabble buzzwords to draw on to make themselves seem reformed when they are not...) I tried (for the sake of his mum, and also because I do believe that keeping offenders embedded in society rather than marginalised helps to keep them from reoffending) to keep in touch with him, but with very clear boundaries about what he was and wasn't allowed to do - pretty much immediately he violated those boundaries. I have now had to go NC with him.

I work in mental health so a few. What's very upsetting is working with young people who are displaying traits that may lead to such a diagnosis in later life, and knowing nothing we are doing is having much of an effect.

Yes, this is a massive issue with it. It's not treatable, well, nothing that's ever given any particularly encouraging results.

I was watching a documentary on it, one man diagnosed as 39 of 40 was talking the talk. He's changed, he knows he was wrong and now feels extreme sorrow for his actions.

All he had done was successfully mimicked what he was told was acceptable behaviour and parroted what he knows they wanted to hear. It's just another facet of the condition which is what makes it so, so difficult for those around them. He can't suddenly feel extreme sorrow, he's not capable of it.

Met someone with NPD - diagnosed. Awful, awful experience. Young adult.

A few (diagnosed) through work. Plus probably 3 undiagnosed. One of the undiagnosed was a consultant psychiatrist. I asked him if it’d occurred to him that he may be. He agreed he almost certainly was, and felt it was an advantage at work. He was very charming, intelligent and clinical in his decision making. I did make him agree to let me be his conscience in ward rounds and veto what I felt to be heartless decisions (I had to give an intellectual argument as to the benefits of this.)

One adult one and one in the making. It's scary seeing a ten year old with such awful traits.

My manager in a former job, she had most people fooled/charmed but those she didn't like .. she made our lives hell.

In my current job I sit on a multi-agency committee/forum and have just found out she'll be joining it (for a different agency). I seriously considered resigning.

I don't think I've ever met one. Of course, a few people whose moral code is different to mine, but no-one I'd describe as sociopathic or psychopathic.

I score very high in the tests, but i wouldn't physically hurt anyone.

One at work. Vile woman. Hides behind a charming and loving front but deep down is very callous and sly.

Alot of people on here are just assuming evil or horrible people they know are psychopaths, not all psychopaths are bad people.
I'm surprised how many people can correctly diagnose something I'm sure they know very little about (obviously not including health care professionals)

One psychopath who is a work colleague unfortunately

None that I know of. I know some people who are very selfish, but I’m not sure I really know what a narcissist really is because I’m lucky enough not to have come across it and have MH/medical training.

DM had NPD. DP's former colleague, I'm sure was a psychopath.

No, I don't think people are all assuming 'evil' people are. I think they're basing it on observable characteristics that are symptomatic of the condition.

But I suppose it could be argued that 'evil' people presumably have no conscience and therefore do fit criteria. Whatever evil is.

It's really not rocket science when you know what the traits are and repeatedly see them in a person. They don't all grow up killing animals. In fact Ian Brady loved animals and was genuinely gutted when a favourite dog died. He left the proceeds of his book to an animal charity.

But then I'm not positive he was one. Malignant narc, who wanted to shock in the worst way possible.

Never met one but Im completely sure Lance Armstrong is one

@FreddyFasbear my take on your situation is that there could be attachment disorder involved? If you were not emotionally close to your daughter when she was younger (because of how you were parented) then she will be affected by this. Children need to experience themselves as being "joyful" to their primary attachment figure in order to develop the emotional parts of their brains

@SuperHeroMum I also know of a headteacher like this in the midlands, she literally broke people and clearly went from one target to the next. She started off with the weak (less effective) members of staff (ie those who she appeared to have a reason to target) and moved on to me because I became vulnerable in my personal life. When she targeted me, my colleagues realised that no one was safe

@youaremyrain we are close. She is happy, she occasionally says disturbing things. She’s told me she doesn’t care if somebody is hurt. We gel because we are similar. It really isn’t a big deal, honestly, there are so many of us among the population if there really was damage being done it’d be very noticeable. I see it more as a differing perspective of life than a problem.