Psychopath

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I've just learnt apparently one per cent of the population is a psychopath.
But generally not in the film way (e.g American Psycho) but in an actual mental health way (e.g high impulsivity/low boredom threshold/egocentric/superficially charming/liars).
There's the Hare Checklist which I've got really into.
But what it boils down is that they don't seem to feel emotions.
I can't comprehend this - I get angry and sad and anxious and all the emotions - and am fascinated. One per seems huge.
Does anyone think they know a psychopath? Genuinely? This isn't an AIBU BTW. I'm honestly just really interested.

Most psychopaths are usually quite successful in life, high up in business and they don't care who they step on to get there and are usually highly intelligent so if anyone doesn't think they know one look at your bosses, ceo ect you might be surprised

All these descriptions sound just like Boris Johnson!

• The superficial charm
• The constant lies
• Manipulative
• Compulsive liar
• Cheating, intimidating, impulsive
• Low boredom threshold

etc. etc.

I think its closer to 3%. Yes, I know 1 for sure. Another 2 I suspect may have psychopathic tendencies but I'm they might just be narcissists lacking in empathy. Neither is diagnosed.

It's a scale, so not entirely black and white. The psychopath I know is incredibly charming, but the mask eventually slips. My ex terrorised me, he was a violent psychopath and is in jail now for abusing women. He had a formal diagnosis. But was the most charming person I'd ever met initially. They are frighteningly manipulative and I'd always considered myself strong and worldly but this guy was something else, it took me years to recover from our relationship.

Yes. Pretty sure my late sibling was. Pretty much on all 20 counts.

Not violent at all and fabulous company, I still miss them very much. Ironically the person they hurt the most was themself.

I would imagine all prime ministers would score high on testing for psychopathic traits

It would be interesting to see how he scores. He probably is a psychopath.

I used to work with someone who had very little empathy for others. I truly would not like to be married to this woman, that’s for sure! If I heard she murdered someone I would not be surprised in the slightest. Even thinking about her leaves me absolutely cold and it’s been years since I’ve seen her! I wonder if she was a psychopath in a diagnosable sense? Would be interesting to find out! (And then I’d go into hiding because… omg).

My ex was a sociopath and now in prison for an awful crime. Was always something off about him, no empathy etc. He was diagnosed during sentencing and described as a danger to society. Biggest clue for me was that he sincerely believed social rules didn't apply to him.

This whole thread leaves me feeling cold. The gaslighting, the feeling you’ve lost your mind. Lying to your face when you both know it’s a massive lie, and the lie is ridiculous. But you still question it as you lose your mind. The grand public gestures. The look in the eye that means trouble. The rage and anger from nowhere. Never taking responsibility for anything. Knocking anyone over to get to the top.

When I say "hurt", I think "damaged" would be a better word.

Anyway, on a lighter note, when anyone yawns in our office, any subsequent yawners will declare they're "not a psychopath!" in a very childish manner 😁

Most psychopaths aren't violent I don't know why this condition is always wrongly portrayed in media where most people think psychopaths are violent or serial killers its just not accurate.

My Aunt was married to a Psycopath, she commit suicide. His actions after made us realise who he really was, a lot of what you describe is like him.

In many years of working as a doctor I came across lots of people who fulfilled the criteria for psychopathy. Some were patients, often with a formal diagnosis, or members of patients' families, and it was very easy for a well-intentioned health care worker with a belief that humans are intrinsically good to get pulled into these people's games and then given a kicking. Some were health care professionals, of whom many were very successful in their careers, adored by their patients, and often superficially co-operative but would drop a colleague in the shit for their own advancement or even just for their own amusement.

Most successful politicians/world leaders would probably score highly on psychopathic tests. It is not a job for those who have genuine empathy whilst having to often make decisions that will harm thousands. Many long-standing politicians are charismatic or have very strong ‘character traits’. That’s the difference between someone like Johnston or Trump vs someone like Gordon Brown or Liz Truss. It’s very clear it’s not about policies in general, a great liar with charisma could convince the populace that a turd rolled in glitter is a bar of solid gold.

I don’t think I’ve met anyone in real life that is a psychopath. Certainly egotists and narcissists but not true psychopaths. There is one person on a social media platform though, the absolute scream psychopath in their behaviour and actions. I’d place a good £5 that they’d meet the criteria.

A couple of points to mention- psychopath and sociopath are interchangeable terms. Psychopath is medical, sociopath was created by the media.

Be careful not to mix up psychopathy with narcissistic personality disorder. There is a lot of symptom overlap.

I taught a psychopath in my 2nd year of teaching. Raised it to the SENDCO and was ignored. He's in prison now.

I believe that I have met 2 in my lifetime.
One is a serial cheat. Charismatic and charming to draw people in. But has a horrible temper, very domineering, he is always right no matter what, arrogant and no empathy for others despite always telling people what a lovely and caring guy he is. Has various addictions and is a raging hypocrite. Uses people and discards when they are no longer of use.
Another one is similar in a lot of ways. Very vacuous and shallow. Lies a lot. Shocking lack of empathy, histrionic in her behaviour, fake, and very much uses people for what she can get out of them. Once she bitched for hours about her boss and him not being in work. I later found out that he was with his dying girlfriend (which she knew and conveniently didn't mention.).

I was thinking the same

I mistakenly told my kids this. Now when a yawn moves through us like a Mexican wave they are inspecting us closely. Sometimes when I'm driving I hear a "You didnt yawn you psychopath " 🤣🤣.
I'm yawning now just writing this #definitelynotapsychopath

i'm a neuroscientist working in a closely related field, and I can confidently state that the 'yawning' test does NOT work.

If you had a group of psychopaths and a group of non-psychopaths and show them yawns, on average the psychopaths might yawn a bit less - say 5 yawns out of 10 chances rather than 7 yawns out of 10 chances like the non-psychopaths. but there is no way you can use that to make a diagnosis.

One of the strongest features of psychopathy is lack of fear and failure to recognize when someone else is afraid. Lack of guilt is also very common.

Also, psychopaths don't really care about punishment and don't learn from punishment, which makes is very hard to find ways to improve their behaviour.

@parietal I'm so interested in it. As if they are such apt liars and such good actors then... how do you know? Can proper professionals generally tell if someone is?

We all assume psychopaths are murderers, but actually the psychopaths who have been the product of abusive/neglectful upbringing turn into the rose wests. The well brought up psychopaths turn into ceo's.

And racing drivers, fire fighters, rescue divers, all sorts. Anything where feeling empathy too deeply and caring too much about risk or other people is a problem.

My favourite psychopathy fact is about eyes. Pupillary response and startle response in psychopaths differ from typical. If you show people the following then both measure their dilation and puff some air in their eye:

A. Nice images (puppies/people smiling)
B. Neutral images (a table/a Hoover)
C. Nasty images (and eye hanging out/well you can imagine)

Generally our pupils dilate when we are emotional and our startle response increases the nastier something is. So a normal person would dilate for A and C and startle for B a little more and C a lot more. A psychopath would dilate ONLY for A and startle more for B than A or C.

Which could mean it's not that they can't process emotion. Rather that they process negative emotions more like the rest of us process positive. They process positive the same way we all do. And that could mean that putting psychopaths in positive, happy environments is very important, far more than for the rest of us.

TL:DR if you think someone is a psychopaths, watch a horror film and blow in their eye.

I work with a child who I think might be a psychopath - they are certainly very similar in many ways to the description above. It’s a very sad situation and I worry for that child quite a lot. They are also very very hard to work with, because they are so abusive.

im not a psychologist though, so in no position to diagnose!!

See my post about eyes!

The potential one I'm thinking of has no real emotions and seems like a robot...

He has Neen white hot wifh rage but would nt shout etc... Keeps it under or on rod of cool. He sort if shirts up breath deeply and his eyes are going really odd but I doubt you would ever see him shout or bang something...

I find that extremely scary..

The lack of fear is so interesting; I never knew that. So if a psychopath gets cornered by a snarling Rottweiler, they wouldn't be afraid? Is it something physically different in the structure of their brains? I am so intrigued by the idea of not knowing what fear feels like - I can see how that would make a person very different to others and how it could be a factor in being very successful in life (in the right circumstances). And it also makes that person terrifying - if they're afraid of nothing and don't feel empathy then how do you stop them doing what they want?