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.

Yes I do.
In his early 20s, everyone thought he was fabulous. He took quite a bit of pride in having been told once that he was a psychopath. Apparently met the criteria for diagnosis.
Hes pushing 40 now, and it all fits the bill. I feel terrible for his ex wife, his kids, his ex girlfriend, his parents, his siblings.
Seems no one has had a relationship in any capacity with him without being used and abused.
What he did to his wife and parents is like a horror story.

That is so true god knows what happened in detail the throttling sounds like she did something that happened to her.

I know that ASPD is the diagnosis and people use the terms sociopathy and psychopathy interchangeably,
but they can have different meanings.
“Sociopath” is an unofficial term to describe a person who has antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), whereas psychopathy describes a set of personality traits. However, ASPD and psychopathy can overlap.

@truthhurts23 thats what I’d been trying to say, I’d thought you’d meant sociopathy was not part of ASPD, sorry for the confusion.

Boris Johnson, either Psychopath or Village Idiot low IQ hard to tell.

I've confused myself actually because I thought that they were both two separate presentations of ASPD but its actually more complex than that
i did abit of research and it seems that some psychologists view psychopathy as being more genetic but can be triggered by trauma,
sociopathic people are more likely to break the laws,
this video explained it better than i can

whenever i think of a psychopath I think of a CEO type person and when I think of a sociopath I think of a drug lord

I work across government agencies collecting information to pull together a picture about serious crimes.

there are plenty of genuine psychopaths in all walks of life. Just as there are plenty of people with brains damaged by severe trauma, unable to comprehend consequence, control impulse and regulate their own emotions.

then you have the untreated mentally ill, undiagnosed cognitive disabilities, chronically addicted.

sometimes you have a mix of all of the above.

I hold my wonderful partner and beautiful child close every night.

I’m surprised it is only 1%.

But I then is used to work in the finance and that probably attracts more than most.

I think I've known three.

1. an academic who got in trouble for faking data and who offered students drugs. Just the tip of the iceberg.
2. a woman successful in the arts in a Northern city. When she lived in a Southern city, conned a lot of people out of money.
3. A neighbour. Nefarious behaviour with money and lies.

In all three of them, gift of the gab, charisma, quick to anger.

Martha Stout in the Sociopath Next Door says they use the Pity Play to make others feel sorry for them.

Ex husband. He was a facade of a person - looked the part but there was nothing behind the image.

Oh, there's Dr Grande! Spent many happy hours listening to him on YT. He gets particularly interested in guns, cars and films.

Yes, I believe a former landlady of mine was a sociopath.

She would lie constantly, showed up for inspections with no notice, feeling the law didn't apply to her and would fly off the handle in an attempt to manipulate and intimidate whenever I asked her to do maintenance (such as repairing or replacing faulty appliances that were in the rental when I moved in). She was abusive and exploitative.

I was also assaulted by a FWB and looking back I believe he was a sociopath, too.

I was told by a therapist that my mother was a sociopath. She was a registered nurse and she told her now husband that if he ever had a heart attack she would pretend she didn't notice and walk in the other direction, leaving him to die. She didn't want the bother of living with someone whose health might be impacted negatively by having had a heart attack. He was very hurt by this and they used to argue about it.

I have a sibling diagnosed with ASPD, he's not my favourite person tbh and try to have as little contact as possible
I also looked after a young offender ( very violent crimes and now serving a long prison sentence) who was diagnosed too. In four years he never put a foot wrong in my home and always appeared lovely and respectful towards me. The psychiatrist commented on the relationship and explained I was meeting his needs and was extremely useful......scary stuff

You've described my exH.

I think they are plentiful in the upper echelons of business. They grow in nurturing families but rampage around businesses rather than killing people

Me too! He immediately sprung to mind on reading the descriptors.

I am the same. I have almost no empathy for most people. I mask a lot in that I know the ‘normal’ response for things but in truth, I don’t feel it much. My husband is very similar and we both score pretty highly. The only points that show we are not psychopaths are that we are motivated by consequences, neither of us have a history of crime / delinquency and we don’t take unnecessary risks, although I’ve taught myself this last one as I definitely have a ‘fuck it’ attitude which is not helpful in life.

What I will say though is I do feel empathy for people I care about (as does he) - just not everyone. My husband does very well in his job and his ‘cold’ outlook has certainly been a big factor in this. I only realised we weren’t entirely usual when we discussed the scale with others and most people score very low. I mainly just see myself as more robust than most people - and less caught up in the superfluity of general emotion.

@montecarlo7 the second one on my list, the woman... when she was briefly married she told me that she was disgusted by her husband when he was ill.

Pretty much all of the Conservative party are psychopaths aren't they? Probably plenty in other parties too. They certainly present as that. Self absorbed, no empathy, only decide on a policy if they themselves benefit from it. Most of them smirk when being challenged like they are enjoying being cruel and the others get angry. The finest examples are in government.

One of the best examples on TV was this woman on a programme called 24 hours in police custody who was imprisoned for plotting the murder of her ex. It was riveting viewing. She had a bit of a munchaussens vibe about her too and was very dramatic.

Yes I do, my father, diagnosed.

Other people’s pain can be their entertainment, they have no capacity whatsoever for empathy or compassion. Everything is a cold calculation that serves solely their needs. They have huge problems with controlling anger. In my experience they don’t ‘feel’ love, other people are there to complete or serve a function of some kind. They control rather than feel love for others. Iron fist kind of stuff.

They are chilling people to live with, I felt an almost constant sense of danger as a child, and later an adult.

Please don’t abuse the condition of a psychopath with thousands of people that simply hold different views to you. It’s this kind of politicising that helps no one.

Both my sister and sister in law fit the psychopath bill.

The problem is... sometimes people who have been deeply traumatised can detach so expertly in order to cope, that they recount it as though it happened to someone else and they just watched it on last night's news.

Doesn't mean they're a psychopaths.