Have you ever known someone with these character traits? Psychopath article in the Guardian

[Eyelashesoffire]

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/aug/27/how-to-spot-a-psychopath-its-like-the-difference-between-a-domestic-cat-and-a-wild-cat

I read this article this morning and was thinking of someone I shared a house with, she caused absolute havoc. This article describes a piece of research about people not in prison. Previous research focused on people in prison, so they were more chaotic and had 'been caught'.
Have you ever known anyone like this? I've thankfully never been entangled again with anyone like my old housemate.

From the article describing the research:
Cluster one includes a need for control; a grandiose sense of self; pathological inner response to challenge; vengefulness; refusal to compromise.

Cluster two includes being predatory or exploitative; sadistic and cruel; having a low regard for laws, agreements, social and moral codes; no boundaries in sexual relationships; unreasonable expectations of others.

Cluster three relates to the truth: Dark Personalities cultivate a façade of normality; they are chameleon-like; dishonest; devious and manipulative; and unwilling to accept responsibility for the negative impacts they cause.

Finally, cluster four is around the Dark Personality’s own interior life: their emotions are acted and they do not experience affinity or the joy that comes with it; they are callous and devoid of empathy; unremorseful; self-interested; and brazen.

I think it’s awful that they are running such an irresponsible article. It takes psychiatrists years of training and a long time of observation to spot these people yet the average armchair psychobabbler thinks they can read one Grun article and “spot” them. 🙄 A lot of these symptoms overlap with all sorts of other diagnoses and things like “feels no remorse/joy” or “their emotions are acted” can’t be truly proven from the outside and can also indicate many different PDs.

Sadly yes a male with all of those things including cruelty to animals.

Has got a criminal record for beating up a youth but was not imprisoned.

Coke addiction and started his sons on it at the age of 11 years old.

He comes from a very respectable family.

Darragon, Yes I agree with you if you're actually talking about an official diagnosis but I thought it was interesting what the researcher said
Viding, however, finds the fixation with diagnosis perhaps irrelevant in this context. “I always find the obsession with diagnosing these people interesting. You don’t need to diagnose them, there are a set of personality traits, and you can recognise individuals with those traits.

Having lived with someone like this, it's very interesting to me, maybe just to try and make sense of it all.

And talking about years of training and assessment, I can assure you, it only took a year of living with her to work out something was very wrong, and none of us had any qualifications in psychiatry!

I have studied Criminolgy and forensic psychology and while the article is mainly correct although I skimmed it, now absolutely everyone seems to be diagnosing narcs and psychos everywhere and using all the 'words' to describe everyone around them.

And to add I only studied this having lived with a man who I now know to be a psychopath and did my paper actually on lived experience of living with him. Scares me when I think back to all the things he did but worse all the things he was capable of doing had I not gotten out when I did.

I think the language has maybe diluted now it's reached popular culture?
I've not heard people using this language about everyone around them. As I said I've only ever entangled my life with one person like this and I'm middle aged.

I would just add, I wouldn't know if she was a psychopath or if she had other psychiatric diagnoses, I just would like to avoid people like her who cause havoc around them.

@Anonanonanonagain I'm glad you got away. Was writing about it in your paper therapeutic?
I still see my other housemates and we still talk about her sometimes. I think we're still debriefing in a way.

Sadly my mother is a combination of cluster 1 and 3. I can’t think of a single time in my life she hasn’t had a blood feud with someone.

I think the actual prevalence of narcissism is something like 1-2%. Which makes it weird that according to social media there are so many people accusing their ex-partners of being narcs.

I could name several people with cluster one and two characteristics. Do you need all four or are they saying therea re four kinds of psychopath?

What % of people are thought to be psychopaths?

Not not really, that means in every 100 people one or two would have a narc partner and two to four would have a narc parent.

Don't need all that stuff. We have an easy test with people. Introduce them to the animals.
If an equine doesn't trust them, be very wary. Pony's will literally turn their back on people they don't trust.
If the goats don't respect them, then follow their lead. Goats will form opinions on fairness and empathy about people quick enough.
Leave them alone with your dog and if the dog avoids them afterwards then so should you.
Your cat will tell you plenty, depending on what they feel they need to tell you.
Animals, particularly herd or pack animals, know about intrinsic empathy and conforming to norms. They have to to function.
It's never failed in 50 years. Animals know.

Hmm not sure as often people who can’t operate properly in human company gravitate towards animals as they don’t have to be “human” around them. I will
not go down the hitler loved dogs trope!

i was walking on a coastal path last year and a dog became very distressed around me and wouldn’t walk past me, but didn’t mind my husband . And I’m lovely!

in answer to ops question I’ve had a couple of bosses with very similar traits to the first character described but I won’t have helped as I was a terrible people pleaser /fawner so a more healthy person would have told them to F off.

There's no way of knowing the true prevalence because the only diagnosis is when they are in the criminal justice system or some other formal setting. The vast majority of narcs do not go and get a diagnosis of a personality defect because it is interesting, they are not going looking for labelling. That avoidance is part of what they are. So whilst the term might have been diluted, the ownership of assessing prevalence should not be limited to professions. Reporting lived experience is very much valid within an estimated prevalence.

I think that article is very interesting because it points out the severe limitations in generalizing to all psychopaths from Professor Hare's original research (noted, the article mentions that he said he simply didn't know about the presence and behaviour of psychopaths outside prison)

What's clear is that the pattern of behaviour in dark personalities across various fields of living has not been identified.

It was also interesting that the article mentions that since it is completely forbidden, in the mental health world, to ascribe a person’s suicide to anyone else’s behaviour. I wish people were less politically correct and more willing to assign fault, in a factual manner.

I love this!

I have an ex who I think is a sociopath. The breakup involved cheating and so, so much gaslighting and stalking. He was in residential psychiatric hospital for a year when he was 11. (Found that out later). I always wondered what would have been wrong enough that he had been there for a whole year, at that age, if anyone wants to hazard an armchair diagnosis. It’s got to be risk to others/psychosis or both. I believe that whatever in him woke up at puberty is definitely still there. I saw him on public transport a while ago and there is just something off even though he’s normal looking. I saw on LinkedIn he calls himself CEO of made-up companies. And yes, the neighbour’s overly-friendly cat would not go near him.

I worked with a man who I think probably meets the criteria. He is the only person I’ve ever known that if I found out he’d been arrested for being a serial killer or similar I would not be surprised. I don’t say that lightly or jokingly either. Obviously I have no evidence that he’s committed a crime or I would have done something about it.

My adult stepdaughter, without a doubt, her behaviour is well known within the family so not a wicked stepmother thing, her unpleasant traits are caused by her autism according to her mother. I think not. I wouldn’t leave her alone with a baby, young children or animals.

Yes. My ex husband

WestSussexWitch
Could you give an example of the SDs nastiness please.
I find it easier to understand from actual people and events.
Also same question to OP re the flatmate.
Thanks.

Cluster one includes a need for control; a grandiose sense of self; pathological inner response to challenge; vengefulness; refusal to compromise.

Cluster one seems like a lot of what you often need to be successful in business or at least what you have to do. You have to be in control, you have to have strong belief in yourself and be up for challenges, often push through ideas rather than compromise and yes maybe you don't forgive and forget you get even if someone crosses you or jeopardises your business. I have known a few people like that, some are actually quite nice away from work.

The other clusters are definitely not normal behaviours.

The quality of the Guardian has, frankly, declined a lot in the last 10 years or so.
There are times that it reads like a left-wing Daily Mail.

Because people are not all stupid. They don’t always need a qualification to see what’s in front of them.

Terrible article.

but yes I sadly spent many years living with one. He had his parental rights revoked so we were both safe.