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Psychology of a psychopath


Psychopathy | Psychology Today

Psychopath

Reviewed by Psychology Today Staff

Psychopathy is a condition characterized by the absence of empathy and the blunting of other affective states. Callousness, detachment, and a lack of empathy enable psychopaths to be highly manipulative. Nevertheless, psychopathy is among the most difficult disorders to spot.

Psychopaths can appear normal, even charming. Underneath, they lack any semblance of conscience. Their antisocial nature inclines them often (but by no means always) to criminality.

Psychopaths spark popular fascination and clinical anguish: Adult psychopathy is largely resistant to treatment, though programs exist to treat callous, unemotional youth in hopes of preventing them from maturing into psychopaths.

Brain anatomy, genetics, and a person’s environment may all contribute to the development of psychopathic traits. For more on causes, symptoms, and treatments of the related condition called antisocial personality disorder, see our Diagnosis Dictionary.

Contents
  • Signs of a Psychopath
  • Psychopathy, Sociopathy, and ASPD
  • Psychopaths and Violence

The Signs of a Psychopath

Psychopathy is a spectrum disorder and can be diagnosed using the 20-item Hare Psychopathy Checklist, which features traits such as lack of empathy, pathological lying, and impulsivity, each scored on a three-point scale based on whether the item does not apply (0), applies to a certain extent (1), or fully applies (2) to the individual. The bar for clinical psychopathy is a score of 30 or higher; serial killer Ted Bundy scored 39.

The checklist was developed in the 1970s by the Canadian researcher Robert Hare. A true assessment should be conducted by a mental health professional.

The revised version of the checklist includes the following characteristics:

  • Glibness/superficial charm

  • Grandiose sense of self-worth

  • Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom

  • Pathological lying

  • Conning/manipulative

  • Lack of remorse or guilt

  • Shallow affect (i.e., reduced emotional responses)

  • Callous/lack of empathy

  • Parasitic lifestyle

  • Poor behavioral controls

  • Promiscuous sexual behavior

  • Early behavioral problems

  • Lack of realistic, long-term goals

  • Impulsivity

  • Irresponsibility

  • Failure to accept responsibility for one's own actions

  • Many short-term marital relationships

  • Juvenile delinquency

  • Revocation of conditional release (from prison)

  • Criminal versatility (i. e., commits diverse types of crimes)

What percentage of people are psychopaths?

Psychopaths exist across cultures and ethnic groups. It has been estimated that approximately 1 percent of males and 0.3-0.7 percent of females could be classified as psychopaths. An individual may show elevated levels of multiple traits associated with psychopathy without qualifying as a psychopath according to a measure such as the Hare checklist.

When does psychopathy begin?

An individual may exhibit early characteristics associated with psychopathy—called “callous-unemotional traits”—as early as childhood (before age 10) and may receive a formal diagnosis such as conduct disorder. However, showing psychopathic features in childhood does not mean that a person will necessarily become an adult psychopath.

What causes someone to become a psychopath?

Like other personality traits, psychopathic traits are substantially influenced by genetics, though research suggests that non-genetic factors are involved as well. Scientists have observed signs of atypical functioning of particular brain areas (such as the amygdala) in people with psychopathic traits. But there is much to be learned about the causes of such differences.

How is a psychopath diagnosed?

The Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) and the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI) are the tests used by clinicians and forensic psychologists to assess antisocial behavior. Both focus on criteria that capture a callous unconcern for others, or what the PPI terms “coldheartedness.”

Can a psychopath be cured?

A high score on an established measure of psychopathy signals traits (such as callousness) that could pose a serious obstacle to successful therapy. There is evidence that psychopathic traits and associated antisocial behaviors can wane over the lifespan, but the extent to which psychopathic traits can be altered by therapy is not fully known.

How do I know whether I’m a psychopath?

The classic adage is that if you have to ask whether you’re a narcissist, you aren't. Not so with psychopathy. Some suspect that they have the condition because they lack appropriate empathic and affective responses from a young age. The only way to be certain is to consult a mental health professional and seek testing.

Psychopathy, Sociopathy, and Antisocial Personality Disorder

Individuals with antisocial personalities have distinct histories and combinations of traits—and their misbehavior can vary in nature and severity—so the terminology used to describe such people can get a little complicated. People often conflate the terms “psychopath” and “sociopath” or use both of them to describe those who flagrantly disregard moral rules.

While these terms are widely used in clinical and common language, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) uses neither “psychopath” nor “sociopath” as diagnostic terms. These descriptions are most closely represented in the DSM by a condition called antisocial personality disorder (ASPD).

What is the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath?

The terms “psychopath” and “sociopath” are often used interchangeably, but a “sociopath” refers to a person with antisocial tendencies that are ascribed to social or environmental factors, whereas psychopathic traits are thought to be more innate. That said, both genetic and non-genetic causes likely play a role in shaping any person with antisocial traits.

What is the difference between psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder?

Antisocial personality disorder overlaps with psychopathy, but is not the same condition. A person can meet the criteria for antisocial personality disorder—which focus largely on antisocial behaviors—without showing core traits associated with psychopathy. Psychopaths are thought to comprise just a fraction of people with antisocial personality disorder.

Is there more than one kind of psychopath?

One conception of psychopathy separates “primary psychopathy” and “secondary psychopathy,” with the latter type showing more anxiety and emotional instability and attributed to environmental factors such as early mistreatment. Psychopaths can show significant temperamental differences and may come in distinct variants; it is unlikely, however, that any type is caused solely by genetics or parenting.

Are female psychopaths different from male psychopaths?

Men are more likely than women to meet the clinical bar for psychopathy, but even among psychopaths, females appear to be distinct in some ways. For example, research suggests that female psychopaths tend to be less physically violent than males and may have more anxiety and worse self-image.

Psychopaths and Violence

For some, “psychopath” may seem synonymous with “criminal” or “killer," but the reality of psychopathy is more complicated. Scientists have indeed found statistical associations between psychopathy scores and violent behavior, as well as other forms of criminality. Elevated impulsiveness, tendency to deflect blame, and other antisocial traits may make a psychopath more inclined than other people to cross moral boundaries and threaten, hurt, or kill.

Yet the link between psychopathy and violence is far from one-to-one. Not all psychopaths are killers or even criminals, and there are other personality traits and forms of pathology aside from psychopathy that may contribute to aggressive behavior.

How many psychopaths are killers?

It is unknown how many psychopaths commit severe acts of violence. Among convicted killers, more than a quarter could be considered psychopaths (compared to about 1 percent of the general population), according to one estimate—and there’s evidence that psychopathic criminals are more likely to re-offend. But many psychopaths do not have histories of violence.

Are all serial killers psychopaths?

Do psychopaths feel fear?

While psychopaths do not seem to completely lack the ability to experience fear, research suggests that they have a muted fear response to threats, which may make them more likely to engage in risky behavior. “Fearlessness” is one of the traits assessed by an alternative psychopathy test called the Psychopathic Personality Inventory.

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The Hidden Suffering of the Psychopath

The psychopath has the image of a cold, heartless, inhuman being. But do all psychopaths show a complete lack of normal emotional capacities and empathy?

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Psychopathy is characterized by diagnostic features such as superficial charm, high intelligence, poor judgment and failure to learn from experience, pathological egocentricity and incapacity for love, lack of remorse or shame, impulsivity, grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, manipulative behavior, poor self-control, promiscuous sexual behavior, juvenile delinquency, and criminal versatility, among others. 1,2 As a consequence of these criteria, the image of the psychopath is that of a cold, heartless, inhuman being. But do all psychopaths show a complete lack of normal emotional capacities and empathy?

Like healthy people, many psychopaths love their parents, spouse, children, and pets in their own way, but they have difficulty in loving and trusting the rest of the world. Furthermore, psychopaths suffer emotionally as a consequence of separation, divorce, death of a beloved person, or dissatisfaction with their own deviant behavior.3

Sources of Sadness

Psychopaths can suffer emotional pain for a variety of reasons. As with anyone else, psychopaths have a deep wish to be loved and cared for. This desire remains frequently unfulfilled, however, because it is obviously not easy for another person to get close to someone with such repellent personality characteristics. Psychopaths are at least periodically aware of the effects of their behavior on others and can be genuinely saddened by their inability to control it. The lives of most psychopaths are devoid of a stable social network or warm, close bonds.

The life histories of psychopaths are often characterized by a chaotic family life, lack of parental attention and guidance, parental substance abuse and antisocial behavior, poor relationships, divorce, and adverse neighborhoods.4 These persons may feel that they are prisoners of their own etiological determination and believe that they had, in comparison with normal people, fewer opportunities or advantages in life.

Despite their outward arrogance, psychopaths feel inferior to others and know they are stigmatized by their own behavior. Some psychopaths are superficially adapted to their environment and are even popular, but they feel they must carefully hide their true nature because it will not be acceptable to others. This leaves psychopaths with a difficult choice: adapt and participate in an empty, unreal life, or do not adapt and live a lonely life isolated from the social community. They see the love and friendship others share and feel dejected knowing they will never be part of it.

Psychopaths are known for needing excessive stimulation, but most foolhardy adventures only end in disillusionment because of conflicts with others and unrealistic expectations. Furthermore, many psychopaths are disheartened by their inability to control their sensation-seeking and are repeatedly confronted with their weaknesses. Although they may attempt to change, low fear response and associated inability to learn from experiences lead to repeated negative, frustrating, and depressing confrontations, including trouble with the justice system.

As psychopaths age, they are not able to continue their energy-consuming lifestyle and become burned-out and depressed while they look back on their restless life full of interpersonal discontentment. Their health deteriorates as the effects of their recklessness accumulate.

Violent psychopaths

  • Ultimately they reach a point of no return, where they feel they have cut through the last thin connection with the normal world

Risk factors

  • Hidden suffering, loneliness, and lack of self-esteem are risk factors for violent, criminal behavior in psychopaths

Emotional Pain and Violence

Social isolation, loneliness, and associated emotional pain in psychopaths may precede violent criminal acts. 5 They believe that the whole world is against them and eventually become convinced that they deserve special privileges or rights to satisfy their desires. As psychopathic serial killers Jeffrey Dahmer and Dennis Nilsen expressed, violent psychopaths ultimately reach a point of no return, where they feel they have cut through the last thin connection with the normal world. Subsequently, their sadness and suffering increase, and their crimes become more and more bizarre.6

Dahmer and Nilsen have stated that they killed simply for company.5 Both men had no friends and their only social contacts were occasional encounters in homosexual bars. Nilsen watched television and talked for hours with the dead bodies of his victims; Dahmer consumed parts of his victims’ bodies in order to become one with them: he believed that in this way his victims lived further in his body.6

For the rest of us, it is unimaginable that these men were so lonely-yet they describe their loneliness and social failures as unbearably painful. Each created his own sadistic universe to avenge his experiences of rejection, abuse, humiliation, neglect, and emotional suffering.

Dahmer and Nilsen claimed that they did not enjoy the killing act itself. Dahmer tried to make zombies of his victims by injecting acid into their brains after he had numbed them with sleeping pills. He wanted complete control over his victims, but when that failed, he killed them. Nilsen felt much more comfortable with dead bodies than with living people-the dead could not leave him. He wrote poems and spoke tender words to the dead bodies, using them as long as possible for company. In other violent psychopaths, a relationship has been found between the intensity of sadness and loneliness and the degree of violence, recklessness, and impulsivity.5,6

Self-Destruction

Violent psychopaths are at high risk for targeting their aggression toward themselves as much as toward others. A considerable number of psychopaths die a violent death a relatively short time after discharge from forensic psychiatric treatment as a result of their own behavior (for instance, as a consequence of risky driving or involvement in dangerous situations). 7 Psychopaths may feel that all life is worthless, including their own.3,5,6

Treatment

In the past decade, neurobiological explanations have become available for many of the traits of psychopathy. For example, impulsivity, recklessness/irresponsibility, hostility, and aggressiveness may be determined by abnormal levels of neurochemicals, including monoamine oxidase (MAO), serotonin and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid, triiodothyronine, free thyroxine, testosterone, cortisol, adrenocorticotropic hormone, and hormones of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal and hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axes.8

Other features, such as sensation-seeking and an incapacity to learn from experiences, might be linked to cortical underarousal.4 Sensation-seeking could also be related to low levels of MAO and cortisol and high concentrations of gonadal hormones, as well as reduced prefrontal gray matter volume.9 Many psychopaths can thus be considered, at least to some degree, victims of neurobiologically determined behavioral abnormalities that, in turn, create a fixed gulf between them and the rest of the world.

It may be possible to diminish traits such as sensation-seeking, impulsivity, aggression, and related emotional pain with the help of psychotherapy, psychopharmacotherapy, and/or neurofeedback. Long-term psychotherapy (at least 5 years) seems effective in some categories of psychopaths, in so far as psychopathic personality traits may diminish.10-12

Psychotherapy alone may be insufficient to improve symptoms. Psychopharmacotherapy may help normalize neurobiological functions and related behavior/personality traits.13 Lithium is impressive in treating antisocial, aggressive, and assaultive behavior.14 Hollander15 found that mood stabilizers, such as divalproex, SSRIs, MAOIs, and neuroleptics, have documented efficacy in treating aggression and affective instability in impulsive patients. There have been no controlled studies of psychopharmacotherapy for other core features of psychopathy.

Cortical underarousal and low autonomic activity-reactivity can be substantially reduced with the help of adaptive neurofeedback techniques. 16,17

CASE VIGNETTE

Norman was raised by his aunt; his parents were divorced and neither was capable of or interested in caring for him. As a child and adolescent, he had numerous encounters with law enforcement for joyriding, theft, burglary, fraud, and assault and battery. He was sent to reform school twice. When he was 21, he was convicted of armed robbery and served 1½ years in jail. His only close friend was another violent criminal; he had many short-term relationships with girlfriends. At 29, he killed two strangers in a bar who had insulted him and was sentenced to forensic psychiatric treatment. The diagnosis was psychopathy, according to Hare’s psychopathy checklist.2

Norman showed little improvement over the course of 7 years of behavioral psychotherapy and became less and less motivated. The staff of the forensic psychiatric hospital considered him untreatable and intended to stop all treatment attempts. Norman’s lawyer arranged for an examination by a forensic neurologist, who subsequently found that Norman suffered from severe cortical underarousal, serotonin and MAO abnormalities, and concentration problems.

Treatment with D,L-fenfluramine, a serotonin-releasing drug, was started. (Fenfluramine was voluntarily withdrawn from the US market in 1997.) Acute challenge doses (0.2 mg/kg to 0.4 mg/kg) produced significant dose-dependent decreases in impulsive and aggressive responses. After 1 month, an MAOI (pargyline, 10 mg/kg) and psychodynamic psychotherapy were added. Pargyline produced some normalization of his EEG pattern and was titrated to 20 mg/kg over 5 months. Neurofeedback was started after 2 months and continued for 15 months. His EEG pattern gradually normalized, and his capacity for concentration and attention increased.

Norman continued to receive D,L-fenfluramine and psychotherapy for 2 years, at which point he was discharged from forensic treatment. He voluntarily continued psychotherapy for an additional 3 years and, in the 4 years since his release, has not reoffended.

Conclusions

It is extremely important to recognize hidden suffering, loneliness, and lack of self-esteem as risk factors for violent, criminal behavior in psychopaths. Studying the statements of violent criminal psychopaths sheds light on their striking and specific vulnerability and emotional pain. More experimental psychopharmacotherapy, neurofeedback, and combined psychotherapy research is needed to prevent and treat psychopathic behavior.

The current picture of the psychopath is incomplete because emotional suffering and loneliness are ignored. When these aspects are considered, our conception of the psychopath goes beyond the heartless and becomes more human.

 

Note to readers- This article was originally published in Psychiatric Times and posted on PsychiatricTimes.com in 2006. Ever since, it has remained one of the best-read articles. We re-publish it here with updates from Dr Martens.

 

Disclosures:

Dr Martens is Chair of the W. Kahn Institute of Theoretical Psychiatry and Neuroscience. He is also Psychiatry Advisor of the European Commission (Leonardo da Vinci) and a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

References

1. Cleckley HM. Mask of Sanity: An Attempt to Clarify Some Issues About the So-Called Psychopathic Personality. 6th ed. St Louis: CV Mosby Co; 1982.

2. Hare RD, Harpur TJ, Hakstian AR, et al. The revised psychopathy checklist: descriptive statistics, reliability, and factor structure. Psychol Assess. 1990;2:338-341.

3. Martens W. Hidden suffering of the psychopath: new insight on basis of self-reports of psychopaths; 2013. Accessed September 15, 2014. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/304901

4. Martens WHJ. Antisocial and psychopathic personality disorders: causes, course and remission: a review article. Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol. 2000;44:406-430.

5. Martens WH, Palermo GB. Loneliness and associated violent antisocial behavior: analysis of the case reports of Jeffrey Dahmer and Dennis Nilsen. Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol. 2005;49:298-307.

6. Martens WH. Sadism linked to loneliness: psychodynamic dimensions of the sadistic serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Psychoanal Rev. 2011;98:493-514.

7. Black DW, Baumgard CH, Bell SE, Kao C. Death rates in 71 men with antisocial personality disorder: a comparison with general population mortality. Psychosomatics. 1996;37:131-136.

8. Martens WHJ. A new multidimensional model of antisocial personality disorder. Am J Forensic Psychiatry. 2005;25:59-73.

9. Raine A, Lencz T, Bihrle S, et al. Reduced prefrontal gray matter volume and reduced autonomic activity in antisocial personality disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2000;57:119-127.

10. Dolan B, Coid J. Psychopathic and Antisocial Personality Disorders: Treatment and Research Issues. London: Gaskell; 1993.

11. Dolan B. Therapeutic community treatment for severe personality disorders. In: Millon T, Simonsen E, Birket-Smith M, Davis RD, eds. Psychopathy: Antisocial, Criminal, and Violent Behaviors. New York: Guilford Press; 1998:407-438.

12. Sanislow CA, McGlashan TH. Treatment outcome of personality disorders. Can J Psychiatry. 1998;43:237-250.

13. Martens WH. Criminality and moral dysfunctions: neurologic, biochemical and genetic dimensions. Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol. 2002;46:170-182.

14. Bloom FE, Kupfer DJ, eds. Psychopharmacology: The Fourth Generation of Progress. New York: Raven Press; 1994.

15. Hollander E. Managing aggressive behavior in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder and borderline personality disorder. J Clin Psychiatry. 1999;60(suppl 15):38-44.

16. Martens WH. Effects of antisocial or social attitudes on neurobiological functions. Med Hypotheses. 2001;56:664-671.

17. Raine A. Autonomic nervous system factors underlying disinhibited, antisocial, and violent behavior. Biosocial perspectives and treatment implications. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1996;794:46-59.

90,000 how to recognize a psychopath?

In society there are always people with non-standard thinking, impulsive, perky character - favorites of the public, playing a specific role, hidden behind a mask of fictitious feelings. Emotional openness or psychopathy - a deliberate plan of action in achieving goals? You can determine the subtle play of nature, you just have to wait for the right moment.

What is psychopathy?

The word psychopathy consists of two parts: "psyche" in Greek - soul and "pathos" - suffering. Psychopathy is a congenital or acquired in early childhood deviation in the functioning of the nervous system. Deformed development of volitional character traits that expresses the personality in society. Signs of psychopathy appear in early childhood, such behavior in psychologically healthy people does not occur in adulthood:

  • high vulnerability of feelings, developing into an uncontrolled outburst of negative emotions - one of the main signs of psychopathy;
  • unrestrained character, hard to adapt personality in social terms - quarrels with relatives and colleagues based on personal self-hypnosis of a psychopath, a tendency to embellish circumstances;
  • indifference to the feelings and problems of other people, disregard for the norms of social behavior, the manifestation of violence and aggression to achieve personal needs;
  • psychopaths do not have feelings of guilt, making mistakes that entailed punishment is not subject to analysis - experience.

Psychopathy in psychology

A psychopath is originally an egoist, it is important for him to be in the center of attention, and no matter for what reason. The desire of a person to become a leader and attract the attention of others is the norm for him. Emotionally unbalanced individuals suffering from psychopathy can easily betray, they are cowardly. A psychopath easily turns an important task assigned, but not completed, into a scandal.

Psychologists answer the question whether psychopathy is a disease or a character, a non-affirmative answer is the line between a healthy and pathological state of the psyche. Such personalities do not suffer from dementia or low intelligence, they are often successfully realized in creative professions that require expressions of an emotional state.

Psychopaths are great at manipulating the feelings of others, pretending to be a victim or expressing "genuine" sympathy. Symptoms of psychopathy are often confused with manifestations of neuroses.

Sociopath and psychopath - the difference

A distinctive feature that distinguishes a psychopath from a sociopath is remorse. A psychopath does not have such at all, and a sociopath has hesitations about bad deeds. A sociopath, unlike a psychopath, finds it difficult to pretend in society to achieve benefits; in communicating with others, he openly demonstrates personal interests, often makes rash spontaneous actions. A psychopath, on the contrary, never publicly recognizes a personal interest, and it is easy to pretend to achieve what you want, sometimes developing tactics of behavior.

Psychopathy - causes

Psychopathy occurs on the basis of birth trauma of the head, encephalitis, genetic predisposition and as a result of improper upbringing of the child, alcoholism of parents. If life circumstances that cause psychopathic syndromes in a person are minimized, then the manifestation of symptoms decreases. The first signs of psychopathy appear in early childhood and over the years become more pronounced - exacerbation of symptoms that form antisocial behavior of the individual.

Signs of a psychopath

There are a number of behavioral signs to recognize a psychopath. Ignoring the general norms of behavior for a person suffering from psychopathy is the standard. The psychopath lacks the skills to establish social connections, there are no long-term friendships. To determine psychopathy, a person must have several essential characteristics, congenital or acquired over the years, qualities:

  • short sleep duration;
  • lack of gratitude;
  • high rancor;
  • inconsistency and a bunch of started unfinished business;
  • frequent change of work and stereotypes of thinking;
  • permanent false;
  • own moral laws, far from legal norms;
  • instant occurrence of states of rage;
  • accusing the opponent of lies and shortcomings, at the slightest conflict;
  • frequent change of character masks, convincing play on the feelings of other people;
  • lack of long-term love relationships;
  • extreme hobbies;
  • sexual perversity;
  • baseless jealousy;
  • no danger reflex;
  • possessing attractiveness and charm, the presence of high intellectual inclinations;
  • non-standard points of thinking.

Psychopathy - signs in men

Thoughtful tactics of behavior in society, excellent disguise of real facts, is inherent in male psychopaths. It is difficult to recognize a man as a psychopath with a short acquaintance. High success at work and business, an attractive demeanor and high activity - thought out to the smallest detail behavior in society. A woman caught in the network of a psychopath sees the real face of her chosen one late - domestic violence is a norm for him that cannot be eradicated.

Psychopathy - signs in women

Psychopathy in women is manifested by signs of irascibility and emotional imbalance, frequent depression. Callousness of the soul and neglect of the feelings of loved ones are habitual for her. A psychopath woman is of interest to most men, her cold calculation is built on personal interests, there is no feeling of love, but selfishness is developed, which manifests itself in adolescence.


What are psychopaths afraid of?

You can determine the type of behavior of a psychopath by applying the rules of behavior, they will help to establish communication in a team, smooth out the sharp edges of relations between relatives. The best way out is to avoid the manipulation of feelings, in the interests of the psychopath. The disease psychopathy is usually divided into groups, with the main symptom characterizing a particular type of personality disorder:

  1. Paranoid psychopathy - individuals with this disorder suspect everyone of bad intentions, are extremely observant, meticulous and curious about someone else's life, the manifestation of emotions in others, who are prescribed insidious plans.

  2. Schizoid psychopathy - such people do not like to express emotions and communicate, choosing a profession, they prefer work with minimal human contact.

  3. Hysterical psychopathy - individuals with such a disorder are afraid to be left without attention to their person, creative abilities, they react sharply to criticism.

  4. Excitable psychopathy - such psychopaths are characterized by groundless bouts of anger, jealousy, high demands on others, frequent dysphoria. Excitable psychopaths are rude and boorish, aggressive and easy to beat, prone to committing crimes.

  5. Psychasthenic psychopathy - cowardice and insecurity, these individuals are far from reality - dreamy, prone to unreasonable self-criticism.

  6. Affective psychopathy - characterized by constant mood swings, pronounced dissatisfaction with life, the search for artificial pleasure stimulants - drugs, alcohol.

  7. Unstable psychopathy - lack of willpower, a high degree of suggestibility and obedience from others. Having agreed with the opponent completely, such a person does not fulfill these promises.

A psychopath in a relationship with a woman

Playing on the feelings of a partner is a psychopath's favorite thing, Getting away from a psychopath is not easy, he asks for forgiveness in an acting way, with tears in his eyes, makes a promise not to repeat or resorts to threats - a close look at the frightened sacrifice, gives him pleasure. In moments of aggravation of relations, one should not cry and justify one's behavior, insult in response to comments, make promises.

Wife and children, close relatives suffer emotionally from a psychopath husband. The decision to abandon the psychopathic tyrant must be final. Returning back to the psychopath, the woman in the following scandals will receive an enhanced method of pressure, she will be attacked by the tyrant with particular anger, she will receive psychological trauma that increases the self-esteem of the psychopath aggressor.


How to deal with a psychopath?

How to communicate with a psychopath if circumstances require contact? You need to know - he is not interested in someone else's point of view, the psychopath skillfully disguises his own interests behind an affirmative consent, followed by a surge of emotions. It is useless to enter into disputes with such personalities, if possible, listen to the arguments in the affirmative, redirect the conversation to a neutral zone, where the opponent is an ally.


Psychopathy - treatment

A diagnosis of personality psychopathy made by a doctor requires treatment. The initial stage will be explanatory conversations, family psychotherapeutic consultation, and the technique of hypnosis can be used. If after such methods of exposure there is no improvement in the condition, then drug therapy is prescribed. A strict selection of psychotropic drugs is carried out by a psychiatrist.


Famous psychopaths

Giftedness or madness of a person that influenced the course of history and the development of science - there is no clear division of the outstanding abilities of a talented person. However, a significant contribution to history was made by people with completely flawed characters, and those who had an unbearable character and a reprehensible reputation. Famous psychopaths who have contributed to the culture and history of mankind.

  1. Vincent van Gogh - a brilliant artist with signs of psychopathy, had the technique of quick drawing and writing letters, cut off his ear during an exacerbation of psychopathy.

  2. Ludwig van Beethoven - the famous composer fell into depression, bordering on psychopathy, tended to treatment with opium and alcohol.

  3. Isaac Newton - physicist and mathematician suffered from sudden mood swings, it was problematic to communicate with him due to psychopathy.

  4. Edgar Allan Poe - the author of psychological thrillers suffered from psychopathy, had an alcoholic addiction, published a fictitious news story about a balloon trip across the ocean.

  5. Abraham Lincoln - President of the United States - an interesting personality, was prone to prolonged melancholy, developing into a prolonged depression.

Psychopaths - Human Psychology

Psychopaths rarely weigh the pros and cons before doing anything. “I did it because I felt like it” is their standard excuse.
Robert D. Hare

Let's talk about psychopaths in this article. Once upon a time, I studied this topic quite thoroughly. But since then a lot of water has flowed under the bridge. Maybe something in this matter has already changed, I didn’t check it, because I don’t see much point in this, since the people themselves, who are usually called psychopaths and who behave exactly the way psychopaths behave, have remained as they were. From which side you do not approach them, how not to explain the reason for their behavior and the state of their psyche, all the same, the main thing that distinguishes them from normal people remains the same. This is what I will tell you in this article. Because, in my opinion, it is very important to be able to recognize a psychopath in time in order not to let him harm you and other people.

Who is a psychopath

So, the main question is, who is a psychopath? I will answer it in parts and in detail, so that everything is very clear. A psychopath is a person with a personality disorder. Personality disorder is a pathology. And pathology is a deviation from the norm in the body, that is, an abnormal state, I would even say, some kind of damage to the body, in particular, damage to the brain, which affects a person’s perception of this world, his thinking, and psyche. It turns out that psychopaths are people with a damaged or, one might say, with an underdeveloped, underformed brain, and therefore with an unhealthy psyche, with inferior thinking. All this is expressed in the antisocial behavior of such people. That is, in behavior aimed at wrecking other people or, at best, at an indifferent or even soulless attitude towards them.

Thus, psychopaths are not sick people who were normal at first, and then became disabled for one reason or another. People with antisocial behavior who become so in the process of life are called differently. This will be discussed below. No, psychopaths are people who are inherently defective to some extent. I personally think that they are born like that, and do not become, as some people think, in childhood. It is even possible that this is not such a pathology, not a deviation from the norm, but simply a genetically programmed condition that is characteristic of a certain percentage of people in society, which should be characteristic of a certain number of people in society. That is, I admit the idea that nature needs psychopaths, that's why they appear. And a person is in no way able to influence this. These are, let's say, not defective people who, for one reason or another, were born inferior, from the point of view of a normal person who has empathy, the ability to empathize, who does not have inappropriate aggression against other people, and so on, these are people of a certain type, which, according to the idea of ​​nature, should be in society. But this is my version. I cannot prove it, but it is also difficult to refute it in order to reject it as false.

The world of psychopaths

The world of psychopaths is not what it is for other people. Psychopaths perceive reality differently. They act as if there are no other people in this world who need to be reckoned with, whose interests need to be coordinated with their interests, so that there are no conflicts and disagreements, and so that no one suffers from their psychopathic actions. But these people believe that only their interests matter, and the interests of everyone else are unimportant, they can be neglected. Worse, they often defend their interests with the help of force, if they can use it. They behave like angry selfish children, ready to explode, if only everything was the way they want. You know how sometimes children say to their parents or grandparents: “What if you died / died!” Because adults forbid them something, punish them for something. Of course, many of them do not understand what they are saying, they do not understand what the death of a loved one means, and even one on which your well-being depends. But at the moment when they say this, they feel sincere anger, they really wish death to their loved ones. This is the state of mind that psychopaths are in all the time. They would gladly kill everyone or otherwise harm people - they would intimidate them, suppress them, if only they could, so that they would do whatever they wanted.

And some children, if they are psychopaths, can move from words to deeds. And they pass. They make attempts to kill their parents, other relatives, brothers and sisters if they don't like something. And there are cases where they succeed. And this suggests that such children do not understand at all what they are doing, except for their complete indifference to such actions. This is not just anger, this is completely absurd hostility, aggressiveness, expressed in senseless, inappropriate violence. If a normal child, having matured, moves away from such crazy thoughts when he wants to kill someone, because of his whims, well, it happens when such bad thoughts come to children's minds and they talk about it, then the psychopath will continue to treat them like that. people all their lives. If something is wrong, not according to him, he is ready to kill everyone. And when he has the opportunity, he does it. Such people become criminals - murderers, maniacs, torturers, sadists, who are even pleased to bring pain to others and take their lives.

The world of psychopaths is a world of violence. And often completely unreasonable and inadequate. A psychopath can harm a person simply because it is convenient for him, it is easier to do so. A normal person, who is characterized by mercy, will avoid the use of violence to the last and will not want to be drawn into a conflict. A psychopath doesn't care. He doesn't think about the consequences. Of course, you can scare him, but the trouble is that such people, they are not able to understand any threat to themselves. They especially poorly understand the threats that are possible in the long term, because they practically do not know how to calculate the consequences of their actions.

Since psychopaths think only of themselves, because they are extremely selfish and irresponsible like infantile people, they can betray anyone for their own interests at any time. These are unreliable people, and worse than that, they are people who are able to stab anyone in the back when it suits them. All the good things that someone once did for them, they simply forget. In the world of psychopaths, for them there is only themselves, and all the rest are not people, you can do anything with them, if there is such an opportunity. Some of them find such an opportunity for themselves, simply by committing crimes against individual people. And someone seeks to occupy the highest possible position in society, in order to then commit crimes against this society for the sake of their own interests. Consequently, the higher the position in society a psychopath occupies, the more dangerous he is.

How to recognize a psychopath

Recognizing a psychopath is not always easy. Some of them can either disguise themselves very well, putting on the necessary social masks in order to gain confidence in people, or mislead people, and not on purpose, with their other qualities that look attractive. The same humor, the same generosity that comes from them, can bribe. So when I sometimes opine that a person is probably a psychopath, or definitely a psychopath, people are surprised by this. How is it, they think, he is so cheerful, kind, witty and so on, he never even cursed with anyone too much, he does not look like a psychopath. Or she, albeit a little windy, frivolous, irresponsible, but not a psychopath, because she is not capable of harming anyone. Psychopaths, especially the most cunning ones, who know how to disguise their nature, bribe people with their charm, and they do not understand that they are being led by the nose.

They simply act in a way that will make a good impression on others. But this is a deceptive impression, erroneous. It must be understood that psychopaths are not crazy people who demonstrate anger, aggression, hostility, openly harm everyone. Of course, they can be like that, but it doesn't have to be. A psychopath can also be a friendly person, outwardly calm, even cheerful, but at the same time, he does not feel any responsibility for other people inside and does not value human life at all. This one can easily step over anyone, can easily kill if given the opportunity, and does not even feel remorse. By the way, the lack of conscience, pity and compassion is exactly what makes psychopaths cruel. Such will not spare anyone, even babies, on the way to their goals. They don’t have such areas or functions in the brain, I don’t know what better to call it, this moment, as far as I know, has not been fully explored, which would be responsible for all these things - pity, compassion, love for people, conscience, mercy, kindness. This is why psychopaths are dangerous. In this sense, they are like robots who do not care about others. Make a soldier out of a psychopath, and he will be ready to carry out any order, he will be ready to destroy anyone, you will not pity him in any way. But in order to gain confidence in people, in order to become his own in a society of normal people, a psychopath can demonstrate hypocrisy, can behave like a normal person and even like a very good, kind one, but in his heart he will be cruel and cold-blooded.

Therefore, I identify psychopaths by their indifference, heartlessness, irresponsibility, lack of pity and compassion. Roughly speaking, if grief happened to someone, normal spiritual people feel pity for the victim, they sincerely sympathize with him, empathize, they can even shed a tear from someone else's pain, tragedy, because they themselves partially feel it. Well, this is what all mature and mentally healthy people do, with an already formed personality, with accumulated experience. And psychopaths, even if they are already quite old people, do not experience such feelings. In them, no strings are touched in such cases, because they simply do not exist. They can pretend that they care about someone else's grief, but this fake reaction is visible even if they are good actors. If you yourself are a normal, mature person, you know how to sympathize, understand the pain of other people, you will see the unnatural emotions of psychopaths, even if they try their best to show themselves as people who are not indifferent to someone else's grief. This is seen and felt. Well, their reasoning is also relevant. The whole point of such reasoning comes down to the fact that they do not care about others and they think only about themselves. Or even seek profit for themselves in someone else's grief. And they can also be hostile towards someone, including people who have done nothing wrong to them.

Therefore, when I see a completely irresponsible, cold attitude towards others, indifference and indifference to other people's grief, disregard for human life, I see a psychopath. Or someone very close to him. Sometimes it is enough to tell a psychopath about someone else's misfortune and stumble upon an indifferent and indifferent attitude to this information on his part to understand that he is a psychopath. Well, sabotage. Such people like to engage in sabotage and cause pain to other people. They even enjoy it. All this can be seen if you look closely at people.

How to influence a psychopath

No matter how soulless and shameless psychopaths may be, otherwise they are still people, not machines, and they have feelings. They have no compassion, they do not feel remorse, but they feel fear. They are still afraid for their lives, however, when they understand some kind of threat, when they clearly see that something really threatens them. Then the instinct of self-preservation works well for them, and it restrains them from bad deeds. Therefore, through fear they can be controlled. At least until they can succumb to other emotions, the same anger that can be so strong that they forget about their fear. However, according to my observations of psychopaths, they often listen to the instinct of self-preservation. That is why psychopaths can suffer from paranoia, because of which they go crazy. One has only to scare them with what they can be afraid of, and they will not calm down until they deal with the cause of their fear. Even if it is a completely absurd reason, they will still do it.

The next way to influence the behavior of a psychopath is self-interest and vanity. These people are often very greedy and vain, they love it when everyone admires them, when they crawl in front of them, flatter them, do not praise, but flatter, greatly exaggerating their abilities. From this they fall into euphoria. They themselves consider themselves the best in this world, they don’t even think about others. And if someone with their behavior plays along with them in this, then they become the favorite of psychopaths. Well, you know, you can always use it to your advantage. And if you also bring gifts to them, bribe them, playing on their greed, then these people will completely lose their heads. So, the inferiority of a psychopath is manifested not only in his soulless attitude towards people, but also in his weaknesses. And these are all basic instinctive needs. Of course, we all strive for their satisfaction, and in the best possible way, but a normal person, unlike a psychopath, always remembers that for any benefit that he receives, he also needs to give at least something, because all people need to live. And the psychopath only rows everything for himself and believes that this is normal, this is how one should live, not thinking about the needs of other people, as if they do not exist. Therefore, they are easy to catch on greed. Sometimes you just have to promise something to a psychopath so that he does what is needed, because he will salivate ahead of time because of his greed.

Psychopaths also get angry easily, especially when they fail to get what they want, which they thought was already in their hands. He cannot accept a situation where not everything is going the way a psychopath would like. More precisely, it is very difficult for him to do this, so he is very angry. If you provoke such a person to anger in public, he can say a lot of unnecessary things, showing his hostility to society and to specific people. This way you can turn people against him or even set them on an aggressive psychopath in order to enlist their support in this way. A psychopath cannot always control his emotions, even if he is smart enough. This is one of his weak points. Therefore, you need to play on this in your confrontation with him, frightening him, making him angry or interested in something very profitable. Moreover, you can even interest a psychopath with something completely unrealistic, as long as it looks beautiful. He falls for this. The primitivism of such people often overshadows their prudence. Plus, their boundless arrogance makes them want too much, too much. Because of such impudence, psychopaths change their own rules many times, if only everything was the way they want. They use double standards everywhere, refuse their own words, substitute concepts. All these are signs of frivolous, immature behavior that leads to disorder, chaos, anarchy. And all this is done on emotions that force the psychopath to behave unpredictably, impulsively, contradictory.

Personally, I think the best way to influence a psychopath is to manipulate him. This is better than, say, intimidating him or trying to feed him to appease him. In psychopaths, behavior is often chaotic, unpredictable, spontaneous, yesterday one decision was made, today another, tomorrow a third. Who knows what kind of stupid things such a person can do out of fear. He can be thrown to any extreme. And it is also pointless to saturate such people, if you give them a finger, they will bite off their whole hand and it will still not be enough for them. These are insatiable people who do not have a sense of the world because of their limited perception of life. Therefore, you need to use the mental inferiority of these people against them. Fighting a psychopath is dangerous. These are vindictive, spiteful, often fanatical people who are especially dangerous if they occupy a high position in society. Such, because of principles, will go against any common sense, if only to win, to punish the one who dared to contradict them. And such people often strive to climb as high as possible in any system, so that later they can suppress others, including with impunity. So, it is better to cheat with them than to fight openly.

It is almost impossible to convince a psychopath. Nothing can be explained to him that does not agree with his opinion and desires. A psychopath will never accept that he is wrong about something and does something wrong. Tell him about it, you will only set him against you. Therefore, such conversations should be avoided. People often don't do this because they value the psychopath's perception as their own. They think that if they react in a certain way to logic and common sense, then so does the psychopath. No, a psychopath must be acted upon either through fear, or by making him interested in something that is simple and primitive, because the psychopath is practically unaware of the highest values.

Problems with psychopaths

Actually, knowing about psychopaths is one thing, but dealing with them is quite another. And in this case, it is not enough just to know how to influence a psychopath, it is necessary to control psychopaths in order not to give them the opportunity to harm normal people. These people, although they have problems with their heads, are far from always so stupid as not to be able to defend their interests. They can climb very high up the social pyramid. And when they do this, then they will be able to commit such acts that will harm hundreds, thousands and even millions of people.

I think that psychopaths who have already broken the law should be under special control. Recidivists are mostly psychopaths. To be more precise, examples of recidivists known to me, which I personally studied, showed that they were all psychopaths. No punishment will fix such people, even such pain and deprivation can be forgotten when aggression and other base desires again come upon them, because of which they commit crimes. The main problem with psychopaths is their incorrigibility. Hoping that a psychopath will change, that someone or something will change him, make him a normal person, is to be deceived.

Psychopathic killers never sincerely repent of their crimes, never regret what they have done, because they don't care. They do not even understand what they have done, for them there is nothing terrible in taking someone's life. The main thing for them is that no one stands in their way and does not prevent them from pursuing their goals. Now, if a normal person, God forbid, accidentally kills someone, well, let's say, by negligence or in a state of passion, then he will then be gnawed by guilt, his conscience will torment him, he will not be able to live peacefully with such a heavy burden on his soul. This happens without any fear of punishment for what they have done, just a healthy full-fledged person cannot take such things calmly. And a psychopath can kill and forget about it. For him, this is as common as, say, slamming a cockroach with a slipper or cutting down a tree. No realization that he took a life of a person, no remorse, nothing of the kind will arise in him. Is it possible to teach such people philanthropy?

Therefore, problems with psychopaths must be solved using methods that can give results. First of all, it is necessary to control such people, especially those who have already committed some harmful deeds, and in case of their abnormal behavior, immediately isolate them from normal people. It is not necessary to put them in prison, it will be an excess. They just need to be kept separate from non-psychopaths, so that, as in the case of the black sheep, they do not spoil the whole herd. And this, for example, can happen at school, when some aggressive psychopath child, not just a bully, but a psychopath, haunts normal children, offends everyone, clings to everyone, teaches them bad things. In the last case I know of that I studied, it got to the point where the parents of an entire class moved their children to distance learning because the school didn't address the problem of one psychopath child in that class who tortured everyone. And only after such a collective decision of the parents, he was transferred to a special place, fenced off from normal children. We want to believe, we have been taught this, that all people are the same, that we are all equal in many respects, that children are all born the same, we just need to educate and teach them correctly. All this far-fetched equality has nothing to do with reality. Yes, there are children - hooligans, who can be corrected if you work with them properly, because they are mentally complete, they are simply not brought up. And there are psychopathic children who are precisely defective and you can’t do anything with them, you can’t re-educate them. Therefore, they cannot be kept together with normal children, so that they do not distort their psyche with their aggressiveness and hostility. If you add a mug of tar to a barrel of honey, all the honey will become unfit for food. Such things cannot be allowed. Psychopaths break the fate of people, injure their psyche, so you need to protect ordinary normal people from them with the help of control and isolation. This is a solvable problem, there is nothing complicated. It's just that no one attaches great importance to it, including because, I repeat, we have been taught to believe that from birth we are all the same.

I also believe that psychopaths should not be allowed to, as they say, stray into packs, that is, unite. Starting from the most ordinary gangs and ending with political movements, any association of psychopaths threatens society with very serious problems. If psychopaths can unite, they will acquire a large and very evil power, which they will direct to evil deeds. It will be an association of cruel and ruthless people who can harm so many and will stop at nothing on the way to their goals. When we hear about some brutal crimes committed by gangs, we can safely say that there are psychopaths in them. That's what they all do. Because some violent crimes can only be committed by a psychopath. A normal person would not raise his hand to such a thing. And again, everything can be controlled here, psychopaths can be calculated, they can be prevented from uniting, it is possible to fight psychopaths that have already united, including by pitting them against each other and with other psychopaths, just to prevent them from gaining strength. But, the vested interests of some people in our society compel them to support such an evil force in order to use it to their advantage. And sometimes people just don't notice the danger until it's too obvious. After all, if some psychopath gains great power, then he will gladly unite his own kind around him and place the same psychopaths in all key positions, because like attracts like. And then he will get a well-coordinated, cruel and ruthless mechanism of destruction, which will grind many.

Psychopaths should not be trusted in high positions either. Or rather, you need to prevent them from climbing on them, because they are doing it very actively. Such heads only walk like that, if only to take a higher place. True, in some cases, psychopaths turn out to be very effective managers, they can subjugate people well, especially and even predominantly with the help of force. That is why they can seem like strong leaders, with an iron hand, so to speak, that many people like. After all, the less cultured and educated a society is, the more it needs a tough attitude towards itself, which psychopaths are happy to provide it with. The simpler a person, the more he respects brute force, because he himself is able to do something that needs to be done, only under duress, and not through interest, not for the sake of some kind of achievement. Therefore, in a backward society, psychopaths take root especially well, in such a society it is easier for them to climb into leadership positions, thanks to the support of the dark majority. And history knows such examples when a seemingly strong personality, a strong leader who turned out to be a psychopath, as a result of such deeds did that millions of people suffered because of him. And there was no benefit from his management, or it was very small, or very relative, when there was nothing to compare with because of the lack of such an opportunity to show that the achievements of a psychopath are much lower than the achievements of normal managers in similar conditions.

We ourselves often put such people in leadership positions, by our service to them, by our support and help, by our faith in their ideas, because we mistakenly believe that a leader should be strong, not smart, and even more wise, forgetting at the same time that the power of such people is largely destructive. A strong leader must be, but in the sense in which some or maybe even many people understand it. Strength is not rigidity, and even more so not cruelty, not aggressiveness, not pressure on everyone and everything, not intolerance to dissent. The strength of a leader lies in his ability to rally people, inspire, organize, direct their efforts in the right direction and, of course, in his responsibility for those whom he manages, over whom he rules. If you do not bear this responsibility, then you will ruin the very basis of your power in the form of subordinating people to you. There will be no people, there will be no power. There will not be a large number of people, and especially smart people, there will not be a big, strong government. But such a thing as responsibility and people like psychopaths are completely incompatible phenomena. Therefore, the bad power of psychopaths is a mistaken value that people accept. Society does not need such strong leaders, so it is dangerous to support them.

Some do not even understand that they are a psychopath, who, if allowed to roam, given him some power, primarily with his support, he will begin to do bad deeds, from which many will suffer. It is necessary to recognize psychopathy in people, carefully looking at their behavior. Take a closer look at a person, see if he is able to experience compassion, watching the pain and suffering of other people, whether he is able to feel sorry for someone, whether he can shed a tear, watching someone else's pain. A person's inability to feel the pain of others, his callousness and coldness, may indicate that he is most likely a psychopath. It is not necessary for him to commit any evil, immoral acts in order to show himself, his inhuman reaction to other people's suffering is enough for him to be included in the category of people under consideration. And why serve such people, why obey such people if they don’t care about anyone? Why give them strength by fulfilling their requests and instructions, putting them forward to leadership positions? If inhumanity can be traced in a person, it is necessary to sound the alarm and keep such personalities away from great power, for God forbid they acquire it, then it will not seem enough to anyone. Society can do this, there are more normal people in it than psychopaths, you just need to attach sufficient importance to this problem and deal with it, as they say, with the whole world. For the world is fragile. It is easy to destroy it if you do not protect it from dangerous people - soulless, inhuman, cold.

Well, if a psychopath has seized power, then you will have to play his game and by his rules, in order to later be able to remove him from this power and not allow him to do terrible things. After all, if you openly oppose him when he is strong, then he will simply destroy all his enemies and, possibly, all those who disagree, all people who are disloyal to him. After all, the main thing for him is to maintain his strength, but he does not care about people. It is better for a psychopath, when he is raging, to play along, even to yield in something, just to prevent him from doing stupid things under the influence of his demonic feelings. Then a lot in relations with him can be won back, a lot can be returned, corrected, because there will be an opportunity for this. The main thing is not to fight him when he is in a fit of anger and has great opportunities, because unlike normal people, such a person is ready to lose everything in order to win. He will make any bets to defend his Self. Although the victories of psychopaths are not always victories, because nothing is given to them, and sometimes everything is taken from them, including life. Simply, if they resist, they will go to the end, regardless of whether it is relevant or not. Therefore, at the moment when the psychopath is in a state of passion, I repeat, it is better to play along with him and give in. Let him get what he wants, sometimes it’s not so much to argue and quarrel with him because of this. Better then with the help of cunning to return everything and fix everything, and deprive the psychopath of power, depriving him of the support of other people.

The principles of psychopaths require patience and prudence from people dealing with them, and of course, cunning. Here, for example, some psychopathic criminals, when they commit a crime, cannot stop, even when everything says that it must be done. They long to be agreed with them and to bow their heads before them, so that they feel their own greatness. Then, no, they will not take pity, they do not know pity and will not give in, because the ego will not allow it, but simply decide that it is not worth harming the one who submitted to them in order to continue to enjoy this someone else's humility. Therefore, it is better not to threaten psychopathic criminals, but to play along in order to disarm them later. The same power of a person can be deprived in various ways, without any obvious struggle. Power is submission to authority. And it doesn’t matter what kind of power we are talking about - it can be power in the family, it can be the power of a criminal over a victim in a particular situation, it can be the power of bosses of different levels over their subordinates, and of course political power. Psychopaths everywhere want not only great opportunities, but also recognition. After all, these are inferior people who need compensation in the form of, among other things, the humility that they expect from full-fledged people. They need to prove to themselves and others that they are better. That is why it is important for them to be obeyed, and not what they will receive from such obedience. Realizing this, people should cheat with psychopaths. When I work with women who have tyrannical psychopathic husbands, I advise them to give in to such husbands, and not to fight with them, so that later they can cunningly get the right decisions from them. It is always possible to do this, psychopaths, although they themselves love to manipulate others, they lend themselves very well to manipulation. Their inferiority, underdevelopment, which does not allow them to assess reality competently enough, affects. So, it is not always necessary to butt heads with them, but to trick them, to manipulate these people, well, this is just a necessity.

As for the ability to negotiate psychopaths, you should not count on it. It is impossible to negotiate with psychopaths, referring to justice, common sense, and even more so to humanism, conscientiousness and other things that are not backed by force, and therefore do not cause fear in a psychopath. Such people obey only the power and their own desires. But it is not always possible to act on them through force. Because the power of some of them can provide them with proper protection. So manipulation is the only way to influence such people when they are strong enough not to be intimidated.

Don't be afraid

Don't tempt psychopaths with fear, otherwise they will cling to it so much that you won't be able to pull it off. Being afraid of psychopaths is not only useless, but even harmful. Driven by their primitive instinctive needs and guided by bestial aggression, these people will see only more opportunities for themselves in the fear of others. Anyone who is afraid of them, they will crush. They always put pressure on what is being pushed through, but with relative respect for something solid and strong. Do not be afraid of them, they will not become angrier. Of course, it all depends on their capabilities, if they are large, then, as mentioned above, you have to bend under psychopaths in order to outwit them. And resistance can only embitter them. And they just break a man. But when these people are just gaining strength or not having it, they are trying to demonstrate it - you can’t be afraid of them! Is it dangerous. Seeing fear, they will crush the one who is afraid of them until they completely crush it.

For example, one of the recent fresh cases in my practice - a psychopathic wife threatened her husband with a divorce if he did not do what she wanted. It turned out that she did not immediately come to this blackmail. If earlier such threats on her part began to come only with very strong scandals between them, and he reacted to them with fear, then over time she began to do this almost always when she needed something from him. In other words, if you didn’t give in, didn’t satisfy your whim, you’ll get a threat of divorce. It was the man’s fear of this threat and the psychopathic wife who, by the way, who, by the way, all those who caved in, bended and used, seized on this opportunity and began to abuse it, led to such boorish behavior of hers. But if you think about it, how can you be afraid of this. If she does not need you, and psychopaths do not have strong and deep feelings for others, they are terrible egoists, then they will throw you anyway when such an opportunity presents itself - a more interesting option will appear. Because you are not only not loved, you are not even respected. So why hold on to something you can't hold on to? There should be no fear, in such cases it is necessary to draw conclusions after the very first blackmail and prepare for the worst. Because it will happen someday. Once a person was told about how they can do with him, then they will definitely do so. The question is only in the situation in which this will happen.

Friendship with psychopaths

Friendship with psychopaths is like friendship with wolves. As such, it does not exist. Psychopaths have a temporary interest in maintaining a certain relationship with someone for their own benefit. And as soon as interest disappears, you can expect anything from them, up to cruel betrayal. Especially in difficult times, it is dangerous to be friends with them, because they will not share a crust of bread, but rather take away the last, even pull food out of a child’s mouth. In general, the harsher the times, the more psychopaths have a circle of “friends”. Today you are a friend to such a person, and tomorrow you are an enemy. And not because you did something wrong, but because he just wants to eat, both literally and figuratively.

Well, if a person has become involved in some kind of relationship with a psychopath, if he is forced to have common affairs with him, to cooperate in something and in some way, to be friends or imitate friendship with him, then you should always strive to acquire some kind of a weapon against a psychopath to insure for the future. After all, when the need arises, it will be necessary to either strike back or strike first in order to minimize the damage that a psychopath can cause. Compromising evidence, all sorts of addictions, a psychopath from you, the ability to set someone on him or him on someone, the status that you will have and that he will have to reckon with, all this needs to be worked on in advance. Maybe a person does not really like all kinds of manipulations and considers them something dirty, mean, immoral, just like pacifists do not like weapons and reject violence, but when you can suffer from the actions of a psychopath, when you see that he is aggressively against you set, although yesterday you, as they say, drank brotherhood, all these things become your only salvation from it. When a person is in danger, the ability to be cunning is more important than ever, because it becomes a necessity for him, and necessity, as you know, sooner or later finds an opportunity. It is only important to be aware of this need in advance, and not at the moment when the psychopath shows his teeth. Since you are friends with a psychopath, be sure to keep the “knife” behind your back so that when he takes up arms against you, you have something to oppose him.

Psychopaths have always existed in any society. As I said, nature needs them. So she stamps them in the quantity she needs. But this does not mean that we should put up with their anti-social nature, with their aggressiveness, hostility, meanness, from which anyone can suffer.

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