If you ask people in the street what is a psychopath, they will answer that it's a serial killer or a serial rapist, someone who is mad, crazy, foolish, a criminal. But these ideas have usually been developed from movies and books that are designed to entertain and are not very accurate.
And it benefits psychopaths because the general public is unable to spot a psychopath even if they are living next door, or working in the same office with them.
Officially a psychopath is someone with an antisocial personality disorder. This means they have a personality disorder that manifests as antisocial behavior. They are sometimes called sociopaths although some specialists consider that there is a difference.
The personality disorder consists of an inability to experience emotions such as empathy, love, guilt, remorse, shame. These are socializing emotions, that is, the emotions that allow us to live in harmony, looking out for each other, returning favors, and not doing each other harm for no reason.
Robert Hare, a psychologist who has studied psychopaths for years answers the question 'what is a psychopath?' by saying that is it someone without a conscience. They don't feel guilt or shame or remorse if they do wrong.
For normal people, who do have a conscience, this is practically impossible to understand. It is even difficult to think about what it would be like to not have a conscience. When we do wrong, however intentionally, we know it's wrong and there are feelings associated with it. For psychopaths, they know they are doing wrong, but there are no feelings associated with it!!
There are 2 important things here. They know they are doing wrong and they do not feel bad in any way.
Read about more signs of a psychopath...
Nowadays, the legal systems recognize that psychopaths are not mentally ill in a way where they are not responsible for their actions. If, or more commonly when, they are caught in criminal activities, they are held responsible for the actions and typically end up in prison rather than in mental hospitals. In the past they often went from prisons to mental institutions and back again.
Psychopaths have very few emotions and these are often very shallow. They are incapable of putting themselves in someone else's shoes and understanding what is going on for the other person. This makes them indifferent to the pain and suffering of others. In fact, they will often feel superior because they think that they are not 'burdened' with or limited by emotions!
A huge ego, a strong sense of entitlement, thinking they are superior and better than others, makes them very selfish and often means they will do whatever they like to get what they want. For them, the end justifies the means.
That may not sound so bad but remember they have no conscience, so they will make decisions to mentally, emotionally, physically and sexually abuse others, sometimes because they can.
They want to control and dominate others and they will lie, cheat, deceive, trick and fool others into doing their bidding. (This is the antisocial behavior part!) Because people do not fully understand psychopathy, such people are often labeled a jealous boyfriend, or a controlling wife or a manipulative husband.
These types will take people's money, possessions, houses, bodies, time, energy and even lives. Because they want these things. And without feeling the least bit of pity, or remorse or guilt, no matter how much suffering they have caused.
Learn more by watching psychopath movies or
read more about living with a controlling person
There are several things to watch out for here.
They are often larger than life characters, being the center of attention wherever they are. They can be loud, with an opinion on everything and they throw out jargon as if they are an expert on the subject at hand. Rarely are they the silent type, not saying very much but watching everything that goes on around them. However, behind closed doors, out of the public view, these people can be real tyrants.
If you tell a story, they have one better. Often times these stories are grandiose, portraying them in a great light. The listeners may think that the story is an exaggeration but typically people listen politely and no-one calls them out on their stories.
They are always right, you are always wrong. If anything goes wrong around them, they find a way to blame it on someone else.
They are practiced liars.
They say one thing but do another. This can can be difficult to recognize if you are still in a relationship but it is of the utmost importance to begin to see this.
They expect you to forgive them anything and everything, no matter how bad. They do not forgive you. In fact, they will repeatedly bring up things from the past that you have supposedly done wrong in order to make you feel shame and guilt when they want you to go along with their plans.
About 1% of the population are psychopaths. That means that some of your neighbors, work colleagues, people in your sports clubs etc. are psychopaths.
They may not have emotions but they learn to fake them, to blend in, in order to create relationships with people because they are master manipulators of emotions, and manipulating emotions is how they use mind control to influence what people think and do… This is why it is so difficult to spot a psychopath.
Learn how to stop mind control and what happens in a relationship with a psychopath or sociopath
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