Psychopaths have several names. The psychologists call them "anti-social", or "sociopath's" but they all mean the same thing. These are individuals who are extremely dangerous to everyone that they meet. And it is because they can appear completely "normal." They are often charming, good-looking, very intelligent, charismatic, manipulative, cunning, pathological liars, and cold-blooded, all at the same time.
They have a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others. They can do this without breaking the law, but very often they do break the law. They demonstrate deceitfulness, as indicated by repeated lying, use of aliases, or the conning of others for personal profit or pleasure. They are often impulsive, and fail to plan ahead. They will get irritated very easily, and become aggressive, and can get in repeated physical fights or assaults. They have a reckless disregard for self or others. And they show a constant irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations.
One of the biggest signs that someone is a Psychopath is their complete lack of remorse or empathy for others, or the ability to feel guilt for something they have done, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another. In other words, they have no genuine emotions. But they can FAKE emotions when they need to, as indicated by crying on cue, laughing on cue, etc. But it is all an "act" to attain whatever goal they are trying to achieve.
They are "people users" and see people as "objects" to be used, rather than as fellow human beings to respect and love. They will say anything, do anything, become anything to whomever they are associating with, in order to get something from that individual, and will drop the individual as soon as their usefulness to them is over.
They have "no conscious" and have "rendered their conscious inoperable."
They will often loose their temper, and as children they often argued with adults and actively defied or refused to comply with the adult's requests or rules. As children they will deliberately annoy people and then take delight in watching their annoyance. As both adults and children, Psychopaths will many times blame others for his or her own mistakes or misbehavior. They are "never wrong." And they are very touchy or easily annoyed by others, becoming angry and resentful. And when they are angry, that anger often turns into violence, which is both spiteful and vindictive.
As teenagers, they will often bully, threaten or intimidate others, and initiate physical fights. If they are the most dangerous kind of Psychopath they will use weapons that can cause physical harm to others, ( e.g., a bat, brick, broken bottle, knife, gun, etc.) They can be physically cruel to people and to animals, often getting enjoyment or a "rush" out of hurting others. And as teenagers, or adults they will break the law by mugging, purse snatching, extortion, armed robbery, rape and even murder. Most of our prisons are filled with "Psychopaths."
They will deliberately set fires, and destroy the property of others, and will "lie" to obtain goods or favors or to avoid obligations. And as an adolescent they are often truant from school, beginning before the age of 13, often staying out late at night despite parental rules, and will run away from home.
Now, how do you put all of this together? Because there are various degrees of Psychopaths, ranging from mild to moderate, to severe, to extremely dangerous. There are "Social Psychopaths," who never break any laws, but who climb to the top of companies by stepping on their best friend's back to get there. There are "Political Psychopaths," who will say whatever they need to say, or do, or become, in order to get elected to office or become the President of the United States. They live in an atmosphere of lies, which are told continuosly to everyone, including their staffs.
The Political Psychopaths are "chameleons" who can take on whatever disguise they need to, in order to manipulate an entire crowd. But what they are really after is POWERand CONTROL. And they do not really care about the American people, but only care about becoming the most powerful person in the world. You may not agree with me, but both of the Clintons are Psychopaths of the highest order.
Almost ALL men who are abusive and who are batterers of their wives and children are full-fledged Psychopaths. This is why you hear of a husband who killed his wife and children and then turned the gun on himself.
The scariest thing about most Psychopaths is that they use "words" with finesse and have an answer for everything that they do, that turns the situation around and makes a normal person think that they are the ones with the problem instead of the Psychopath. If you confront a Psychopath with something that they have done, they will make it look like YOU are the one who did it. You know deep down inside that you are right and they are wrong, but you can never win, you can only feel like you are "going crazy."
What can you do???? If you are living with one of these people it is a "no win" situation. You NEED to leave, run, walk away as fast as you can and don't look back. This is because the cure rate for Psychopaths is very rare. Even with therapy, most of them do not change.
They have done studies of prisoners who were Psychopaths and put them in a room watching a violent movie with electrodes tracking their bodily reactions to what they are seeing on the screen. And then they have taken a group of normal people and shown them the same violent movie, with electrodes attached to them also. The results are alarming. The "normal" people reacted with disgust and fear, almost immediately to what they saw on the screen. Their heart rates increased, their blood pressure went up, etc.
But the Psychopaths, shown the same movie, had hardly any change in their heart rates, or blood pressure. They remained cool and calm, even when shown the most horrific scenes of cruelty and torture. It took them much longer to have any reaction at all to what they were seeing. Which is WHY they can use, torture, be cruel,and even murder people without having any remorse. This is because they feel NOTHING. In fact, some of them say that they get a "RUSH" or "HIGH" out of seeing and doing dangerous and repulsive things. To them, a person is an "object" and killing someone to them is just like "eating a hamburger." They have no HEART.
From a biblical standpoint, these are the "wicked" people that the Bible refers to. These are the ones who heard Jesus' teachings and mocked Him, and refused to follow Him, and who ended up crucifying Him. These are the ones that are on their way to Hell, because they have no conscious. They are unteachable. These are the ones that Jesus said to "dust off your shoes, and leave that town", these are the ones who did not listen to Noah before the flood, who heard Jesus's words and they "fell on deaf ears." And these are the ones whom Jesus referred to as "unbelievers" and who He "gave them up to their own wicked desires."
So you see, even though 2,000 years have passed since Jesus was here, human nature is still the same. And we are to have nothing to do with those who choose to live in the "dark." Because if you do, they will destroy you.
You can pray for them over and over, and you can get away from them, and then you can watch them suck someone else into their web and destroy another life.
If you are living with someone like this, and you need help, please do not hesitate to contact me by doing one of the following:
Your boss who loves to humiliate people in meetings?
The colleague who stole your idea and passed it off as her own?
In the pages of The Sociopath Next Door, you will realize that your ex was not just misunderstood. He’s a sociopath. And your boss, teacher, and colleague? They may be sociopaths too.
We are accustomed to think of sociopaths as violent criminals, but in The Sociopath Next Door, Harvard psychologist Martha Stout reveals that a shocking 4 percent of ordinary people—one in twenty-five—has an often undetected mental disorder, the chief symptom of which is that that person possesses no conscience. He or she has no ability whatsoever to feel shame, guilt, or remorse. One in twenty-five everyday Americans, therefore, is secretly a sociopath. They could be your colleague, your neighbor, even family. And they can do literally anything at all and feel absolutely no guilt.
How do we recognize the remorseless? One of their chief characteristics is a kind of glow or charisma that makes sociopaths more charming or interesting than the other people around them. They’re more spontaneous, more intense, more complex, or even sexier than everyone else, making them tricky to identify and leaving us easily seduced. Fundamentally, sociopaths are different because they cannot love. Sociopaths learn early on to show sham emotion, but underneath they are indifferent to others’ suffering. They live to dominate and thrill to win.
The fact is, we all almost certainly know at least one or more sociopaths already. Part of the urgency in reading The Sociopath Next Door is the moment when we suddenly recognize that someone we know—someone we worked for, or were involved with, or voted for—is a sociopath. But what do we do with that knowledge? To arm us against the sociopath, Dr. Stout teaches us to question authority, suspect flattery, and beware the pity play. Above all, she writes, when a sociopath is beckoning, do not join the game.
It is the ruthless versus the rest of us, and The Sociopath Next Door will show you how to recognize and defeat the devil you know.
"Psychopaths are social predators who charm, manipulate, and ruthlessly plow their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered expectations, and empty wallets. Completely lacking in conscience and in feelings for others, they selfishly take what they want and do as they please..." In Without Conscience Robert Hare argues convincingly that "psychopath" and "antisocial personality disorder" (a psychiatric term defined by a cluster of criminal behaviors) are not the same thing. Not all psychopaths are criminals, he says, and not all criminals are psychopaths. He proposes a psychopathy checklist that includes emotional/interpersonal traits such as glibness, grandiosity, lack of guilt, and shallow emotions, as well as social deviance traits such as impulsiveness, lack of responsibility, and antisocial behavior. His writing is lucid and illustrated with numerous anecdotes. The final chapter, "A Survival Guide," is especially recommended: as Hare writes, "Psychopaths are found in every segment of society, and there is a good chance that eventually you will have a painful or humiliating encounter with one." --
Book Description
If you've ever watched in horror while a charming BS artist methodically tore the guts out of your group, your division, your company (... or your country for that matter) and wondered how on earth they managed to pull it off in broad daylight, this book will help you solve the mystery.
There really are human snakes among us and Babiak and Hare explain in detail what motivates them, how they operate, how to recognize them and, most important, how to neutralize their poisonous effects before it's too late.
No one ever said life was going to be a rose garden and there's a whole breed of individual whose sole function in life seems to be to insure it's not for the rest of us.
Just read the headlines. It's an epidemic: Enron, WorldCom, and their close cousins the neo-cons etc.
When the student is ready, the teachers appear. It looks like it's finally time for our society to recognize these people for what they are, acknowledge that they're not going away and deal with them with something other than wishful thinking and denial.
This book is bad news for the charismatic white collar criminal class. It's
Book Description
After having read several books on several different self-help topics, psychology books, psychiatry books, etc., I MUST recommend you buy this one, first.
It cuts straight through the bs - neatly and cleanly.
If you are wondering what the heck is wrong with YOU and just can't seem to pin it down, I highly recommend starting here to discover what's at the heart of several disorders, at least how they will affect you when you deal with toxic, intolerant, self-important, crazy-making individuals.
Bottom line: I no longer CARE what's wrong with them. If they can't bother to diagnose themselves, why should I bother? I just want to spot these waterheads from a distance so I can steer clear, and control the damage from those I can't avoid, such as my insane family.
When you "See Through" the techniques as they happen, the only hard part will be keeping a straight face as you expertly deflect their sickness.
And I free my time for concentrating on living MY LIFE on MY TERMS. Wonderful!
And yes, it may seem like common sense, but bear in mind you are dealing with highly skilled manipulators. They've had years and years of experience being covertly aggressive - do not underestimate their power. It happens so quickly, so subtly, you must arm yourself with tools to fight such monsters. The short text makes it possible to "refresh" your "common sense" before facing a nut-inducing encounter (family, co-workers, spouse, etc.)
I have bought copies of this book for friends and can't recommend it enough.
If you would like advice or counseling from Patricia Jones there are three methods that you may choose from:
1.) Long Question For a fee of $45.00.
A long question should contain background information and list any concerns or questions that you have about a particular issue or issues. It may be as long as
you wish. I will reply back to you via email with an extensive response ( several pages in length ) within 24 to 48 hours. See an example of a Long Question here.
2.) A Short Question: For a fee of $25.00. A short question should give some background information and ask one question about one particular issue that you may have. I will reply back to you via email within 24 to 48 hours.
3.) Telephone counseling sessions. Please read here for instructions on receiving Telephone Counseling Telephone Counseling Instructions.
Dr. Robert Hare, author of "Without Conscience":
"Psychopaths are not disoriented or out of touch with reality, nor do they experience the delusions, hallucinations, or intense subjective distress that characterize most other mental disorders. Unlike psychotic individuals, psychopaths are rational and aware of what they are doing and why. Their behavior is the result of choice, freely exercised."
"Because of their inability to appreciate the feelings of others, some psychopaths are capable of behavior that normal people find not only horrific but baffling," Hare writes. "For example, they can torture and mutilate their victims with about the same sense of concern that we feel when we carve a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner."
