The psychopath in society.

Jimmy Garlic wrote: »

Roughly 4% of people are psychopaths so the chances are most of us have come across at least one. They exist on every level of society and tend to gravitate towards positions where they have power over others. As the psychopath craves positions of power then logically the percentage of psychopaths in the sphere of politics is much higher than 4%.

The phsychopath lacks the basic traits that most of us have that make us human, genuine empathy for others and compassion. They are parasitic predators that leave a trail of destruction in their wake. There is nothing positive about the psychopath, they are the root cause of a lot of our problems on both a national and personal level. Isn't it time that awareness was raised about this issue?.

If that's the definition of a phsycopath then there would be a higher number than 4% in this world 7 billion people after all.

I mean we've all encountered people who just didnt give two tosses about anyone but themselves :pac:

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

Aren't psychopath and sociopath different things?

As Jimmy said, its a synonym, they are effectively interchangeable terms describing essentially the same "condition" antisocial personality disorder.
I think the term psychopath has been hijacked to describe the archetypal serial murderer/violent personality of the movies - blame Hitchcock.
Ironically, if that makes sense, he himself probably was fairly high on the spectrum.

There was a lecturing psychologist (I think) on John Murray one morning describing the psychopath among us, about 1% iirc.
I think the key terms were lack of empathy, lack of guilt and lack of remorse, and at the upper end, incapable of these. They can and readily do learn to feign these emotions as required to further themselves and become expert manipulators. This lends themselves well to certain occupations and promotion.
They do know right from wrong, but if it doesn't suit them, what's to stop them, they don't have that voice that says DONT.
But to differentiate from ambition or people who don't give a sh1t, to them knifing you in the back for a promotion has the same emotional consequence as literally "knifing you in the back".
(Be thankful if you miss out on that promotion:rolleyes:)
They are experts at fooling the experts and often revel in the attention of psychiatrists, manipulating them too, in criminal cases, dividing diagnoses

He said the best way and only sure way to deal with psychopaths in daily life is to avoid them as far as possible.
Not much use if you work or live with one.

I have had the misfortune to work with someone I am fairly sure was, only looking back on it though. Very clever and very good at his job, but ruthless, total narcissist, extremely two-faced and manipulative, and NASTY, in what he said about coworkers and revelled in describing what he could do to people who crossed him, but an absolute charmer with girls swooning all over him when it suited. If only they heard what he said when they left the room:eek:

wil wrote: »

As Jimmy said, its a synonym, they are effectively interchangeable terms describing essentially the same "condition" antisocial personality disorder.
I think the term psychopath has been hijacked to describe the archetypal serial murderer/violent personality of the movies - blame Hitchcock.
Ironically, if that makes sense, he himself probably was fairly high on the spectrum.

There was a lecturing psychologist (I think) on John Murray one morning describing the psychopath among us, about 1% iirc.
I think the key terms were lack of empathy, lack of guilt and lack of remorse, and at the upper end, incapable of these. They can and readily do learn to feign these emotions as required to further themselves and become expert manipulators. This lends themselves well to certain occupations and promotion.
They do know right from wrong, but if it doesn't suit them, what's to stop them, they don't have that voice that says DONT.
But to differentiate from ambition or people who don't give a sh1t, to them knifing you in the back for a promotion has the same emotional consequence as literally "knifing you in the back".
(Be thankful if you miss out on that promotion:rolleyes:)
They are experts at fooling the experts and often revel in the attention of psychiatrists, manipulating them too, in criminal cases, dividing diagnoses

He said the best way and only sure way to deal with psychopaths in daily life is to avoid them as far as possible.
Not much use if you work or live with one.

I have had the misfortune to work with someone I am fairly sure was, only looking back on it though. Very clever and very good at his job, but ruthless, total narcissist, extremely two-faced and manipulative, and NASTY, in what he said about coworkers and revelled in describing what he could do to people who crossed him, but an absolute charmer with girls swooning all over him when it suited. If only they heard what he said when they left the room:eek:

Not surprising that banking seems to attract more than most industries according to reports, the archetypal Gordon Gecko character. Tends to be far more associated with right wing politics than left wing, for pretty obvious reasons, so it's in no way an attack on conservatives, it would be the natural fit!

wil wrote: »

As Jimmy said, its a synonym, they are effectively interchangeable terms describing essentially the same "condition" antisocial personality disorder.
I think the term psychopath has been hijacked to describe the archetypal serial murderer/violent personality of the movies - blame Hitchcock. Ironically
Ironically, if that makes sense, he himself probably was fairly high on the spectrum.

There was a lecturing psychologist (I think) on John Murray one morning describing the psychopath among us, about 1% iirc.
I think the key terms were lack of empathy, lack of guilt and lack of remorse, and at the upper end, incapable of these. They can and readily do learn to feign these emotions as required to further themselves and become expert manipulators. This lends themselves well to certain occupations and promotion.
They do know right from wrong, but if it doesn't suit them, what's to stop them, they don't have that voice that says DONT.
But to differentiate from ambition or people who don't give a sh1t, to them knifing you in the back for a promotion has the same emotional consequence as literally "knifing you in the back".
(Be thankful if you miss out on that promotion:rolleyes:)
They are experts at fooling the experts and often revel in the attention of psychiatrists, manipulating them too, in criminal cases, dividing diagnoses

He said the best way and only sure way to deal with psychopaths in daily life is to avoid them as far as possible.
Not much use if you work or live with one.

I have had the misfortune to work with someone I am fairly sure was, only looking back on it though. Very clever and very good at his job, but ruthless, total narcissist, extremely two-faced and manipulative, and NASTY, in what he said about coworkers and revelled in describing what he could do to people who crossed him, but an absolute charmer with girls swooning all over him when it suited. If only they heard what he said when they left the room:eek:

People have a tendency to assume psychopaths are intelligent. Some can be, of course, but for every Dr. Lecter I'd say there's ten vicious, dumb criminals with little notion of what they are or why they're so profoundly dysfunctional.

Bear in mind, also, that most psychopaths are more danger to themselves than others. Sure they lie, but its usually just a symptom of their inability to function properly than a part of some devious plan. Google "The Mask of Sanity" for one of the first works that describes a bunch of psychopaths, really interesting read. Dysfunctional is the defining characteristic rather than cruel.

Mozzeltoff wrote: »

It's 4% of the American population is either a psychopath or sociopath. I think it's only 1% of the Irish population that is either a psychopath or sociopath.

Whatever the actual figure, I doubt it varies significantly.

Jimmy Garlic wrote: »

Roughly 4% of people are psychopaths so the chances are most of us have come across at least one. They exist on every level of society and tend to gravitate towards positions where they have power over others. As the psychopath craves positions of power then logically the percentage of psychopaths in the sphere of politics is much higher than 4%.

The phsychopath lacks the basic traits that most of us have that make us human, genuine empathy for others and compassion. They are parasitic predators that leave a trail of destruction in their wake. There is nothing positive about the psychopath, they are the root cause of a lot of our problems on both a national and personal level. Isn't it time that awareness was raised about this issue?.

What a load of ill informed rubbish

K-9 wrote: »

Not surprising that banking seems to attract more than most industries according to reports, the archetypal Gordon Gecko character. Tends to be far more associated with right wing politics than left wing, for pretty obvious reasons, so it's in no way an attack on conservatives, it would be the natural fit!

It's not that they are attracted to banking, it's that they succeed at it. Most people we would consider heroes, that is people who display bravery, were probably psychopaths. The main trait that they have is that they access risk in a different manner to most people. So in situations where most would back down a psychopath doesn't.

Studies have shown a normal person in a situation of great danger/risk will experience a spike in heart rate. For psychopaths, their heart actually calms and stabilizes in that situation.

So the soldier who risks his life, or the bomb defuser or the fireman who dashed into a burning building are probably psychopaths.

It's got to do with how past situations are stored in the brain. Normal people will generally have a flood of past dangerous experiences which trigger that flight or fight reaction. Psychopaths don't get the same reaction everyone else does.

It's only a bad thing if it's combined with sociopathic tendencies.

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

Why not elaborate as to why it's ill informed rubbish?

It's nothing more than hysterical rhetoric. There's no evidence that psychopaths crave power, they do, however tend to succeed in positions where scruples could be a marked disadvantage, e.g. law and politics.

There is also no evidence that all psychopaths are parasitic predators either, or are the root cause of all social ills, it's just the Daily Mail coming out in the OP. Also psychopathy could be useful in situations where normal emotions and empathy could be a hindrance, e.g. surgery, emergency services.

3rd Ferguson wrote: »

So we should let psychopaths operate on our children? That's crazy dude :rolleyes:

You seem to think that you would be able to stop this from happening. Do you think you can chose who operates on you? Do you think psychopaths walk around with big fluorescent Ps on their foreheads? Do you think being a psycopath is the same as being a serial killer?

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

You seem to think that you would be able to stop this from happening. Do you think you can chose who operates on you? Do you think psychopaths walk around with big fluorescent Ps on their foreheads? Do you think being a psycopath is the same as being a serial killer?

Well I'm in the process of altering my medic alert bracelet to "alergic to penicillin and psychopaths' so I guess the jokes on you. And I'm not saying that they should walk around with giant P's on there forehead, that's ridiculous, but maybe some sort or badge or patch so we can tell who is a psychopath and we can keep an eye on them before they cause somebody harm.