# Are you a psychopath? And other questions . . . **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 15, 2019, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-psychopath-and-other-questions/838685 "2019-08-15T04:55:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![russian\_heel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f05b48/32.png) [@russian\_heel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/russian_heel)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2019, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-psychopath-and-other-questions/838685/1 "2019-08-15T04:55:59Z")
Best article I’ve read on the subject is here: [How to spot a psychopath](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fiction/spot-psychopath/) From what I can gather, many killers are psychopaths. But only a very very small percentage of psychopaths are killers. Most are actually very productive members of society, with the exception of the fact that they have no problem advancing themselves at the expenses of others. There is a PCL-R Psychopath test, with the asterisk being it should only be used by psychiatrists to interpret the results. I think the saddest part of my reading is the impression that PP understand empathy, but only feel it for themselves, and don’t feel empathy for those who are hurting. Also there is evidence that PPathy is caused in the brain, and not a behavior that is developed or trained. Has anyone here been clinically diagnosed with psychopathy? If so, what was the clinical game plan for dealing with society? If diagnosed, do you feel in any way poorly “persecuted” by society, and how do you square that with the classic symptom of not “not taking responsibility” for you actions? Have anyone here ever worked or dealt with or have friends/family member you thing might be PP? Why so and can you provide reasons/anecdotes why? Also, since “psychopaths” are more than note by a overwhelming majority normal functioning members of society, should we come up with a better term than “psychopath”? Just the term “psycho” reminds many of the Alfred Hitchcock movie of the same name? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2019, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-psychopath-and-other-questions/838685/2 "2019-08-15T05:12:35Z")
Maternal grandfather; his mother. My mother presents some symptoms but they’re secondary: her main diagnosis would be “social narcisist, heavily solipsistic”. There’s no “clinical” game plan, but grandfather had the bejesus scared out of him by his own father (a cop) regarding some of the worst behaviors. There are things, such as raping people penetratively, which he did exclusively in a context in which it was encouraged (war prisoners), rather than through his life; in general, the game plan was “get in the good side of anybody in authority, game any rules as much as you can, and become part of networks of favors with people who are willing to pay (in favors or money) for what you can supply.” What he supplied could be legal, illegal or directly involve pimping out people over whom he had authority such as his own (grand)children. One of the reasons he changed jobs frequently was that he’d get tired of kissing the ass of people he despised (that is, of anybody who wasn’t stroking his own ego back enough). ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2019, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-psychopath-and-other-questions/838685/3 "2019-08-15T06:45:14Z")
> [@russian\_heel](#): > > From what I can gather, many killers are psychopaths. But only a very very small percentage of psychopaths are killers. I never really understood the supposed mentality of the psychopathic serial killer. If you lack empathy, you might casually and incidentally harm someone who is an obstacle to your objectives. But surely sadism is all about an awareness of how the victim is suffering, it’s _all about_ empathy. If you lack empathy, why would you go to great lengths to make torturing and killing your principal objective? It seems to me that just _wouldn’t care_ if somebody else were feeling pleasure or pain. The psychopathic serial killer must surely be some kind of special case where there’s a lot more going on that just the absence of empathy in a typical psychopath. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2019, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-psychopath-and-other-questions/838685/4 "2019-08-15T16:50:17Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > I never really understood the supposed mentality of the psychopathic serial killer. If you lack empathy, you might casually and incidentally harm someone who is an obstacle to your objectives. But surely sadism is all about an awareness of how the victim is suffering, it’s _all about_ empathy. If you lack empathy, why would you go to great lengths to make torturing and killing your principal objective? It seems to me that just _wouldn’t care_ if somebody else were feeling pleasure or pain. > > The psychopathic serial killer must surely be some kind of special case where there’s a lot more going on that just the absence of empathy in a typical psychopath. Psychopaths have empathy (often called an “empathy switch”). What they don’t have is remorse. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2019, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-psychopath-and-other-questions/838685/5 "2019-08-15T17:55:19Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > I never really understood the supposed mentality of the psychopathic serial killer. If you lack empathy, you might casually and incidentally harm someone who is an obstacle to your objectives. But surely sadism is all about an awareness of how the victim is suffering, it’s _all about_ empathy. If you lack empathy, why would you go to great lengths to make torturing and killing your principal objective? It seems to me that just _wouldn’t care_ if somebody else were feeling pleasure or pain. Different strokes, but I _don’t_ care about how they feel about their pleasure or pain. I’ve got stuff that I want to do, it involves another human. Sometimes their reactions are amusing. I take great joy in being able to predictably elicit specific reactions out of other people. It’s not that I want them to feel a certain way, it’s the joy of being successful in making them feel that way. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2019, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-psychopath-and-other-questions/838685/6 "2019-08-15T20:45:33Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > Different strokes, but I _don’t_ care about how they feel about their pleasure or pain. I’ve got stuff that I want to do, it involves another human. Sometimes their reactions are amusing. I take great joy in being able to predictably elicit specific reactions out of other people. It’s not that I want them to feel a certain way, it’s the joy of being successful in making them feel that way. Are you saying you’re a psychopath? ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2019, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-psychopath-and-other-questions/838685/7 "2019-08-15T21:10:08Z")
In jest. Mostly. I act in a way I know is right, but it took some time to get here from there–and I really did spend a lot of time there I actually dont know. Can PP’s reform? I still want the world to be my playground, I just remind myself that it isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2019, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-psychopath-and-other-questions/838685/8 "2019-08-15T21:41:16Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > I never really understood the supposed mentality of the psychopathic serial killer. If you lack empathy, you might casually and incidentally harm someone who is an obstacle to your objectives. But surely sadism is all about an awareness of how the victim is suffering, it’s _all about_ empathy. If you lack empathy, why would you go to great lengths to make torturing and killing your principal objective? It seems to me that just _wouldn’t care_ if somebody else were feeling pleasure or pain. > > The psychopathic serial killer must surely be some kind of special case where there’s a lot more going on that just the absence of empathy in a typical psychopath. The article linked to in the OP discusses two different types of empathy, Cognitive and Emotional. Cognitive empathy is more like a skill–how well an individual can perceive and understand the emotions of another. Emotional empathy (from [here](https://lesley.edu/article/the-psychology-of-emotional-and-cognitive-empathy)): > [@](#): > > consists of three separate components, Hodges and Myers say. “The first is feeling the same emotion as another person … The second component, personal distress, refers to one’s own feelings of distress in response to perceiving another’s plight … The third emotional component, feeling compassion for another person, is the one most frequently associated with the study of empathy in psychology,” they explain. It’s the second and third components that psychopaths are lacking. We may see a psychopath who, in a sense, “_knows_ what someone else is thinking or feeling” but\* feels\* no compassion toward any pain or suffering that person is experiences because of those thoughts and feelings. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2019, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-psychopath-and-other-questions/838685/9 "2019-08-15T21:53:34Z")
None officially diagnosed, but I know a few people that meet the criteria. They are every bit as hard to get along with as you’d think. I think they used to call them sociopaths, at least back in the day. Or anti-social. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2019, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-psychopath-and-other-questions/838685/10 "2019-08-15T22:17:46Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Maternal grandfather; his mother. > > … > > What he supplied could be legal, illegal or directly involve pimping out people over whom he had authority such as his own (grand)children. Shit, PM if you want to talk. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2019, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-psychopath-and-other-questions/838685/11 "2019-08-16T05:31:06Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > Can PP’s reform? I still want the world to be my playground, I just remind myself that it isn’t. PP’s can be housebroken. I’ve inherited grandpa’s ability to analyze people as “logical systems”, the same way I analyze production processes, and to change the way people view themselves; but, unlike him, I took a look at the Goody Two Shoes side of the family… I took a look at the Evil Bastards and Bitches side of the family… and decided that being on the side of Good wasn’t only beneficial for humanity in general (something Grandpa would have sneered at), it’s a lot less tiring. I only apply that ability to analyze people logically when meeting someone for the first time, to see what’s going to be the best way to build a good working relationship (if possible, some people aren’t interested in one at all and only want to ram everybody up the ass), and that at what I think of as “low levels”; he used it all the time, because he was always looking for ways to manipulate situations and people. To him, life was a constant cheat. Thanks, **Balthisar** ; specially, thanks for taking my word as given. One of the really nasty parts of having Mr Hyde in the family is that people who’ve never encountered that kind of person refuse to believe they’re real. You believed me. I appreciate that. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2019, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-psychopath-and-other-questions/838685/12 "2019-08-16T06:21:23Z")
Lately, on Quora, a lot of people self-identify as psychopaths and are even proud of it. Like a soort of self-emancipation movement, like autists had. The psychopaths on Quora self-identify and gladly answer questions. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2019, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-psychopath-and-other-questions/838685/13 "2019-08-16T06:35:40Z")
I know a psychopath who has a brilliant sense of humor. He kills me. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2019, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-psychopath-and-other-questions/838685/14 "2019-08-18T02:48:15Z")
> [@russian\_heel](#): > > Also, since “psychopaths” are more than note by a overwhelming majority normal functioning members of society, should we come up with a better term than “psychopath”? Just the term “psycho” reminds many of the Alfred Hitchcock movie of the same name? I know the terms are not perfectly synonymous, but I prefer to use the term “sociopath” instead of “psychopath” due to one sounding more clinical and less…Hollywood.