Simply put: Are there any people who are currently alive and have some degree of fame who you think are sociopaths or psychopaths? I’m not talking so much about convicted murderers or the like. More about people who blend in successfully and manage to stay out of prison.
I was inspired a little by this thread and this one. I’ve seen Dick Cheney casually described as a sociopath on more than one occasion. While I’m sure that’s not been clinically diagnosed, I do wonder what other current “famous” people might be seen as sociopaths. Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney both strike me as possibilities, for different reasons.
What about you? Who do you think might be a sociopath just playing the game well?
(Note to mods: I wasn’t entirely sure which forum this was best suited to, so feel free to move it if you think it needs to be moved)
That’s in General Questions and is looking for factual information about famous ones. I’m asking people for speculation based on currently-famous people.
I’m sorry, I meant ‘serious people’, not ‘people seriously’. Look at who is responding there. If you wanted this discussion to be serious, then you should have left out the bit about Chaney and just asked your question…given some of the more radical folks on this board I’m sure you’d have gotten the answer you wanted to hear anyway.
That Kari Byron from Mythbusters is a nymphomaniac who likes older, over weight and balding Hispanics and will be coming over to my house later tonight, obviously.
Mitt Romney? Based on what? Just the fact that he has been really successful in business and has remarkably few examples of sin or vice in his personal life. He must be hiding something. If he is a sociopath who just puts on an act to manipulate people, he has been plotting his entire life.
Mmm, no, not that. I do think being a sociopath can help if you’re looking to be really successful in business, but I don’t think it’s a necessary component. And I don’t think in terms of “sin” or “vice,” so that’s got nothing to do with it. It’s more an unspecified vibe I get from him. He seems to say whatever is convenient at the time. He comes off like a person emulating human emotions and affectations, but not quite getting them right at times. He’s said several things which struck me as being callous in a way where he didn’t realize he was being callous. I get the feeling that what goes on in his head is vastly different from what he projects to other people.
I’m not saying he definitely is. I’m just saying he strikes me that way. Might be one, might not. There are definitely alternate explanations possible for everything I’ve seen in Mitt that point me in this direction. Just a vibe I get from him.
(I realize much of that could be applied to practically all politicians. Hey, I never said Mitt was the only one ;))
Well, that’s kinda what sociopaths do their entire life, innit?
And yes, it is inherently less likely that a psychopath would choose the Democratic party, as the attention to social justice and welfare would have no appeal to them. However, a psychopath would switch parties in a second if the Dems offered more money/support/likelihood of reelection.
Jim Baker (The former Preacher) in fact, I think that the ranks of evangelical preacherhood are rife with charming psychopaths.
Now a sociopath, as I understand it, is far less likely to show up in any of these places. Socipaths are less organzied in their thought processes, and less likely to achieve any long-term goals. Or have the definitions changed again? LOL!
Look at who is responding there. If you wanted this discussion to be serious, then you should have left out the bit about Chaney and just asked your question…given some of the more radical folks on this board I’m sure you’d have gotten the answer you wanted to hear anyway.