…and here is a little ditty of my own (circa 2000) on the topic of Psychopathy. It’s just my observations drawn from my (unfortunately) considerable life experience of Psychopaths. Looking over it now, I think maybe made too many assumptions about what goes on in other people’s heads. Older and wiser now I would not do that today.
I would also be inclined to disavow a lot of the assumptions I make in it…though i might make a few NEW assumptions…who knows?
I guess that happens to all of us as we grow, learn and develop, our ideas and perspectives change.
Just for balance, here is a link to the Wikipedia article on Psychopathy, that is the product of much work by many editors - I am not even sure I agree with it all, but you might.
One thing I certainly agree with is that the academic and medical communities regard Psychopathy, and Antisocial personality disorder as two separate, if not entirely distinct conditions, in that while every Psychopath could probably be considered to have Aspd, not everybody with Aspd, or close, is a psychopath.
There is an increasing weight of evidence to suggest that the origins of true Psychopathy are genetic, while Aspd (a rather vague DSM category at best) may often be environmental in origin.
Onwards to the arrogance of my younger self:
What is it like inside the mind of a psychopath?
Let me stress that there are no certainties here. They are so manipulative that only a fool would claim certain insight. Educated assumption is the best anyone can do.
It is established that they do have a demonstrably higher pain threshold than most people and that their reactions to conventional emotional stimuli are considerably muted. However it does not seem as simple as assuming them to be soulless, devoid of emotion.
Psychopaths are as individual as anybody, that must be said. Psychopathy seems to be quite separate from identity. Just as there are superficial people of every kind there are also superficial and thus “soulless” psychopaths. That is not however the whole story, there are others who seem capable of experiencing a rich emotional range on some levels. I would be inclined to contest the assumption that a psychopath is deficient emotionally. The real deficiency seems rather in the area of communication and perception. As a dyslexic is unable to decode letters and words, a psychopath seems unable to decode or relate to the feelings and sensations of others, beyond the superficial “cause and effect” they compensate by manipulating so skillfully.
That sword has two distinct edges. Imagine being capable of emotion and feeling yet incapable of discerning the feelings and emotions of others beneath the surface, which may well, and is often, a mask of some kind, even in the most healthy of us. On the other side of the blade, an human being in torment surely signifies no more to a psychopath than a football player combining his sporting career with aspirations to an Oscar in pursuit of injury time, or Wylie Coyote emerging battered from one of his terminal disasters.
How do you feel about those last two? Maybe amusement, sometimes irritation perhaps, but surely nothing deep or significant?
It is possible that is very similar to the way a psychopath feels dismembering a mother in front of her child, or, more subtly, arranging a coup that will destroy a major industry leaving thousands without jobs or hope for the rest of their lives.
A psychopath understands the difference between right and wrong, but by rote. He understands that this thing is called “right” and this other thing is called “wrong”. He also understands that “wrong” incurs penalties he wishes to avoid, and “right” attracts praise and approval.
What he is, very possibly, incapable of understanding, is why one thing is “right” and another “wrong” intuitively. Leaving all religious and cultural considerations aside, right and wrong are largely determined by the ratio of harm to benefit. Harm and benefit are surely measured in the feelings and emotions of others?
Pain is an alarm system, as his own “alarm system” is so muted, the psychopath is probably profoundly deaf to the indicators of the same “alarm system” in others.
A scream that signifies pain to the rest of us, only signifies “noise” to a psychopath. He must determine any meaning beyond that intellectually.
The result is that, in terms of emotion, or feeling, in others it is unlikely that a psychopath is aware of any real different between honesty and pretence. To the psychopath, the outward appearances, which are all he is really aware of, are almost identical.
The socialized psychopath has learned intellectually that certain reactions denote certain states of mind. In relatively cut and dried situations, though it is synthetic, empty, that is enough. Life is rarely cut and dried, most moral decisions are complex and loaded with subtle nuances. To learn them all by rote is impossible. Thus, under pressure, the totally amoral lack of empathy is revealed, simply because even the most socialized psychopath cannot figure enough out intellectually in time.
People tend to regard psychopaths as malevolent, this is far from the general rule. Many are, by inclination, something that rather resembles “good natured”, with a total inability to perceive what “good” consists of, or what will cause pleasure rather than pain in others.
Some psychopaths are capable of loving as deeply as anyone else, while being incapable of rendering the effect of that love benign and tolerable to the object of it, let alone beneficial. The chilling truth is that not matter how much a psychopath might love, or wish to nurture, he can never know how to achieve that, nor even how to monitor his behaviors towards that end.
Denied access to the internal reactions of others they are focused on the external reactions. This is the root of their manipulative skills. We all manipulate at times, but we are inefficient, because our empathy for those we manipulate distracts us. Without that distraction the psychopath becomes, effectively, a perfect, optimized machine for manipulating the people within his environment.
To be born a psychopath is probably to be dealt a very cruel hand in life. To live and perhaps feel, in a world that for you is totally devoid of all emotion, apart from your own, full of underlying motives you can never hope to read. A world that is cold, empty, ruthless, terrifying lonely and stultifyingly boring.
It must seem I ask “Sympathy for the Devil”, though perhaps the psychopath warrants sympathy I do not ask it, nor give it. I like cats and appreciate them, but I would not advocate that mice adopted the same attitude.
Until there is enough understanding of the psychopath to change his nature, however he suffers, he is the predator, and we are the prey.
You do know that there was a Sadistic personality disorder in DSM III?
Personally I think it is a completely separate disorder and should have been retained.
It’s about motivation…
The motivation of NPD is about the protection and projection of self, not about hurting people.
A psychopath is similarly motivated, but to a far greater extreme because (as far as I can tell) he is born with absolutely no real perception of how anything outside himself works, either in terms of pain, or consequences.
To a psychopath altruism or conscience are like fairies at the bottom of the garden, he certainly hasn’t got any, and as far as he is concerned, neither have you or I, and any suggestion otherwise is just an empty social protocol.
It is my honest opinion that we are not real enough to a psychopath for him to actually care whether he causes us pain or not, and my experience that, if anything, psychopaths are actually LESS likely to act out of pure sadism or malice than anyone else…
Which is not to say they do less harm, just that the harm they do is motivated by their personal interests, needs and whims, whatever they may be, not by any need to see others in pain, or to exact revenge.
However, there certainly ARE people who get high on causing pain.
Just as we can all get drunk on wine.
Some of them channel it positively, as you or I might have a glass of wine with dinner…into consensual erotic pursuits, and, in my experience, honestly seem to otherwise be very decent, healthy people…
But some of them become like alcoholics, totally at the mercy of their craving to cause pain, until it is the driving motivation of almost every facet of their lives.
I think that is a separate personality disorder that is currently “not otherwise specified” , and that it needs further recognition, if only because of the risk it presents to others.
On that note, I find it significant that there has never been a Masochistic personality disorder in the DSM (in spite of me not-so-very-learned friend’s frequent insistence to the contrary, that might also bear a little scrutiny in terms of what it says about him), it was originally suggested for DSM III but dropped long before publication.
I wonder if, as a society, we are more inclined to pay attention to the PDs percieved as active, harmful and ignore the more passive ones?
This, of course, protects people, but beyond that, what resources, or even recognition, is available for people who are disordered in ways that are largely hamrless to anyone but themselves?
Sam
----- Original Message -----
From: “thephoenix101” npd-cpt6554@lists.careplace.com
To: palma@unet.com.mk
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 5:44 PM
Subject: Re: [npd] Psychopathy and Narcissism
