Psychopaths

PSYCHOPATHS

One benefit of reading on psychopaths and how these psychologists categorize them is that it crystalizes your picture of some friends and co-workers you’ve known for a long time. And helps you take better assessment of people and may even lead you to learn certain strategies on how to develop friendships.

“The Charming Psychopath: How to Spot Social Predators Before They Attack,” An excerpt from Without Conscience, published by Psychology Today

1. from the New York Post

Psychopaths commit violent crimes because their brains are hard-wired to value short-term rewards, a new study has claimed.

Psychopaths don’t have to be violent. They have no long-term goals. Poor behavioral controls is another feature that defines a psychopath. The tend to be irresponsible; their behavior doesn’t take into account what is likely to happen. Their own behavior puts other people at risk. Tend to engage in behavior that is anti-social or at least a-social from a very early age and this continues on throughout most of their life.

2. Psychopaths & Sociopaths, Joshua Krause, Ready Nutrition, February 18, 2015. This article contains some excellent characterizations for both psychopaths and sociopaths as well as some excellent books to help your investigation into these personalities.

according to an article from Psychology Today, there are some significant differences as well. Sociopaths are more volatile and can lash out unexpectedly. Furthermore, most crimes committed by them will be spontaneous and disorganized.

Psychopaths, on the other hand, are more cunning. Their crimes are well executed, and difficult for police to figure out. They excel at mimicking human emotions and tend to have a good education and a steady job. They just fit right in. They’re the sort of people who rise to the top of corporations, governments, and law firms. We probably don’t even how many psychopaths there are in the world, or what they’re really like. They’re simply too elusive to pin down.

Though the author goes to great lengths to distinguish between the two personalities, know that any one person can possess both characteristics in equal or disparate amounts. She may even subject them to some disassociative partition to keep one side intact while cultivating the other.

3. The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success, Kevin Dutton, 2013.
4. Psychopaths in D.C.

Politicians as a class, however, may be another story. In a previous paper, impishly titled “Kissing Babies to Prove You Are Not a Psychopath”—which explored the motivations behind our collective need to witness our leaders displaying empathy—Murphy foreshadowed his findings here, writing that in a system designed to reward the power-hungry, voters are given the unenviable but important responsibility of weeding out the phonies.

5. The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry, Jon Ronson, 2012.
6. Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us, Robert D. Hare, Ph.D., 1999.
7. The Mask of Sanity, Hervey Cleckley, 1941.
8. Echoes in the Darkness, Joseph Wambaugh, 1987. Wambaugh skillfully describes a psychopathic teacher, William Bradfield, who was able to bamboozle everyone around him with his apparent erudition. “The Profile: Feelings and Relationships,” from Robert Hare’s Without Conscience, p. 36.
9. In a Child’s Name: The Legacy of a Mother’s Murder, Peter Maas, 1990.
10. The Death Shift: Nurse Genene Jones and the Texas Baby Murders, Peter Elkind, 1983. Genene Jones.
11. The Stranger Beside Me: The Inside Story of Serial Killer Ted Bundy, Ann Rule, 1980
12. The Psychopath: An Essay on the Criminal Mind, William and Joan McCord, 1964.
13. Small Sacrifices: The Shocking True Crime Case of Diane Downs, Ann Rule, 1988. It seems that psychopaths always have some shocking abuse early in their lives.
14. G. Daniel Walker, murderer, is covered in the TV documentary, Diabolical Minds.
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