What is a psychopath?
Psychopaths are individuals incapable of empathy, remorse, guilt, and to be diagnosed as a psychopath requires meeting criteria from the checklist.
Hare Psychopath Checklist:
- grandiose (exaggeratedly high) estimation of self
- need for stimulation
- pathological lying
- cunning and manipulativeness
- lack of remorse or guilt
- shallow affect (superficial emotional responsiveness)
- callousness and lack of empathy
- parasitic lifestyle
- poor behavioral controls
- sexual promiscuity
- early behavior problems
- lack of realistic long-term goals
- impulsivity
- irresponsibility
- failure to accept responsibility for own actions
- many short-term marital relationships
- juvenile delinquency
- revocation of conditional release
- criminal versatility
The Hare Psychopath Checklist is one of the methods used to identify a clinical psychopath. Other methods in addition to the Hare checklist include using FMRI brain scan to determine if a person is capable of feeling empathy. Psychopaths are incapable of feeling empathy and the brain of a psychopath is wired in such a way where empathy simply does not register and this can be seen because the portion of the brain associated with feeling empathy never lights up. In addition psychopaths do not process fear in the normal way and this can also be detected in a brain scan.
Dr. Katherine Horton in her video claims:
- Psychopaths treat other people as objects.
- Psychopaths have a need for control over others.
- Psychopaths use enablers.
- Most old style organizations are captured by psychopaths.
How many centralized top down pyramid style organizations are already captured by clinical psychopaths?
Old style organizations typically give lots of power to people at the top. Clinical psychopaths are attracted to positions of absolute power and will seek out these positions at the top. If a person is naturally seeking to be in these positions of great power then it is important to question why that person wants to be in that position. People who are not psychopaths often do not want to be in positions of power because of the responsibility that goes with it but a psychopath will enjoy being in this position rather than stressed out by the responsibility.
In prison populations around 20% of prisoners are said to be psychopaths and Robert Hare has stated around 50% of violent crimes are committed by psychopaths. So psychopaths are naturally suited to doing violence and because psychopaths have difficulties with morality it is also true that prisons have a high percentage of psychopaths. We also have to consider not all psychopaths end up in prison and many psychopaths are the successful variety and it is these psychopaths who might rise to the top of pyramid style organizations.
References
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy_Checklist
- http://www.minddisorders.com/Flu-Inv/Hare-Psychopathy-Checklist.html
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3767545/Inside-mind-PSYCHOPATH-Researchers-feel-fear-don-t-recognise-danger.html
- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/08/160830113745.htm
- http://www.businessinsider.com/what-a-psychopath-brain-looks-like-2015-7
Reminds me of my ex husband , he was really abusive and use to threaten me . Was choked so many times but God saved me , the flashbacks with fear never end .
I apologize if my blog post triggered anything. It's meant to bring attention to one of the security flaws caused by the human element of centralized pyramid style institutions. Decentralized institutions are interesting because we may be able to bypass a lot of the negative consequences that go along with a psychopath at the top.
No of course not , you are just educating others and God bless you for that
You are not up to date on the subject and just repeating the usual discredited Hare researched. He mixed Narcissists & Sociopaths and Psychopaths all up to together because they appear to have the same traits Duh.. They have some crossover traits but this is for very different reasons. Further Hare's research was conducted in prisons - if you were to research normal people in prisons you would have a very skewed view of what Neurotypicals (normal people) were about. Recent research shows that Psychopaths (as opposed to Narcissistic/ Sociopaths) are LESS likely to be in prison. Psychopaths are NOT represented in professions like law, clergy, teaching, politics these are all NARCISSISTIC professions. And NO your Ex was not a Psychopath because most Psychopaths don't have the emotions to hold down a relationship beyond a week or two.
Sure but prisons are really one of the few places to conduct research where you can see the behavior of the individual 24 hours a day 7 days a week to observe. It's pretty easy to identify who the psychopaths are in prison where everyone is observed continuously but it's not so easy to do so on the outside.
And psychopaths have been known to get married, make children, they just don't do it for the same reasons. Since you are up to date on the latest research please cite your sources? I showed the research I saw but you just say "recent research"?
The Psychology profession could ASK us how we think but they never do. They ignore forums and any form of input, instead opting for the echo chamber of a few chosenites like Hare and his obviously flawed work. This was also the same for Narcissism as Sam Vaknin tells us... In fact with Narcissism they removed it from the DSM-5 manual completely - why when its epidemic? Because the Psychology profession is made up of narcissists and they just vote it out at their annual conference. Vaknin actually listens and aside from being the worlds authority on Narcissism knows quite a lot about Psychopathy, his recent work is quite accurate.
Narcissist/ Sociopaths may have relationships because they have some empathy at least for the person giving them attention. But for us there is nothing there, nothing ever develops the emotion of love is absent like most emotions. Its like trying to have a relationship with a warm shop window dummy.
Psychopathy can be defined as 1) Having a very limited set or emotions & not having any emotional memory. 2) A need to be in control of our environment - and to an extent - including people within that environment, borne out of a distrust in humans due to their personality limitations. Psychopath moto: Control Less You Be Controlled.
We are only interested in humans if we have a purpose for them - aside from that we don't want or need their attention. True, we don't have emotions like regret or remorse or another 60+ and we don't get Pro-Social morals but we do have our own. Statistically we're more likely to come to the aide of a stranger in an emergency than a normal person.,
Sociopath/ Narcissists have ALWAYS been abused in childhood, not so for Psychopaths. Psychopathy genes are likely from Neanderthal DNA.
"Contrary to previous research and media portrayals of homicide perpetration being rooted in psychopathic tendencies such as callous affect, the present findings found no support for such a conceptualization of the crime.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047235217301381
Good for you that you broke away from that. God bless you!
Thank you , God Bless!!
Interesting read, it means that the predators in our society we want to protect ourselves from are most likely our protectors. Well it explains that some very unethical, unjustified things happen in our world. For psychopaths we are just cattle.
This post received a 4.2% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @freyrtruthseeker! For more information, click here!
Yes, psychopaths will usually go to the top of the hierarchy. Psycopaths are overrepresented as lawyers, ceos, surgeons, politicians++. Psychopaths have neurological differences in they brain, and psychopaths are not evil per se. One of the main psychopathic traits are fearless dominance, and many politicians, i.e presidents, seem to have this traits. Real psychopaths (not sociopaths) do not feel anxiety and do not have a real, fixed personality. So they are real not human at all. It is very easy to identify psychopaths if you know what to look for. Imho, they are always aware that they are psychopathic them self. Also, psychopaths are much more efficient than normal people, and natural master the art of sprezzatura, i.e. law of least effort. Imho they are almost always more intelligent, at least in high society, and tend to be analytical and good in mathematics. James Fallon is a very typical psychopath. Women seem to be natural attracted to psychopaths, which mean they have good genes. Psychopaths are also very good as keeping infidelity secret. I do not think we can have a system that is not exploited by psychopaths. Then ancient rulers where probably all psychopathic. The interesting questions is: Why do we have psychopaths:)? In the near future, it will be possible to use imaging techniques, such as fMRI, to identify who is psychopathic from an early age.
I think that the pyramidal hierarchies are run by psychopaths. They are ideal structures for the people in control. According to Ronald Bernard, only about 8500 people run the world. And he worked for them. This is an interview that came out about a month ago. Years ago I heard that there are three things that are important to the "illuminati". Hierarchy, symbolism and ritual. Everything the do is a magick working to gain power.
How can I know you arent one? o.o Maybe we all are.
I doubt it will matter since I'm not in a position of power over you or on top of a centralized pyramid style organization. But if I were someone who might be in a position of power over you then in my opinion you have a right to know whether or not I'm a psychopath. In fact, maybe you don't want a psychopath to be in a position of power over you. To take it further, maybe you don't want anyone to be at the top of a pyramid style organization because you recognize the risks it can create for the people at the bottom.
I mean this, says it all.
The one at the top knows everything. Everybody* below is blind. This can only work in a pyramid like structure.
Of course not everybody but those with a need to know. It's slavery 2.0
If we all were then there would be no distinction of what a psychopath is. A psychopath is a point of interest in human society because they do not feel empathy, do not have the same level of emotionality that "normal" people have. By not having empathy they have different strengths and weaknesses, but what is most interesting is when you evaluate how positions of power are mostly occupied by them. To really delve into this and then actually come to terms with this is what this study, and author should further evaluate.
dana is not one.
YEP. I have known several, and they were at the top of the company
How did you survive that? It would make a good blog post. Also it gives a legit security reason for decentralization of organizations.
I once heard a psychopath described as someone who is afraid of everything, and everyone they can not control. I don't know if that is covered in your material, but something about that rang with me
Psychopaths lack the ability to connect and understand others emotional states is the main reason they are so damaging. That natural feeling you get when someone is super happy or super sad without needing to look or observe them is what Psychos lack. In theory it really is a sad state of being. This in turn causes them to never truly connect to others deeply enough and to create meaningful relationships. Narcissistic Psychopaths are the much more dangerous. Believing they are above everything else stacked with no amount of emotional connection is a combo made in hell. All of this allows them to climb over others to get to the top. No doubt a lot of higher ups have a great detachment from humanity to be able to hurt others for personal gain.
I like your screen name. If it means what I think, we have something in common. Strange things come with the deal.
Most type "A" personalities are arguably psychopaths.
Corporations by definition, are sociopathic entities, concerned only with shareholder value by their very design, and nothing more. Growth at the expense of everything else. We are so close to total enslavement, it's unlikely we fix this.
nice share. thank you.
hard to agree that de centralized systems favorize any psychopath.
quite the opposite will happen. decentralization means distributed power and improved communication. this kind of modern digital environment and organization will empower people who deserve it, not psychopaths.
Interesting, capitalism seems to reward all those psychopathic traits you mentioned.
How did this guy get so high in the ranks?
Great article
I didn't knew that many about psychopaths
Is crazy that they seek high positions and don't get stressed by it
I worked as a manager and had to deal with 79-80 people every day, I can't stand that so I quit, now I am relaxed
I believe we have a lot of these people in politics, banking and even religious organizations. They are the successful psychopaths who manage to evade the prison system.
It's magnitude is unfathomable. I get why so many choose sleep.
What if the judge, the cop, the prison guard, are psychopaths? How would you cope if you're the suspect, the prisoner, etc?
Many of them are psychopaths. No one cares how prisoners cope, despite the fact that over 1% of Americans are prisoners. Over 95% of criminal charges result in conviction, and over 95% of those convictions are a result of plea bargains. Evidence from DNA investigations of crimes in which DNA was possible to use, have shown that up to 25% of prisoners are innocent of the charges of which they were convicted. There are many reasons why people accept plea bargains, including to protect others.
Most people think of prisoners as scum. At least a quarter of prisoners are heroes, because they are protecting someone else, and accepting imprisonment as a result.
Prisoners are over represented by psychopaths also, and psychopaths recognize the traits in others that they know set themselves apart. Many psychopaths who are in prison are snitches, or hit men, who are used by psychopaths to cover up the many, many crimes committed against prisoners.
Prisoners can't go to the media. They can't use the phone. They can't write a letter, or vote with their feet. All of those actions require the permission of their captors.
They are slaves. That is not an exaggeration. All prisoners in America are forced to work for wages as low as $1/day. Much of this work is contracted out to private companies.
You are probably aware that there are a lot of ways to keep free people from blowing the whistle on criminal acts and organizations. Consider how easy it is to commit crimes and prevent slaves kept in cages from telling your secrets.
Prisoners either go along, or die. If they tell the truth about these crimes, no one will believe them anyway. Those few examples of prisoners getting truth out, such as the woman who was kept as a sex slave by a guard that gave her syphilis, are so rare as to be comparable to unicorns.
Even after prisoners are released, they are subject to much of the same power, even to the extent of being forced into slavery, sexual and otherwise.
When you think of vulnerable populations, know that there is no population more vulnerable than prisoners.
I suppose try to stay one step ahead of them and do my research.
What do you mean..."IF"....:)
It's surreal how deep it goes....
The leaders of the major political parties in America prove their morality is warped.
Are they psychopaths? Their need for power declares they are.
Policymakers come and go. What about the people in agencies, in institutions of power, the career employees, the agents? How would you cope with a psychopathic agent investigating you?
To many crazies and I think it would be hard to accept a psychopath investigating me.
I work for a psychopath. I treat him like I treat everyone else. He is aware of his lack of empathy, knows that he is susceptible to acting in ways that are socially unacceptable, and compensates by deliberately acting to be generous, kind, and a 'softie'.
He isn't - he doesn't feel kindness, empathy, or generosity, but he performs acts that are designed to appear to be. He is utterly amoral, but consistently acts according to moral rules, because he has chosen to.
He's very intelligent. He is not cruel, power mad, or any of the things which define psychopathy, because he has chosen to live as a normal person. Psychopaths are excellent at acting, at determining what buttons to push to control people. He is quite successful and even ruthless in business, but kind to kittens, children, and little old ladies.
He doesn't feel empathy, but he acts so as to treat people kindly. He does have some issues with ego, but, again, he deliberately acts to present a humble appearance. He's actually a great guy to work for.
I genuinely feel sorry for him, and find his choices admirable. I cannot even imagine his mental landscape.
Many professionals who are psychopaths use their expertise at acting to conceal their lack of empathy and ego with consummate skill. It is the least intelligent, and those who are also otherwise deranged in addition to their emotional stunting, that show they are cruel and sadistic, because this endangers them.
Cats are all psychopaths. If you want to understand the feelings of a psychopath you need only to watch a cat torture it's prey, and then come to you for affection. Cats are also almost completely wild, even today, their DNA almost indistinguishable from wildcats. No one should expect cats to be humane, as they are not human.
Neither are psychopaths.
I'm sorry but I have to take exception to your statement that, "In prison populations around 20% of prisoners are said to be psychopaths" can you cite this statistic for me?
It's especially hard to swallow considering the prison population here in the US is made up, in large part by drug related, non violent crimes. In fact according to the very non-scientific Huffington Post, it's over 50 percent. Source
Here are some statistics with references:
These numbers are estimates and are not exact. We don't know the exact number of psychopaths in the general population or in prisons. We estimate as of 2006 at minimum 15% of prisoners, but I've heard as high as 20%.
You are right most prisoners in the US are non violent but even if 20% are psychopaths, it doesn't mean most psychopaths are violent. It does however show in the statistics that most violent criminals are psychopaths.
References
Thanks for the citations.
I have to tell you that I'm pleasantly surprised.
Far too many people post opinion pieces on the internet worded to sound like there is some type of science behind it, when they've just "heard" something somewhere.
Please accept my tiny upvote.
I understand. In most of my blog posts I carefully cite all my sources precisely because I see the same thing as a problem.
I for one appreciate the effort you make.
Thank you again.
But at the same time, that's a very disturbing number. Especially seeing as the pretense of rehabilitation went out the window decades ago.
Please do qualify that statement by acknowledging that there are a significant number of innocent persons who are convicted of crimes because they have accepted plea bargains for reasons that may have nothing to do with criminal activity.
I personally know of people that have accepted convictions for violent crimes who I know are not guilty of the crime. I know that they have done this to protect the victims of the crime, not some criminal.
Prosecutors are very skillful at negotiations for plea bargains, because it is the sole metric by which their performance is judged. They have access to secret surveillance. They use it to blackmail people every day, and get them to accept plea bargains.
I once asked the Assistant Deputy District Attorney acting as counsel for a Grand Jury investigating jails in the county I lived in that I was on, how he could sleep at night. I had knowledge of prisoners being sexually assaulted (they had told us, while standing right in front of the guards they were accusing, who also threatened retaliation openly), and had a private conversation with him where I ascertained he knew all about it.
He told me he slept in a big, expensive, comfortable bed.
A quarter of that Grand Jury had been beaten by police, but no one was willing to do anything about it. I tried, but I had young toddlers at home. Once you receive a credible threat against your children, it is difficult to sacrifice them - particularly in a system that will absorb your protest without even noticing - even if you know many other people will suffer.
My kids are no longer children, so I no longer am silent.
Thanks for the video. Now I'll know. But it would be better not to meet such...)
Steer clear of me then....I'm a magnet for these foolks, it seems:)
brilliant
Insightful stuff.
I think it is the other way around, dana. Natural selection pushed psychopaths into power. Capitalism basically demands psychopathic behavior. From there, it was a feedback loop.
Power brings more power. Money calls money. Call it the rise of psychopathy.
Natural selection simply means selection by warfare. It's like saying the world is the way it is because of war.
Capitalism does not demand psychopathic behavior.
Natural selection doesn't mean selection by warfare. Natural selection actually refers to reproduction. The higher the chances a man or woman survive in a capitalistic world, the higher the chances of reproducing are. Hence the chances to produce offspring with genetic predisposition are also higher, which in turn, increase the incidence rate of psychopathic traits in society.
Dead people can't reproduce. Natural selection is produced by selection by warfare in human societies. We have many examples of dictators using genocide and war to wipe out entire populations, races, etc.
And how is that not "natural selection" by means of psychopathic methods? I'm not convinced psychopathic traits provide any pro-social benefit but for warfare you might have a point.
That's kind of the idea. Psychopaths are parasitic by nature. They will live at the expense on others' well-being for their own. Natural selection isn't something that is produced. It is a process which states that a species either preserves its genetic content over time or doesn't. The "survival of the fittest" is the most common idea connected to evolution, but it isn't fully correct.
Just see how humans in different continents have preserved and fostered certain genetic traits, regardless of fighting. Saying that "natural selection is produced by selection by warfare in human societies" is completely unfounded and doesn't make sense.
Right and we have labs and genetic engineering, vaccines, antibiotics, etc. All of that has an effect on gene preservation. And then we have world wars where hundreds of millions die, with extermination camps, and genocides, some of which still are happening.
I would say we have no easy way to divorce social warfare from natural selection.
My uncle was suffering from I want to say "illness" for the sake of the relationship. When me and my siblings were younger I remember he once put me in a high kitchen cabinet acting as if he was doing me a favor during a game of hide and seek. He really just locked me in the cabinet for 2 hours hearing me scream and cry till my father came to my rescue when he got home from work.
I' m happy that you were able to move on with your life. Thanks for sharing.
Aren't we all psychopaths to a certain degree?
A psychopath is a person who has a high score on the checklist. If you get a 40 for example then you are a psychopath. If you get a 40 and the neuroscience backs it up via brain scans then you are a clinical psychopath.
We all might have some of the traits and tendencies but it's a matter of degrees. Also a psychopath isn't capable of experiencing certain emotional states ever in life.
Thanks for sharing @dana-edwards, i must read more book for knowledge this psychophat
Thanks, always a good checklist to have. Thanks for the video, very interesting :).
Why do emotionally intelligent, nice people often become the victims of the psychopaths, who have abusive tempers and exhibit glibness, irresponsibility, and deception with an excessive need for control and interference corresponding to their sense of incompetency?
I think that psychopaths represent a much more complicated category than the offenders portrayed in the media. They thrive not because they lack emotions in general, but because they use emotions (in addition to other tricks) to control others.
Veri good post master @ happy to know you ,,,!
I have some of the symptoms, however, I would like to read about sociopaths. I feel I'm a sociopath but I don't want to self-diagnose lol. I would like the know the differences between a sociopath psychopath and a normal human. I recently wrote a post where I explicitly say " I need constant stimulation". This is actually really intersting topic it does make sense that people in power should not have empathy. Good Post.
Such pyramid structures are psychopathic, indeed - in fact, artificial hierarchy itself is psychopathic since it requires the will of those below to be overpowered by the minds of those above, which is exactly the outcome of a lack of empathic connection.
Despite what many specialists may claim, however, psychopathy can be healed through extensive heart/emotional healing. I have worked (privately and non financially) in that arena in groups for 10+ years and I have seen amazing things - however, this is a topic that is not understood at all in the mainstream yet. Why? Partially, it is because the medical infrastructure is itself enmeshed in psychopathic tendencies and the ego-biased culture that surrounds the whole charade will not honestly assess itself until forced to do so by the rest of of the world who has now awoken to the reality and refuses to bow down to 'voices of authority'.
Psychopathy has its relative benefits and detriments. They make great surgeons and CEOs as they can make decisions that require a lot of calculated decision making and skill but not a lot of empathy. In these situations the price mechanism is the greatest form of power as it heavily rewards these individuals for doing something that not many people can do well.
The real dangers come from psychopaths using and manipulating the centralized State for their own gain at the detriment of others. The nature of politics gives psychopaths a large comparative advantage over the rest of the population, leading to a lot of problems in terms of governance.
Less State = more benevolent psychopaths
I love coming across Dr. Horton's video here. This is actually my favorite one I've seen her put out. Have you seen her weekly Techno Crime Fighters Forum? It's encouraging to see you use your platform for something as important as this. I'm thrilled to see It's doing so well. Kudos.
Excellent post, thanks for the information, I am new to steemit and I am posting the situation of my country to make known to everyone, please support me, God bless you
99% of all violent killings and oppressions in human history were done by people 'just following orders'. Those people who killed others were not psychopats, they were just blindly following orders. If we want to stop most of bs, we must stop believing there is such thing like authority.
If you are psychopat and you want to control vast number of people, you can't do it physically. You must find some other way to convince people to obey your psychopathic needs. They succeeded in that by hypnotizing us to believe state and government are some mytical beings we must obey. They use those 'beings' to push the more psychopathic orders they can. It depends how much people allow it.
https://steemit.com/freedom/@cmoljoe/road-to-freedom-series-5-you-are-either-slave-or-anarchist
I'll be getting into this extraordinary area of inquiry shortly. At present, I am laying the groundwork by setting up a series of posts on how humans have been reduced to objects of exploitation via the historical processes of modernity and reductionism...
A previous set of posts explores alternative metaphysical possibilities...
Excellent post! Thanks!
So TRUMP is a PSYCHOPATH--vote me up if you agree
Absolutely great post! Bringing awareness about the psychos is the entire problem of the world. They have taken over where before they weren't a problem, now they're out of control and at the top of all the controls of power. I'm going to follow you!! I love people who care about the world , who care how these people are creating so much violence in our world that doesnt have to be that way! Keep up the gresat work, I'm yhoujr foloowerer forever!