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Neuroscientist says 1% of the population are psychopaths

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voleregard
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05 Nov 2014, 10:13 am

btbnnyr wrote:
What are a few simple ways to tell if someone is a psychopath?
How does someone make you suspect that they are?


This looked informative:
http://www.wikihow.com/Identify-a-Psychopath

In my experience, in addition to the above, the people I now suspect of p/s-pathy are people who act distracted when you share things that are important to you with them.

They'll act disinterested (e.g., twirl their drink and look down into it often, have a bland look bordering on a smirk on their face as if thinking, "yeah, whatever") and give the impression that nothing you share is important and will belittle whatever contribution you make to the conversation. Maybe they'll throw in some crumbs of praise to try to string you along or pull you into their world.

Chances of likelihood increase if all this is occurring in a room full of lawyers or military personnel.

The question I have is how to sort out whether I'm dealing with a true p/s-path, or someone who is just a plain old a$$h*#e.



auntblabby
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05 Nov 2014, 2:11 pm

voleregard wrote:
Chances of likelihood increase if all this is occurring in a room full of lawyers or military personnel. The question I have is how to sort out whether I'm dealing with a true p/s-path, or someone who is just a plain old a$$h*#e.

I believe there is a gradient involved. on the spectrum from nice person to ahole, towards the distal end if it walks like a duckhole and quacks like a duckhole.....



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05 Nov 2014, 2:28 pm

I think one quality that might give away many psychopaths/sociopaths is that they tend to assume the worst motives in everyone else - even when it doesn't make any sense. I mentioned my current manager having all these grandiose psychopathic/sociopathic tendencies. Recently I suddenly started collapsing in a public place - had to be taken to the emergency room where an x-ray revealed that I had developed a large pneumonia lung infiltrate. He suggested to two fellow staffers that he thought I was faking it so I could just milk it. Like that would make any sense at all that I would fake collapsing in a public place and somehow or other fake a large infiltrate on my lung x-ray. But he is someone who constantly plays things to the limit in utterly unprincipled ways to milk things for his benefit. I'm guessing he assumes most or everyone else does the same. I have another coworker who is very loving and loyal and devoted to his wife and child. He assumes that is all a bunch of BS and he is faking it thinking that the guy dreams of getting away and being "free." Again that is the moral ground he operates on and thinks everyone else or almost every else does the same. I gather moral and ethical thinking is almost incomprehensible to the psychopath/sociopathic personality.


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05 Nov 2014, 2:39 pm

r2d2 wrote:
I think one quality that might give away many psychopaths/sociopaths is that they tend to assume the worst motives in everyone else - even when it doesn't make any sense. I mentioned my current manager having all these grandiose psychopathic/sociopathic tendencies. Recently I suddenly started collapsing in a public place - had to be taken to the emergency room where an x-ray revealed that I had developed a large pneumonia lung infiltrate. He suggested to two fellow staffers that he thought I was faking it so I could just milk it. Like that would make any sense at all that I would fake collapsing in a public place and somehow or other fake a large infiltrate on my lung x-ray. But he is someone who constantly plays things to the limit in utterly unprincipled ways to milk things for his benefit. I'm guessing he assumes most or everyone else does the same. I have another coworker who is very loving and loyal and devoted to his wife and child. He assumes that is all a bunch of BS and he is faking it thinking that the guy dreams of getting away and being "free." Again that is the moral ground he operates on and thinks everyone else or almost every else does the same. I gather moral and ethical thinking is almost incomprehensible to the psychopath/sociopathic personality.

I assume the worst because I have repeatedly been exposed to the worst in too many people. my view of human nature is quite dim, but accurate. anyways, the thinking of the staffer reminds me of the old adage, "mediocrity only understands itself."



voleregard
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05 Nov 2014, 2:45 pm

auntblabby wrote:
I believe there is a gradient involved. on the spectrum from nice person to ahole, towards the distal end if it walks like a duckhole and quacks like a duckhole.....


So are you saying that the more of a duckhole a person is, the more likely they are to be a psychopath? Guess it depends on the criteria you're using.

r2d2 wrote:
and somehow or other fake a large infiltrate on my lung x-ray.


As if. Makes me wonder if they believe their own lies. Like, does he really believe you'd do something like that, or is he using it to slander you in order to elevate himself in the eyes of the other staffers. Maybe he thinks accusing you like that will benefit him somehow, such as increase his professional/social standing, and doesn't really believe you'd fake an x-ray.



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05 Nov 2014, 2:53 pm

voleregard wrote:
So are you saying that the more of a duckhole a person is, the more likely they are to be a psychopath? Guess it depends on the criteria you're using.

that is one way of looking at it. also realize that there is a divide between an organic psychopath [born that way] versus a sociopath [conditioned that way and with some of the genes for psychopathy]. and there's a difference also between the antisocial type versus the dissocial type [works for the group]. in my experience a true psychopath is a cool customer, they will not tip their hand unless they have to. they have an external polish. I'm thinking of some of the military officers I had to work with. they are smart enough to keep their rotten cores hidden. a garden variety duckhole, OTOH is likely to be a sociopath. get them mad enough and they will generally end up doing something to put them in prison, IOW they have an underactive governor [frontal lobes]. the smarter ones will delay that point quite a while.
voleregard wrote:
As if. Makes me wonder if they believe their own lies. Like, does he really believe you'd do something like that, or is he using it to slander you in order to elevate himself in the eyes of the other staffers. Maybe he thinks accusing you like that will benefit him somehow, such as increase his professional/social standing, and doesn't really believe you'd fake an x-ray.

doesn't matter if they believe or not, just the fact that they would use a tool like that to self-aggrandize at the expense of others marks them.



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05 Nov 2014, 2:56 pm

voleregard wrote:

r2d2 wrote:
and somehow or other fake a large infiltrate on my lung x-ray.


As if. Makes me wonder if they believe their own lies. Like, does he really believe you'd do something like that, or is he using it to slander you in order to elevate himself in the eyes of the other staffers. Maybe he thinks accusing you like that will benefit him somehow, such as increase his professional/social standing, and doesn't really believe you'd fake an x-ray.


That is possible. On more than one occasion - he has said things to me that seemed to imply that he was with me against "them" (a married couple I work with) - I've learned that in this case as well as other cases he also says things to them implying that he is with them against me. As if he would want to play off me against this married couple and the married couple against me - trying to convince both me and the married couple that he is our ally against the other. I think this is something he does so naturally - he barely knows when he is doing it.


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voleregard
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05 Nov 2014, 4:00 pm

auntblabby wrote:
there is a divide between an organic psychopath [born that way] versus a sociopath [conditioned that way and with some of the genes for psychopathy]. and there's a difference also between the antisocial type versus the dissocial type [works for the group]. in my experience a true psychopath is a cool customer


This is really helpful. Thanks. Just wish I'd had this knowledge while I was in military training. There's some real heartless duckholes pursuing that line of work, and I could have had some line of defense by knowing their game.

r2d2 wrote:
he has said things to me that seemed to imply that he was with me against "them"...as well as other cases he also says things to them implying that he is with them against me.


Ingratiating himself toward both sides while pitting them against each other. Kind of "case closed" at that point, based on what I now know.