Psychopath.

cacophony

Do you think you know a psychopath?. serious question, the reason i ask is, about 4 or 5 years ago, on channel 4 (i think) there was a documentary about psychopathy. it said, iirc that there are reckoned to be around 500,000 to 750,000 psychopaths in the uk today.anyway, this fascinated me and i recorded it and watched it. it seemed that many of the traits they described seemed very familiar to me. the whole thing was part of a research project by the psychology department at liverpool 'john moores' university.

they asked people to fill in an online questionaire and send it back. to my surprise i got another e-mail asking me to fill in a much more detailed series of questions.this i did , they contacted me and asked if i could contact them by phone. turns out i fitted the profile at somewhere between 75 and 85% . tbh it didn't really surprise me , as i do think i am 'different' to most people i meet.
they asked if i would be willing to take part in a series of further tests should they not get sufficient numbers of volunteers who had scored higher than me. this they must have done as they only contacted me a few months later, thanking me for my participation and saying that if i had any questions or worries i wasn't to hesitate to contact their psych. department.

i could spend an hour on here retelling what they told me, but being of a psycopathic leaning doesn't make anyone dangerous, unless it combines with other personality 'disorders', they reckoned that anyone who has got to the top in big business, probably has more traits than an average person for example.amongst which are, you are more willing to take risks, have less empathy/sympathy for others, tend not to display emotion as readily, consider yourself 'above' or better than all others around you, which come over as arrogance, and more. when i told the wife and my two daughters (14 and 18) they were actually quite relieved as they had an explanation for some of my attitudes and behaviour down the years, but they keep it a secret within our family no-one else knows,

so even after a few years i still keep this to myself, it is strange to be afraid, of people being afraid. if that makes sense. and this is the first time i've written all this down anywhere, maybe as i'm getting older and am more used to thinking a different way to many now, i feel more comfortable, especially on an anonymous internet forum!!.

Drew_TNBD

Um... no.

cacophony

my little 'coming out' up there wasn't intended as a humblebrag, btw, it's the first time i have ever written it all down, and it was quite cathartic.the research students i spoke to said everyone has some element of psycopathy, but it's a much smaller figure, i honestly don't recall the figure for mr average, but it was something like 5% or so. if anyone knows the actual number ,post away!..

BloodEagle

I was very close friends with guy when I was a Uni who sometimes did some odd things in terms of behaviour and had some strangish or at least uncommon attitudes who was diagnosed as pretty high on the psychopathy scale. He eventually ended up, ummm, shooting (and as you may expect killing) himself, but I dont think it was because of the psychopathy thing. He was a good dude and the thought of him being dangerous to anyone (but himself I guess) is laughable, but yeah, to my mind at least he was what I suppose you could call 'very different'

richardhomer

I've worked for a few - and there are definitely a couple on here....

EricTheWeary

Have you read Jon Ronson's The Psycopath Test?  It's a few years ago now but it's about the trend and over diagnosis of psychopathy and pretty much around the period your scouse researchers were active and, probably, very keen to fit people into the category. 
It's popular journalism rather than a scientific paper but you get these trends in popular psychology (suddenly everyone is on the autism scale or has ADHD - if I hear another celeb say they have ADHD I'll shoot the bugger...), I guess it's nice to over simplify and get a single explanation for someone's behaviour.
Another chap at work and I spent some time trying to work out if our boss was a psycopath but for everything that indicated yes there was something that said no. I think to a large extent the psycopathic traits and the behaviours you need to exhibit to climb a corporate ladder are similar, but it's about acting out those behaviours rather than being embedded traits; behaving like a psychopath and being a psycopath are different things. 
I wouldn't worry about it  

kaypeejay

When you describe the symptoms like that I could start ascribing them to a few people I know, but I still wouldn't think they were psychopaths. It's interesting to think that the champions of business and most politicians are all psychopathic, Theresa May immediately springs to mind!

celentium

From what I've read, a psychopath would never acknowledge that they are one. They definitely wouldn't worry about it.

paulnb57

I worked as a Prison Officer for 35 years, so Yes, I've met a few.....

cacophony

there were many more, complex 'symptoms' than those i have listed, i think you are correct when you say that there are fashions in all health spheres,  adhd is a current 'fad'. and i am not worried about it at all!. i am what i am. i may worry a little what others may think tbh, especially those that are less well informed. similar to those morons who attacked the house of a paediatrician accusing him of crimes against kids.

i co-operated with the research out of curiosity, in the cold light of day it all sounds very clinical, if you'll pardon the pun!, but it did help me a lot.

Drew_TNBD

I'm kind of worried about how gendered all of this stuff seems to get - Google psychopathy, and you'll get all sorts of results where they talking about "he" and "him" a lot, as if women couldn't be psychopaths.

Similarly with ADHD - it's massively over diagnosed, and drugs are over prescribed, and there is a huge gender bias. Typical boy boisterousness gets pathologized.

I suspect that some amount of the psychopathy diagnosis are probably autism cases.

Flink_Poyd

EricTheWeary said:

Have you read Jon Ronson's The Psycopath Test?  It's a few years ago now but it's about the trend and over diagnosis of psychopathy and pretty much around the period your scouse researchers were active and, probably, very keen to fit people into the category. 
It's popular journalism rather than a scientific paper but you get these trends in popular psychology (suddenly everyone is on the autism scale or has ADHD - if I hear another celeb say they have ADHD I'll shoot the bugger...)

Psycho............

cacophony

"but it's about acting out those behaviours rather than being embedded traits; behaving like a psychopath"

i have, in the past, done this.but didn't realise that what i was doing was a part of a behavioural pattern. the second set of tests i undertook highlighted a few actions, (two in particular) which i now realise were classic psychopathic behaviour. neither of which i am going to relate on here.

i now realise that what i did was wrong, but have a better understanding of how i react now, and i suppose am better able to control my reactions to things. having my family aware also helps as they have 'talked me down' a couple of times from things that could have ended badly.

Grunfeld

celentium said:

From what I've read, a psychopath would never acknowledge that they are one. They definitely wouldn't worry about it.

I've worked with someone who wasn't dangerous, but as I got to know them I saw a marked lack of empathy and connection with others.  It wasn't malicious disregard, it was absence of connection.  Other features of self-importance with no discernible insight or nuance also came to strike me as odd.  Conversations were seldom dialogues, they were glorified monologues.  Other colleagues didn't work as closely with this person as I did and I often felt they were misled by what seemed to me to be a façade.  

But one day I was listening to this person and they were telling me of a decision they'd made and they said, "You probably think I'm a psychopath!" and instead of laughing it off and moving on, or laughing and agreeing, I said, "Yes."  And there was a small pause, a blank face, and they moved their talk on. 

celentium

@Grunfeld I'm no expert but from your description and my own experiences with similar people, I'd probably have suspected aspergers.
Especially with the monologues.

Grunfeld

celentium said:

@Grunfeld I'm no expert but from your description and my own experiences with similar people, I'd probably have suspected aspergers.
Especially with the monologues.

I've compressed everything for brevity and I see it could also look like Asperger's from my description. 
I'm no expert either although I know a couple of people (well, not just casually) with diagnosed Asperger's and my eldest son was making a few experts scratch their heads for quite a while.  Funnily enough one of the best therapists I know is on the spectrum and he's great when working with families cos he doesn't get sucked into any emotional whirlpools -- he can get to the crux of things quickly.  He's had to learn how to behave because it doesn't come naturally.

The person I originally described wasn't like that.  I think the main difference is that the people I know with Asperger's can be hard work socially if you know what I mean?  You have to make an effort with them (and you talk with others and they feel the same way).  In contrast this work colleague appeared to be quite charismatic; others admired him. 

equalsql

My youngest daughter has Asperger syndrome and definitely shows the traits mentioned here. She is completely self obsessed, has little or no empathy for others and monopolises conversation to her own interests which she will then continue until the other party 'escapes' from her. She studies people and has learned to act or adopt her countenance to manipulate people to better her own needs. 
She is not malicious and does not wish to harm others, but she will do what she can to make people sympathise with her.

57Deluxe

cyco-path

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/05/09/article-2321913-19B19BE5000005DC-423_634x478.jpg

Sambostar

Aspergers and psychopathy are two completely different and unrelated things though eh and people with Aspergers can be hypersensitive and highly empathetic but they can't express or communicate it well.  Not saying your daughter isn't a psycho as well though.  We're the hunted or the hunter at some stage.  Honestly I look around, the majority of the aspiring middle classes are psychos, using the system to justify their ends.  Look at people behavior on the roads or their behavior when it comes to protecting their assets, property, cars or bank balance or presumed status.  It's like 6 people fighting for a 5 man lifeboat in the North Atlantic.

In my experience, the biggest psychos are the ones who claim to be the most empathetic and enlightened.  The least psychopathic usually hang around at the bottom of the table, seemingly unable to step on anyone or even pay someone a wage that is less than they receive themselves, even though they have no skills experience or work ethic.

We all have some so called psychopathic tendencies and we all can be empathetic, whether we choose to show it or do something about it or not.  It's the ones who try and categorize everything in a little box on a shelf and pat themselves on the back, they are the ones you have to look out for.  Spoken and written language constitutes about 1% of human communication.

jd0272

Yes several. Most are workable and not particularly dangerous. I'm quite sure my estranged wife is sociopathic too. 

Right, off to the cinema. 

Nunogilberto

I know a few real cycle paths...