I’d like to do a bit of a survey (and conversation) about your personal interactions with psychopaths - if indeed you have had any you are aware of.
Why? Well I am reading about, and there is much talk about, psychopaths trying to rule the world. Something not optimal for the majority of the population. I’d like to explore some personal encounters that we’ve had - it’s the qualitative researcher in me ;-)
But how common are psychopaths? Dr Robert Hare suggests they make up about 1% of the population but are likely concentrated in places where they seek power. Andrew Lobaczewski, in Political Ponerology, agrees that a certain set of these people rise to places of political power.
But what about you? I’d love to know what encounters you have had (only if it’s safe to do so in an open forum like this). Given psychopathy amounts to only 1% of the population, chances are you haven’t had a relationship with one. But my intuition is that this personality disorder, along with sociopaths and narcissism is on the rise. So do you have a story?
So to be sure we are talking about the same sort of person, here’s a list of traits Dr Hare outlines in his psychological instrument for diagnosing psychopathy:
Interpersonal
The person is superficial, grandiose, deceitful
Affective
The person lacks remorse, lacks empathy, doesn’t accept responsibility
Lifestyle
The person is impulsive, lacks goals, is irresponsible
Antisocial
The person has a history of poor behavioral controls, adolescent antisocial behavior, adult antisocial behavior.
Now it’s a spectrum so someone doesn’t need to tick all the boxes but the more they do the more likely they are a psychopath. And they are not all Ted Bundy type serial killers if that’s what you had in mind - but rather every-day people who just happen to have the superpower of no conscience - so they can do stuff you and I wouldn’t dare.
The main character in the movie Nightcrawler I’d say ticks most of Dr Hare’s boxes but his lifestyle was extremely regulated, goal orientated and ‘responsible’ (in his mind). Otherwise he was completely superficial, grandiose, deceitful, with no remorse, no empathy, taking no responsibility, given to anger/rage, and completely antisocial in a smart manipulative way.
Now over to you. Do you have a personal encounter?
We had an election last Saturday in which I counted well over 150 sitting seat-warmers vying to be re-elected, plus many more wannabes; that's a fairly large sample that ticks all of those boxes, I would think.
We had an election last Saturday in which I counted well over 150 sitting seat-warmers vying to be re-elected, plus many more wannabes; that's a fairly large sample that ticks all of those boxes, I would think.