Anatomy of a Psychopath

 

For a number of years, I have been collecting stories of people who have been victimized by others that seem to have no conscience. The goal was to publish the work but after awhile I discovered, first, it was so depressing it was starting to sink me, and second, as new stories came in, I saw no hope for ending it. That there are so many stories seemed to make it an overwhelming, untenable task. 

Lately as I have witnessed what seems to me to be a growing crisis of mental illness, I am thinking about dusting off the manuscript and finishing it. Here is a synopsis:

If you have never brushed up against or had to defend yourself from the wiles of a psychopath, good for you. Nowadays, it seems that mental illness is a type of new normal so those who have escaped the experience are now in the minority.

For those who have yet to be exposed to the unique and frustrating life-altering encounter, let me give you the basic signs to pay attention to. Gender is not a defining point, both men and women can be psychopaths, but I will use the male pronoun as a generic reference to keep it simple.

First, the most common trait can be identified as narcissism. He is always right, in his own eyes, because of his self-aggrandizing nature. There are many types of narcissists in varying degrees but not all narcissists are identifiable as ASPD - Anti-Social Personality Disorder, which is a category that makes up the majority of the un-fixable psychopaths among us.  

ASPDs are a unique combination of those who can function within the boundaries of society, albeit often wrecking havoc in many lives, then walking away without looking back, and then never being held accountable. These rarely are diagnosed because they are adroit at hiding their mental disorder, for one, and also because the world is generally too naive and easily scammed. The conundrum being most people do not want to live as suspicious paranoid naysayers so they are easy marks for con men and psychopaths.

These, then, could be recognized by their complete lack of empathy, except that because they can see how others behave, they can mimic the emotion of caring so that they seem to actually care but it's just a ruse. They don't know how to care. Dr. Robert Hare describes this as knowing the lyrics but not the music.

The second most commonly recognizable trait is clever lying. An ASPD believes his own lies so he can convince anyone of just about anything. He lies boldly so that others are taken off guard. The response will often be, "That must be true because who would claim such a thing?" 

But because he is a bold liar, he can convince you to ignore what he said yesterday and believe what he says today and what is the matter with you if you don't?

He is a master of blame shift and is skilled at passive-aggressive manipulations. He is well-practiced at accusing his mark of doing exactly what he has been doing and the mark is once again caught off guard and questions their own sanity. I've often thought, having read commentary and speaking with victims that they are shell-shocked to discover they were scammed but tend to cling to not blaming the doer because it reflects badly on them and makes them seem foolish. I have to conclude this is a residual effect of the ASPDs demon-like influence on the vulnerability of the human psyche.

So often we are too trusting because most of us live by the Golden Rule of treating others as we wish to be treated. ASPDs know how to use this to their advantage. Even after a victim is somehow freed from the devices of a psychopath, they will still doubt what happened and wonder if what happened to them was actually their own fault. 

Many books have been written about psychopathy but Dr. Robert Hare's book Without Conscience-The Disturbing World of The Psychopaths Among Us is the ultimate authoritative word and, in fact, launched a bullet point list of common behaviors that has become the standard in the profession of psychiatry. 

I think it should be required reading in High School. 

They are indeed among us. Having read this book then doing a decade of research on the subject and reading/editing the stories of so many victims, I can surely see serious correlation with those who now hold political power over us. 

How scary is that? Fore warned is fore armed.

For Him,

Meema

If you have a story you wish to be told, you can submit to meemafields@gmail.com - I do not use real names. I do not purchase stories and I cannot promise a story submitted will be used.