"you have been with me for a decade on SI over 30,000 POSTS!!"
Yes I have; and I read you like a book!
"The charming manipulator
The socialized psychopath is likely to be too smart to end up in jail.
The socialized psychopath can appear extremely charming. You have to know them really well and have a fair amount of insight yourself to spot that they always and only ever do what suits them. As long as they are getting their own way, they can be as charming as you could wish, and the most delightful company. But they will lie at the drop of a hat, without the slightest twinge of anxiety or guilt (so the old 'lie detector' polygraph test wouldn't be likely to catch them out). They will use other people for their own ends without the smallest concern - treating them as no more than chess pieces in their 'game'. They have no sense of guilt or remorse and will always be able to come up with plausible rationalizations for their behavior which allow them to lay the blame for any subsequent disaster on other people. And, of course, once chess pieces have served their purpose, there is no reason why they should not be discarded....
A psychopath may understand other people frighteningly well. They can watch dispassionately, with a cold and calculating mind, going convincingly through the motions of empathy on the surface while focusing on how to turn the situation to their advantage. The only way to spot them is to observe them carefully over a significant period of time. Do they regularly say one thing and then do another, more than other people? Do they use people emotionally, sexually, professionally and then discard them casually? Do they sometimes seem strangely un-shocked by shocking events?
Cold hearts
Not surprisingly, many two-faced bullies show strong psychopathic tendencies. As they say: 'You can't turn a lion into a vegetarian by throwing veggie burgers at it.' Trying to appeal to the better nature of a person who hasn't got a better nature is a losing strategy. Psychopaths do not feel guilt or shame. They won't feel genuinely sorry for you and will only put up a front of convincing looking sympathy for as long as it suits them. ...
In a fascinating study, researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, (2) showed six psychopaths and nine healthy volunteers' pictures of faces displaying different emotions. When looking at happy faces (as opposed to neutral faces), the brains of both groups showed increased activity in the areas involved in processing facial expression, although this increase was smaller in the psychopathic group.
In contrast, when processing faces full of fear compared with neutral faces, the healthy volunteers showed more activation and the psychopaths less activation in these brain regions. Psychopaths can be very emotional themselves if they feel thwarted, but they are less concerned with other people's emotions except as a hook by which to manipulate them.
uncommon-knowledge.co.uk |
