How to spot a sociopath ?

The following questionnaire is based on research and experiences of socialised psychopaths. For each trait, decide if it applies to the person you suspect may be a socialised psychopath, fully (2 points), partially (1 point) or not at all (0 points).

1. Do they have problems sustaining stable relationships, personally and in business?
2. Do they frequently manipulate others to achieve selfish goals, with no consideration of the effects on those manipulated?
3. Are they cavalier about the truth, and capable of telling lies to your face?
4. Do they have an air of self-importance, regardless of their true standing in society?
5. Have they no apparent sense of remorse, shame or guilt?
6. Is their charm superficial, and capable of being switched on to suit immediate ends?
7. Are they easily bored and demand constant stimulation?
8. Are their displays of human emotion unconvincing?
9. Do they enjoy taking risks, and acting on reckless impulse?
10. Are they quick to blame others for their mistakes?
11. As teenagers, did they resent authority, play truant and/or steal?
12. Do they have no qualms about sponging off others?
13. Are they quick to lose their temper?
14. Are they sexually promiscuous?
15. Do they have a belligerent, bullying manner?
16. Are they unrealistic about their long-term aims?
17. Do they lack any ability to empathise with others?
18. Would you regard them as essentially irresponsible?

A score of 25 or above suggests strong psychopathic tendencies. This does not mean the person is a potential mass-murderer: socialised psychopaths are not mad, nor do they have to resort to violence. Even so, a close professional or emotional relationship with a socialised psychopath is likely to prove a damaging experience.

Evironmental factors

Psychologists and psychiatrists say the following environmental factors can create a psychopath (the most extreme form of sociopath):

Studies show that 60% of psychopathic individuals have lost a parent. A child is deprived of love or nurturing; the parents are detached or absent. Inconsistent discipline: if one parent is stern and the other not, the child learns to hate authority and manipulate the soft parent. Hypocritical parents privately belittle their child while publicly presenting the image of a happy family.

The Sociopath Next Door

Excerpt From "The Sociopath Next Door" - Martha Stout Ph.D
INTRODUCTION

Minds differ still more than faces.

--Voltaire

Imagine - if you can - not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern for thewell-being of strangers, friends, or even family members. Imagine no struggleswith shame, not a single one in your whole life, no matter what kind of selfish, lazy, harmful, or immoral action you had taken.

And pretend that the concept of responsibility is unknown to you, except as a
burden others seem to accept without question, like gullible fools.

Now add to this strange fantasy the ability to conceal from other people that

your psychological makeup is radically different from theirs. Since everyone
simply assumes that conscience is universal among human beings, hiding the fact
that you are conscience-free is nearly effortless.

You are not held back from any of your desires by guilt or shame, and you are
never confronted by others for your cold-bloodedness. The ice water in your
veins is so bizarre, so completely outside of their personal experience, that
they seldom even guess at your condition.

In other words, you are completely free of internal restraints, and your unhampered liberty to do just as you please, with no pangs of conscience, is conveniently invisible to the world.

You can do anything at all, and still your strange advantage over the majority
of people, who are kept in line by their consciences will most likely remain
undiscovered.

How will you live your life?

What will you do with your huge and secret advantage, and with the corresponding
handicap of other people (conscience)? [...]

Maybe you are someone who craves money and power, and though you have no vestige of conscience, you do have a magnificent IQ. You have the driving nature and the intellectual capacity to pursue tremendous wealth and influence, and you are in no way moved by the nagging voice of conscience that prevents other people from doing everything and anything they have to do to succeed. You choose business, politics, the law,

banking, international development, or any of a broad array of other power
professions, and you pursue your career with a cold passion that tolerates none
of the usual moral or legal incumbrances.

When it is expedient, you doctor the accounting and shred the evidence, you stab your employees and your clients (or your constituency) in the back, marry for money, tell lethal

premeditated lies to people who trust you, attempt to ruin colleagues who are
powerful or eloquent, and simply steam-roll over groups who are dependent and
voiceless. And all of this you do with the exquisite freedom that results from
having no conscience whatsoever.[...]

Provided you are not forcibly stopped, you can do anything at all.

The high incidence of sociopathy in human society has a profound effect on the

rest of us who must live on this planet, too, even those of us who have not been
clinically traumatized. The individuals who constitute this 4 percent drain our
relationships, our bank accounts, our accomplishments, our self-esteem, our very
peace on earth.

Yet surprisingly, many people know nothing about this disorder, or if they do,

they think only in terms of violent psychopathy - murderers, serial killers,
mass murderers - people who have conspicuously broken the law many times over,
and who, if caught, will be imprisoned, maybe even put to death by our legal
system.

We are not commonly aware of, nor do we usually identify, the larger number of nonviolent sociopaths among us, people who often are not blatant lawbreakers, and against whom our formal legal system provides little defense.[...]

Most of us feel mildly guilty if we eat the last piece of cake in the kitchen,
let alone what we would feel if we intentionally and methodically set about to
hurt another person.

Those who have no conscience at all are a group unto themselves, whether they be homicidal tyrants or merely ruthless social snipers.

The presence or absence of conscience is a deep human division, arguably more
significant than intelligence, race, or even gender.

What differentiates a sociopath who lives off the labors of others from one who occasionally robs convenience stores, or from one who is a contemporary robber baron - or what makes the difference betwen an ordinary bully and a sociopathic murderer - is nothing more than social status, drive, intellect, blood lust, or simple opportunity.

What distinguishes all of these people from the rest of us is an utterly empty
hole in the psyche, where there should be the most evolved of all humanizing
functions. [Martha Stout, Ph.D.,

The Sociopath Next Door

The Mask of Sanity

In Cleckley's speculationson what was "really wrong" with these people. He comes very close to suggesting that they are human in every respect - but that they lack a soul. This lack of "soul quality" makes them very efficient "machines." They can be brilliant, write scholarly works, imitate the words of emotion, but over time, it becomes clear that their words do not match their actions. They are the type of person who can claim that they are devastated by grief who then attend a party "to forget." The problem is: they really DO forget.

Being very efficient machines, like a computer, they are able to execute very complex routines designed to elicit from others support for what they want. In this way, many psychopaths are able to reach very high positions in life. It is only over time that their associates become aware of the fact that their climb up the ladder of success is predicated on violating the rights of others. "Even when they are indifferent to the rights of their associates, they are often able to inspire feelings of trust and confidence."

The psychopath recognizes no flaw in his psyche, no need for change.

Our world seems to have been invaded by individuals whose approach to life and love is so drastically different from what has been the established norm for a very long time that we are ill- prepared to deal with their tactics of what Robert Canup calls "plausible lie." As he demonstrates, this philosophy of the "plausible lie" has overtaken the legal and administrative domains of our world, turning them into machines in which human beings with real emotions are destroyed.

It has often been noted that psychopaths have a distinct advantage over human beings with conscience and feelings because the psychopath does not have conscience and feelings. What seems to be so is that conscience and feelings are related to the abstract concepts of "future" and "others." It is "spatio-temporal." We can feel fear, sympathy, empathy, sadness, and so on because we can IMAGINE in an abstract way, the future based on our own experiences in the past, or even just "concepts of experiences" in myriad variations. We can "predict" how others will react because we are able to "see ourselves" in them even though they are "out there" and the situation is somewhat different externally, though similar in dynamic. In other words, we can not only identify with others spatially - so to say - but also temporally - in time.

The psychopath does not seem to have this capacity.

They are unable to "imagine" in the sense of being able to really connect to images in a direct "self connecting to another self" sort of way.

Oh, indeed, they can imitate feelings, but the only real feelings they seem to have - the thing that drives them and causes them to act out different dramas for effect - is a sort of "predatorial hunger" for what they want. That is to say, they "feel" need/want as love, and not having their needs/wants met is described as "not being loved" by them. What is more, this "need/want" perspective posits that only the "hunger" of the psychopath is valid, and anything and everything "out there," outside of the psychopath, is not real except insofar as it has the capability of being assimilated to the psychopath as a sort of "food." "Can it be used or can it provide something?" is the only issue about which the psychopath seems to be concerned. All else - all activity - is subsumed to this drive.

Without Conscience

Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of Psychopaths Among Us

Dr Robert Hare, in his 1993 book says: "Psychopaths are social predators who charm, manipulate, and ruthlessly plow their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered expectations, and empty wallets."

"Completely lacking in conscience and feelings for others, they selfishly take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or regret."

"He will choose you, disarm you with his words, and control you with this presence. He will delight you with his wit and his plans. He will show you a good time, but you will always get the bill. He will smile and deceive you, and he will scare you with his eyes. And when he is through with you, and he will be through with you, he will desert you and take with him your innocence and your pride. You will be left much sadder but not a lot wiser, and for a long time you will wonder what happened and what you did wrong.?"

Psychopaths by Wendy Koenigsmann

www.cassiopaea.com/cassiopaea/psychopath_2.htm

All sociopaths share three common characteristics. They are all very egocentric individuals with no empathy for others, and they are incapable of feeling remorse or guilt.

With the lack of love, there is also a lack of empathy. The psychopath is unable to feel sorry for others in unfortunate situations or put himself in another's place, whether or not they have been harmed by him

The psychopath is a manipulator, who knows exactly what makes us tick and knows how to manipulate and influence our feelings.

They have the talent to spot “kind, caring” people.

Mimicry is often used to convince others that the psychopath is a normal human being. He does this to create a false empathy with his victim. The psychopath will try to make you believe he has normal emotions by spinning some sad tale or professing profound, moving experiences; the truth is, most psychopaths go through life as in an incubator, touched by few and having no real compassion for others; but they will lie to convince you that they have normal emotions.

The pity factor is one reason why victims often fall for these "poor" people.

The most amazing thing, however, is their selective memory. A psychopath might not remember the promises he made to you yesterday, but he will remember something from the past if it suits his purposes in some way. They often do this whenever they're confronted or caught in a lie.

Most psychopaths are very arrogant and cocky. However, when charming a potential victim, they say all the "right" things and make you believe they are kind-hearted souls; not always, but often enough. The truth is, psychopaths are not altruistic and do not really care about friendships or ties.

The psychopath may even claim he is sensitive and profound, but inside he is nothing but emptiness and greed.

As mentioned, psychopaths often claim to settle for second best (being their own worst enemy) and then think they deserve better. This may be manifested in the way they seek power -- either through money (i.e. material goods), manipulation and/or treating people as objects.

What is very disturbing about psychopaths, besides their sense of special entitlement, is the complete lack of empathy for normal people, for "antisocials (psychopaths) seem to lack a conscience, feeling little or no empathy for the people whose lives they touch...the antisocial effortlessly resists all regulation, unable to see beyond his self-interest or to adopt standards of right versus wrong." [Black, XIII].

Regardless of race, social class, or occupation, however, the psychopath is dangerous to society, for "the nature of ASP (psychopathy) implies that it wreaks more havoc on society than most other mental illnesses do, since the disorder primarily involves reactions against the social environment that drag other people into its destructive web...The despair and anxiety wrought by antisocials (psychopaths) tragically affects families and communities, leaving deep physical and emotional scars..." [Black, 5].

Despite their failures, psychopaths have a very "narcissistic and grossly inflated view of their self-worth and importance, a truly astounding egocentricity and sense of entitlement, and see themselves as the center of the universe, as superior beings who are justified in living according to their own rules." [Hare, 38].

They often come across as "arrogant, shameless braggarts--self-assured, opinionated, domineering, and cocky. They love to have power and control over others and seem unable to believe that people have valid opinions different from theirs. They appear charismatic or 'electrifying' to some people." [Hare, 38].

. .Histrionic...women are particularly attracted and vulnerable to psychopathic males. The hysteric-personality-disordered female is likely to be enamored of the psychopath...She is able...to reciprocate in this projective-introjective cycle by predominately idealizing the psychopathic character. Her need for attachment and dependency complements his desire for detachment and autonomy; she perceives others as all-giving and benevolent, and he perceives others as all-taking and malevolent.

The hysterical woman is immune to developing a healthy suspicion when details or circumstances don't fit (also relating to the illogicity of his thoughts/behavior) or do not corroborate the psychopath's oral version of his history. [From "The Psychopathic Mind" -- Origins, Dynamics, and Treatment J. Reil Meloy]

Like the narcissist, the psychopath has an arrogant, disdainful, and patronizing attitude; however, let me make this clear: often in the initial stages of charming someone new, the true character is kept hidden, naturally.

I believe that some individuals are strong enough to stand up to the psychopath; unfortunately, not all people are, and most psychopaths succeed in permanently damaging their victims. This is why we clearly need more support groups for people who have been in relationships with psychopaths.

Field's response was:

"The main lesson I have learnt is that when dealing with a sociopath, the normal rules of etiquette do not apply. You are dealing with someone who has no empathy, no conscience, no remorse, and no guilt...It is a completely different mindset. Words like 'predator' and 'evil' are often used."

If you try to deal with psychopaths in an ethical manner, you will be in for a shock. Dr. William Higgins claims that you "can't negotiate or bargain with psychopaths."

Psychopaths will not only deny the past and trivialize it, but will avoid answering your questions directly, and even if they seem to answer them -- you can be sure that it's not the answer you were looking for. It has been said that even when they do give you a straight answer, the real issue will never be addressed by them, although they may even claim to be honourable when it suits them. But don't be fooled, for this is where the psychopath wants his victim -- he wants to shame you while at the same time fitting you into his plans; this is because "psychopaths show a stunning lack of concern for the devastating effects their actions have on others. Often they are completely forthright about the matter, calmly stating that they no have no sense of guilt, are not sorry for the pain and destruction they have caused, and that there is no reason for them to be concerned." [Hare, 41].

On the other hand, "psychopaths sometimes verbalize remorse but then contradict themselves in words or actions." [Hare, 41]. Psychopaths may apologize or show remorse only to get away with something, but in the end you will be stabbed in the back and realize how very shallow their words were.

The psychopath appears not to be able to remember what they had said or committed to for very long. They seem to always be living in the present. That is why they are usually guilty of being big "promise- makers" who cannot live up to their word. Once again, it will be the victim who must deal with the aftermath of all the psychopath's twists and turns, and when he gets you angry enough, you will be discredited as "defective" by him, and the psychopath will often make himself out to be the real victim. As John Wayne Gacy once said, "I was the victim, I was cheated out of my childhood."

Hare believes that therapy makes psychopaths worse; most of them learn about human emotions through psychiatry, and they are "eager to attribute their faults and problems to childhood abuse." [Hare, 50]. Also, "antisocials (psychopaths) themselves can be uncooperative or unpleasant, complicating efforts to study and treat them." [Black, 12].

So, what is the lowdown on dealing with psychopaths?

Either avoid them, or, once you know or suspect what they are, avoid them.

Any further contact with a psychopath will be truly damaging. Once you have been involved with a few of them, like many people I know, you also learn to watch for the "red flags." This doesn't mean you should be paranoid about people, just careful.

Most victims of the psychopath only see what they want to see, initially. That is why Field says, "Naivete is the great enemy."Many also "cling to the belief that their loved one (the psychopath) simply has a few problems just like anyone else, not the symptoms of a personality disorder." [Black, 59].

"Don't Expect A Miracle"

it's better to not accept meager crumbs of fake affection from a psychopath. No one needs that kind of abuse. If you keep taking that abuse, I can grant you that you will pay for it both mentally and emotionally, for a very long time. The end result is what is referred to as having been psychologically battered.

The aftermath of dealing with these individuals and the recovery process can be a "long, slow and painful process" according to Field - - but one must remember that if you have been a victim (target) you are only the "latest in a long line of people onto whom he (the psychopath) had to displace his aggression. He will probably do this throughout his life." Sad to say, "antisocials (psychopaths) often spend their last years alone, sometimes plagued by regret for what they never knew they were missing until it was too late." [Black, 89].

How Psychopaths View Their World

The psychopath may even claim he is sensitive and profound, but inside he is nothing but emptiness and greed. Whether or not the psychopath is aware of his behaviour is something that is often debated. I do believe that psychopaths usually know exactly what they are doing, although others suggest that psychopaths are "born, not made." [1]

I believe that psychopathy is primarily genetic. A son with a psychopathic father often will be psychopathic as well, especially if the father was abusive and/or abandoned the family as well.

they seek power -- either through money (i.e. material goods), manipulation and/or treating people as objects. By enacting such behaviours, the psychopath is also trying to "get back" at society and the world, in order to gain retribution.

what does the psychopath REALLY get from their victims?
It's easy to see what they are after when they lie and manipulate for money or material goods or power. But in many instances, such as love relationships or faked friendships, it is not so easy to see what the psychopath is after. Without wandering too far afield into spiritual speculations - a problem Cleckley also faced - we can only say that it seems to be that the psychopath ENJOYS making others suffer. Just as normal humans enjoy seeing other people happy, or doing things that make other people smile, the psychopath enjoys the exact opposite.

The Devil wore J.Crew by Sara Eckel @ Salon.com

Interview with Dr. Martha Stout By Sara Eckel @ Salon.com

Mar 22, 2005 | It sounds like a treatment for a creepy psychological thriller: a world in which one in every 25 people walks through life without a drop of human compassion. On the outside, these creatures appear perfectly normal. They get married, buy homes, hold down jobs. But on the inside, they're morally bankrupt and completely unrestricted by conscience. They can do absolutely anything -- lie, steal, sabotage -- without feeling a shred of guilt or remorse.

Harvard psychologist Martha Stout, Ph.D., says this is not science fiction. In her controversial new book, "The Sociopath Next Door: The Ruthless Versus the Rest of Us," Stout claims that 4 percent of the population are sociopaths who have no capacity to love or empathize. Using composites pooled from her research to illustrate her points, Stout details the havoc sociopaths wreak on unsuspecting individuals -- marrying for money, backstabbing co-workers, or simply messing with people for the fun of it. The fact that most of us never suspect our friends and neighbors of sociopathy only makes the transgressions easier to pull off.

Stout, who is also the author of "The Myth of Sanity," an analysis of forgotten childhood trauma and dissociated mental states, spoke to Salon from her home in Rockport, Mass., about serial killers, bad boyfriends and how to know if your boss is a sociopath or just a jerk.

This idea of ordinary people with no conscience is pretty radical and kind of terrifying. Why are so few of us aware of it?

Because we aren't looking for it. We don't imagine that there are human beings that exist without a conscience. And when we encounter it, we reinterpret it in all kinds of ways. Because who is going to believe you when you say that your psychotherapist lied to you in order to make you end up in restraints? Or that your colleague stole your briefcase to make you look bad? Or that a high-ranking political figure broke his secretary's arm? It's the sort of thing that makes people feel crazy, rather than making them feel like the other person is crazy.

How did you first become aware of these people?

I've been a therapist for trauma survivors for 25 years. I would listen to story after story, and I began to wonder about these people who were hurting my patients. They sounded so different from the rest of humanity. We have this feeling that if one person is capable of doing something, then under certain circumstances we would all be capable of doing the same thing. I no longer think that's true. I think that 4 percent of us can do anything at all without guilt or remorse. And I do mean anything.

How did you arrive at the 4 percent figure? Most of what I've read about conscienceless people puts the rate at about 1 percent.

It is confusing. It's confusing even if you know about psychological studies and how to compare them. Most of the data that we have still has to do with incarcerated felons -- usually men who have been violent. There is very little data on non-incarcerated nonviolent sociopaths, and even less data on women than men. But we are increasingly finding that sociopathy is as common among women as it is among men.

I looked at it all, and given the increasing data about women, I came to the conclusion that it was approximately 4 percent.

But if there isn't much data, how can you feel confident about your conclusion?

The 4 percent figure involves my equalizing a certain assumption that there are probably as many female sociopaths as male sociopaths. In the beginning, people thought that it was just men. Now we're getting to the point where most researchers will say that perhaps there are as many women as men. Their behavior is just more difficult to pinpoint. You're not going to get everyone to agree on that, but it seems to be coming to that.

So you consider this figure an estimate?

Definitely. And I consider it a conservative estimate. And let's say it's half that -- that's still one in 50 people. I feel very confident about it, and many of my colleagues have told me off the record that they also think it's a conservative estimate.

Why off the record?

Because they're not referring to any particular research. They're just making observations based on their own practice.

Why is women's sociopathy more difficult to pinpoint?

In general, women are less physical and more verbal in the way they express things. For a sociopath who is a woman, one would expect more social manipulation. Of course, women can be violent, but it's less likely.

And that's why we don't see them as criminals? Because beating someone is a crime, but harming them emotionally is not?

Exactly. Getting someone fired or tormenting your children is usually pretty private and not always actionable.

What makes you decide that a person is or isn't a sociopath?

Conceptually, for the purposes of the book, I'm talking about people who have exhibited symptoms such as extreme chronic deceitfulness, lack of remorse, lack of personal responsibility, and a general desire to control people and make them jump.

Clinically speaking, if someone is suspected of sociopathy, then the therapist would consider the DSM [The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV's assessment for antisocial personality disorder] and apply the Hare inventory [the Psychopathy Checklist developed by Dr. Robert Hare]. Then we would talk to other people in the person's family and in that person's past and try to pin down the diagnosis.

You mention the Psychopathy Checklist. What's the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath?

There is no completely agreed-upon difference between those two terms, but there are people who in their own studies will make a distinction. I tend to use them synonymously, and for the book I settled on "sociopathy." People confuse "psychopathy" with "psychotic" -- someone who is crazy and has hallucinations. That's not what we're talking about, so I think "sociopath" is clearer.

What does it mean to lack a conscience?

It's a completely alien mindset. Most of us can imagine what it's like to have depression or even be crazy. But not having a conscience? You can't love anyone, even your own children? I believe that conscience, or lack of it, is a much more fundamental distinction than our moods or sense of rationality. All of us can be a little irrational. But our capacity to be emotionally linked to other people is much more fundamental, so much so that we don't even think about it. You don't ask yourself if you're going to give your child lunch money. You don't think of that as making a choice.

You said you became aware of this problem because of the things that your patients told you. What kinds of issues were they dealing with?

The people I work with were traumatized in childhood. I'm talking about moms and dads who inflicted terrible tortures on their children, stories that are very hard to hear. Kids that were seriously abused physically and sexually, kids that were abandoned.

Are the majority of sociopaths committing really heinous crimes?

No. Most sociopaths are not violent and probably never will be. They are the people we see every day: The boss who likes to ridicule people. The seduce-and-abandon lover who does this mainly for fun. The person who marries for money or prestige and no apparent other reason. These people aren't necessarily serial killers, but they cause a lot of harm.

So how do you know if your boss is a sociopath or just a jerk?

If you have a jerk boss who's lazy and always wants you to do things at the last minute, or asks for unreasonable things like making coffee, that's not necessarily sociopathy. If you have a boss who likes to ridicule people and make them jump and seems to get a kick out if it, that's more likely to be sociopathy. It's motivation.

So how do you spot a sociopath?

This is very unscientific, but small children seem to be better than adults at being afraid of people who are not warm, people who have damaged interpersonal emotion abilities. There is an instinct in all of us to know when someone is not relating to us with a real attachment.

More scientifically, the best I can offer is the rule of three. If someone lies to you once or twice, it could be a misunderstanding. If someone lies to you three times, then chances are you're dealing with a liar. And deceit is the central behavior of sociopathy.

You say in your book that sociopaths can be very charming. We've all had the experience of being around someone who is very flattering and uses that salesman's trick of saying your name a lot. Is that what we're talking about?

It can be that. But it can also be a quiet kind of charm -- the all-American boy or girl. The shy person who needs to be rescued. People also talk about sociopathic eyes. There is a primal predatory charm that no one has been able to explain. What you hear over and over is that these charming eyes suddenly turned into empty, reptilian eyes.

Are you worried about people getting paranoid from reading the book?

I was concerned that people would begin to see sociopaths all around them, but I have not found that. What I have found, and what breaks my heart, is that I'm hearing from good people who are afraid that they are sociopaths. They are feeling disconnected from people for a variety of reasons and are questioning their own dark sides. But if you're questioning your attachments to others and questioning your dark side, you don't have very much of one. That is not a concern that a sociopath would have.

Do you ever see sociopaths in therapy?

Not unless the court refers them. They feel just fine about themselves.

Do they think we feel love and empathy? Or do they think we're all just faking it?

They see that we have love and empathy. But I've heard them say that conscience is a sham, that it doesn't exist. They'll say, "That schmuck didn't go for what he wanted because it was against his conscience. Who does he think he's kidding?"

In your book you use composites of sociopaths and their victims. Why did you decide to tell their stories this way?

I did that way in "The Myth of Sanity" also. It's part of my instinct as a therapist to preserve everybody's confidentiality, even the guilty. I also have to have legal concerns about making statements about people.

You have one example of a women caught practicing psychology without a license or even a degree, and she did some pretty devastating harm to her patients. She told them that other therapists were lying to them and even sent one man to a locked ward after his therapist had recommended his discharge. How did she react when she was caught?

There was a complete lack of guilt or even embarrassment. After being seriously questioned about it, she walked out of the room as if she had been talking about the weather. She was one of the spookiest people I've ever met.

Do sociopaths seek out positions with a lot of authority, so they won't be questioned?

I think there are certain professions that we understand as being humanitarian and good, and you won't be questioned as much. And there are certain professions where you can make people jump, or the way you make them feel bad about themselves is more private. Certainly psychotherapy would be one of those. On the other side, there are the power professions where the goal is to win -- politics, banking, etc. Those professions tend to be good places for sociopaths to hide and prosper, unfortunately.

Prosper because of the focus is on winning to the exclusion of other things?

Yes. It tends to excuse behavior that we might otherwise condemn. A little bit of lying might be considered clever rather than amoral. I think this particularly true in business and politics, especially in the West.

Is there the same level of sociopathy in other cultures?

No. In East Asian countries, China and Japan in particular, there is substantially less sociopathic behavior observed. It seems to me that the only explanation for that would deal with overall cultural attitudes. In the East, individual winning is not considered the appropriate goal. The culture is more group-oriented. A sociopath born in such a culture might learn to behave appropriately the way one might learn table manners. They might not have a conscience, but because sociopaths need to fit in, the behavior might be tamped down a bit.

Is a conscience something you're born with?

About 50 percent of the variant seems to be accounted for by heredity. The other 50 percent would be shaped by something in the environment. The interesting thing is that we haven't been able to determine what that is. Everyone's first guess is child abuse, but it turns out that as group they haven't been abused any more than any other group.

Can it actually be an advantage to be a sociopath?

For a while it can be an advantage. But most sociopaths end not with a bang but a whimper. There's not much on this planet for us except our relations with other living forms. So for sociopaths, it's a fairly barren landscape. In the end it can't work out, but for a while it looks like it does.