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.?"