How Do You Know That You Are Not A Psychopath?

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Often people turn to people after reading various popular literature who show signs of psychopathy or someone discovered them (for example, a husband told his wife in a fit of a quarrel: "you are a psychopath, go get some treatment"). At the same time, I see in front of me an adequate woman who has a stable marriage, a caring mother, an executive employee without any signs of pathology, without bad habits, who can periodically throw a scandal, which happens, perhaps, to everyone.

Forensic psychologist J. Reid Malloy noted that signs of psychopathy can be found, if desired, in every person. Experienced in diagnosing many psychopathic personalities, Meloy identified a number of signs that would not confuse them with anyone else:

1. Lack of emotion, empathy (the facial expressions of a real psychopath are very rigid or monotonous, experiences mainly concern personal well-being, power, there is no genuine empathy, the ability to attach); 2. Predatory, not affective aggression. Affective aggression has a defensive function, while predatory aggression has an attacking one. The psychopath is very cold-blooded and cruel in his intentions. His motto: "Revenge is a dish served cold." 3. Constant use of people. If a person is useless for a psychopath as a resource, he immediately loses interest in him. 4. Irresponsibility. For a psychopath, some areas of life, if not all, are let go due to a lack of interest in them or maladjustment (for example, a psychopathic mother is captured by her work, achieves great success in it, but forgets to feed her child, takes bad care of him), leaves her in dangerous situations, which can cause her to be deprived of her parental rights, or a psychopathic man constantly suffers a fiasco with women, uses violence against them, abuses alcohol, drugs, etc.). 5. Sadistic behavior towards others (to animals, marriage partner, child, colleague, etc.). Psychopathic women are more likely to use psychological terror. 6. The feelings of others are regarded by the psychopath as a manifestation of weakness. I remembered how a psychopathic mother came to me for a consultation with her teenage daughter. The mother constantly "sawed" her and shifted the responsibility for her youngest child from her third marriage onto her. Self-cuts on her daughter's hands and nails gnawed to blood, she regarded alcohol abuse as the costs of a young age, adolescent rebellion, and not a consequence of a deep internal conflict. When I asked about the purpose of their visit, I expected to hear the mother's concerns about her daughter's mental health, instead she said coldly: "We are doing well. We are only here because the school committee recommended that we see a psychologist." … I felt uncomfortable, felt sorry for her daughter and, I confess, tears came to my eyes. I have never seen such a contemptuous, mocking look as she looked at me at that moment. When she left, she did not pay me the full amount, pretending that she had in a hurry forgot the money at home. 7. The psychopath needs to constantly assert his authority, mainly due to the ability of someone to skillfully lead, draw into a scam, competently manipulate. The psychopath experiences a real triumph from victory in such a case. 8. Constant violation of rules, boundaries, the desire to bring chaos to any routine, bypass the law. The psychopath does not come to psychotherapy in order to understand and resolve the causes of his psychological problems, but rather in order to feel triumph over the therapist, out of idle curiosity, because of demands from an outside party, or, for example, a request may be associated with gaining control over someone, with the teaching of competent manipulation, the possibility of getting rich quick. 9. Impulsivity. A psychopath, if he wants something, does not know how to wait. For example, a spontaneous desire to fly abroad or go to expensive shops, restaurants in the absence of personal funds can easily push a psychopath to take financial loans, which is why he often finds himself head over heels in loans and other debts, but he is in no hurry to pay off debts. 10. Depreciation (lack of sincere remorse, gratitude)

The diagnosis of a personality disorder is made by a psychiatrist, but not "right off the bat", this should be preceded by a long examination of a person with the help of interviews, test methods, the study of how he manifests himself in all spheres of life.

And again I recall the criteria for psychopathy according to P. B. Gannushkin, O. V. Kerbikov:

1) the severity of pathological personality traits to the degree of impaired social adaptation: once a psychopath discovers that he does not have satisfying relationships either in the professional or in the personal sphere, maladjustment can often lead to depression, up to psychotic breakdowns; 2) their relative stability, low reversibility; 3) the totality of pathological personality traits that determine the entire mental appearance: pathological traits of a psychopath's character are manifested in all spheres of life.