#psychpathy

More Than A Label

I’ve struggled in the past year as a writer.

Why? Because I let an experience become a label and a label become my personal brand. After I wrote The Other Side of Charm, I limited my work to focus on explaining what it’s like to live with a psychopath, how to get away, and how to heal. 

Which can help people. But the interesting thing about having once been a victim is that it doesn’t mean I…

Full Documentary (1:17:00) on psychopaths in business. Also talks about how non-killer psychopaths operate and rise to power, establish relationships with other non-psychopaths, and suggests what we can do about them. Interviews with the author of Snakes in Suits, a book about psychopaths in the 1%, and criminologists.

Psychopath Trait #2: Self-Centered Impulsivity You do what you want, when you want.

Psychopath Trait #3: Low Autonomic Arousal So, you’re cool as a cucumber, even when others react.  - See more at:

Sociopaths are cut from the same cloth as psychopaths, with 3 key differences:

Unlike psychopathy, sociopathy can even be acquired: dementia or a head injury can do the trick. First, while true psychopaths are confident, social, and dominant, sociopaths are reserved and inhibited, sometimes loners.  And while psychopaths are exempt from negative emotion, sociopaths are often hostile and do experience anxiety and rejection.

Second, while psychopaths truly have no morals, sociopaths do have a sense of morality and a conscience, but their sense of right and wrong is skewed and doesn’t match society at large.  Sociopaths are often crusaders or martyrs for a perceived cause; they see their depraved acts as necessary.  So antagonistic, withdrawn Timothy McVeigh is a good example.

The third, oversimplified, difference is that psychopaths are born, while sociopaths are made, often through extreme childhood adversity and exposure to violence.  But it’s not as simple as just nature or nurture—the truth lies somewhere in a scramble of genetics, neurology, and environment.