Psychopath next door

[telenick]

Anyone else read this very frightening book?

It is estimated by experts that 1 in 25 people is psychopathic.

Psychopaths by definition do not have a conscience.
Psychopaths are hard to detect because they will fake having a conscience.
Psychopaths know that they are psychopathic.
Psychopaths know that you have a conscience.
Psychopaths will manipulate you through your conscience.
Psychopaths are often found in positions of power and leadership.
Psychopaths are referred by experts as "pure evil".

Psychopaths are the only mentally ill people (if you would call them mentally ill) that do not suffer their own affliction.

There are a lot of people on this board. You gotta figure that we have more than several psychopaths posting here.

[Guest]

Psychopaths are the only mentally ill people (if you would call them mentally ill) that do not suffer their own affliction.

There are a lot of people on this board. You gotta figure that we have more than several psychopaths posting here.

Quite a few mentals post on this board, I think. :D ;)

Koffee

[classic1]

I've read the figure is more like 1 in 100.

[telenick]

To me it's semantics ...1:25 or 1:100 ...it's still scary. Here's a book description of
Martha Stout's book that just came out February '05. She is a Harvard Psychologist researcher.


Book Description

Who is the devil you know?

Is it your lying, cheating ex-husband?
Your sadistic high school gym teacher?
Your boss who loves to humiliate people in meetings?
The colleague who stole your idea and passed it off as her own?

In the pages of The Sociopath Next Door, you will realize that your ex was not just misunderstood. He’s a sociopath. And your boss, teacher, and colleague? They may be sociopaths too.

We are accustomed to think of sociopaths as violent criminals, but in The Sociopath Next Door, Harvard psychologist Martha Stout reveals that a shocking 4 percent of ordinary people—one in twenty-five—has an often undetected mental disorder, the chief symptom of which is that that person possesses no conscience. He or she has no ability whatsoever to feel shame, guilt, or remorse. One in twenty-five everyday Americans, therefore, is secretly a sociopath. They could be your colleague, your neighbor, even family. And they can do literally anything at all and feel absolutely no guilt.

How do we recognize the remorseless? One of their chief characteristics is a kind of glow or charisma that makes sociopaths more charming or interesting than the other people around them. They’re more spontaneous, more intense, more complex, or even sexier than everyone else, making them tricky to identify and leaving us easily seduced. Fundamentally, sociopaths are different because they cannot love. Sociopaths learn early on to show sham emotion, but underneath they are indifferent to others’ suffering. They live to dominate and thrill to win.

The fact is, we all almost certainly know at least one or more sociopaths already. Part of the urgency in reading The Sociopath Next Door is the moment when we suddenly recognize that someone we know—someone we worked for, or were involved with, or voted for—is a sociopath. But what do we do with that knowledge? To arm us against the sociopath, Dr. Stout teaches us to question authority, suspect flattery, and beware the pity play. Above all, she writes, when a sociopath is beckoning, do not join the game.

It is the ruthless versus the rest of us, and The Sociopath Next Door will show you how to recognize and defeat the devil you know.

[cruentus]

I thought the figure was 2% -- even that is high.

Another fascinating book, that deals with this phenomenon is "On Killing : The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society" by by Dave Grossman.

See here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316330116/103-2177581-5011028?v=glance&n=283155

In his book, Grossman discusses just how difficult it is for the military to get its soldiers to kill people, since the majority of people -- luckily -- find killing to be abhorrent. Overcoming this natural aversion to killing requires special mental conditioning -- brainwashing -- for normal people. Grossman also discusses the minority of soldiers who are sociopathic personality types and join the military because they look forward to killing people. Scary stuff.

[classic1]

Telenick and cruentus - do you reckon you have ever met a sociopath/psychopath?

[telenick]

A pair of twin brothers I knew growing up were pretty "out there". They would bury kittens up to their necks, douse them in gasoline and light them on fire. They did other weird stuff like that.

I think that's a telling sign.

[snowy]

Wow, FREAKY, I actually think I work with a few of these people.

Looks like a good read. I'm going to the library!

[Michigander]

Is it just me, or is is everyone in Bushco a psycopath?

Too add to what cruentus said, Colonel Dave Grossman is really worth taking a look at, especially if you have youg children. He has studied violence for most of his life, and among many of his theories in his study he calls "Killology", he teaches us that exposing young children to violent images, video games, and of course toy guns which cause no harm, will train children to be cold blooded killers out of natural instinct. Again, I highly reccomend this guy, as does the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, National Rifle Assosiation, and US Military.

www.killology.com

[wabbit]

I've definitely known people who were sociopathss, right out of the textbook. Keep in mind, that while most serial killers are sociopaths or psychopaths, most psycopaths and sociopaths are not violent and never do anything really violent. THe ones i knew were just compulsive liars who manipulate and bilked people, who lied about everything and to everyone.

[sngltrackdufus]

ME!!! :eek: :cry: :love: :bday: :beer: :mad: :( :rolleyes: :crash: :fight: