What is psychopathy?
Psychopathy is a popular term often used to refer to a person characterized by
reduced fear, a lack of empathy, cold-heartedness, egocentricity, superficial
charm, manipulative, irresponsibility, impulsivity, criminality, antisocial
behavior, a lack of remorse, and a parasitic lifestyle. (Wikipedia).
Psychopaths are both male and female, but more men are psychopaths than women.
They exist in all countries, races, cultures, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Some are intelligent, while others have average or below-average intelligence.
Some belongs to improvise back ground while other are down trodden or middle
class. Their violence continues till the age of 50 then tappers off.
Psychopath vs Sociopath
When we talked about the psychopath then a question arises in our mind, what is
the real difference between Psychopath and Sociopath? Are they synonyms of each
other? No there is a bit difference between these two terms.
A sociopath is one who is affected with a antisocial personality disorder (ASPD)
marked by antisocial behavior. A psychopath is a person with an antisocial
personality disorder, manifested in aggressive, distorted, criminal, or
unethical behavior without sympathy or regret.
Characteristics of a sociopath are as followed:
1. Sociopaths are very charming.
2. Sociopaths can be extremely manipulative and will try to con you whenever
possible.
3. Sociopaths feel that they are entitled to everything.
4. Sociopaths will lie continuously to get what they want. They can even
sometimes manipulate a lie detector.
5. Sociopaths have no remorse, shame or guilt.
6. Sociopaths will show love and happiness only when it serves their purpose.
None of the feelings are genuine.
7. Sociopaths have no room for love in their life.
8. Sociopaths need to have excitement in their lives or live on the edge.
9. Sociopaths have lack of empathy hen their victims suffer pain that they have
caused.
10. Sociopaths believe that they are all mightier though; there is no concern on
how their behavior impacts others.
11. Sociopaths usually have a long history of little crime as well as behavior
problems.
12. Sociopaths will never take blame for anything they have done to anyone no
matter if it is family or friend.
13. Sociopaths have many sexual partners and tend to act out many sexual acts.
14. Sociopaths rarely stay in one place for a long time (home/work).
15. Sociopaths will change themselves if they know it will keep them from being
found out.
Characteristics of a psychopath are as followed:
1. Psychopaths use superficial charm to lure their victims.
2. Psychopaths are extremely self-centered.
3. Psychopaths must always do something to keep themselves from boredom.
4. Psychopaths are very deceptive and tend to lie continuously.
5. Psychopaths show no remorse of guilt towards their victims.
6. Psychopaths are very predatory and usually will live off other people.
7. Psychopaths have many sexual partners in their lifetime.
8. Psychopaths are very impulsive with their lifestyle.
9. Psychopaths are always blaming other people for their actions.
10. Psychopaths never have a realistic view of their lives. (King of the world
or from another planet)
11. Psychopaths always want psychological gratification in sexual and criminal
activities.
12. Psychopaths tend to try suicide, rarely succeeding.
After reading the above, it is clear that psychopath and sociopath are two
different terminologies.
Why Psychopaths are Different from a normal person?
Psychopaths are well manipulators; they even can dominate whole firm through his
egocentric behavior. They have shallow emotions, they look charming but they are
not. They have a grandiose personality. 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; but they will lie to convince you that they have normal emotions.
Lying is like breathing for psychopath. Lying and deceiving are natural talent.
They can lie even If they caught. An example here is quoted to understand how
they lie. A man caught at the crime scene by his footprint, he knew and all the
whole investigation team also knew that this is his foot print but he
continuously deny like “No, this is not my footprint “
These characteristics are not found in a normal person. A common person
possesses feeling and empathy. Their emotions are real. Psychopaths don’t care
about relation. For them there is no difference between daughter and office
colleague when they deceive. They treat both equally and that's why there family
life ended in trouble.
Types of Psychopath
There are four (4) different subtypes of psychopaths. The oldest distinction was
made by Cleckley back in 1941 between primary and secondary.
PRIMARY PSYCHOPATHS do not respond to punishment, apprehension, stress, or
disapproval. They seem to be able to inhibit their antisocial impulses most of
the time, not because of conscience, but because it suits their purpose at the
time. Words do not seem to have the same meaning for them as they do for us. In
fact, it's unclear if they even grasp the meaning of their own words, a
condition that Cleckley called "semantic aphasia." They don't follow any life
plan, and it seems as if they are incapable of experiencing any genuine emotion.
SECONDARY PSYCHOPATHS are risk-takers, but are also more likely to be
stress-reactive, worriers, and guilt-prone. They expose themselves to more
stress than the average person, but they are as vulnerable to stress as the
average person. (This suggests that they are not "fully psychopathic." This may
be due to distinctive genetic variations.)
They are daring, adventurous, unconventional people who began playing by their
own rules early in life. They are strongly driven by a desire to escape or avoid
pain, but are unable to resist temptation. As their anxiety increases toward
some forbidden object, so does their attraction to it increases. They live their
lives by the lure of temptation. Both primary and secondary psychopaths can be
subdivided into:
DISTEMPERED PSYCHOPATHS are the kind that seems to fly into a rage or frenzy
more easily and more often than other subtypes. Their frenzy will resemble an
epileptic fit. They are also usually men with incredibly strong sex drives,
capable of astonishing feats of sexual energy, and seemingly obsessed by sexual
urges during a large part of their waking lives. Powerful cravings also seem to
characterize them, as in drug addiction, kleptomania, and pedophilia, any
illicit or illegal indulgence. They like the high or rush off of excitement and
risk-taking. The serial-rapist-murderer known as the Boston Strangler was such a
psychopath.
CHARISMATIC PSYCHOPATHS are charming, attractive liars. They are usually gifted
at some talent or another, and they use it to their advantage in manipulating
others. They are usually fast-talkers, and possess an almost demonic ability to
persuade others out of everything they own, even their lives. Leaders of
religious sects or cults, for example, might be psychopaths if they lead their
followers to their deaths. This subtype often comes to believe in their own
fictions. They are irresistible.
Sociopaths have always existed in varying form and to various degrees. They have
been known by various titles. They have been studied using various techniques,
and through the years their ailment has been blamed on various causes. But one
thing never varies: 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. [The Sociopath Rebecca Horton (April
1999)]
While the psychopath has likes and dislikes and fondness for the pleasures that
human company can bring, analysis shows that they are completely egocentric,
valuing others only for their enhancement of his own pleasure or status. While
they give no real love, they are quite capable of inspiring love of sometimes
fanatical degree in others.
They are generally superficially charming and often make a striking impression
as possessed of the noblest of human qualities. They make friends easily, and
are very manipulative, using their ability with words to talk their way out of
trouble. Many psychopaths love to be admired and bask in the adulation of
others.
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.
Does Psychopaths Born or Made?
Psychopaths are born, plain and simple. It is a inherited abnormal condition
that causes the brain to process emotions quite differently than a normal
person, but it's once psychology and life experiences that ultimately determine
how they choose to act. Every psychopaths are not a criminal or even a bad
person, they just constantly have to make off for emotional deficits, whether
they realize it or not. Psychopaths can become mentally/emotionally damaged just
as anyone else, though it's much more dangerous to society to abuse a young
psychopath (think serial and spree killers). In time of life, they tend to be
much more resilient to trauma than normal people. They're almost immune to PTSD,
which makes them potentially good candidates for certain jobs. A born psychopath
will likely never have felt certain emotions in their life, such as love,
empathy, remorse, and in severe cases, not even fear itself. Regardless of this,
they're capable of experiencing emotions in a diet coke form extremely hallow
and for short of time.
Female Psychopath
Psychopaths are not only male, there are female too. In women, histrionic
personality disorder found that represent woman whose extreme fear of
abandonment leads her to periodic outbursts of rage over real or imagined
wrongdoing, flip between seeing her significant other as either completely
perfect or totally evil, or who has to constantly be the center of attention
certainly isn't who we think of when we think of the classic psychopath. But she
may be just as incapable of true empathy, and just as manipulative and cunning,
as the heartless, unemotional male.
Reflective Criminal Behavior
Psychopaths are cruel; they can do everything for pleasure. False Emotions,
empathy are nothing just a weapon which they use for their own purpose. In
history we can see many criminals who did crime just for the sake of pleasure.
They even don't care the impact of that crime on him.
Everyone knows Ted Bundy in U.S. He was a real psychopath. Ted Bundy was
handsome, good looking, charming and attractive which made him more dangerous.
He was An American Serial killer who murdered several women’s just for pleasure.
He is a one of a brutal person whose victims are young women’s and girls’. At
the end he was sentence to death by U.S government in the case of killing 30
women.
Psychopaths are very smart to hide their crimes, even if they caught they act in
such a way that they are innocent and the crime happened unintentionally. But
all that expressions are unreal. Most often they get advantage for their imitate
action and successfully got lesser punishment than others.
Psychopaths are very much interested in sexual activities and are fond of having
illegal relationship with women. They are charismatic in nature which inspires
women. Psychopaths really feel excitement and satisfaction while deceiving women
who love him. Another study reveals that not only man attracts women, but women
too fall in love with that person because of his personality. She also feels
secure and empower when attached with him regardless of the truth she knows
about him.
For psychopaths getting attention and respect from others is most of all a
technique to get what they want without having to resort to bullying, threats,
blackmail, and physical violence.
All the personality traits which described above are usually found in a person
who is criminal. But most of the psychopath are not criminal, a research reveal
that most of the psychopath are found outside the walls of jail. A research
conducted which provide some shocking estimation that 1% of General Male
population is psychopaths and 15 to 20 people in jails are suffering from
psychopathy. When we talk about organization than in organization we can find
that 4% senior managers are psychopaths.
Are you Clever? You may be but not more than Psychopaths. For example, some
psychopaths successfully manipulate prison officials to get themselves
transferred to a forensic hospital, where they enjoy more freedoms. By
manipulating psychological test scores, some psychopaths are as test wise as
many psychologists and psychiatrists they can convince staff that they are
“crazy” and don’t belong in prison. Once in the hospital, they manage to
manipulate and control other patients. Some manipulate the forensic hospital
staff to be transferred out of the hospital back to a prison setting using
similar maneuvers.
Recognizing Psychopath
Psychopaths are primarily distracted and impressed by their own grandiose and
self representation which often lead people to detect them easily. They rarely
remember the lie and story which they told others. If the person is smart enough
than he or she can easily catch him/her.
The psychopath is full of greediness inside, linking to the world through power.
They can also recognize himself as a revolutionary.
Dr. Black explain that one of most prominent symptom of psychopathy is the way
they bragging their experiences to impress their victims.
There are many Psychopathy test available on internet, books and different
articles which can guess the personality of a person. Robert Hare prepared a
Psychopathic test to identify the people who are at any stages of psychopath. He
designs several questions through which a person can be identified as psychopath
or not. There is a mix up combinations of question on the basis of which result
depends.
Dealing with psychopath
Psychopaths are great bullies. If you leave him, he will probably ruin your
dignity, reputation and image in your friend as well as other peoples. He will
tell your friends to be warned from you and don’t trust on you. That might
result in loss of money, relationship, and time and increase depression.
Field response when he was asked how to deal with psychopath. He says that “I
have learnt that when you deal with psychopaths, normal rule do not apply to
them. You are dealing with a person who has no remorse, empathy and feelings“
Robert Hare believes that therapy makes psychopaths worse, most of them learn
about human emotions through psychiatry. Robert Hare and Paul Babiak proposed
several options to deal with psychopath and to avoid being victim by
psychopaths.
Don't blame anyone a psychopath especially to your boss. If you do it then you
are going to make your life worst. Your company will not be able to help you in
this matter. Companies are very practical oriented and respond to that
information which is relevant to work instead of feeling of other person.
It is psychopathic technique to create tension and conflict among staff members.
They claim that one person is against you and abusing you. They told you in such
manipulative way that insists you to think negative about him/her. Communication
stopped or conflicting arises which is the ultimate goal of a psychopaths.
Bosses do this usually to control over their employee and isolate them to hide
his or her impatient behavior.
Don’t create a complainer image in company. It will hurt your long term
credibility. It will also allow psychopath to target you easily on the basis of
a complainer type person.
Psychopathic cure
Psychopath itself is incurable. It’s a medical disorder that can be treated well
if properly diagnose. Treatment involves therapies and proper medication. It is
in built in nature of effected person and can't be cure by itself. Brain therapy
is not as much curable as can be expected as Robert Hare said in his book Snakes
In the Suit: when Psychopath go to work.
Psychopath in Organization
Psychopaths are narcissist, they don't care about others and even they don't
care about the impact of their decision in organization. In such situation a
question arises that if an organization has executives or CEOS who are more
likely to have a psychopathic personality than how can it be successful?
Psychopath success in organization
The key difference between a criminal minded psychopath and the successful
psychopath is self-control. Some traits which are found in psychopath lead him
to be a successful Managers, Executives and CEOs.
1. Highly Risk-takers
They are extremely risk-takers without any fear. Organization wants to have a
person who can lift it up by taking considerable risk. We have several examples
available in our corporate world which lift up due to speculation of managers,
executives and CEOs. Bill gates and Steve jobs are the prominent examples.
2. Emotionless
Lack of emotion induce psychopath to take rational decision without considering
emotions and feelings. They don’t dive in the sea of emotions where decisions
are primarily base on emotion, dignity and respect. When we talk about
organization then it is necessary to have a person who is a rationally decision
maker.
3. Excellent Communication Skills
They have excellent communication skills which allow him to grab people’s
attention toward him.
Psychopath Disasters in organization
Psychopaths are really unpredictable. They are sharp to find the weakness of
their colleagues and subordinates and can turn on the malice to them. They can
create problem and disturbance in the work place. Different person behave
differently at home and at work, but psychopath don’t vary their behavior
whether their action are toward mother or colleague. They are hardwired for
pathological impulses.
Psychopaths destroy the emotion and respect of their follower and subordinates
by humiliating , deceiving , lying and abusing them using organizational rules
to control them, not providing them adequate training, charging them for
mistakes made by the psychopath, bullying them and pressurize them into unwanted
wrong activities.
Psychopaths steal credit for the accomplishment of others and are very smart to
do that. When a coworker brings any new idea or planning, they label his name
behind it. This fosters demotivation among subordinates and coworkers because
they are the master mind behind that idea but didn’t get proper credit.
Honesty is one of an important factor that every organization expects from their
employees. But unfortunately it is not found in the executive's. They are not
rated good in ethical behavior and honesty. Usually they lie where they got
their personal interest.
Corporate Psychopaths are also poorly organized managers, who adversely affect
productivity and effectiveness of different areas in the organization.
Corporate crime is rising globally and it’s the golden time for psychopath to
damaging organization. A world survey conducted which reports that an average
cost $5 million per company lost due to the crime. Analysis also shows that 13%
increase in global crime since 2009 which is an alarm for the organization. More
than half of the companies say that in most of the cases, employees are the
criminal. They can damage organization in any ways by their evil mind sets.
Their crime can ranges from stealing money to altering result of report. Frauds
in business are increasing day by day. In most of the cases, we can see an
exceptional planning always present behind fraud case.
Conclusion
After reading the Handout which our sir provided and surfing on Internet, books,
different articles and comments, I came on the point that psychopaths are one of
a unique personality disorder which is an open alarm for the society as well as
for organization. There traits can be beneficial for the organization to some
extant but we can't neglect the dark side. They only do what they want;
disregarding what sort of problems an organization can face through their
decisions. Although they are executive and found in most of the senior managing
positions which is an alarming situation for the organization.
Organizational can’t neglect its executive or can’t fire them until and unless
they get to know what psychopathic manager has done wrong. Organization must
have a strong cultures, policies, structure and norms which restrict everyone
not to go beyond it. If a company wants to avoid dominated by such ruthless and
callous person, than it should focus on diversity. This will help to increase
loyalty with organization rather than self interest.
In short we can say that psychopaths are open threat for the organization. There
are pros and cons for having such person in organization, but its overall
attributes are not so much in favor for the company. If an organization wants to
continue with psychopaths, than it should take some serious notes and make some
strategic plan to avoid in any uncertain situation.