A jailhouse interview with "Clark Rockefeller," who authorities believe is really Christian Gerhartsreiter of Germany, will be broadcast Monday and Tuesday on NBC's Today Show. According to an article on MSNBC.com, the bogus Rockefeller now claims that his ex-wife knew he wasn't really a Rockefeller, and used the name to advance her career. Still, he insists that he doesn't remember if he is Christian Gerhartsreiter, and he grew up in New York City. UPDATE 8/25/08 - See the first Today Show interview. Rockefeller in the New York Times I wonder if the Today Show interview will be as clueless as a story in today's New York Times. Plastered across the front of the Sunday Styles section was …
After the sociopath is gone: Inspired Change
I receive a weekly newsletter from Brian Willis at Winning Mind Training. In his latest newsletter he quotes Lon Bartel, a law enforcement trainer in Arizona who said, "People change out of desperation or inspiration. Desperation results in short term change. Inspiration, results in powerful and lasting change." When I was in relationship with the sociopath, I made desperate changes. Living in constant fear, I was desperate to keep him happy. In my desperation, I contorted and distorted myself to fit the image he told me I had to fit. Most of what I did was about keeping him happy and my life, as it were, intact. Often, the changes I made were 'inspired' by his anger. I would do just …
Esther Elizabeth Reed: Profile of a female con artist and sociopath/psychopath
Sociopathy or Antisocial Personality Disorder is a psychological disorder that affects about 4 percent of the adult population. The extreme form of this disorder affects 1 percent of the adult population and is also called psychopathy. Among those with sociopathy/psychopathy, there is a spectrum of severity and the traits/behaviors that make up the disorder are also found in non-disordered people. These observations have led the American Psychiatric Association to consider a prototype approach to diagnosis. I believe the prototype approach is very useful to both professionals and the educated public so I will explain it. The prototype method of diagnosis involves describing what someone …
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The sociopath in couples therapy
I do much couples therapy, and occasionally have had the interesting, if disconcerting, experience where one of the partners is a sociopath, or has significant sociopathic tendencies. Unsurprisingly, it is always the nonsociopathic partner who is occasionally successful in dragging his or her sociopathic counterpart to counseling. The sociopathic partner, just as predictably, will have no collaborative interest in the relationship's improvement. However, he or she may be sufficiently selfishly and manipulatively motivated to attend. For instance, the relationship may offer conveniences the sociopathic partner does not want to see end. The nonsociopathic partner may have reached wit's end …
Domestic violence is not a battle of the sexes, it’s a battle against sociopaths
Back in June, a New Jersey judge declared the state's Prevention of Domestic Violence Act to be unconstitutional. Judge Francis B. Schultz, of the Superior Court in Hudson County, determined that it was too easy for someone who claimed domestic violence to get a restraining order. The ruling was controversial. When I first read about the case, I was astounded that a court would take such a stand against domestic violence victims. Sandy Clark, associate director of the New Jersey Coalition for Battered Women, considers New Jersey's law to be among the best in the country, according to NJ.com. New Jersey's law The Prevention of Domestic Violence Act is strict. Some of its provisions …
Domestic violence is not a battle of the sexes, it’s a battle against sociopathsRead More
Speaking up after the sociopath is gone.
It was just a name in the subject line of an email. I knew the name. How could I forget it? It was the name of the man who had betrayed my trust and my love for the four years nine months of our relationship. Curious, I opened the email and read the words of a woman whose daughter's girlfriend is engaged to a man named ”˜Jack' (not his real name). I think he's the same man you knew, she wrote. I read your website and the article from when your book was published. Do you have a picture? I wrote back and told her I had burnt every picture I had of him. She sent me one by return email. Is this the same man? I'm really scared for my daughter's safety. Conrad and my daughter's friend h …
Are all psychopaths/sociopaths criminals and are all criminals sociopaths?
When Donna and I talked with Dr. Hare last week, he addressed the question of whether or not all psychopaths are criminals. He also sent us a paper he wrote on this topic. He said that it is possible for a person to score high on the PCL-R and not have an arrest record and not to have committed felonious crimes. He insisted, though, that “antisocial behavior” is central to the disorder and is found in all people who score highly on the PCL-R. The paper he wrote has the following quote regarding Dr. Hervey Cleckley, the psychiatrist who wrote the first book describing psychopathy. Cleckley (1976) noted that he was “in complete accord” with the description of the psychopath as “simply a(n) a …
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Forgiveness and the psychopath
Editor's note: The following article refers to spiritual concepts. Please read Lovefraud's statement on Spiritual Recovery. By Ox Drover For my whole life I felt that I could never measure up because I was expected to “pretend it never happened” in order to meet my mother's definition of the word “forgive.” I was expected to trust the person who had hurt me in the past, and who I knew would hurt me again in the future. I was told by religious leaders, whom I trusted, that if I did not “pretend it didn't happen” and “truly forgive,” I was bound for an eternal residence in hellfire and brimstone. Many of us who are Christians know the various Bible passages that say, in essence, we m …
McGreevey divorce reveals court’s approach to high-conflict cases
At some point, anyone married to a sociopath is—or should be—headed for divorce. Once the legal proceedings start, they will be brutal, bloody and expensive. The New Jersey Superior Court just released the verdict in the divorce of James E. McGreevey, former governor, and his wife, Dina Matos McGreevey. You may remember this case. On August 12, 2004, Governor James McGreevey held a press conference and announced to the world that he was a "gay American," and he would resign from office because of an alleged affair with a male aide. He hadn't bothered to tell his wife about his sexual orientation until about three days before the press conference. At his insistence, Matos stood beside him a …
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Why don’t people get it about sociopaths/psychopaths?
Two weeks ago I started a series on the treatment of sociopathy/psychopathy. That series was interrupted by the need to discuss the case of the con man who kidnapped his daughter. Now it looks like he also may be implicated in the disappearance of a California couple. The con man, like many in his profession has had a number of different identities. Before I go back to talking about treatment, I want to discuss con artists and the nature of sociopathy/psychopathy again. Donna and I had the good fortune to speak with Dr. Robert Hare this week. I wanted to talk with him about the fact that there is not much in the scientific literature linking psychopathy to con artistry. In that …
Why don’t people get it about sociopaths/psychopaths?Read More