Brian David Mitchell, who supposedly believed he would gather a number of wives and lead them out of Babylon, was convicted last week of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart. This case has been in the media for years. Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped at knifepoint as she was sleeping in 2002, when she was 14 years old. Mitchell held her captive for nine months, and over that time, sexually assaulted her continuously. The facts of the federal case were never in dispute. What was disputed, however, was Mitchell's sanity. Some experts thought he was delusional. Some thought he was a psychopath. In the end, thankfully, the jury rejected the insanity defense. Mitchell, however, was good. He kept the …
How to clarify your thinking about disordered personalities
Editor's note: The following guest post was written by Bruce Rubenstein, M.D., a psychiatrist based in New York City. Knowing how I know myself, and others ”¦ By Bruce Rubenstein, M.D. Introduction In this piece, when referring to psychopaths, sociopaths, the personality disordered, malignant narcissists, etc, I shall refer to them as pronouns in italics, as I believe they are all one and the same on a continuum. The various widely used terms to designate them (e.g., sociopath, malignant narcissist, etc.), mostly all clinical in derivation, all carry with them associations and assumptions of which I believe much is incorrect and misleading. So rather than evoking those ass …
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People will complain about drums, but not domestic violence
A guy playing the drums in a Johannesburg townhouse complex drew complaints within minutes. The blood-curdling screams of domestic violence drew no reaction. This was all shockingly documented in an online video released by a South African advocacy group, People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA). Read Video test of domestic abuse awareness in South Africa gets more than 500,000 hits in DailyMail.co.uk. Link supplied by a Lovefraud reader. …
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It sometimes pays to act like a psychopath … sometimes not
Editor's note: Be sure to read both articles that Ox Drover links to. By Ox Drover I ran across two articles in NY Times that sort of got me to thinking about how it sometimes does pay off to act like a psychopath—in business or other ways. The following (quite long) article tells how an Internet seller terrorized his customer. I think that many people who have been the victims of psychopathic-like stalking can relate to this woman's story. The fact that it was over such a relatively small amount of money is amazing to me, though. The lengths to which this stalker pursued his victim are also amazing to me. Read A bully finds a pulpit on the web on NewYorkTimes.com. This fol …
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The pets of Love Fraud
My book, Love Fraud, has quite a cast of characters. Besides me and my con artist ex-husband, there are seven other women who he victimized, assorted friends, family and business associates, my new husband, three psychics, a channeler, an energy healer, and seven pets. Why did I include the pets? To illustrate the point that all of life is connected. We are all part of the same universal consciousness. The pets came into my life for a reason—to accompany me through my struggles. In fact, it was with my dog, Beau, that I first ventured into the feeling realm of love. My dog offered me what is so often difficult to find among the humans in our lives—unconditional love. His love was safe to e …
Blame the victim fallacies
Victims have a certain way of walking, and psychopaths can spot it. That's the conclusion two bloggers for Psychology Today reached, based on a scientific study released last year. The study, Psychopathic traits and perceptions of victim vulnerability, was authored by Sarah Wheeler, Angela Book and Kimberly Costello of Brock University. The abstract states: The purpose of this study was to determine whether individuals scoring higher on psychopathic traits would be better able to judge vulnerability to victimization after viewing short clips of targets walking. Participants provided a vulnerability estimate for each target and completed the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale: Version III …
LETTERS TO LOVEFRAUD: Complaint against the magistrate
Editor's note: The Lovefraud reader who writes as "Aussiegirl" will be in court on December 6, 2010, seeking an extension of the Violence Restraining Order that she has against her ex-husband. She was already in court On October 18, 2010, because her ex had violated the existing order. The magistrate didn't take Aussiegirl seriously, and she's lodged the following complaint against him. Aussiegirl asks for your moral support during her next court date. I write in relation to the conduct of a Magistrate who tried my ex-husband for a breach to a Violence Restraining Order (VRO) at the **** Courthouse on Monday 18th October this year. My complaint is not about the judicial decision reached …
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Genetically prone to cheating
People who have a particular gene, scientists have found, are more likely to cheat on a romantic partner. Read The love-cheat gene: One in four born to be unfaithful, claim scientists on DailyMail.co.uk. Link supplied by a Lovefraud reader. …
1001 Things I Did Wrong In Dealing with a Psychopath
By Ox Drover After reading Steve Becker's article yesterday, I commented that most of the articles here on Lovefraud that could be entitled “1001 Things I Did Wrong in Dealing with a Psychopath” were the ones that applied most to my own dealings with them. That was meant as a joke, but after I left that comment for Steve, I got to thinking about how right-on it was, joke or not, because I have done so much wrong in dealing with these people. I got my self deeper and deeper into trouble, doing the wrong things in interacting with them. Not that I was intentionally doing something mean or “wrong” per se, but I didn't make choices that led to positive outcomes in dealing with the psychop …
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Clinically Sitting With The Sociopath
It's disconcerting, no question about it, working with someone who's antisocial, with real sociopathic qualities (forgetting, again, for the moment, the hell of living with such an individual). Recently, I'm struck again, in my work with a client I'll call Howard, by the brew of certain qualities, certain attitudes, certain defenses that strike me as forming a rather sociopathic orientation. Howard is 19. He understands the suffering he's causing others in his life: he can “talk the talk,” meaning that he “gets it” on a cognitive level. He can say, for instance, quite accurately, what he's doing, why it's wrong, that it's wrong, even that he feels bad about it. How badly he really fe …