How to recognize and recover from everyday sociopaths - narcissists

Spreading the word on domestic violence and personality disorders

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By:  Linda Hartoonian Almas, M.S. Ed This past month, I have had the honor of speaking about domestic violence at a training day for law enforcement administrative professionals, as well as at a continuing education program for a local judicial circuit.  Both were wonderful days, spent with many amazing men and women in the areas of law enforcement, advocacy, and  mental health, as well as those in the spiritual community. My main goal was to raise awareness.  I could speak all day on the topic of domestic violence and its relation to personality disorders and still only scratch the surface of what I have to share.  With time constraints in place, I chose to  highlight some of the …

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Hero-turned-murderer story to air on Dateline Friday

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In 2001, Tracey Richter, of Early, Iowa, was lauded as a hero for defending her three children against two home invaders by killing one of them. Ten years later, a jury determined that the shooting was murder, part of an elaborate plot to frame Richter's ex-husband while they were in a custody battle over their son. Richter's husband at the time of the incident was Michael Roberts, a Lovefraud reader. He was away when the shooting occurred and was not implicated. But the two divorced, which led to another custody battle over their two children. Here's background on the case: Hero claim rejected, Iowa mom guilty of murder, on CBSNews.com. Watch the full episode on MSNBC. Here's …

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Guilty Until Proven Innocent

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This week finds me well and truly back on my soapbox. Because I am feeling suitably goaded to address the somewhat emotive subject of the lack of support and comprehension offered to victims of abuse. The fact that too many people in various circles (friends and family, law and order and other professionals) simply don't ”˜get' what it means to be held captive in a manipulative relationship. I know many of us here in the Lovefraud community have already experienced the indignity of having to convince people of the validity of what we know to be true. I'm of course familiar with the remarks from well-intentioned friends and relatives that go along the lines of “he/she always seemed such a …

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LETTERS TO LOVEFRAUD: Mind the gap

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Editor's note: This artice was written by the Lovefraud reader who posts as "One/joy_step_at_a_time." I have been thinking a lot about Donna's May 28 blog thread, If you feel an emotional void, the sociopath will step in, and the responses to it. Tonight I took a long walk and sat down by the lake and thought about what the spath drew out in me. She showed me ”˜the gap.' It's humourous to me to type the phrase ”˜the gap.' When I lived in Eastern Europe, I heard a phrase over the loud speakers at the train station, over and over again. I finally asked a friend the meaning of the phrase, and he told me it meant, ”˜mind the gap between the platform and the train.' I haven't minded the …

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If you feel an emotional void, the sociopath will step in

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I recently received email from a woman whom we'll call Adriana: I am told I am a very beautiful, intelligent, fun, woman, but that is all subjective. I am 61 years old but pass for late 40's; good genes. I have been divorced for 10 years and engaged once during that time. I have dated so many men and feel that I have no purpose because I can't find “him.” I don't find most men attractive don't have chemistry with them and I don't want to settle. I have not been successful in love at all and have tried to look within myself to see my faults but the truth is I just want to love and be loved. Anyway, I am so tired of dating and getting my hopes up each time I meet someone I really am …

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Australian employers may refuse to hire school bullies

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Social clubs in New South Wales, Australia, launched a new program last week that may mean serious consequences for school bullies. Under the BullyCheck program, which has government support, people aged 17 to 22 who apply for jobs at registered social clubs will be asked to submit to a character check. If they were bullies in high school, they will not be hired. Read: Job ban on school bullies, on MyFoxPhilly.com. School thugs risk job ban under BULLYCheck, on Fairfield-Advance.WhereILive.com.au. Story suggested by a Lovefraud reader. …

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An MRI scan cannot diagnose psychopathy or identify sociopaths

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This past week I was talking on the telephone with my student and research assistant when he was mugged by a group of 5-7 thugs. One hit him from behind, knocking him down and another punched him in the abdomen. Ironically, among the items stolen was a copy of “Without Conscience” by Robert Hare. Yesterday, my student asked me, “Those guys in the group who do have empathy and guilt, how do they feel about doing this? What makes them do it?” To which I replied, “I don't think they feel a thing. They are likely all psychopathic (sociopaths). No one wants to admit just how many of them there are. So they draw an artificial line based on the PCL-R (a psychopathy test) and say these thugs are …

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Life Happens

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By Joyce Alexander, RNP (retired) It's recently been pretty trying around our little “hole in the woods.” A dog we loved dearly “disappeared” out of the yard, and we've been able to find neither “hide nor hair” of him, dead or alive. Not knowing what happened to him is sort of disturbing, but we are dealing with the thought that he got close to the road and someone picked him up, or that the plentiful packs of coyotes that circle our yard got him. He was brave enough (and dumb enough) to attack them if they came into his territory. Whatever happened to him, he is gone, and at this point not likely to return. His silly little ways are greatly missed, even by the other animals in the …

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Are clinical “continuums” silly?

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The narcissistic continuum?  The psychopathic continuum? The sociopath explained as being someone located at the apex of the narcissistic continuum? Are clinical continuums silly? Maybe they are. How “nice” are you? Well, maybe you're somewhere on a continuum of “niceness.” At the apex, you are a super-nice individual; in the middle, sometimes very nice, sometimes less so; at the nadir, you are just an incredibly “un-nice” (or “mean”) person. Hmmm. Wow. Somehow this doesn't seem like a newsflash. How sloppy are you? Well, couldn't Robert Hare have developed clinically a “sloppiness” (versus a psychopathic) measure that places all of us somewhere on a “sloppiness” …

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LETTERS TO LOVEFRAUD: Partners in an unhealthy dance

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Editor's note: Lovefraud received the following article from a woman who posts as Willow888. I recently started to work through the awful morass of feelings that follow an interaction with a disordered person. These people are such deceptive and expert manipulators they can apparently draw in even the healthiest of partners, partly because their behavior is beyond normal imagining and experience. Just as we're taught to drive a car defensively, to suppose that every other driver is asleep at the wheel, we could still get taken unawares by a driver who aims at us head on, deliberately. That we wouldn't necessarily be ready for. Information about toxic relationships often mentions typical …

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