We know only too well that by far the majority of psychopaths are men. Or at least we think we know that. Could it be that the criteria used to identify psychopaths are biased towards men? After all Hare began his work in male prison.
Think about it. While behaving and being the way the PCL-R without doubt earns one the label psychopath, this is simply a list of symptoms. It says nothing about the underlying dynamics. If psychopathy is life centered on the principle of power (as opposed to love) and if it is therefore characterised by what Liane Leedom nicely calls ‘warped empathy‘, then wouldn’t you expect there to be more or less the same number of woman as men psychopaths? And wouldn’t you expect them to come across differently?
I am beginning to wonder whether there may be two broad types of psychopathy – a ‘male’-type and a ‘female’-type. I place these in quotes because, when I think about it, men with might be thought of as ‘female’ psychopathy come to mind and we all know about women with ‘male’ psychopathy. And yet, at the risk of being un-PC, I want to maintain these descriptors for now so that the difference I think I see doesn’t disappear.
A ‘female’ psychopath would not necessarily commit crimianl/antisocial acts like her male counterpart, but she woud be as power-driven, as toxically narcissistic as a ‘male’ psychopath. The control, the manipulation, the dishonesty, the selfishness, the callousness – all these would be present, but we might not recognise them for what they are because of 1. media portrayal and 2. medical diagnosis of psychopaths. The difference would come in the gendered style of their behaviour.
In my clinical work I have come across this phenomenon. For example, a woman I now consider to be of the ‘female’-type of psychopath didn’t come close to committing a crime and yet the way she mothered her daughter, my patient, came close to destroying the child’s mind. This seems to me to be a perversion of motherhood eqivalent to the perversion of fatherhood we read about on this website.
Do readers have any comments? I’m particularly interested in any examples you might have of how ‘female’ psychopathy – if such a thing does exist – manifests itself?
Alex
im not trying in any way to be judgemental but my spath was a domestic violence advocate and kicked my ass so i anylize everything in every way i watched my spath give advice daily when in no way should she have been allowed, so i am just cautios and i am going to great lengths to understand every angle of this i have read 12 books in 3 weeks and learned lovefraud is not the only site with blogs and forumns female spaths are just now getting the exposure that is needed!! once again this blog was about female spaths and so far it seams like very few are actually on that subject please can we keep this to that subject!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BunnyWabbit
Can someone just delete my profile and comments off of here please. It’s just not worth it.
darwinsmom
Bunny, I’m sorry you feel duped by trolls. It has been a busy troll weekend.
Alex, you can post on topic if you want and discuss your findings of female spaths. But there is no true on-topic rule in the blog comments on articles. The comments are a kind of conversation and victims will often post their news or issues on one of the five most recently commented articles.
Ox Drover
Bunny, contact donna@lovefraud.com and she will help you.
BunnyWabbit
Just irritating to try to figure out who’s trolling and who’s real. I’m okay. Nobody but the moderators of this site have my email.
one/joy_step_at_a_time
The last few days lf has seen a lot of troll/ spath activity. if you are not sure who is a spath or troll, just lay back for a few days. don’t engage with anyone. just read and watch, and learn.
SuvivorAgain
OX DROVER: What do we do to get rid of the trolls? Thank you so much for your insight into the multiple personalities of Michael and the warnings about connecting off this site. I am still reluctant to connecting with Donna, as you suggested yesterday. I do not like to give out my email address.
one/joy_step_at_a_time
how to get rid of trolls and spaths: ignore them.
report them.
bore them.
BunnyWabbit
On a Word Press site, you can install a plugin where you can ban certain IP addresses from accessing this site. You can also do it from Google Analytics. That way, a troll can sign up under as many names as they want and still not access the site.
BunnyWabbit
If this site had a forum, the mod could get email notification of all the posters with their IP address. Most people will post from home, work and their phone. Eventually you will get all three. I’ve used SimplePress, which is free. For a free forum, there is a ton of options for controlling people.