How to recognize and recover from everyday sociopaths - narcissists

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New book about the Susan Powell disapperance reveals abuse

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Gregg Olsen and Rebecca Morris released their book “If I Can't Have You: Susan Powell,”  which reveals what life was like inside the home of Susan and Josh Powell and their two young sons 7 year-old Charlie and 5 year-old Braden. According to neighbors, Josh mentally and physically abused Susan and the boys. After Susan's mysterious disappearance in 2009, her parents, Chuck and Judy Cox, cared for the boys. They began to see signs that the boys may have been sexually abused while living with their father and paternal grandfather. Susan's body has never been found.  Josh Powell blew up their home, killing his sons and himself in the explosion. Revealed: Josh Powell 'sexually abused his t …

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Abuse in Britain’s boarding schools: One man’s personal perspective

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Writer Alex Renton returned to his alma mater, Ashdown House, to help him write this report on the generations of boys sexually abused in Britain's boarding schools. Reporting on his own experiences at the  boarding school attended by some of Britain's most powerful men, he talks about the existence now of a thriving area for counselors and therapists called Boarding School Syndrome — a private "survivors' group" only those with money seem to know about. Renton writes, “psychiatrists I have spoken to agree that, yes, while sexual and physical abuse is the headline grabber (and what makes criminal cases), real damage is done to children and adults by long-term psychological abuse. A child …

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Trauma can be passed on in molecules of DNA

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Research has shown that a traumatic experience can cause changes in a person's mental health, and can also change their DNA. This means trauma may get passed to future generations. At the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), researchers have discovered that the short RNA molecules that perform a wide range of vital roles in the body were altered in mice when exposed to trauma. "We were able to demonstrate for the first time that traumatic experiences affect metabolism in the long-term and that these changes are hereditary," said Professor Isabelle Mansuy, as quoted by the Daily Mail.  "With the imbalance in microRNAs in sperm, we have discovered a …

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Father allegedly kept teen stowaway from his mother for eight years

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Yahya Abdi, the teen who survived the 5 ½ hour flight in a jet  wheel well, despite extreme cold and low oxygen levels, has left Hawaii and returned to California. A relative said the boy's father was denied access. Abdi, a 15-year-old boy originally from Somalia, has not seen his mother in eight years. Abdilahi Yusuf, Abdi's father, allegedly took Abdi and his brother and sister to the United States without his mother's permission. The boy  had been told by his father that his mother was dead. Abdi recently found out that his mother was not dead; she was living in a remote refugee camp in eastern Ethiopia. With this news he hopped a fence at San Jose International Airport and climbed in …

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From one university sex scandal to another

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In December of 2012, a female Florida State freshman reported that she was sexually assaulted by James Winston, Heisman-Trophy winning quarterback of the Seminoles. Winston was never charged. The police claim it was due to lack of evidence, although a New York Times report says there was plenty, including DNA, witnesses, and a secretly recorded video of a portion of the incident. The incident did not become public until almost a full year later, in November of 2013. Florida State did not say whether administration officials, including President Eric Barron, were aware of the accusations against Winston. Penn State University, which endured the Jerry Sandusky scandal, in which the …

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Study reveals Mafia prisoners less likely to be psychopathic than fellow inmates

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Italian researchers in Sicily released a new study revealing that members of the Mafia are less likely to be psychopaths than other criminals. The study compared 30 Mafia members in a Palermo, Sicily jail convicted of crimes such as murder, trafficking, extortion, fraud, sexual exploitation and kidnapping, to a group of 39 non-Mafia prisoners, whose offenses included murder, rape, child sexual abuse and armed robbery. The study concluded that, according to the Hare Psychopathy Checklist Revised, none of the Mafia scored in the psychopathic range, while 10% of the comparison prisoners did. The Mafia members were also found to be less ”˜manipulative,' ”˜Machiavellian,' ”˜narcissistic,' ”˜unem …

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Six statements that do not describe psychopaths

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The Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy says  "a constellation of traits” defines the psychopath.  The  Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) measures 20 personality traits and behaviors to determine a person's level of psychopathy. But some common ideas about psychopaths are wrong, says Dean A. Haycock, author of Murderous Minds: Exploring the Criminal Psychopathic Brain: Neurological Imaging and the Manifestation of Evil. He suggests six common misconceptions about psychopaths, the first being that all psychopaths are insane. Because psychopaths know the difference between right and wrong, legally, they are not insane. The other five misconceptions are that all mass …

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Research continues to show differences in psychopath brain activity

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Scientists have shown that there is a specific network of brain regions involved in mediating moral judgment. Based on research, "antisocial groups" such as psychopaths may know what is moral, but they may lack a feeling of what is moral. Several researchers have additionally suggested that the brain areas involved in moral judgment overlap with what is called the "default mode network," which is involved in our "baseline" state of being awake but at rest. Many research teams approach the morality issue by concentrating on different parts of the brain and different kinds of studies. Similar research is also being conducted on those with autistic brains. Link suggested by a Lovefraud …

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Government investigates Connecticut family court treatment of parents with disabilities

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The Lovefraud reader Anne Stevenson reports that the US Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division has opened up an investigation into whether disabled litigants in Connecticut divorce courts are unfairly singled out and punished by judges. "The investigation is in response to parents who have complained that if the family courts even suspected a parent suffered from an impairment, judges denied them equal access to due process, took away their children, and imposed outrageous costs and fees on their families that drove them into bankruptcy and financial ruin," she writes. Connecticut courts impose outrageous costs on disabled families, from Communities Digital News. …

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An interview with a Psychopath

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Editor's Note: WARNING! The beginning of the video may be difficult to watch, but the end explains a psychopath's view on getting what he wants. This is a clip from a video created and narrated by Dr. Anna Salter entitled Truth, Lies and Sex Offenders that looks at the deceptive nature of sex offenders. In this video, Salter interviews a psychopath whose description of his manipulating and lying behavior puts  him in the category of a power and control rapist. "I made this film in the hope that the next victim won't  report, six or seven times as Gerold's victim did, and still not be believed," says Salter. "We have no hope of detecting and stopping this kind of sadistic behavior if we d …

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