How to recognize and recover from everyday sociopaths - narcissists

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Young woman jailed after falsely accusing father of rape

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It's not a sensational case, but it says so much about sociopaths. In June, 2009, Emma Marrill, a young woman from Camberley, in the United Kingdom, accused her father Phillip Marrill, of raping her. Her father was arrested and held in jail for 22 hours, protesting his innocence. For six months, Emma told the police a “litany of lies” about the rape. Finally, she admitted that she made the entire story up. Her father was cleared, and Emma was charged with perverting the course of justice and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Last week, the 21-year-old woman was sentenced to a year in jail. Interestingly, her defense lawyer told the court that Emma Marrill had antisocial pe …

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How to Eat an Entire Cow in Ten Minutes

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By Ox Drover If I told you that you had to eat an entire cow, do you think you could do it? How about if I told you that you had to eat an entire cow in only ten minutes? Do you think you could do it? “Holy cow! I can't do that!” you might say. Well, I think we all have our personal “cows” that we try to eat. Big jobs or big projects that we look at and say “Noooooo way, I can't eat all of that!” So having seen this particular “cow” as too big to swallow in one bite, we never even attempt to eat it. We just let it sit there in the middle of our lives, using up our resources, taking up space, and growing bigger by the day! Every time we look at this “pet cow,” it is bigger and bigger and …

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Dumb Sociopaths

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Contrary to a prevailing myth, sociopaths are really no smarter than the average individual”¦probably dumber. Sure, a good one can dupe you, but as I've written elswhere, this is no great shakes, as most of us can dupe each other if that's our goal. That's because we enter relationships risking trust and faith in each other, which makes the exploitation of our trust and faith really easy. It takes no genius or particularly smart, crafty person to exploit this trust and faith. It's as easy to do as it's wrong. And so, most sociopaths aren't really that clever, or ingeniously bright. Most make messes not only of others' lives, but their own too. Many end up in jail, and those who don't ar …

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Sociopath, psychopath – Lovefraud’s proposal for naming the disorder

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One reason why many of us found ourselves victimized by sociopaths is because we did not know that dangerous personality disorders existed. We may have heard of crazy people, but we assumed that we could spot them because they looked and talked crazy. We may have heard of psychopaths, but we assumed they were serial killers or some other type of obviously hardened criminal. We did not know that people existed who could convincingly proclaim their love, cry tears of sadness, and make glowing promises for the future, all simply to exploit us. We did not know that these people were called sociopaths and/or psychopaths. In my opinion, a big reason for the public's unawareness of, and …

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Becoming aware of our strengths

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By Ox Drover I got to thinking today about being stronger now than I was prior to the last experience with the psychopaths in my life ”¦ but when I really got to thinking about it, I realized I have actually always been as strong as I am now, I just didn't know it or take advantage of it. One of the reasons that humans are able to work horses, mules and oxen to pull heavy loads is because the beasts we use for our labor do not realize their strength. They don't realize the absolute brute force power they have over us. We “control” them because they allow it. Why do they allow it? The answer is because they are not aware of the strength and power that they have, so they allow us to ta …

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Review of ‘Love Fraud’ on the Psychopathy Awareness blog

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Like us, Claudia Moscovici had her run-in with a psychopath, one that almost destroyed her marriage. Since then, like many of us, she has thoroughly researched this destructive personality disorder. She started a blog called "Psychopathy Awareness," and wrote two books: a novel called The Seducer, and an upcoming nonfiction book called Dangerous Liaisons. In her review of my book, Love Fraud—How marriage to a sociopath fulfilled my spiritual plan, Claudia writes, "I didn't think I could learn much more about the subject, but Donna's book proved me wrong." Read the entire review on Psychopathy Awareness. Love Fraud is available in the Lovefraud Store. …

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LETTERS TO LOVERAUD: I will work on whom not to trust or love

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Editor's note: Here is Part 2 of yesterday's article, “Almost everything under the sun happened to me, and I'm fine,” written by a reader who posts as “Jen.” Okay, so I had a crappy childhood, but I survived it. I came out of it okay. I have had what I now think might have been sociopaths in my life from time to time as friends, lovers, or family. At the time, I had no clue what they were, but I did know they were screwed up. I quickly rid parasites from my life after I figured out they were just out to use people. I was strong, and I was no way going to be surrounded by meanness. So, 2 years after my divorce, I ran into an ex from 20 years prior. I was down in the dumps when I met …

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LETTERS TO LOVEFRAUD: Almost everything under the sun happened to me, and I’m fine

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Editor's note: Lovefaud received the following letter from a reader who posts as “Jen.” I think something must be wrong with me. Wait, I KNOW something is wrong with me, but I don't think it is all that bad.  I think it is the 'bad' people in the world that make it that way. Part 1- My Screwed Up Childhood! I went through a lot of abuse as a child. Not from my parents, but from the people around them. I do blame my parents for putting their children in situations that were wrong. My parents split when I was about 3 and my younger brother was almost 1. My dad and I were real close, and it was very hard for me when they split up. My dad was in his early 20s and a partier. My mom cou …

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Sociopaths keep the charade going for awhile

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I was with my sociopathic ex-husband, James Montgomery, for two and a half years. During this time, I knew he was costing me money, but he attributed his lack of business success to “being ahead of his time.” I eventually discovered that he was lying and cheating on me. But although I saw eruptions of anger, my ex was never abusive towards me—nothing like the abuse many of you have endured. Some sociopaths can treat people reasonably well for an extended period of time, if it suits their purpose. For example, Lovefraud received the following e-mail from a reader: I was not in a disastrous relationship with my S. Our relationship was less than three years, our marriage less than two, when …

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LOVEFRAUD TO THE NEXT LEVEL: Relationship survey for Lovefraud readers

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Ever since Lovefraud launched in 2005, my goal has been to educate people about the dangers of sociopaths—preferably before their lives are shredded. One effort in that direction is the Lovefraud high school education program—I'll be doing my first three classes next month. Another effort is my next book—tentatively called Red Flags of Love Fraud—Signs that you're dating a sociopath. It will identify behavior that may indicate a prospective romantic partner is not all that he or she claims to be, and explain how what seems to be expressions of love may, in fact, be strategies of manipulation and control. We've discussed our experiences here on Lovefraud, and through the telling, identif …

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