My local newspaper is the Press of Atlantic City. It's a small-town newspaper covering the Atlantic City, New Jersey area. It's not the New York Daily News, the Daily Mail or another British tabloid. Yet as I read the paper one day last week, I was shocked to see one story after another that seemed to illustrate sociopathic behavior. I shouldn't have been surprised. In my opinion, when adults freely commit crime, aggression, fraud, exploitation, violence, bullying, retaliation or pathological lying, they likely have sociopathic traits. There is research to back this up, which I'll get to soon. But first, here's the news for July 9, 2014. (Although I saw all of the stories local, …
Helping Children Heal While Co-parenting with a Sociopath
by Quinn Pierce I sat on the now familiar, well worn bench outside the courtroom, and I watched the strained faces of the people around me as I waited for our name to be called. It was our fourth appearance in the family court due to my son's unexcused absences resulting from an illness the school has yet to acknowledge. The whole process has been exhausting, to say the least, but it's been made even worse by the carnival-like antics being performed by my ex-husband and his lawyer. As usual, a situation that should solely be about supporting our child has been turned into another Look At Me, I'm the Victim one-act play. It seems that any captive audience lately has become an op …
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Rolf Harris, an entertainment legend in Australia and the UK, found guilty of sexually assaulting girls
Rolf Harris— a household name in the music, art and TV entertainment industries in Australia and the UK for 50 years, has been found guilty of sexually assaulting four teenaged girls. Harris, now 84, was found guilty after an eight-week trial in London. Because of his age and poor health, Harris' barrister Sonia Woodley plans on requesting a reduced jail sentence. Harris had previously received multiple awards, including royal honors such as Member of the Order of the British Empire, which will be stripped. Rolf Harris found guilty of 12 counts of indecent assault of four girls, from News.com.au. Link supplied by a Lovefraud reader. …
Holidays with a Sociopath
There's no exact formula for spending life's special events with a sociopath, but one thing's for sure. It won't be good for you. With the 4th of July coming tomorrow, I decided to spend some time talking about life's biggest events and sweetest moments. Weddings. Birthdays. Funerals. Births. Christmas. Hanukah. Anniversaries. And any other special time or ritual that gives our humanity a chance to feel the deeper meaning of life. To watch the fireworks. To celebrate our bonds to each other. To remember our heritage. To take a breath and step away from the daily grind so we can look around and appreciate what's most important to us. And feel the joy that comes with it. And because our …
Psychopathy experts discuss the role media plays in mass shootings
Dr. Richard A. Friedman, Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Director of the Psychopharmacology Clinic at Weill Cornell Medical College, recently published an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times addressing the recent spate of mass shootings: Why Can't Doctors Identify Killers? Mary Ellen O'Toole, Editor in Chief of Violence and Gender Journal, psychopathy researcher, and Senior FBI Profiler, Behavioral Analysis Unit (Ret.), posted this response to Friedman in the Violence and Gender Journal: A Different Perspective on the UCSB Mass Murderer And Jacqueline B. Helfgott, Ph.D., author of Criminal Behavior: Theories, Typologies, and Criminal Justice, expressed her opinions on C …
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Women create educational video on sociopathy
[youtube_sc url=http://youtu.be/S82-H6qGXwU] Jade Joddle, and her business partner, Charlotte, create animated videos that offer information on love, relationships and personality disorders. One of the videos that content manager, Jade, and illustrator, Charlotte, collaborated on  may be of interest to Lovefraud readers: Sociopath Quiz: Have you fallen in love with a sociopath? Link supplied by Lovefraud reader. …
The Sociopath as Coach, Part II
Some sociopaths make the "best" coaches. At least, that's what everyone thinks at the time. So during the athletic banquet at the end of each season, people will often spend more time applauding this beloved individual than they do the young players on the team. Even if those players just broke six individual records. Parents will send "thank you" cards and gifts by the dozen to this coach. Particularly if he or she's also charming, humble, and from the same hometown. They'll talk constantly for weeks and even months about how happy they are that this particular coach came into their child's life. How this person changed everything. Built confidence. Gave a sense of accomplishment. …
Political correctness and vulnerability to sociopaths
Mark Cuban, tech entrepreneur, star of the TV show Shark Tank, and owner of the Dallas Mavericks pro basketball team, sparked a firestorm on Twitter last week when he admitted to being a bigot. The firestorm was based on the sound bite: I know I'm prejudiced. I know I'm bigoted, in a lot of different ways. If I see a black kid in a hoodie on the same side of the street, I'm probably going to walk to the other side of the street. Some of those who lambasted Cuban ignored the continuation of his statement: If I see a white guy with a shaved head and lots of tattoos, I'm going back to the other side of the street. If I see anybody that looks threatening, chances are there's part …
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The Sociopath and His Dog
I'll start by saying that the "his" in my title comes from the fact that this story is about my sociopathic male ex. That being said, I'm sure many of you can think of women who fit this unique description of an "animal lover." So let's begin. My ex loves to tell people how much he loves dogs. He'll also say he loves horses and sheep and cows and chickens and all other sorts of farm and wild animals, but dogs are tops. And there's something really unique about the way a sociopath "loves" a vulnerable creature. It's confusing, wonderful, horrifying, and most often blindsiding. Sometimes, it's even used to shame others. Like me. You see, a couple years ago, I had a little Frenchie-bulldog …
Abuse in Britain’s boarding schools: One man’s personal perspective
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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