Explaining the sociopath

This week we are continuing to discuss The Psychopathic Mind by J. Reid Meloy, Ph.D. The author is diplomate in forensic psychology, former Chief of the Forensic Mental Health Division for San Diego County and Past President of the American Academy of Forensic Psychology. As I said last week, my initial reaction to the book was rather negative because I believe this author has made some assertions that have become the basis for inaccurate folklore that has spread over the internet (to be discussed in the coming weeks). But Dr. Meloy made up for all that by setting the record straight on a very important issue—the spectrum of psychopathy. The idea that psychopathy is a spectrum and that " …

Experienced clinician says psychopathy is a spectrumRead More

What a difficult question this is—exactly what defines the sociopath?  Joseph Neuman Ph.D, psychopathy researcher, in an extensive interview (see link to this interview previously provided by Donna Anderson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmZgnCHweLM) addresses this and other questions about psychopaths. Neuman's research, if I understand him correctly (and I did not find him to be particularly clear in his explanations) yields a picture of the psychopath, surprisingly, not as primarily emotionally defective, but rather as emotionally defective secondary to certain forms of attentional problems. Neuman makes some interesting and, to my mind, somewhat puzzling observations. For in …

Who is the sociopath?Read More

In less than a month, an attractive, somewhat flirty cybergeek named "Robin Sage" accumulated hundreds of connections through social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Her friends included people at military intelligence groups, the Department of Defense, and Global 500 companies. Robin, however, was a fake. Read The Robin Sage Experiment: Fake profile fooled military intelligence, IT security pros. Link submitted by a Lovefraud reader. …

Fake profile fools security prosRead More

Aren't sociopaths supposed to be rule-breakers? Isn't this a main indicator of their sociopathy? If so, then what's up with sociopaths when they're following, not breaking, the rules? Hmm. This appears to be confusing, but then again, is it really? Perhaps it's oversimplistic to see sociopaths as incapable of following rules? In the grand scheme of things, I think it's fair to say that sociopaths will break rules; they will violate boundaries; they will hurt and violate others with a startling—indeed sociopathic—lack of accountability and conscience. The sociopath, I think we can say reasonably, will inevitably transgress others, and he will transgress them heartlessly. However, w …

When Sociopaths Follow The RulesRead More

“Most of us want to believe that there's good in everyone. Unfortunately, it isn't true. There are people in the world who are rotten to the core, and they're called sociopaths.” That's how I begin my video interview about my new book, Love Fraud—How marriage to a sociopath fulfilled my spiritual plan. I answer questions about what happened to me, and why I wrote the book. The six-minute video is posted on my blog for the book, and I invite you to watch it. Pre-order special ends July 31 Right now, we're offering a pre-order special for the book. If you place your order now, we'll send you an autographed and numbered first edition, shipped free to U.S. destinations, and 40 percent of …

Donna Andersen’s video for Love Fraud bookRead More