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Traits of a female psychopath – article

You are here: Home / Topics / Traits of a female psychopath – article

How to recognize and recover from the sociopaths – narcissists in your life › Forums › Discussion of female sociopaths › Traits of a female psychopath – article

  • This topic has 21 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 1 week, 4 days ago by sunnygal1.
Viewing 21 reply threads
  • Author
    Posts
    • August 16, 2019 at 4:27 pm #53739
      emilie18
      Participant

      Excellent article in June’s Psychology Today differentiating the traits of male vs female psychopaths:
      https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/201906/what-makes-female-psychopaths-different

      Some points the author made:
      • Since more data is available for killers and con artists than for “mean girls” who merely defy social conventions, they are disproportionately represented in case studies of female psychopathy.
      • Females who develop the disorder may show it through verbal and relational aggression— perhaps harming someone socially through gossip or ostracism. Female psychopaths appear to have a stronger need for others’ approval, worse self-image, and more anxiety relative to males. They might use flirtation and sexual behavior, feign suicide attempts, or pretend to be the victim of an assault to get what they want.
      • Motivations are often different for females: “Males tend to be motivated by sex or strivings for domination and power over victims; females tend to be driven more by profit, notoriety, or some other practical end.” Violent male psychopaths often harm strangers. But … when psychopathic females are serial killers, they typically target family members.
      • The game of manipulation becomes more important than the outcome. Males typically just want to win.
      • Females with psychopathic traits respond normally to emotional words. … they score better on emotional intelligence than males.

      The author also points out that when rating psychopathic traits on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist, woman often don’t score as high as men – they had higher scores on the interpersonal and lifestyle facets of psychopathy (manipulativeness, grandiosity, impulsivity) than they did on emotional and antisocial facets (lack of remorse and delinquency), and are less physically violent than male offenders.

      Well worth the read especially if you are not sure the woman who is making your life miserable is a psychopath, on another spectrum of abnormal behavior, or just a miserable human being.

      • This topic was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by emilie18.
    • August 19, 2019 at 7:25 pm #53802
      Donna Andersen
      Keymaster

      emilie18 – thank you so much for posting about that article!

    • August 16, 2022 at 5:05 pm #68439
      sunnygal1
      Participant

      Emilie. Excellent article. They do exist.

    • August 19, 2022 at 6:59 pm #68461
      sunnygal1
      Participant

      Good point is that we sometimes don’t know if this is a psychopath or just a miserable human being. I have sometimes wondered about this.

    • August 25, 2022 at 10:47 pm #68501
      sunnygal1
      Participant

      Still wondering

    • August 26, 2022 at 10:59 am #68502
      emilie18
      Participant

      Sunnygal: You ask: “sometimes don’t know if this is a psychopath or just a miserable human being.” Good observation. I think the fundamental difference is in underlying motive. I have been around female and male sociopaths and around jerks. Sometimes it IS hard to determine which they are. For instance – my roommate-from-hell. She was a coworker and casual friend. After her father passed away she convinced me her brother had kicked her out of his home as he was getting married and her step mother refused to move from the father’s house, which she said she had inherited, and she needed a temporary place to stay – just a month or so – until she got it figured out. She said her stepmother was being investigated for her fathers suspicious death and that she herself was battling cancer. Three years later she was still at my house, having paid NO rent for two of those years. By that time I had discovered that her brother never was engaged and had kicked her out of his house because she was, in his words, “a looneytunes”; her stepmother had a “survivors right” to live in her husbands house for three years after his death; the house was inherited by her and her brother – not just her; her father had a heart attack – nothing suspicious; and she never did have cancer. During those three years she tried to alienate me from my family by not passing along phone messages about family get togethers or showing up to them uninvited then causing a scene; constantly calling me at work even after being asked not to; lying to friends and family about me; alienating every housekeeper I hired by leaving horrendous messes all over the house after I had straightened things up and left for work; never holding down a job for more than a month or two then lying about it; and letting my indoor cat outside where it was killed by a dog. Was she just a jerk? I don’t think so. Every time I confronted her she would act the victim, lie outright or blame others or me, often leaving me in tears or feeling guilty. Her motive is still unclear, but it certainly had every earmark of a sociopath. She delighted in hurting me and making me feel bad. On the other hand, I dated a guy who treated me wonderfully when things went his way, then acted the jerk when I disagreed with him. I eventually caught him crawling out the bedroom window of a neighbor girl at 6 am when I dropped by to pick up something I had left at his house. She was 15. Yeah – he was just a miserable human being. His motivations were pretty clear – macho male chauvinism thinking with the wrong head. So how do you tell? Well, after finding this site and reading as much as I can, I am a bit better at identifying sociopathic narcissists vs miserable human beings — although they DO overlap. Either way – I certainly do not want either in my life any more!

    • August 26, 2022 at 12:03 pm #68503
      sunnygal1
      Participant

      Emilie. They do sound very undesirable! I have a friend who can be nice but recently had covid, was in a lot of pain, was miserable and now seems to want everyone else to be miserable. I think she is just a miserable human being at this time.

    • September 2, 2022 at 10:32 am #68589
      sunnygal1
      Participant

      Emilie. I know another female who rebels against authority. I think she is just a jerk but maybe there is something more

    • September 9, 2022 at 11:25 am #68623
      sunnygal1
      Participant

      I know another female who think is a sociopath, can be very sadistic.

    • September 12, 2022 at 7:52 pm #68659
      sunnygal1
      Participant

      I encountered another disordered female.

      There are many.

      • This reply was modified 4 months, 2 weeks ago by sunnygal1.
    • September 18, 2022 at 11:31 pm #68685
      sunnygal1
      Participant

      There are many .

    • October 7, 2022 at 11:51 pm #68778
      sunnygal1
      Participant

      Emilie Again, good article.

    • October 8, 2022 at 3:56 pm #68780
      sunnygal1
      Participant

      Emilie. Very good.

    • October 14, 2022 at 7:23 pm #68813
      sunnygal1
      Participant

      I’ll bring this up.

    • October 14, 2022 at 10:31 pm #68815
      sunnygal1
      Participant

      Women who are overweight tend to be very self centered and aggressive, addictive personalities

    • October 17, 2022 at 11:56 am #68825
      sunnygal1
      Participant

      Nurses who kill babies exploit systems of care. Article in http://www.psychology today. Some go into nursing for power, very troubling.

      • This reply was modified 3 months, 2 weeks ago by sunnygal1.
    • October 21, 2022 at 7:43 pm #68838
      sunnygal1
      Participant

      I just heard about a woman who did a suicide and her 2 children found her.

    • October 24, 2022 at 1:43 pm #68852
      sunnygal1
      Participant

      Jeanette McCurdy wrote I’m Glad My Mom Died. She was on Drew today.

    • November 4, 2022 at 11:02 am #68967
      sunnygal1
      Participant

      They do the game of manipulation

    • November 25, 2022 at 9:03 pm #69121
      sunnygal1
      Participant

      Emilie So glad you posted this. It is helpful

    • January 19, 2023 at 5:58 pm #69596
      sunnygal1
      Participant

      Just reread this with recent experience.

    • January 20, 2023 at 4:38 pm #69613
      sunnygal1
      Participant

      I experience these often

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