More evidence that psychopaths do not ‘burn out’

For years, the conventional wisdom in the mental health field was that psychopaths “burn out,” or engage in less antisocial behavior, after age 40. This is stated as fact in multiple psychiatry textbooks. But my research, published in a peer-reviewed journal in 2022, indicates psychopaths do not burn out. A new scientific paper validates my conclusions.

Why should you care? Because if you’re dealing with someone who has psychopathic traits, chances are slim to none that this person will change for the better. If you’re seeing lies, manipulation, cruelty and abuse, it will continue. If he or she is taking advantage of you or others, that will also continue. 

Now, maybe you think that you don’t need to worry because the person you’re dealing with is “only” a narcissist, not a psychopath. Well, psychopaths are also narcissistic, and narcissists may have psychopathic traits. You should assume that the information in this article applies to you. I explain this in more detail below.

The bottom line is, if you continue to engage with a disordered individual, this person will likely be disordered forever. 

Surviving Senior Psychopathy

My paper is called Surviving Senior Psychopathy: Informant Reports of Deceit and Antisocial Behavior in Multiple Types of Relationships. It is based on data that I collected in Lovefraud’s Senior Sociopath Survey. More than 2,000 Lovefraud readers answered questions about someone they knew who they believed was disordered and was age 50 or older. 

Here’s the most important finding of my research: About half of the survey respondents knew the person both before and after the age of 50. Of them, 93% said the individual’s deceit, manipulation and antisocial behavior was just as bad, or worse, as they aged.

In addition to the paper, I wrote an entire book with the data I collected. It’s called, Senior Sociopaths — How to Recognize and Escape Lifelong Abusers. It includes not only a statistical analyses, but also stories submitted by the survey respondents that will make your hair stand up. People in their 50s, 60s, 70s and older are still quite capable of evil.

Validity, Stability and Change

My research was cited in a paper that came out last year called, Validity, Stability, and Change in Psychopathic Traits in Older Adults: A Registered Report. The researchers reviewed personality data that was collected about a group of individuals four times over 10 years, starting when the people were between the ages of 55 and 64. 

This research also collected information from “informants” — people who knew those being studied and could provide input about their personalities and behavior. (This was the same approach I used in my paper.)

The findings were:

• Psychopathy can be measured validly in older adult samples.
• Psychopathic traits remain almost perfectly stable, on average, across time in this period of the life span.
• The more maladaptive features of psychopathy — Meanness and Disinhibition — tend to change in stride with changes in mental health and physical health.

You may wonder why the first item — psychopathy can be measured validly — is even mentioned. Among researchers, there are multiple models for conceptualizing psychopathy, and much disagreement about which is most accurate. The experts simply don’t agree, which is one reason why there is so much confusion about the disorder.

The new research provides more proof that psychopaths continue their bad behavior as they age. Plus, the study noted that their psychological and physical functioning decline as the years go by, although it didn’t clarify what that meant.

My book has plenty examples of psychopathic behavior in old age. Essentially, psychopaths who once worried about maintaining a certain image stop caring. They no longer try to hide their nasty personalities. 

So for anyone around them, or attempting to care for them, they simply become more mean and miserable.

Narcissists may actually be psychopaths

When I started Lovefraud in 2005, there was limited information available about psychopaths and sociopaths, and no discussion of narcissists. 

Over the years, everyone started talking about narcissists. Nothing instigated this change — the term just organically appeared among online survivor groups. In my opinion, people are using the term “narcissist” simply because it isn’t as scary as “psychopath.” 

Often, when someone tells me they’re involved with a narcissist, and then describes the person’s behavior, it sounds like they’re dealing with a psychopath.  (For more discussion of the terminology, see Psychopath vs. Sociopath on Lovefraud.com.)

My research was based on a survey completed by 2,120 Lovefraud readers who described in detail the disordered person in their life. Very few of the individuals had been professionally diagnosed with a personality disorder. The survey respondents just recorded what they experienced. 

The survey included an assessment for psychopathic traits from the pre-publication first draft of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition. Survey respondents were asked to rate the individuals on the traits of psychopathy:

• Callousness
• Aggression
• Manipulativeness
• Hostility
• Deceitfulness
• Narcissism
• Irresponsibility
• Recklessness
• Impulsivity

In the Lovefraud survey, 77% of the individuals scored high enough on those traits to meet the cut score for psychopathy. To me, it means the bad behavior that readers describe on Lovefraud may not be “just narcissism,” but possibly psychopathy.

Therefore, as you decide what to do about your involvement with the person, understand that you may be dealing with a psychopath, and psychopathic behavior will not improve with age.