By Joyce Alexander, RNP (Retired)
Psychopaths sometimes don’t know enough about how the rest of the world thinks to tell a “good” lie. I saw the following article about North Korea’s soccer team and how they had been apparently caught in a doping scandal, but were claiming that it was really an herbal medication that made them test positive for steroids.
The excuse given was that the team members had been struck by lightening and they had decided, heroically, to compete anyway. The steroids were accidentally taken with traditional Chinese medicines.
I have recently found other articles about the “stories” of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-II, that made me laugh out loud. In one article, he supposedly played his first round of golf and scored a 38, including five holes-in-one.
One of the things I have noticed about many psychopaths, and others who frequently lie, is that their lies are so “off the wall” that no one over three years old would believe a word of them. They will “lie when the truth will fit better” is a saying I’ve heard all my life. This seems to be especially true with pathological liars and psychopaths.
Dr. Robert Hare, well-known psychopathy researcher, says that psychopaths have difficulty realizing that their lies are unbelievable, even when the evidence that they are untrue is literally in front of them. In some way, the two sides of their brains can’t connect the evidence in front of their eyes.
An example of this are the lies told by Casey Anthony when she led the police to the place she supposedly worked, even going to a cubical, when she knew that she didn’t work for that company. She also lied about leaving her daughter with “Zanny the Nanny,” when such a person didn’t exist. Anthony even led the police to the door of the empty apartment with the police in tow.
Not all liars are psychopaths, but all psychopaths are liars. Liars signal that they are not to be trusted. But if you hear a lie that is so outrageous that it makes you laugh out loud, or have the feeling that the person telling it must be “crazy—”look out! You very well may be dealing with a psychopath.
MoonDancer
katydids – I forgot what peace and quite was, I had become used to the drama and chaos, when he left the quite was deafening for awhile, but I can finally hear and enJOY the quite again…
Twice Betrayed
KatyDid: Maddy’s parents [both Docs] were known to tranquilize their children [grandparents admitted this]. Many people believe, including many profilers/police/investigators etc, that these parents either killed this child or a neglectful accident happened and they disposed of the body, fabricating the kidnapping story. All on the lines of the Anthony case.
*Now an English couple has spotted a young girl they believe to be Madeleine in India. Maddy’s parents quickly denied it was her…w/o even jumping for hope/doing DNA or any contact/info on her at all. Just looked at a photo [mind you, the child would be 8 years old now-since she was four when she ‘vanished’. I know and most others agree…if that was a hope for my missing child, I would be all over it. Not dismissing it with just a look at a camera photo. [like Natalee Holloway’s mom-if a shoe/bone/hair/report comes in….she is on top of it!]
Louise
Twice Betrayed:
I vaguely remember that case. Weren’t they in France or something at the time? Or do they live there? There was most definitely something odd there. Sure looks like they are guilty.
Twice Betrayed
Louise; they are from England and were in Portugal in a five star resort. They had put the three children to bed-two year old twins and four year old Madeleine, alone in a bedroom, while they dined and drank wine 139 yards away. They claimed to have checked on them every twenty minutes, however a nanny claims to have heard the little girl crying for well over an hour. It’s possible the child was badly injured in the room or fell down some stairs outside the room. Cadaver dogs signaled for the room. Later, they did ultraviolet light and different tests on the room and it showed positive for blood. While the parents may not have actually killed her, it’s possible she awoke and wandered down the concrete stairs and lay injured for that time. However, most experts felt they staged the kidnapping and disappearance of the little girl for a cover up. From info it looks as though they drugged the children, left for their night out and the little girl awakened in a strange place and met with an accident of some sort. If that was the case, they would not want a toxicology done on the body and it to be known they left the children alone for hours unattended. -children that young need supervision- Interviews with them show the father to be very controlling and in one interview turns his head and looks straight up into his wife’s eyes showing a clear P stare and says something to her [this was when she was making a televised plea for the return of the child=and she does speak of her in past tense]. Something not right there…….
Louise
Twice Betrayed:
Thanks for taking the time to explain this to me. That was it, Portugal. I knew they were somewhere away from their home at the time. It really does sound very similar to the Anthony case, doesn’t it?? It’s unbelievable to me how these people get away with things that are so obviously wrong and devious. Definitely something not right…
KatyDid
TB:
I do knot know the McCanns personally but my friend does. I do trust her, she’s a teacher and the spouse of a military officer. Her reports were more believable to me than the press. For instance, the McCann case brought out the nutcases coming out of the woodwork with their theories and reports, all front page stuff and all proven untrue. So wondered where your info came from?
Not saying I know ANYTHING esp about recent stuff….b/c – as my husband taught me -what SEEMS to be may have NOTHING in common with the truth…. For instance: with my husband, everyone in my small town decided what my character was and I am condemned, yet those people who are judging me never having met me or took their cue from gossip OR did not know who/what I did/was before marrying my husband nor know me after escaping him, knew NOTHING of my homelife. That’s why I don’t jump in and condemn people unless I feel like I have the real story… I’m comfortable with my opinion of Casey Anthony.
ps My problem with a NANNY who reports hears a child crying for an HOUR and didn’t do anything sounds heartless to me. I could not hear that kind of crying and not resolve it. I also wonder about people who report knowing the McCanns’s mindset and motivation why they did something. Also, People Parse words looking for mistakes. This was also done to me, where meaning was inserted into words I spoke but had NOTHING to do with what I said.
KatyDid
Hens
I get the peace thing. I used to equate peace with silence. I’ve learned differently.
Twice Betrayed
KatyDid: Of course, not personally knowing the McCanns, all of my info had to come from media sources who quoted many of the investigators [local police, British, private etc]. But, since you know everything proven to be untrue, it would be interesting to hear your report on the actual facts. Could you provide that for us, so we could be clearly informed and not relying on media/
I know I relied on the media for Casey Anthony reports. You say you are comfortable with your opinion on Casey Anthony. What is your take on that and is it based on media sources?
KatyDid
TB,
I thought I made I emphasized that I do not claim to know ANYTHING about recent stuff. When the trail was cold, I stopped asking. I do know they have bankrupted themselves paying for detectives, forensics, etc. certainly not the cooperation that we can compare with Casey A.
I did not rely on the media for Casey Anthony. I actually watched the trial and formed my opinion connecting indisputed facts offered at trial, the failure to report Caylee missing, avoiding her mom for all that time, the partying while she was missing, the lies about employment and about existence of Xanie the nanny who – none of which is behavior consistent with seeking to find Caylee.
Do you agree that we have been maligned by spaths/their minions and how unfair it was to be so judged based on gossip? Would you like your life played out/analysed on youtube and people deciding your mindset but never asking you? I lived that with my spath. It was a nightmare. NOT fair. Nearly destroyed me.
Until I KNOW something more than tabloid gossip about the McCanns, I won’t jump on that bandwagon. That’s why I asked you. B/c if you knew something concrete, I’d like to have that source so I could be as sure as I feel about Casey.
skylar
Katy,
yes that is what makes them so horrible, they entice everyone else into persecuting us. HOW THE HELL DO THEY DO THAT? It boggles the mind.
We can only judge from our own experience, nothing more.
That’s one reason that I’m GRATEFUL for the spath experience. IT taught me how NOT to be. Casey was an pathological liar. AFAIK, that is a RED FLAG. That’s enough for me to judge her as a spath and fully capable of killing her daugher. Yes, there were many other clues, but that one was the biggest, for me. They ALL lie like dogs. Habitually and consistently.
If you can find out more about the Mcanns, that would be very helpful in making up your mind. Do they lie habitually, are they shallow?
The question of character answers many questions.