Here’s the headline for the cover story in the September/October issue of Scientific American Mind magazine:
Inside the mind of a psychopath
Neuroscientists are discovering that some of the most cold-blooded killers aren’t bad. They suffer from a brain abnormality that sets them adrift in an emotionless world.
The authors of the article are Kent A. Kiehl and Joshua W. Buckholtz. Dr. Kiehl is the researcher who examines the brains of psychopaths in prison using fMRI technology. Lovefraud wrote about him before in Psychopaths, crime and choice.
This latest article, Inside the mind of a psychopath, is an excellent overview of the personality disorder. It summarizes the characteristics of psychopaths, with chilling anecdotes to describe their behavior. It briefly explains the biology of the disorder—describing areas of the brain that are abnormal. It explains research that has shed light on different aspects of how psychopaths differ from the rest of us.
The article is well-written, thorough and understandable. In it, Kiehl and Buckholtz write specifically about the individuals who meet the definition of a psychopath used by researchers in the field: someone scoring at least 30 out of 40 on the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R).
I can understand this limitation from a research perspective, but for society as a whole, it’s a problem.
Psychopathy Checklist Revised
The PCL-R was developed by Dr. Robert Hare, and the article includes a summary of how it works. The evaluation covers 20 behaviors and traits. A clinician assigns a score of 0, 1 or 2 for each item, based on how well the description matches the subject.
The scores are based on both an interview with the subject, and a review of the information in his or her file. This is critical, of course, because psychopaths can be extremely charming in an interview, and conveniently forget to talk about their malignant histories.
The PCL-R evaluates the following behaviors and traits:
Antisocial behavior
- Need for stimulation and proneness to boredom
- Parasitic lifestyle
- Poor behavioral control
- Sexual promiscuity
- Lack of realistic long-term goals
- Impulsivity
- Irresponsibility
- Early behavior problems
- Juvenile delinquency
- Parole of probation violations
Emotional/interpersonal traits
- Glibness and superficial charm
- Grandiose sense of self-worth
- Pathological lying
- Conning and manipulativeness
- Lack of remorse or guilt
- Shallow affect
- Callousness and lack of empathy
- Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
Other factors
- Committing a wide variety of crimes
- Having many short-term marital relationships
The maximum score on the PCL-R is 40, which means that the person was rated as 2”—a reasonably good match—”on every item. To be considered a true psychopath, an individual must have a score of 30.
Prevalence of psychopaths
The criteria used by researchers to diagnose psychopaths is stringent, so the total number of people who have this disorder comes out as far lower what we usually talk about here on Lovefraud.
Here’s what the article says about the prevalence of psychopaths in society:
• People with the disorder make up 0.5 to 1 percent of the general population.
• When you discount children, women (for reasons that remain a puzzle, few women are afflicted), and those who are already locked up, that translates to approximately 250,000 psychopaths living freely in the U.S.
• Some researchers have estimated that as many as 500,000 psychopaths inhabit the U.S. prison system.
• Between 15 and 35 percent of U.S. prisoners are psychopaths.
• Psychopaths offend earlier, more frequently and more violently than others, and they are four to eight times more likely to commit new crimes on release.
• Kiehl recently estimated that the expense of prosecuting and incarcerating psychopaths, combined with the costs of the havoc they wreak in others’ lives, totals $250 billion to $400 billion a year.
Psychopathy continuum
What does the article say about people who may not qualify as card-carrying psychopaths, scoring less than 30 out of 40 on the PCL-R? Not much. A box accompanying the article, called Do you know a psychopath?, contains the only reference:
The thing is, everyone falls somewhere on the psychopathy continuum. The average person scores about a 4, but there are plenty who rank in the teens and 20s—not high enough to receive an official diagnosis, yet possessing significant (and often noticeable) psychopathic tendencies—the bullying boss, the drifter, the irresponsible guy who is always milking the generosity of friends and lovers.
Now, I don’t know who wrote the paragraph above—the authors of the main article, Kiehl and Buckholtz, or some editor at Scientific American Mind magazine. But the overall effect is that scope and danger of the psychopathy problem is significantly underplayed. The question is, why?
Low-ball estimates
What is to be gained by low-balling the prevalence of this personality disorder in society?
I don’t know how many of us were involved with someone who would score 30 or more on the PCL-R. But I am willing to say that most of us have experienced something significantly more damaging than, “the bullying boss, the drifter, the irresponsible guy who is always milking the generosity of friends and lovers.”
Maybe we were with people who would have scored between 10 and 29. Dr. Liane Leedom recently reported that another psychopathy researcher, Dr. Reid Meloy, says people who score between 10 and 19 have a “mild psychopathic disturbance” and people who score between 20 and 29 have a “moderate psychopathic disturbance.” Why does Kiehl ignore them?
And how about all the women who exhibit these traits? Why did Kiehl and Buckholtz give them a blanket exemption? And children? Dr. Robert Hare acknowledges that psychopathic traits can be seen in children. He’s even developed a version of the PCL-R that can be used to evaluate children as young as age 12.
The bottom line is that many psychopathy researchers work with prisoners. It’s easy to understand why—prisoners are literally a captive audience. Plus, I imagine that funding is available.
But this focus on the worst of the worst, those locked up for truly heinous crimes, vastly underestimates the danger of people with psychopathic traits, even if they don’t cross the 30-point threshold. And this is really bad for society.
Read Inside the mind of a psychopath on TheMindInstitute.org.
Link supplied by a Lovefraud reader.
LOLOLOLOL! One!!! good one!
ntcrz1
hens – you come up against this one often; it is your question:’ Am I a spath?’
Define spath. Does your definition of it fit your actual traits?
Have you been endlessly grandiose in exposing your valouress, selfless deeds?
Do you champion only your own interests, at the sake of the interests of others?
Have you killed anyone?
Raped anyone?
Molested a child?
Lied?
Lied?
Lied?
Have you stolen money or goods? Many times?
Have you cheated on any lover?
Have you secretly hurt or bullied friends, strangers or family members?
Have you lied to the government?
Have you lied on your resume?
Have you ever said that you were a veteran?
Have you sold drugs to children?
Have you stolen a car?
Have you killed more than one person?
Have you ever pretended to be more than one person?
Have you lied about your age, gender, orientation to take advantage of another’s preferences?
Have you threatened to expose people you know secrets about, to gain their compliance?
Have you ever hired someone to kill, beat or intimidate another perosn?
To steal from them?
Have you hurt another without care for their pain?
When you cry, is it a performance?
Do you tell people you love them to get them to do what you want?
……..no?
I thought not.
Hens….the operative word is “I was WILLING to help with his issues……
When someone has “deep rooted” issues, and they don’t resolve them and face them on their own….with a professional…NOONE can help them heal from their past wounds.
My stance..is that I have worked on my “issues” and I am “healthier” than I’ve ever been…so I do NOT want to attract someone who is not where I am.
They say that “likes attract likes”…and we bring people into our lives on the “level” we are at…
So, if you are “healthy”, you will attract “healthy” people.
“Healthy” …..meaning confident in yourself, high self esteem, self respect and self regard..(able to have boundaries with people), physically in good shape (or working on it), and happy with who you are.
When I met the socios I let into my life, at different points in my life…it was always when I was feeling “lonely, desparate, and unconfident ” in who I was.
So, now I have a motto….”Red flags and boundaries”….
Never again will I violate my new rules!
Onestep, I LOVe Dorothy Parkers wit.
Here is her famous poem,”Resume” on Suicide.
“Razors Pain you,
Rivers are damp,
Acids stain you,
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns arent lawful,
Nooses give,
Gas smells awful
You might as well live.”
And I like these,–
“You cant teach an old Dogma new tricks.”
Four be the things Id have been better without,
Love, curiosity,
freckles, and doubt.”
“I require only three things ofa man,He must be handsome,ruthless,and stupid.’
“Take care of the Luxuries, and the necessities willtake care of themselves.”
The two most beautiful words in the English language,
“Cheque enclosed.”
” I like to have a martini,
Two at the very most.
After three, Im under the table,
after four,Im under my host.”
“All I need is room enough to lay a hat, and a few friends.”
“”Ive been too F–king busy’-or vice versa.”{this after a letter from her editor,asking her for more stories during her Honeymoon.}
Of Ayn Rands book, “Atlas Shrugged”,Parker wrore,
“This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly.It should be thrown with great force.”
And your quote,
When asked to use the word”Horticulture”in a sentence, during a game of “Can you give me a sentence”,Parker replied,
“You can lead a horticulture but you cant make her think!”
Great stuff!
Love, mama gemXX
Of Ayn Rands book, “Atlas Shrugged”,Parker wrore,
“This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force. BRAVO!!
The reason I am not “falling apart” as I was last year, is because THIS time around, when I went back with the X…(after he begged me and reeled me in), I went in MUCH stronger than I’ve ever been. I left him in Feb-July…and I dedicated my life to ME…worked on regaining my self-esteem, got into better physical and mental shape.
So, “round 3” I was a confident happy person and I set boundaries. I didn’t “cater” to him or “jump” to him….I didn’t keep quiet when I doubted his word….(confronted him and caught him in lies). I wouldn’t sleep with him if he didn’t take me out and spend time with him outside of the bedroom!
Well, HE got frustrated. The “old me” was gone…and he got angry and I ended the relationship. I saw the light. I saw him for what he really wants….and I didn’t give into him.
I went back and regained my dignity. It was MY turn to put him to the test..by just being “me”. He didn’t like me, because I wasn’t the perfect “supply” anymore.
I don’t have PTSD, I have my DIGNITY and I feel FREE from a toxic person.
PS….He is probably on his dating sites now (which he claims he never goes on)….24/7 looking for his next “victim”.
So be it. I wasn’t ‘normal and healthy” three years ago when we met…..Now I’ve come a long way…the “hard” way… by trying to love someone who isn’t capable of loving back…and I learned so much.
I just know that only “healthy” people will be in my life now..and forever.
tobehappy – keep working on regaining your self esteem – if you’d been in a reallygood place you wouldn’t have gotten sucked in again, by the same person. take care and be vigilant.
I rode with town yesterday with my neighbor Dana and her mom. Dana’s mom moved up here recently. While Dana was waiting for her prescription, her mom and I talked. Dana’s mom asked me if I would consider getting back with Jim. She brought this up out-of-the-blue. I said absolutely not.
I gave her an over view of Jim.
Now I see this socio path guideline? thingy
I gotta post it here and respond to it.
Antisocial behavior
•Need for stimulation and proneness to boredom
•Parasitic lifestyle
•Poor behavioral control
•Sexual promiscuity
•Lack of realistic long-term goals
•Impulsivity
•Irresponsibility
•Early behavior problems
•Juvenile delinquency
•Parole of probation violations
Emotional/interpersonal traits
•Glibness and superficial charm
•Grandiose sense of self-worth
•Pathological lying
•Conning and manipulativeness
•Lack of remorse or guilt
•Shallow affect
•Callousness and lack of empathy
•Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
Other factors
•Committing a wide variety of crimes
•Having many short-term marital relationships
– Jim was bored out-of-his mind being around me. He couldn’t wait to go home. He seemed to love going across the street by Dana and her boyfriend, cause it was in my face. I can see Dana’s house from my window.
-Jim is a mooch. He is a master at getting money out of his friends and me. He seems to thrive at this. It doesn’t bother his conscience a bit. He seems very happy with this lifestyle.
-He has no control over his behavior thus the screaming at me. He seems to control it around others. But, it is fake. He puts on that smile, and nervous laugh. He laughing shakes and dips his head forward as he plays it off. Around me he would explode at me while he held his attention on me staring me down with pure anger on his face.
-Jim is into more sex stuff than I know. I got the gist of it on his computer. All the porn sites, and the swingers, and the sex dating sites. And on his desktop were two pictures of women in negligee. These were pictures the women took of themselves. Add in I never knew his whereabouts at night or on weekends.
-Jim is a dreamer. His dreams bounce around from having bikini-clad women selling hot dogs in Wisconsin Dells, to going to school to learn to build solar panels, to real estate. Jim was planning for the real estate properties to be put in my name, cause I have good credit, and he be the manager and maintenance. He backed out of the idea when he decided I can’t be trusted.
-Jim’s lack of impulse…. ok! Here is one! Jim would up-and decide to do something with me, but not tell me. One time he wanted to take me for a walk. I saw this smile come across his face (he was smiling to himself) Then he reached for my hand and he pulled me out of the lawn chair. He kept pulling on me. I was stumbling forward. He kept pulling on my hand. I yelled “let go of me!” He got pissed off and screamed at me at length. Then he told me he planned to take me for a romantic walk. But, not he is not and it is because of my attitude and he stomped off and drove off. This is just ONE of many examples of Jim impulse planning.
-Jim is not responsible. He starts jobs and demands money. Then he walks off the job. He may come back. But then he toys around and demands more money and then walks off again. He doesn’t pay his bills. He is in arrears on his child support. He is behind in his property taxes. And you know this also means he doesn’t have home owners insurance.
-Jim said his older brothers taught him how to hot-wire a car at age 5. Jim learned how to cut class in elementary school. He had a buddy do the dirty work so Jim wasn’t marked absent. Jim would take the bus to the zoo and join any elementary class field trip. He said he blended in easily. He even got lunch out of it. He told the zoo employees that his lunch was stolen and they made him a lunch. Funny that as an adult Jim would not go to the zoo with me. He said he doesn’t believe that animals should be held captive. Gee, it worked for him years earlier… And Jim put his cats in his back bathroom to live there.
– Jim was involved with many forms of theft. He went to prison for 18 months for being the get-away car for a robbery. He also pulled pranks of a creepy level. He got mad at an annoying person at a party. He waited for the person to pass out and Jim spray painted the person’s hair, and applied paint to the person’s face. He also said he flipped up a girls top, because she dared him to. He took it further than that and flipped up her bra too.
-Parole violations- He served 18 months because it was the second time he was the get-away driver.
-Glibness- Jim is a smart-ass. He doesn’t know when to stop. He would call Monday morning and pretend to be an obscene caller. It was annoying in the morning, it was annoying anytime, especially in the morning. I don’t like that stuff, it is NOT me. I was supposed to always side with him in his stories where he was wronged. But, when I told my stories about being wronged — he would side with the other party. He said he was playing Devil’s Advocate. But, if I were to play the same on him he would EXPLODE!
– Self-importance-Jim always bitched that I didn’t do enough for him. Or he complained about the lack of sex. He complained that I am a witchey women. He complained and complained and complained. Yet when I asked why does he ditch me at night and on weekends — he had 100 excuses. And I should understand all that cause he has to deal with me and MY KID.
-Lying- Everything about him was a lie, every word out of his mouth is a lie.
-conning and manipulative- There wouldn’t be a Jim if it were not for these traits. He is so slick! He told me to look at the local newspaper to find upcoming auctions that weekend. Lo and behold! I find an auction that is selling lawn mowers and rotor tillers. Just what I have been looking for! He even assisted me in the bidding. We got the lawn mower and rotor tiller to my house and he wanted to “borrow” it. He took it and used it for his handyman work. He kept it for 9 months. I had to threaten court action to get it back. He brought the stuff back, and it didn’t work. He said it worked just fine before. And I or MY KID must have done something to it.
-Lack of remorse or guilt- He didn’t care about my feelings. He would get pissed off and scream when I tried to talk to him about his treatment of me and my son. He said we treat him like shit.
– shallow effect- he laughs and appears happy-go-lucky when he is at the neighbors across the street. In full view of me.
Lack of empathy- Jim had more empathy for others than he ever had for me- for me he had NONE. I was the dirt on his shoe. I was nothing but the cash cow. I look back at the things he told me about his past relationships, and even though he told a good story about himself, I see that he doesn’t value the person he is with. He doesn’t value his friends either cause he uses them too. His friends still worship Jim. Dana’s mom said that she wonders what kind of hold Jim has on his friend Dennis. Dennis always has to ask Jim first. She said Dennis acts like Jim is his dad even though Dennis is older.
I need to copy this and save it and reference it in future in case I ever get a silly ideal of jumping in with a man again.
–
–
I agree one_step, “pride goeth before a fall” and believe me I have THOUGHT so many times that I was “healthy” and “healed” only to realize I was arrogant and prideful in thinking I was smarter than I was!
I remember thinking when I was working with the women from the DV shelter who would invariably go BACK to the guy who had broken their arms and I thought “I would NEVER go back to a man who beat me up like that” (very self righteously thought) but yet, I WENT “BACK To” MY P-SON and let HIM abuse me. Yep, I would not have let a husband or lover beat me up, but I sure let my friends and relatives take advantage of me—so much for my ARROGANCE.
LOL ROTFLMAO Yep, I sure thought I was “safe” and “smarter” than before, I was superior to those women at the DV shelter, LOL but you know, I was WORSE OFF THAN they were because I THOUGHT I was smarter. “let him to thinketh he stand, take heed least he fall”—yep, I don’t get cocky any more. I realize now that I must CONTINUALLY watch myself, and ENFORCE the boundaries or I will fall right back into the old enabling habits.
I have to make life-style CHANGES not just a short term “diet” and then go back to what I was doing before, and since it WAS a life-long pattern for me, it would be easy to slip back into that old, dysfunctional pattern of “functioning in my dysfunction.”
Dear Jeannie,
We posted over each other and I didn’t see your post until I posted mine. GREAT POST, sounds like you got this guy pegged to the ground! Yep!
I’m sorry you had to go through so much of that chit to get to where you are today but glad that you seem to have gotten the nuts and bolts of this thing nailed down solid.
He matches up to the qualifications for being a psychopath and except for being a “PhD” serial killer, he at least has a masters degree in cunning and manipulation, with a major in FAKE!
Did your neighbor’s mother get the idea of why you have no intention of going back to “Jim?” I hope so. Sometimes though, ordinary people just can’t get it. The only person it really matters though is if YOU get it.