The Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy met in New Orleans, LA April 16-18, 2009. There were several hot topics discussed at the meeting including how psychopathy might be different in men and women. The general consensus seemed to be that psychopathy is under-diagnosed in women because in women the symptoms are different.
Dr. Edelyn Verona is a, leader in the Society. Her group presented, “An Examination of Borderline Personality Disorder and Secondary Psychopathy Across Genders.” To understand these research findings look at the list of traits below:
Factor 1 Traits (Primary Psychopathy)
• Glib and superficial
• Egocentric and grandiose
• Lack of remorse or guilt
• Lack of empathy
• Deceitful and manipulative
• Shallow emotions
Factor 2 Traits (Secondary Psychopathy)
• Impulsive
• Poor behavior controls
• Need for excitement
• Lack of responsibility
• Early behavior problems
• Adult antisocial behavior
Dr. Verona’s group looked at the relationship between borderline personality (BPD) traits Factor 1 and Factor 2 in women. They stated, “We hypothesized that gender would moderate the relationship between secondary psychopathic characteristics and features, such that Factor 2 would correlate more strongly with BPD in women than in men. We further expected that primary psychopathic characteristics would be negatively related to BPD.”
The first part of their hypothesis turned out to be supported, that is Factor 2 was associated with BPD in both men and women but more so women.
More important though, is that the second part of their hypothesis was not supported. Primary psychopathic features were positively related to BPD and “F2 was significantly more predictive of BPD in high F1 women relative to low F1 women.”
The authors concluded, “In particular, the combination of F1 and F2 seems predictive of BPD in women, but not men. This suggests that psychopathy (which is typically defined as being high on both F1 and F2) is manifested as BPD in women.”
Their conclusions are supported by other studies showing a positive correlation between psychopathy and BPD scores.
I spoke with Dr. Verona about their findings, commenting that many psychiatrists consider BPD to be a mood or anxiety disorder. She answered that the criteria for BPD are not precise enough. A woman with PTSD and/or mood symptoms can be diagnosed with BPD if she is also impulsive. It does not seem fitting to group these women together with psychopathic women, especially since the treatment may be different for those who have mood/anxiety disorders.
What does this all mean for you who have family members or co-workers with BPD? My advice is consider the degree of harm done by the person in the context of Factor 1 and Factor 2 traits. The more a woman or man has BOTH sets of traits, the more dangerous she/he is likely to be.
so work was very scary today. I walked up to get report, she said to the nurse..to watch the monitor so she could take me in the med room and talk with her. I follow her in there. She looks me in the eye and asks me “are you upset about something” I said “absolutly not” Im Fine” She says well then why are you ignoring me? why didn’t you say goodbye to me yesterday? I said “im here to take report and do my job” She said fine. So then she is acting really strange to me. she give report then trys to tell me Im wrong about a something but I proved to her I was correct. So then she says Bye. I was busy talking to someone else so I didn’t say Bye once again . I can’t pretend to be nice to her like as in chitchatting ..I am strictly keeping in work related. Im not rude but Im not talkative to her. I can’t put on a phoney smile to her. Im not like that. Anyways she screwed up on a bunch of orders today so I had to write her up twice because it was a major risk on 2 different patients that didn’t get their meds/ She is gettng many nurses mad at her. She is very mean to many people. most people are scared of her. She act like she’s a manager but she’s not. she’s just a secretary. Although she tells people outside of work she’s an RN :/
Well The day I say “bye” to her is the day she gets fired..then we will all be happy
Oxy:
Dr Kiehl is on the ball. Lets hope he/someone comes up with a resolution as well.
If a large percentage of the judges weren’t psychopaths then of course all our psychopaths would be held accountable..for what else is there to do with them.. but to institutionalise them in some way, for the rest of us to stay safe?
A lot of psychologist/psychiatrists here say the opposite, i.e. that sociopath/clusterB’s (especially borderlines) have the biggest money, reading material and interest by the medical profession and society of all the personality disorders. I’ve yet to see it.
slappster:
If I were in your shoes I would get a transfer or change my job. The very least that I would do is “pretend ” to be nice to her and say “bye”.
She will not get fired. But the situation will escalate.
Good luck with that.
Slapster that sounds chilling. This is tricky but I am inclined to agree with Tilly.x I hope she gets bored with you if you keep up the NC and attaches to someone else or leaves of her own accord. Her predatory and bullying behavior towards you , taking you on one side isolating and attacking like that is VERY scary.
The AMA estimates approximately 75% of psychopaths are dependent on alcohol and 50% abuse other drugs? So if you are with a psychopath, since 3/4’s of them are alcoholics, you have a slim chance of having one who does not abuse alcohol. And you have a 50-50 chance of getting one who does not abuse drugs. So chances are if you have a P on your hands, you also have an alcoholic or drug abuser on your hands because that isl staggeringly high %’s on them being alcohol or drug abusers.
Of course those figures are the % of p’s thought to be a or d abusers NOT the % of alcoholics or drug addicts thought to be psychopathic. I haven’t seen any statistics on what % of alcoholics or drug addicts are thought to be psychopathic, has anyone else?
I would be very interested to know. great post Jenn:)x
Jen,
I don’t think there is any way to determine (at this point in time anyway) just how many psychpaths there ARE percentage wise, much less how many people are alcohol and/or drug addicted and NOT psychopathic.
Personally, my take on it is: AVOID PSYCHOPATHS sooooo
Since a high percentage of the ones we know are alcoholics and/or drug addicts—avoid ALL such people. That way you are most likely to be able to spot this before you are damaged by it, and NO ONE who is alcohol addicted or drug addicted is LIKELY to be a good relationship fit with anyone who is not.
Since we know ALL psychopaths are liars, i.e. 100% of them in all the studies—I avoid ALL liars. Of course, not every person who tells a lie is a psychopath (I have told a few myself) but if you DO avoid ALL liars you are most likely to stay away from psychopaths. I do except children or the “social lie” that consists of TACT, for example, when given a dish to taste and you don’t like it, of saying something like “Oh, that’s interesting” instead of saying “I could barely choke that down without puking!”
The American Medical Association is made up of physicians and medical students. Therefore, the information & statistics put out by the AMA are always changing/evolving, based on new studies/research findings.
This is a great thing when it comes to the subject of psychopathy. I don’t know if I trust the accuracy of their statistics (on psychopathy) at the present time.
After all, these stats are coming from the same doctors who mis-diagnose personality disorders for OCD (or something else) on a consistent basis, and who are conned by the psychopaths themselves.
I agree with Tilly. A sober, clean, psychopath is a whole different breed. There is no way a clean, sober psycho. will ever be represented in any statistic (unless they commit a crime). They are way too cunning, intelligent, and manipulative to get caught or be exposed.
But, just because they are not included in the statistics, does NOT mean they don’t exist!
I would transfer but Im not going to..I know she is on her last leg.,.both my managers are sick to death of her..Im pretty close to one of my managers..she tells me what this sociopath says about me. They are watching her like a hawk. She’s missed too many days because she is an alcoholic and stays up all night to be with men she meets. By the way..she never uses protection which is dangerous for the men she is with. Im just going to be very professional and if I say bye to her and that will keep her from attacking me then Ill do it..but I don’t think that will solve the problem. She always has to have a victim. Now Im the new victim. The last victim is still there because I talked to her and told her to stay strong..someday she will attack someone else..well haha I didn’t know it was going to be me so soon. Im a strong person. Ive grown up with a sociopath..my father. I can definatly handle this. Thank you for all of your information about this. Its very helpful..Ill keep you all posted on what happens next.
Rosa
You mentioned mis-diagnosis and how some disorders are labelled OCD. I am very interested in this aspect as it was a big part of my experience and I think the whole OCD thing is very significant (for me anyway – not mine!). Do you have any links re this? Thought I’d ask.
Thanks.
PS
If you’ve seen ‘Sleeping with the Enemy’ – you’ll get something of the picture I was living with!