Geraldo Rivera provided his analysis of the ”¦ Natalee Holloway disappearance case. Prime suspect Joran Van Der Sloot has given a series of interviews proclaiming his total innocence. “The lie that he has fastened on,” Rivera pronounced, “is that he took her on the beach but didn’t have sex because he didn’t have a condom, then left her on the there. It’s at odds with the story he told earlier, but as he tells this story he becomes more confident and more glib. I believe there is a pathological aspect to this man.” The Factor concurred that Van Der Sloot seems psychologically unbalanced. “I can’t figure out why he wants do these interviews because he comes off as a sociopath. If he makes one slip-up he’s done. It looks to me like he’s a danger junkie – he likes this cat-and-mouse game, it’s exciting to him” (source)
Does it matter whether or not Joran van der Sloot is a sociopath/psychopath? Why not just be satisfied that he is a “criminal” and an evil person?
Yes, it does matter, because when dealing with a sociopath the usual rules of human interaction do not apply. Anyone who treats a sociopath as they would a non-disordered person is likely to get burned and to be implicated in the evil that sociopath does. Joran van der Sloot’s story illustrates this principle.
Joran’s father, Paulus, was an attorney many believed knew the truth about what happened to Natalie Halloway, the first young woman Joran was accused of murdering. Paulus strongly supported his son after the murder accusations first arose, and was even charged himself as an accessory after the fact, though the charges were dropped.
Paulus van der Sloot died of a sudden cardiac death last February and so did not live to see the result of his enabling of his son. Joran’s mother, Anita, is now alone to deal with the repercussions of the family’s enabling.
The lesson to be learned is that if you have a family member who has been charged with a serious crime, and that family member has psychopathic personality traits, or is diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, DO NOT HELP THAT PERSON IN ANY WAY.
Over and over again, we have said on this website that sociopaths are able to do evil in a large part because they are enabled by family members and various governmental agencies- including the judicial system and law enforcement. Well, law enforcement does it again.
It turns out that the FBI wired Joran $25,000 as part of a “sting” operation, as they were trying to arrest him for shaking down Natalie Halloway’s parents. According to former agent Paul Lindsay, “the FBI formula for extortion stings is, “set ’em up, pay ’em off, get ’em to talk, never let them leave the room without handcuffs on.” Because the FBI did not understand the psychology of their suspect, they let him leave the room and were out smarted by a sociopath.
The lesson to be learned here is that next time the FBI wants to sting a sociopath they should contact Lovefraud so that Donna and I can tell them not to give a sociopath any money”¦ that is unless they want the sociopath to use the money to kill someone.
One more lesson to be learned from the van der Sloot case is that media psychiatrists should stop confusing people with their false categorical statements. I came across this analysis of van der Sloot by psychiatrist Keith Ablow (who I have criticized before):
“Serial killers whether organized or disorganized are always made, never born. Having interviewed dozens of killers myself, I can tell you that it turns out that evil never appears ”˜out of the womb’.”
Well, I knew Rodney Alcala, and I can tell you that he was born with a disposition to become a serial killer that was present in his early childhood. Serial killers are both born and made. Evil is in the genes of some people but like many other traits it needs the right soil to take root and blossom.
SocioSibs,
Any message out there about personality disorders is great, it’s more than is there NOW for sure! The thing that gets me worse is that it seems to be ONLY SERIAL KILLERS or extreme criminals that the word is used for at all. The “ordinary” psychopath who is “just” an unfaithful husband/wife, emotional child abuser, etc. is not even “considered” for the WORD! In actual fact, the Jorans of this world are probably only the top 1% of the psychopaths.
And, of course there is always the “blame their poor childhoods” carp!
Yes indeed, OxDrover.
On the one hand it is so frustrating that so few — even those qualified to do so — will actually use the word sociopathy or psychopathy.
On the other hand, on the rare occasions when it’s finally brought up, it’s only in referrence to a killer, usually a serial killer, so people still envision sociopaths only as murderers.
Still, each time a sensational story is broadcast noting a sociopath, it is an opportunity to restart the conversation and keep it going, until eventually it moves toward talking about the sociopaths walking among us.
They can apply the title of sociopaths/psychopaths to all the DEAD BEAT parents out there that refuse to pay their child support. That would be a great start to viewing what users and abusers of the system they are … yet, our court system still lightly pats them on the wrist instead of locking them up, putting them on chain gangs to do manual labor for the duration of their prison terms. Imagine what manual labor can be completed in our country if our courts were to order these criminals on chain gangs? Oh, I keep forgetting, most of the criminal mentalities do work inside the system and got to the top of the heap.
I read an interview with the family in Peru today in a newspaper that said that they really don’t know what exactly happened with the girl’s murder that Joran CHANGES HIS STORY EVERY TIME HE TELLS IT. WOW! What a shock that he would keep changing his story!
Well, maybe Aruba now that he is NAILED on the murder of the girl in Peru will be EMBARASSED enough to at least convict him for Natallie especially since his influencial father is dead now. There are people all over the internet saying “Boy Cot Aruba” with is fine with me, I wasn’t planning on going there on vacation anyway. I think I’ll skip Mexico too, the cops down there just had another shoot out with the gangs near Cancun and gunned down 15 in the streets. I also think I will Boycot Mexico and not buy any of their drugs either! That will show’em! Probably run the country into bankruptcy cause I don’t vacation there or buy drugs, (shrug shoulders here) but that’s my good deed for the world economy and justice!
“SocioSibs says:
Just heard Mario Cuomo on the view today, specifically calling this alleged criminal a “sociopath”. Also heard John Walsh use the word about him several days ago. Hooray!”
In my book, Joran is a psychopath, not a sociopath due to his violent and criminal nature. Unfortunately, with so much public foucs, even psychological focus on sociopaths and psychopaths being criminal and violent.
Thus, as OxDrover observed, 99% of those guiltless, manipulative and predatory people go about without publicity or at best being described as “Peter Pans,” “Manchildren” or “Confirmed Batchelors,” with little recognition to the emotional damage they commit.
Oops, correction: CHRIS Cuomo (NOT Mario)
Among comments to the thread I started about this on ABC following yesterday’s The View, it was brought to my attention that it was CHRIS Cuomo, not Mario (Chris’ dad, a NY politician), whom I intended to compliment for using the word “sociopath” on a nationally broadcast show.
Bryant Gumbel moderated the show, joined by co-hosts Joy, Sherri, and Elisabeth (no Barbara or Whoopi). As Chris tried to help explain the indications that Joran is a sociopath by talking about Joran’s diary, of which Chris is currently in possession, and interviews with Joran (2 so far) and a former girlfriend, Bryant and Sherri persistently looked for that life-changing event and/or faulty upbringing that turned Joran into such an evil young man.
As a person who has a family full of Spaths and Ns, i can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that evil is sometimes very much in the genes. The blond and blue ones in my family turn out to be con men and worse, the brown haired brown eyed ones of us do not. It can be in the genes! And I’ve mentioned elsewhere on the site before, there are certain odd physical charcteristics that can show up in my Spath family members (and in my ex Spath boyfriend), including extra large ‘man parts’. It is as freaky as it is true.
Psyche
Dear Psyche,
There are a coouple of other things that show up frequently in Psychopaths too. Left handedness is more prominent in Ps than in the general public, and also BI-POLAR and ADHD are more frequent in s than in the general public. So, interestingly enough I know a left-handed, bi-polar and diagnosed ASPD who is also ADHD—he is the one who my P-son sent to infiltrate our family and to kill me. He got the QUADRUPLE WHAMMY. My P son is left handed, and I’m not sure about the bi-polar I actually haven’t been around him enough since he would have started to show symptoms enough to know if he has it or not, I do know he is not ADHD, though I do have one son who IS ADHD, but neither left handed nor P.
I suspect, but am not able to prove, that a lot of Ps are ALSO drug/alcohol addicted, and many who are Ps are “highly risk taking” as well (adrenaline junkies)
So yes, there are definitely some genetic markers along with psychopathy.
I can go back through my family tree and point out the alcoholic/arse holes/psychopaths and If I colored them with a marker it would look like a christmas tree instead of a family tree!
OxDrover and Psyche,
Interesting – my h-spath is left-handed and the most unorganized person (is this another symptom?), putting important papers in boxes (but never going through the boxes), his brain (in my opinion) being unorganized. He’s sensitive about his boxes, not wanting anyone to rifle through the crap (who would want to). I have to look up what the symptoms are for ADHD. When I was with him, I figured that after he died (if I was still alive), I would take all the boxes and burn them, not wanting to go through them either. My personal documents are filed away in a filing cabinet.
Ox and bluejay,
You know, I think the addiction & ADHD things are related. I think some of these monsters know that they’re monsters, and their messed up psyche’s make them run to any distraction of the moment, so that they can keep on hiding from the truth that is so threatening to them.
At least this is the pattern I saw in my ex. As his addiction to abusing me grew stronger, he needed more and more of it, and he needed more and more attention from any woman he could get it from, the faster and easier the better. So at one point we had a fight, and I told him off, at last, and I said if you ever want to be around me again, you’re going to need to apologize. So he ‘apologized’ if you want to call it that, and said “I don’t know what it is, but I need something from you.” By then I was already figuring out that his need was to abuse any distraction that presented itself, so he could keep running from the truth.
A freaky side-note, if you think about Carl Jung’s concept of the shadow, which is material that people have rejected psychologically (in a rough definition)… well, my ex used to say that he saw something black following him around, and that he’d catch glimpses of it, during periods of high stress. I’m sure that the black thing was just the collection of all the lies he was trying to keep on believing, about himself, and the world around him.
but I think some Spaths and Ns hate themselves, and deep down they know why, and run to distractions, which can turn into addictions, to escape. When I said to my last one ‘you’re a bad person.’ He said ‘I know.’ And at one point he also said, ‘I don’t know why I like to hurt you, I was like this since I was born.’
Ick. I gotta get going, but thanks for the chat you guys.
xo, Psyche