We all know psychopathy exists and creates chaos in the lives of anyone under their control and the people they fool.

My question for the Board is what needs to be done?

In my opinion, as the victim of an extremely 'successful psychopath', there need to be safeguards built into the law that will identify them, much like child molestors and drunk drivers. Psychopathy is an illness. The medical, psychological and legal community have yet to take any steps to protect the public or create awareness of this very destructive condition. Psychopathy is primarily and fundamentally an emotional dysfunction, with its origins in the brain. The patterns of behavior and personality that manifest from this illness are easily idenified using the PCL-R Checklist.

If the condition exists and can be accurately identified by using the PCL-R checklist, then what should be done?

I would love to hear the ideas and opinions of others on this topic. The change that is necessary will not come unless we take action. We will ultimately need the support of the legal and psychological community, but they will not take the lead on this issue. As victims we need to organize, speak out about our experiences and ask for prudent and pragmatic solutions.

Amen

Hello CMackney..

I was just thinking and writing about this yesterday while on a post about the documentary 'fishead'. (if you haven't seen it.. there's info on here that will lead you to it).

first, you can't just test them with these diagnostic tests. the ones that are free to roam are not necessarily criminals. dangerous - yes, criminal - probably not so much. they operate with an instinctive dishonesty. for them to be able to navigate in society they imitate normal human behaviors and responses - and i don't believe this is conscious behavior. they might not even know or realize they are different. i firmly don't think my dad knows he's different, he believes he's better then everyone, but definitely not different in a negative way.

so how are they definitively diagnosed. i'm gonna say fMRI. when the empathy portion of the brain is inactive during stimuli that should provoke a response.. there's a flaw.

and no, we can't test everyone. so, what i see for the future. is when these people do come to the attention of authority, maybe when they are in school, or with the police... then the test could be done to determine their punishment. or to decide if they should be given any leniency.

also, what i hope to see is an awareness. the psych community has typically and historically held the belief (or knowledge) that people can be fixed. well, no.. not a psychopath.. if you don't have empathy and a conscience.. you can't fix that. you can't make a blind person see. how many people on this board have gone to shrinks and been lead down the path of learning to compromise with these people? and how many people say this just strengthens the psychopath?

the time has come that science rules and educates people that these people can be the bane of societies existence. that they should be ostracized from society, vilified. not exhaulted as they are so often. everyone loves my father. except his drug addicted son, his schizophrenic daughter, his wife with dementia, his co-dependent son (& me).. they're not so thrilled with him. he has 3 out of 4 kids that don't speak to him. and you know what.. he says, yea, i tell my attorney about this.. and he can't believe it. well probably true. but the proof is in the pudding.

i guess i'm in a ranting mood. i tried to give 2 cents and you got way more.

Daddysproblem - I totally agree with you.
I also get the feeling that they don't really know they're different. From what I've observed - they think everyone is bad - like them - but people live with some rules. So they obey the rules also - as much as they can - but it doesn't come from the "heart" - like for me - hurting somebody is unacceptable, I just couldn't do it, but for them - there's just "society rules", but they don't understand them.

What scares me most is that many people think it's "cool" to have no heart. I recently had a talk about psychopathy with a guy I've known for a while. He was making remarks on a girl we both knew - who I'm pretty sure is a psychopath. I explained to him her behavior and he still would deny it, although he observed the same symptoms as me. And when I told him what Psychopaths are - he started saying that he also acts "heartless" sometimes. But I could see well that it was just a kind of acting - "I am so cool, coz I don't care about people" (and when I know from his good friend that just a few days ago he was crying about a girl that left him:D).

But this is very disturbing. People are afraid of having feelings.
Feelings are beautiful, they are the very essence of humanity, and being able to express them makes you a happy person. It doesn't matter if those are bad or good feelings, what's important is that we have them. We should be proud of every honest smile as much as of every tear that drops.

Hi, you are right, not much is being done and it is almost a catch22, with so little real information from victims I can't see much change in my lifetime, even with the new research to identify socialized Psychopaths how are they going to get them to comply with tests.

The only way we have as a community is to continue to tell our stories. We reach a wide audience who only read, we can only hope they relate and figure out what they are dealing with by the generous sharing of our community. So many years were wasted dealing with prisoners.

Di

Newbird,

You are correct, they do not think of or see themselves as different. They are completely unaware that they are being unreasonable, irrational, unfair or acting in way that is not accepted because of how their decisions affect other people. 'Theory of Mind' is also empathy or putting yourself in another person's shoes. When they do conform or act with empathy, its usually because they believe that it is in their best interest. Not because they think they may cause harm to another.

There does seem to be a scary trend developing in our society. Reality TV rewards people who act selfishly, callously and without empathy. Look at the Real Housewives series and the Michaele Salahi. The other end of that spectrum are the shows that give something back and help people like Extreme Home Makover. The psychopathic behaviors are easier to produce and are better at catching people's attention, kind of like a train wreck.

Our emotions are what make us human and are extremely valuable to our existence. Without emotions, there are no ethics, morals, compassion, principles or character. Celebrating and rewarding for the absence of emotion is counterproductive to a civil society.