Originally Posted By: crocodile
How did he diagnose him?

My brother was seeing this doctor since 2006 I think.

She spotted straight away that he suffers from a personality disorder. (didn't mention what personality disorder it was) Was medicated for 2 years and he eventually stopped.

He basically ruined his life/money and ruined us (abused everyone around him) his high-risk behavior went way over the line. Can't go into details, but there was high risk behavior mainly, manipulation, conning and lying (since 2007 - till now 2013).

He told the psychiatrist what he did, not every detail but most of it - and boom - she got the picture.

He doesn't seem to blink after losing $50,000 in a gambling spree, he doesn't seem to care or even notice how much pain we went though, and all this lead to his diagnoses.

Yeah, something in brain development gets screwed up and they don't form normal emotional responses. You can also become a Psychopath after a brain injury if it hits the right place. They're likely born this way and there is a genetic risk...

Quote:
However, psychopaths can deal with anxiety and depression (and other mental disorders) besides psychopathy and that is when they urge to see a specialist.

I was actually wondering how would it be possible for a Psychopath to be depressed or have anxiety? I mean they have little fear so anxiety should also not be there. And depression is also usually associated with social issues, which don't matter to a Psychopath.

Maybe they're just faking it to excuse the trouble they went into: "hey, I'm so poor and depressed, I'll go to therapy and everything is going to be ok..."
Psychopaths have a liking of using psychiatry/psychology to their advantage to either make the other people appear crazy or make excuses for themselves. I cannot imagine what could make the Psychopath I know depressed or even better anxious. Angry yes but not scared/sad.

Originally Posted By: crocodile
Yeah, something in brain development gets screwed up and they don't form normal emotional responses. You can also become a Psychopath after a brain injury if it hits the right place. They're likely born this way and there is a genetic risk...

Quote:
However, psychopaths can deal with anxiety and depression (and other mental disorders) besides psychopathy and that is when they urge to see a specialist.

I was actually wondering how would it be possible for a Psychopath to be depressed or have anxiety? I mean they have little fear so anxiety should also not be there. And depression is also usually associated with social issues, which don't matter to a Psychopath. Maybe they're just faking it to excuse the trouble they went into: "hey, I'm so poor and depressed, I'll go to therapy and everything is going to be ok..."
Psychopaths have a liking of using psychiatry/psychology to their advantage to either make the other people appear crazy or make excuses for themselves. I cannot imagine what could make the Psychopath I know depressed or even better anxious. Angry yes but not scared/sad.

Psychopaths can experience anxiety and even suicidal depression, but it's only about them. It's never because of losing someone in the family, it's always about their failures, it's about their own frustrations.

Yes, psychopaths can suffer from depression and even anxiety, and any other given mental disorders. Thing is, if you lack conscience and empathy (which is basically an emotion towards others around you) that does not make you incapable of depression and anxiety. Basically the psychopath loves his own persona, his ego is bigger than life, depression and anxiety is very likely in psychopathy.

You can google it, there are dozens of papers on this.

I don't know, the so called "primary" or real psychopaths are supposed to have defects in processing fear and negative emotions in general. I've read somewhere that the ones who experience anxiety/depression are so called secondary Psychopaths who are believed to be made rather than born. And some people now say they these guys are not real Psychopaths.

I've seen my Psychopath very often in situations that would make another person very depressed or anxious, all of them were about his career and not any other person and he never showed anything else than extreme frustration, anger and impatience. He was only getting more psychopatic at that times but never really down the way a normal person would be. It was rather the mask slipping that happened at that times. He even kind of admitted this a few times that he never feels depressed or bothers to be worried about anything bad that happens to him which seemed super strange to me.

Originally Posted By: crocodile
I don't know, the so called "primary" or real psychopaths are supposed to have defects in processing fear and negative emotions in general. I've read somewhere that the ones who experience anxiety/depression are so called secondary Psychopaths who are believed to be made rather than born. And some people now say they these guys are not real Psychopaths.
I've seen my Psychopath very often in situations that would make another person very depressed or anxious, all of them were about his career and not any other person and he never showed anything else than extreme frustration, anger and impatience. He was only getting more psychopatic at that times but never really down the way a normal person would be. It was rather the mask slipping that happened at that times. He even kind of admitted this a few times that he never feels depressed or bothers to be worried about anything bad that happens to him which seemed super strange to me.

It's possibly more anger than anxiety but definitely because of the Psychopath's issues. I agree with the statement you've made about secondary psychopathy (and I think these are the people that can experience deep depression and real anxiety, and or other mental illnesses).

The other types of psychopaths (the real psychopath) the one that was born that way, I think they exactly those charismatic, grandiose and professional psychopaths as you'd see on wall street or working on some high positions in society. (I believe they don't even know they have a problem, and most of them have never been told they have one, due to their high position, everyone might be just talking behind their backs and never saying things straight to their face. Just my opinion.

Now What Makes a Secondary Psychopath?

There are numerous reasons, including drugs, brain traumas etc.

But I believe that psychopathic parents that create psychopathic environments in their homes, WILL possibly raise secondary psychopathic children. Just like anxiety can be a learned behavior, I believe psychopathy can be as well. Children tend to copy their parent's behavior anyways.

crocodile Offline
member

Originally Posted By: daddysproblem

and actually it's very hard to know unless you're emotionally intimate with them. that's why the shrinks are failing at this. (...) they want to be able to give a test, and say if they have x traits then the patient is a psychopath. impossible. psychopaths lie - about everything - even lie detectors can't tell, because the psychopath doesn't even know the truth.

I believe shrinks are often Psychopaths themselves... at least they appear so and honestly it's a dream job for one. I generally don't have this profession in high regard, I guess there are some really good out there but personally never met any.
But you're totally right - it's hard to see if somebody is a Psychopath if you're not really close to them emotionally unless they really bring it on in a spectacular way. Or if you observe them long enough - it can be seen but you need to look for patterns and for prolonged periods of time. There are people who may appear like Psychopaths but usually you can tell a person who hides in a shell from a soulless ghoul.

Registered: 06/13/13
Posts: 57
Originally Posted By: crocodile
Originally Posted By: daddysproblem

and actually it's very hard to know unless you're emotionally intimate with them. that's why the shrinks are failing at this. (...) they want to be able to give a test, and say if they have x traits then the patient is a psychopath. impossible. psychopaths lie - about everything - even lie detectors can't tell, because the psychopath doesn't even know the truth.

I believe shrinks are often Psychopaths themselves... at least they appear so and honestly it's a dream job for one. I generally don't have this profession in high regard, I guess there are some really good out there but personally never met any.
But you're totally right - it's hard to see if somebody is a Psychopath if you're not really close to them emotionally unless they really bring it on in a spectacular way. Or if you observe them long enough - it can be seen but you need to look for patterns and for prolonged periods of time. There are people who may appear like Psychopaths but usually you can tell a person who hides in a shell from a soulless ghoul.

Hi, moved your discussion here, you can make any edits like quotes (") that got missed in moving.

Di

The bottom line is that there are ways to diagnose psychopathy, unfortunately most psychopaths will never arrive in the psychiatrist's office.

Speaking of lying - Psychopath lie about anything and everything, and even try to convince you about something that is not true (and damn obvious it's not true), their main aim is to always be Mr. Right, they think they're entitled and know the absolute truth to anything. They can lie about the smallest crap and even make you laugh. They can lie without a solid reason...

Their life is a big lie, because they have no emotion, they don't know the truth, truth = reality - Reality can't be changed. This is what they're trying to do to distort the reality and get YOU into their dirty ways ;-)

I'm learning more and more about psychopathy, I'm closely watching one so can tell just about anything he does says.

Xe