Do psychopaths suffer?
Are psychopaths victims of their own condition? Do they experience emotional pain? Is this even possible? Read on and find out…
I am not asking whether psychopaths are capable of suffering; clearly a psychopath with cancer would suffer just as much as anyone else. The kind of suffering I’m interested in here is the kind that is a direct result of the psychopath being, well, psychopathic.
To go about this, I take my inspiration from a now well-known, and controversial, article, “The Hidden Suffering of the Psychopath”, written by William H.J. Martens, MD, PhD and published in the Psychiatric Times.
http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/psychotic-affective-disorders/hidden-suffering-psychopath
The entire article is well worth a read but two paragraphs particularly stuck out:
“Despite their outward arrogance, psychopaths feel inferior to others and know they are stigmatized by their own behavior. Some psychopaths are superficially adapted to their environment and are even popular, but they feel they must carefully hide their true nature because it will not be acceptable to others. This leaves psychopaths with a difficult choice: adapt and participate in an empty, unreal life, or do not adapt and live a lonely life isolated from the social community. They see the love and friendship others share and feel dejected knowing they will never be part of it…
…Furthermore, many psychopaths are disheartened by their inability to control their sensation-seeking and are repeatedly confronted with their weaknesses. Although they may attempt to change, low fear response and associated inability to learn from experiences lead to repeated negative, frustrating, and depressing confrontations, including trouble with the justice system.”
Without coming on all “poor me”, I must admit that I see a lot of myself in that. Yes, even the inferiority complex, though I hide it from even myself most of the time. Failing to learn and consequently making the same mistakes over and over is particularly distressing. Imagine resolving to change something about yourself, and actually making temporary improvements before getting distracted by something exciting and not realising where you’re headed until it’s once again too late. I mean how retarded do you have to be?
Do I envy love and friendship? When I’m not busy convincing myself that love is a weakness (it totally is by the way, though that doesn’t mean it’s not worth having), I feel like the loneliest person in the world. I have friends – people I keep around due to aspects of their personality I enjoy – but obviously I can’t really connect with them properly. Sure we can share a joke, or a interest in something or other, or a stimulating conversation, but then they start talking about their feelings, and I’m reminded of what I don’t have.
Is this suffering? Well, in comparison to many types of physical suffering (burning alive, being raped, our aforementioned cancer example) probably not, but how does it fare alongside other examples of emotional suffering? Is what I describe on par with the pain of depression, or loneliness as experienced by normal people?
You decide.
P.S. To read the full article, which is spread over two pages, search “hidden suffering of the psychopath” in Google and open the first two results in different tabs. This is necessary to get around Psychiatric Times’ restrictions on how much content non-subscribers can access (trust the psychopath to find a loophole, right?)
Amaterasu Solar 15:40 on April 18, 2015 Permalink |
You know something, James, I like You. Maybe meaningless to You, and maybe not. [smile] I even accept that You choose not to reply at times.
I will say, whether the “feeling” of its truth is conveyed or not, that You are offering valuable input, thus making You profoundly valuable. The idea that Some are “better” than Others is really a poor perspective, for We Each contribute to the whole of the Now We are creating. There is no standard of measure for the value of an Individual.
Unknown if this gives You anything of value, but if it does, I do hope You choose to let Me know. [smile]
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James 15:54 on April 18, 2015 Permalink |
Thank you for your kind words, sir 🙂
“There is no standard of measure for the value of an Individual.” This is very much in line with my own views. Nobody can objectively know true value.
“…whether the “feeling” of its truth is conveyed or not…” Would you mind explaining this a bit further?
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Amaterasu Solar 17:16 on April 18, 2015 Permalink |
Well, I am unsure whether this aided in You perceiving Yourself in better light, “feeling better” about Yourself or not. I am unsure if psychopaths “feel” about Themselves, but it might be the case if feelings of insecurity are felt.
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James 17:29 on April 18, 2015 Permalink |
Well your comment didn’t appear to be trying to make me ‘feel better’ about myself. Though since that is evidently your aim, it would have to be said that being told a stranger “likes” me when he doesn’t know me is not of any particular comfort (neither is it harmful). I don’t think you have to be a psychopath to think that either.
You’re welcome to leave comments any time, sir, just don’t expect to ‘touch my soul’ or anything 🙂
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Amaterasu Solar 18:43 on April 18, 2015 Permalink |
I like what I have seen of You, James. You have come across as One who is willing to wear some of His thoughts on His sleeve, and I value that highly in any Individual. You also can be approached rationally, which I appreciate as well.
The motive was to point out that there is an error in thinking One’s Self has no/little/negative value. My thoughts, based on uncertainty of what the information would mean to You, were added as I progressed in writing. Interesting that You are thinking the motive came from the trying to help… My though about not knowing if the data would be of value was an invitation to inform Me. [smile]
I would consider it a boon if You did feel please at My pointing out a better perspective – or even that I like You – because it does indeed make Me happy to create that with Others. One of My shortcomings? [wink] [smile] But do I expect from a psychopath any of the responses I experience? Of course not.
I will ask a couple of question here and You may choose to answer or not as You see fit. Could You support the Betterment Ethic? The concept should be rather self-explanatory.* Could You dig getting fame for having made something fantastically better?
*Betterment only counts when most see the result and agree it is better, and most agree on what better is – statistically All of Us.
Ask if I have not made it clear
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James 18:58 on April 18, 2015 Permalink |
I could support anything if I could see an opportunity in it. I don’t have fixed ideas of how things should be and I am willing to change my mind about anything. I assume there’s more to the question than that?
You speak English as a second language don’t you? Where are you from?
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Amaterasu Solar 23:54 on April 18, 2015 Permalink |
No, nothing more to the question. Just curious whether You could choose behavior within that parameter and be satisfied. Psychopathy rather fascinates Me. [smile]
And actually, I am born/raised in the US of A. Did a LOT of reading as a child of 19th century fairytales… The syntax and word usage rubbed off a bit.
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F U 02:58 on April 20, 2015 Permalink |
You need to go to therapy and stop being a Animal towards people. Isolate yourself until your therapist says you are better. Be HONEST with those around you . Esp if you date and STAY IN THERAPY
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James 04:37 on April 20, 2015 Permalink |
Okay, dude, whatever you say.
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No True Psychopath | No Psychos, No Druggies, No Stooges 13:40 on May 14, 2015 Permalink |
[…] been mentioned so it had not been established whether or not psychopaths can feel pain (and we know they can, don’t we?), what I’m really interested in here is his opening words. “Real […]
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Joyce M. Short 03:20 on August 3, 2015 Permalink |
Psychopaths feel pain….. their own, and only their own. That’s where the problem lies.
People who are emotionally intact feel the pain of others. It’s called “emotional empathy.” Having emotional empathy enables a person to develop a conscience, which is lacking in psychopaths. Unless they will experience personal harm in harming you, nothing, other than their personal interests, will prevent them from doing so.
We don’t chose to have emotional empathy, or not. We either do or we don’t. It can’t be made or thought, it can only be felt.
Let’s say something happened to prevent your taste buds from recognizing vanilla. You would not know what you missed, although you may become cognizant, from the awareness that other people experienced vanilla, that you were missing something.
Your response to that awareness could vary just as a psychopath’s awareness toward not having emotional empathy can vary. BTW- the same neurology that produces emotional empathy also produces love and trust. so their emotions, are all about “what’s in it for me.” There is no “adoration or treasure.” That’s why we say they live shallow lives.
They can participate in social circles because homo sapiens is a social animal and even psychopaths need company…. look at Richard Matt and David Sweat. There is simply nothing that prevents a psychopath from turning on their companion, other than personal interest; whereas, an empathetic person in a loving relationship would deeply feel an interest in protecting the other person.
A psychopath’s interaction is based on “need”. An empathetic person’s interaction is based on caring.
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James 06:21 on August 3, 2015 Permalink |
Good comment, Joyce! Love the hair.
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Joyce M. Short 09:35 on August 3, 2015 Permalink |
And here you thought you couldn’t feel emotion! 😉
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mary 12:25 on August 4, 2015 Permalink |
“Failing to learn and consequently making the same mistakes over and over is particularly distressing. Imagine resolving to change something about yourself, and actually making temporary improvements before getting distracted by something exciting and not realizing where you’re headed until it’s once again too late. I mean how retarded do you have to be?”
I lived this for 5 years. I always waited for him to wake up. All that early work wasted… hamster wheel
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James 12:44 on August 4, 2015 Permalink |
Ah, Mary you made it 🙂
Yeah, I live in hope. I’m not going to change who I am, nor do I want to, but it would be sweet if I could knock the cycle of mistakes on the head.
What work was wasted in your experience, his or yours?
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mary 13:52 on August 4, 2015 Permalink |
His. He is an incredible early planner, can see the picture clear, can round up good employees, can learn from others but its by them doing the work and then asking someone else using their work for the next answer. Then when its on the brink of completion he would move on to another project or at the same time. He uses up people along the way. Drops and burns. He recently was mad at me so ruined my websites to blank. All that work to zero. I got tired of the parasitic behavior and his mom always the saint and coming first.
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James 13:57 on August 4, 2015 Permalink |
Oh dear, couldn’t compete with the mother in law? Lol.
Obviously that’s not the whole story, but it doesn’t sound like he ruined anything for himself. Completed projects, started new ones, seems successful.
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mary 14:11 on August 4, 2015 Permalink |
But the businesses dont go to completion
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James 14:22 on August 4, 2015 Permalink |
Oh, okay. Where does he get the money for new businesses from, does he just steal it?
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mary 17:52 on August 4, 2015 Permalink |
yes with charm
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Psychopaths are awesome / psychopaths are terrible | No Psychos, No Druggies, No Stooges 11:09 on August 10, 2015 Permalink |
[…] mary on Do psychopaths suffer? […]
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Frances Nowve 12:11 on August 11, 2015 Permalink |
Good article, also the one you linked to. I am 72 so I am well aware of what was said about aging psychopaths.
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James 12:27 on August 11, 2015 Permalink |
That explains your Harry Potter obsession. Things will be different when I’m old, I hope…
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