What’s your opinion on psychopaths?
I recently asked a (neurotypical) friend of mine, Johann, who lives in Slovakia, the following question:
“I wonder, how do you personally feel about the fact that psychopaths exist? And what emotions do you feel toward them, as a group. Pity? Admiration? Indifference? Or something else?”
His reply is sensible, measured, and – I would argue – reveals a healthy attitude of tolerance we could all* benefit from emulating.
I don’t hold grudges against any one (though I can’t stand people who hurt and torture children) so I take them as other people. They just exist and there is nothing to be done about it. My friend and you are good examples of how they can fit in our society. Although somebody once said that it’s your thought that matters and not the action, I must disagree. Actions matter most. I can even understand why you need to lie and manipulate so much. It’s probably your way of survival and getting along with people (I would never have befriended my friend if he’d told me he was a psychopath, because of fear and not because of prejudice).
As for the ones who purposely hurt other people, well, one doesn’t have to be a psychopath to hurt others. I’ve read that all serial killers are psychopaths, but I don’t think so. There are a lot of lunatic people who actually empathise with others yet they enjoy hurting them. The most dangerous ones are those who feel pain and hatred in their hearts and seek revenge for something.
Slovenska or Slovenija? I guess it doesn’t matter. Just don’t mention Hungary.
I may feel a little pity, because you’ll never be able to experience genuine love. I admire a lot of people, so some may be psychopaths. I feel indifference to cruel people only. Knowing that yu exist, I try to be more careful with people, because I don’t want to end up as their target.
I hadn’t even thought about psychopaths before my friend told me.
The friend Johann refers to is somebody he lived with in Bratislava until recently, who ‘came out’ as a psychopath to Johann after being confronted over something naughty he’d done. This in itself is an unusual course of action.
And now, if any of you really care, here’s what I wrote in response:
For sure actions matter more than thoughts, because they are what actually have an effect on the world. But I do think people get a bit freaked out that psychopaths even exist, for what they are more than for what they do. I could be sympathetic to someone who said “I think psychopaths are evil because they hurt people”. I don’t happen to agree that is true, but it’s a valid enough claim. But hating psychopaths just for existing is prejudice. A form of speciesism, if those morons are right about us not being human!
Yes I have to lie and manipulate to survive, but you’d be mistaken if you thought I didn’t enjoy it. I love messing with people.
Ah yes, “love”. Genuinely mystified by everyone’s obsession with love, but I suppose that only serves to prove your point. But if it makes me sound any better, I am also baffled by hatred. I’ve never felt hate for any individual or group in all my life.
“I hadn’t even thought about psychopaths before my friend told me.” A think a big part of our success is people’s ignorance. They don’t know we exist, or if they do they think we’re (i) quite rare or (ii) all serial killers.
Personally, I think it’s amazing that psychopaths have – probably – been around for all of human history, yet their existence was only first ‘discovered’ less than one hundred years ago. Like penicillin. Or radioactivity.
I promise I’m not sponsored by ‘Visit Slovakia’, but just look at this gorgeous landscape.
Do you agree with Johann? If not, how would you respond to my question? Are you one of those who believe a lack of conscience is inherently evil regardless of how an individual behaves? I would love to hear from you in the comments section below. Be as rude as you like.
Thanks very much, Johann, both for your brilliant answer and for agreeing to let me publish some of our conversation. You’re the best.
*Obviously I don’t need to learn to be more tolerant of psychopaths. But I could certainly improve my attitude to neurotypicals.
andrew, 
andrew, and 6 others are discussing. 
No Psychos, No Druggies, No Stooges 
Amaterasu Solar 21:55 on July 27, 2015 Permalink |
There was a glitch in the system & I was unable to see a reply section on this page. So I made a blog post in response – this is what I said:
I was moved to respond to James’ article, What’s your opinion on psychopaths?, but it seems that is the only page I do not get a reply box or even see replies on.
What I wanted to add is that I don’t have an opinion of psychopaths, per se, but that I judge ALL, Each by whether They choose to remain Ethical. If They don’t break the three Laws of Ethics (also called Common Law), it’s not My business to impose, and if They are pleasant, I tend to like them a lot.
In fact, I suggest this would be the approach statistically all of Us would choose in the abundance paradigm. [smile]
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James 06:38 on July 28, 2015 Permalink |
I’m not sure why you were prevented from writing a comment, that’s odd.
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Amaterasu Solar 08:51 on July 28, 2015 Permalink |
Seems it was just a glitch. Tina fixed it for Me. [smile]
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James 09:42 on July 28, 2015 Permalink |
You shouldn’t be bothering Tina, she’s got a lot to do at the moment!
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Amaterasu Solar 11:30 on July 28, 2015 Permalink |
Actually, I mentioned to a friend on twitter that had commented to both of Us, and so Tina saw My reply. She took care of the problem [smile]
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James 11:47 on July 28, 2015 Permalink |
Isn’t she a wonderful human being? 🙂
Please, see my post on ‘Ethics’ (I’ve forgotten the name of my own article…)
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Frances Nowve 03:20 on July 31, 2015 Permalink |
I am somewhat confused. So you ARE a psychopath. Since you wrote this under a heading “No Psychos, No Druggies, No Stooges” that you were AGAINST us. Well, in spite of that strange heading, I’m glad you are not. As a psychopath, myself, I think we are great. More interesting than most people. I am damned tired of people ragging on us, calling us “evil” and inhuman. I liked your friend’s response. Very even handed as you said. I liked what you said at the end about neurotypicals.
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James 07:04 on July 31, 2015 Permalink |
That’s just cognitive dissonance you’re feeling.
Neurotypicals are typically boring and irrational people, so it will take all of my willpower to improve my attitude.
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James 07:17 on July 31, 2015 Permalink |
Also, I see you’re an advocate for Slytherins. Now that’s an unfairly maligned group if ever there was one. They’re not even all psychopaths, just intelligent strategic people, and they’re constantly treated like the villains.
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Frances Nowve 16:59 on July 31, 2015 Permalink |
Thanks, James. I would click “like” but I’m having password issues. How not unusual. 😉
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Paola 08:59 on April 23, 2016 Permalink |
“Coming out” is the term that is truest. One last drama/trauma night and there he was. It’s been a year now. The shock has wore off. Reality has come home to stay. Ignorance is bliss is no longer an option. In the end I don’t know what or how to feel for or about him , “the stranger” in our faux relationship”. I accept that I was genuine and honest. In the end it’s all that matters. This chapter ended. Life goes on…
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andrew 10:12 on November 2, 2016 Permalink |
Being called a psychopath is a form of moral judgement. It is not based on anything the person has, only what the society thinks he is. When you really think about it, it’s a label by a bunch of conformists for a person who does not conform. As a consequence, I can not accept the existence of this label.
I grew around people, yet I was vastly different. I have my own personal code of ethics. And I have extremely high standards. Unfortunately, most dont try and fall very very short. It would make me mad when I had tondeal with others and see betrayal and lies and plain stupidity. I got told “to err is to human” and I would say, “if that is the case, then it sucks to be human”
One day, someone studied me for a lengthy time, testing me without my knowledge, finally told me I was a psychopath. Then I had to dig this up and I have to disagree with a lot of that bunk.. Here’s why:
She was hard working, extremely emotional and got upset by little things to a point where she could barely function. I am not ruffled no matter what happens. I prepare to pick up the pieces after the hurricane, as someone is bound to do, and it might as well be me as the next person. Things never work perfectlly, so one should always be proactive and a bit detached, while also working xooperatively with others.
All human beings practise manipulation, its just that some have worked that into an art form of unparalled skill.
Those who try to complqin about psychopaths are hypocrites who are looking to create a new group of people to hunt down as witches. What you think, is your own concern, what you do houkd be rewarded or punished. The basis of law, government, and human endevour is based on actions, not thoughts.
What I am basically saying, is that the study of Psychopathy is an insidious trap that all people of unencumbered mind have to avoid. DO NOT FALL INTO THAT TRAP.
It is a trap laid by the weak, to fetter the strong. You are not responsible for another person’s condition. Empaths, as they call themselves claim tonfeel another’s pain, but what exactly are they doing with theor life?
Those who think they are psychopaths need to avoid blogs like a plague and study human history, and in doing so, you will find you have a place in it, a better place than 99.5% give you, an animal dressed like a human to be hunted down and shunned.
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@GeneticPsycho (Tina) 11:45 on November 2, 2016 Permalink |
Hi Andrew, thanks for sharing. Since the label psychopath has a bad reputation, what do you want to be called?
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James 18:26 on November 2, 2016 Permalink |
I am inclined to agree with most of everything you wrote, Andrew. Other than checking in on comments occasionally (yours is an illuminating one), I’ve pretty much abandoned this blog, and through losing the desire to write about psychopathy, I’ve also moved a long way from thinking of myself as a psychopath, or as an anything. After a frankly miserable few years of consciously embodying psychopathy, I’m just going to be me, and fuck all labels, because none of them fit.
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Free to Choose | CLUSTER B 10:47 on November 11, 2016 Permalink |
[…] What’s your opinion on psychopaths. A neurotypical friend of the author gives a balanced answer to that question. […]
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andrew 14:09 on November 29, 2016 Permalink |
I don’t know what you should call them. But I know psychopath is not a good term to use. They lump all the corrupt politicians, serial killers, and all the misguided but powerful people being rebelled against,’psychopath”.
And that’s ridiculous to the highest degree. The psychopath label comes with a lot of problems. I need not repeat them. A lot of sensationalism, no doubt pushed by the media, has pushed the narratives about psychopathy in the general population. The criminals, wishing a piece of fame, closet paranoids though they are, rejoice in committing crime, the grislier the better, for a slice of fame. And the public turns around and points, “a psychopath”.
So the issue here is not that psychopathy has come out in the open at all, no. It is that the society has changed. The rules that worked in defining human behaviour no longer work, and the psychologists are trying very hard, unsuccessfully, to blame some people for their failures. The people who CAN commit crimes without feeling sorry for them. Operative word is CAN.
After the study by Robert Hare, the cat is out of the bag. I have read enough history to predict the behaviour of groups of people, and the witch hunts will cone one day.
Gone will be Innocent till proven guilty. Gone will be trial by incidental facts alone. The assumed fact of being a psychopath will be enough to get those who don’t pass the ball put away. This is the game, those who pass the Psychopathy buck are playing.
We have , at this time, almost universal betrayal of populations by their elected officials, commerce controlled by those who can pay for the privilege to get the chance to deny the rest either opportunity or the fruit of their labor, we have drugs ravaging most neighborhoods, and i doubt most are certain they could keep their jobs if they dared to do what was right, rather than “follow the rules”.
I pointed out very big, systematic problems, and we have not even started discussing the horrific school system.
But apparently, that guy who lives next to you, that you might work with, who wants to succeed and wants nothing to do with you unless his life demands it, poses more problems to you than the systemic problems you face daily and you don’t even bother to do something to help yourself.
For those who think they are psychopaths, think hard. There are consequences for others like you. If you are not a misguided person messing it up wholesale for others, don’t identify with those who do.
For the NTs, at.the end of the day, we are people. We have laws. We have various systems we use. We have science. Being a victim does not make the other person evil. It does make you weak. You must assume responsibility for your behaviour, good or bad.
It is time to put this label away. It is a label that misinforms, and which has created a lot of misunderstanding.
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@GeneticPsycho (Tina) 15:21 on November 29, 2016 Permalink |
You think: “Being a victim does not make the other person evil. It does make you weak. You must assume responsibility for your behaviour, good or bad.”
Anybody could be a victim, even you. Victims may be unaware, but they aren’t weak, and can’t “assume responsibility” for the antisocial behavior of the victimizer. The victimizer has ALL of the responsibility for forcing their own agenda on other people.
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Amaterasu Solar 15:27 on November 29, 2016 Permalink |
Yeah, Tina. Victim-blaming. “I chose to screw You over. It’s YOUR fault what I chose to do because YOU’RE weak!” Pffft. The One who chooses the unEthical behavior is responsible.
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andrew 12:55 on November 30, 2016 Permalink |
And you have a responsibility for your own existence. Never ever forget that, at the end of the day, your existence is your own responsibility, so choose wisely. Don’t take the wrong viewpoint on this, which is, you are getting blamed. The viewpoint is you must toughen up so you are not taken advantage of so you become a more effective person overall. A victim is someone in a condition of weakness. While victims should be protected, being a victim is not an ideal state of existence, being an effective person, is.
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@GeneticPsycho (Tina) 21:03 on November 30, 2016 Permalink |
People don’t need to “toughen up”. They need only learn. The only reason you feel superior to others is because you were taught some things before other people got the chance to learn it. You weren’t born with knowledge, yet you expect others to be on the same page? Being the first to learn something may put you in a better position in the game, but that doesn’t mean a weakness of the other players.
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andrew 07:51 on December 1, 2016 Permalink |
You are weird. You are too busy trying to get into other people’s heads to really think for yourself. Where is this superiority crap coming from? Is it possible that your feelings already got involved and have already interfered with your ability to think? This is the proof you need to dump the psychopath label. Someone is seriously confused, and it sure isn’t the guy labeled a psychopath. But being right doesn’t guarantee success, being intelligent and capable does.
The supposed psychopathic traits are subjective labels by people who are overwhelmed ny their feelings. Embracing their label means you give up your individuality, freedom, free viewpoint, in exchange for what?
In exchange for being a pariah and being branded a monster and losing any benefits you have with no objective reason? Where is the empathic understanding here? I, for one, are not holding my breath. How can you do any thinking when your feelings are involved? What makes one human, the ability to think or the ability to feel? The good thing, is the real beast is out in the open. The real beast is people are giving up their ability to think, and embracing the ability to feel.
This has nothing to do with stopping crime, indeed, it never did. It is a kind of manipulation whose goal is to force people into a collective mindset through manipulation. To stop crimes and all the problems we have to do, all you have to do is enforce the law and be unreasonable with criminal activities of any kind. This psychopath crap creates more problems than it solves.
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@GeneticPsycho (Tina) 20:34 on December 1, 2016 Permalink |
You said, “You are weird. You are too busy trying to get into other people’s heads to really think for yourself.”
Everything you say indicates that you think you are superior. Then you contradict yourself quite often. First, you try to lambast me: ” Is it possible that your feelings already got involved and have already interfered with your ability to think…”
AND THEN you complain, ” Where is the empathic understanding here?”
Make up your mind.
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andrew 07:58 on December 2, 2016 Permalink |
Your opinions and your feelings are so damn important, so you think. You think I really care about your opinion and the truth is I care only so much as it has communication value, and that’s as far as it goes. As far as the inferiority complex, who cares what you think? If one could even call this, thinking. It’s difficult to be personal to do someone who has no “person” about them
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@GeneticPsycho (Tina) 09:43 on December 2, 2016 Permalink |
You are really going off the track. Yes, my opinions and my feelings are really damn important. Aren’t everybody’s?
I don’t expect you to care. You are a psychopath, and by definition, you have a brain condition preventing you from caring about people. So, let’s go back to discussing why you’re here – to defend psychopaths from empaths. You actually made good points about societal flaws.
People are generally controlled by their emotions – however, we can learn to put them aside with practice. Empaths have the ability to expand our views to see it from the other side. Psychopaths cannot learn to use emotion, and have completely one-sided viewpoints.
I was made to be emotional and caring. I wouldn’t have it any other way. So, although I can see your side, and I wouldn’t like to live it.
When you commented on this blog under the name of “Jul”, you wrote: “Only a stupid one would own up to being a psychopath. They are indeed not good people at all. Without a lot of internal effort, they can wreak havoc. One of these can make a terrible parent or a life partner. But there is a caveat….if you mishandle them. And Lucy, that’s how you messed up. You did not know the creature you married.”
Well, you have been “branded a monster” by yourself. Where do we empaths go from here?
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andrew 16:23 on December 2, 2016 Permalink |
You are as objective as they come, I observe rather sarcastically. The comments I wrote are meant to warn those who might not see the trap of being dumb enough to look at themselves through the eyes of such “an enlightened being” as yourself. My point is “enlightened beings” like yourself are setting the rules on who and what to do with a group of people you have decided you dont like. The only side that gets heard, is the empaths, the “harmed”, the “good”, the “sheep”, the angels, the “victims”.
I don’t care for your crappy sense of ethics, or your sense of justice, or your sense of perception, because, truth be told, you can’t see past your face, and your feelings, and beyond your pathetic life. But that does not mean if you have enough dumb people, you can’t make life for others, because you can.
Look at earth today, and all the misery you see around you, is not due to psychopaths, but due to evil people(being evil and a psychopath are not inclusive), and what can be called collective stupidity.
Well, Tina, thanks for saying something. I got what you said, seriously, I did. Unfortunately, it doesn’t apply to the here and now so I’ve lost interest. My intention was to warn others of dangers looming in the background, and that, I have done in a few posts.
The warning is: don’t identify with the psychopath label because it is a sure way to ruin your social life. Don’t identify with any of the criteria as they were done by NTs who had an axe to grind against someone. In any case, there is nothing flattering at all bout those traits. And lastly, there is absolutely no differentiation here. They lump big criminals, petty criminals, good people, crooked lawyers and politicians, all because “they have no conscience” which is a religious term and should have no basis in a scientific journal in that it can not be seen, much less measured.
Psychological study at it’s very best.
I have a good reason for not trusting NTs. I learnt the hard lesson not to, a long long time ago. I love people, you just have to prove your worth, and no man is truly equal to another, no matter how much Karl Marx says its true.
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@GeneticPsycho (Tina) 17:18 on December 2, 2016 Permalink |
You have never met anyone as objective as me in regards to living openly with psychopaths. You write with such contempt that it is an unwelcome read. Psychopaths have such a hard time with conversation. What is so pathetic about my life? Please give details. That you care not for my sense of justice or ethics makes no difference because you are stuck with us. Your very limited understanding of the disturbing feeling of conscience makes you disregard it as a religious term, when in fact it is a physical phenomenon of the NT nervous system. You are the one who comes across as dumb and trapped. It is best for you to hide because you are the weak one. And I say that without the slightest flicker of emotionality towards the subject. Now I’m bored.
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Andrew 15:01 on December 4, 2016 Permalink |
This site is full of your responses to one thing or another. Can’t read a single post without your ridiculous comments about the wonders of feelings and empathy. Do you own this site? The way you act sort of reminds me of the you-go-girl culture prevalent in the west today.
You have never met anyone as objective as me in regards to living openly with psychopaths-@GeneticPsycho (Tina) 14:18 on December 2, 2016.
After forcing myself to read some of the snot that you post here, I am not so sure about that. You would give whatever group you were a part of, a bad name. Misery loves company, so I am pretty sure you won’t be lonely. There will be a lot of “victims” wishing for “protection” who will be a part of your group against “those without a conscience”
James has made a mistake in engaging you in numerous times. I doubt you ever really read what he writes before you look for one thing to prove him, anyone else who vaguely disagrees with your tightly held beliefs about life.
There are places where people like you are not allowed to comment on blogs. And it is precisely because of what you seem to have done here. You spam anyone who tries to discuss anything. You seem to give little thought to anything you say. Everything you say is calculated for effect value only. It has no purpose to inform or even to discuss. You distract attention from issues being discussed, back towards yourself.
If anything Tina, you would be the real psychopath on this site. You try to terrorize anybody who doesn’t agree with you. In fact, I will now nickname you, PsychoTina. I have never met anyone as objective as PsychoTina about psychopaths, because you are the real psychopath here. You are the only one who fits all of these traits to a T.
PsychoTina, you are the only actual Psychopath on this site.
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@GeneticPsycho (Tina) 05:37 on December 10, 2016 Permalink |
You don’t even realize how disordered your thoughts are. (Psychopaths contradict themselves.) You start out by saying I’m full of feelings and empathetic, then you end by saying I’m a psychopath. Typical psychopathic raving.
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andrew 22:40 on December 11, 2016 Permalink |
Your disordered and childishly simplistic thinking has been exposed for one and all to see. Thanks for illustrating why you must not submit to testing and whatawaits you if you put yourself in the hands of our “loving” and “empathic” brethren.
One day we might have a world that runs on empathy, on that day, only the victims will have rights, and they will be entitled to everything because they “need it”-oh wait, we live in that world today. We have hell on earth today.
Empathy as preached by Jezebels like yourself, not good forthis planet.
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@GeneticPsycho (Tina) 01:49 on December 12, 2016 Permalink |
Ok, throw in a little name-calling and the expected psychopath tantrum. It is also a psychopathic trait to see the world as black and white. According to you, the world runs on empathy. Wrong. Regular people have empathy for their family, friends, and chosen group. Outside of that, there is little empathy, but it can be taught. As opposed to psychopaths who have no empathy, not even for family. People who are capable of destroying their own family are even more capable of destroying all of society.
Someday, with awareness training, we won’t need MRI psychopath testing of politicians because everyone will see you psychopaths plainly.
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andrew 03:08 on December 12, 2016 Permalink |
Tina, you don’t get the point at all. This empathy stuff, ok. What does empathy have to do with dealing with criminal activity? Prosecute all crimes! You were obviously betrayed by someone, and it really stung. So what are you going to do now? Start a witch hunt on peoplr like him? Has it occurred to you how more fulfilled your life would have been had you simply moved on?
Why are you so concerned with how people conduct their lives? It would make sense to help them when you have set your own life in order, and youndefinitely have some personal problems of your own from the looks of it.
How much history have you really read? How much do you really know about government? About western civilization? About the last 2500 years of it?Do you know how and why those civilizations collapsed, amd what the politicians of those times did?
You are taking a faulty study by Dr. Hare, and implementing the solution with absolutely no thought of practical comsequemces, or even real life practical merits, the ones that I point out, see you gross over, and you are too busy looking for the psychopath to see the truth.
Until you employ some effort, and study the efforts employed by men in forming a civilization, you should not sit there with your holier-than-thou attitude bashing a small minority of people. All cilizations werenstarted by a single individual or a small group of people. All inventions weredone by single people who had to fight the minority to be given a voice. Get that right. Only individuals, figjting againt a majority of people, have ever built anything of value on this planet. Prove me wrongnTina. Go ahead.
The study of psychopaths, as done today, is a faulty study. That’s not to say we don’t have a criminal element in society, but it is not who you think it is.
Tina, do your homework. It might a while to do it. A person should understand what problem they are trying to solve, and I am challenging you to do it, for real. If you really care about people, find out for yourself the efforts they habe spnt creating civilizations in the last 2000 years.
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@GeneticPsycho (Tina) 08:52 on December 12, 2016 Permalink |
You assume a lot by saying: “You were obviously betrayed by someone, and it really stung. So what are you going to do now? Start a witch hunt on people like him? Has it occurred to you how more fulfilled your life would have been had you simply moved on?
Why are you so concerned with how people conduct their lives? It would make sense to help them when you have set your own life in order, and you definitely have some personal problems of your own from the looks of it.”
None of that microfiction makes any sense since you don’t know anything about me. I grew up in a family of psychopaths. I personally know well a large number of psychopaths. That is where my study comes from, not Dr. Hare. What I want is a level playing field where everyone knows what psychopaths really are – not psychotic serial killers – but, just people who think that the rest of us are their weak little playthings. I have said nothing about psychopaths being the criminal element of society.
This is me – personal problems and all, moving on happily, setting my life in order. Get over it.
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andrew 11:22 on December 13, 2016 Permalink |
I don’t know about you, but I know what personal info I have gathered from a cursory look at your site. I did get that info from your site. The raison d’etre of your site. Thanks for the info on how you think and how you arrive at your conclusions.
I could complain about the prejudice you, and a lot of others have, but I am glad to have the info so I am forewarned about those who have had their feelings hurt,and base their life’s mission on negative episodes. Nothing wrong with that, of course.
Keep up with the good work, I will visit to check up periodically. It’s always a good thing to check up on different places to see how things are getting along.
As a human being to another, I wish you success in your life’s mission as far as YOU are concerned. As far as anything else, it’s up to you.
The road to evil is paved witj good intentions…….TOWARDS OTHERS
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