Female Psychopathy

[Jones]

I remember reading a paper a few years ago where the authors were saying that they thought that Borderline Personality Disorder was simply the female version of psychopathy. Very often, BPD is diagnosed as/or comorbid with "Complex PTSD." But I guess that a not-very bright psychopath who has learned that faking emotional states gets them what they want, might very well act like they have PTSD a lot of the time, and then, just turn it off when it is no longer needed.

I've come across a video that presents some clues about how to differentiate between traumatic responses and narcissism - the presenter does raise psychopathy but seem to miss the boat in a number of places - for example, he seems to be of the opinion that a successful person who hasn't done anything illegal or criminal is not a psychopath and he uses Christian Bale from 50 Shades of Grey as an example of this. He also acknowledges that psychopaths don't feel, but then attributes psychopathic rage to shame rather than loss of resource. So that's all a bit mixed up. But I wonder whether the same differentiations that he points out about whether narcissism is trauma based or not could be used to distinguish between primary and secondary psychopaths? He doesn't mention female psychopaths and he also doesn't mention that people could be born that way even though he is distinguishing the trauma related. He does say, however, if it's not trauma based then it's not treatable - so maybe he's just dancing around and avoiding coming straight out and saying some are just born that way!

Language warning - the presenter drops the F bomb a few times throughout.

11:00 talks about drawing the differences between traits and trauma and lists some traits of:
BDP (emotional labile, self destructive, fragile, push/pull relationship style, counter dependency)
HSP (infantile, vain, reaction seeking, and hyper sexuality)

...and says that both the traits of BDP and HSP can be present in the female narcissist. But the distinguishing characteristics that indicate that the narcissism is trauma based or not is whether there is also exploitativeness and entitlement.

20:20 'Sexual abuse can be a boundary breaking, unwarranted level of sexual attention from the wrong source that is also abusive...if a mother or father is looking at a little girl or a little boy, looking at, talking to, talking about them in a way that is inappropriate it is boundary breaking and it causes huge problems in the personality when they grow up. It is really tricky because that person can't actually say they were sexually abused, they can only say that 'it was kind of icky for me growing up, mum would look at me funny when I wasn't wearing clothes' and they can't quite figure out what it is that's gone wrong. But we're told that unless you were actually physically assaulted it's not an assault - it creates problems. I suspect a very large number of people are walking around with this as an issue because of boundary broken hyper sexualised attention in childhood that was completely inappropriate.'

This is very concerning given the latest trend to push transgenderism on children. I would think that that could be a similar boundary breech and have similar effects as sexual abuse if he is right on this point and so we might expect that these kids may become hyper sexual.

25:30 [the symptoms of BDP, HPD and ASPD - the latter of which he equates with psychopathy] 'is how many women think they should be in the world. I see a lot of men encouraging this but more often than not, based on my experience, this is encouraged by women. It's encouraged by traumatised mothers who put this on their daughters, they entrain this onto their daughters. When I started my project back in 2012 my client base was only the daughters of narcissistic mothers.'

He then goes on to say that if the daughter rejected this entrainment they were targeted as the black sheep, the mother experienced narcissistic injury, expressed narcissistic rage and punished the daughter - but the daughter may never be clear on what exactly it was that attracted the punishment. The daughter that rejected the narcissistic entrainment then also usually tried to invert the BDP and HSP symptoms and become the opposite of those traits, but usually will still have developed hyper sexuality because they were treated as an adult who is to 'garner sexual attention in order to have value in the world'.

The over all effect of narcissistic abuse is one of PTSD or C-PTSD. He gives the symptoms as damaged sense of self, emotional dis-regulation which leads to not being able to discern what is really going on in a situation, uncomfortable visual or emotional flashbacks, isolation and addictions or addictive coping strategies. All of which can give appearance of BDP, HSP or ASPD.

In his idea on how to treat it all, he quotes Jordan Petersons lobster example and puts forth a theory that the connected depression is to do with lower serotonin levels and these can increase with improving position in a social hierarchy - not that you have to climb a social hierarchy ladder, but more that you improve your own perception of social standing or sense of personal significance by: connecting, contributing, offering value and making progress.

 

[Gwenllian]

Most of us have seen these recent news articles about more and more women teachers abusing kids and getting caught.

This older documentary deals with women predators and interestingly, depending on the the questions that were asked in studies done in the US, they found that the percentages vary between very low percentages and 60%.

Based on convictions it would appear that only 5% of all sex offenders are women, but this paints a distorted picture. [Not so] Recent studies take a different approach.When male and female college students were asked if they had a sexual experience before they reached the age of 15 with a person of at least 5 years older than themselves a staggering 59% of these experiences were with women [or girls].

It leaves me wondering whether the percentage of women psychopaths is in actuality higher.

Another good example of female psychopathy?:

Woman controlled partners' every move - and wouldn't even let use her toilet

“Rigby had a stranglehold on the victim. Through her coercive behaviour she was able to control everything he did."

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

A woman who was studying to be a nurse "dehumanised" her partner with months of "cruel" behaviour.

Sarah Rigby, 41, has walked free from court despite subjecting the man to controlling and coercive behaviour including not letting him go to the toilet in the house they shared. He had to walk to a nearby pub, library or supermarket, Chester Crown Court heard.

She denied the charges initially but pleaded guilty just two days into her trial. She has been sentenced to 20 months in prison, suspended for two years.

Rigby must complete 35 days of a rehabilitation activity and under restraining orders is banned from contacting the victim or his parents for five years.

The court was told that the couple’s relationship first began in July 2021 and initially everything was good between the pair. However, Rigby quickly became very controlling and within months she had forced her partner to move into her home in Winsford.

As soon as he arrived at the address, he was made to store all his belongings in the garage and she ordered him pay £700 a month rent, despite the fact Rigby’s father already owned the house.

Her behaviour escalated, and she soon took full control of all his finances, cut him off from his family and friends, and stopped him from being in the house alone – despite the fact he needed to work from home.

As the relationship continued, Rigby, of Sunningdale Close, Winsford also stopped the victim from showering or defecating at the house, meaning that he had to go to a local gym to wash.
The court heard the abuse also included: Assaulting him and scratching his face; making him sleep on the floor with all the windows open; controlling what he was and wasn’t allowed to eat; forcing him to pay for private treatments and reports to help her with court proceedings; making him pretend to be unwell so he could get prescriptions for codeine to fulfil her codeine habit.

She called him “fat”, “lazy”, “sweaty”, “a whale”, “dopey”, “thick”, “smelly”, “dog”; stopped him from seeing his family; frisked him when he left the house to prevent him taking food out; and accused him of stealing from her – which he wasn’t.

She said he needed to put cameras up in the house so she could watch him when she wasn’t in the same room.

She also told him: “If I’m not pregnant this month, I am going to find someone else to have sex with and get pregnant” and “I need to get pregnant this month. If I don’t, I’ll dump you”.

If he didn’t comply with her orders, Rigby would punish him by physically assaulting him, preventing him from eating, and making the victim sleep on the floor with no duvet and the windows left open.

As a result of her actions, the victim lost four stone in weight during the couple’s nine-month relationship. As well as the physical abuse, Rigby also verbally and psychologically abused him, constantly putting him down and bombarding him with messages, calling him fat, ugly, and disgusting.

The victim found the courage to speak out and in March 2022 he contacted Cheshire Police after seeking help from a men’s domestic abuse helpline. Following the call, an investigation was launched by detectives in Northwich CID and Rigby was subsequently charged in relation to the incidents.

Following sentencing Detective Constable Sophie Ward, said: “This is the worst case of controlling and coercive behaviour I have ever seen.

“Rigby had a stranglehold on the victim. Through her coercive behaviour she was able to control everything he did, cutting him off from everyone he knew and leaving him trapped, feeling like he had nowhere to turn.

“Her actions left the victim both physically and emotionally scarred, and even now, two years after their relationship ended, he is still receiving psychological counselling to help him recover.

“Even after she was charged, Rigby continued to taunt her victim, refusing to return his belongings, and constantly delaying the trial by failing to notify the court of holidays and appointments.

“Although she eventually pleaded guilty to her offending, she has shown no remorse for her actions. While the victim will never be able to forget what happened to him, I hope that the conclusion of this case will help him to move forward and start to rebuild his life.”

Senior crown prosecutor Nicky Inskip of CPS Mersey Cheshire said: “Sarah Rigby subjected her former partner to months of cruel and dehumanising behaviour. She seemed intent on humiliating and degrading him in any way she could.

“On one occasion she threw him out of the house in his underwear and refused to allow him back in. She accused him of stealing from her and, at the same time, made him pay for things for her.”

Mr Inskip added: “The abuse has had a substantial impact on this man who finally found the courage to break free from this toxic relationship and report Sarah Rigby’s behaviour to the police.

“Her treatment of him did not represent the normal ups and downs of a relationship. It was coercive, controlling and criminal. She admitted her guilt in the face of overwhelming evidence and has now been sentenced. We hope this is of some comfort to the victim.”