Psychopaths: Down the Rabbit Hole

[rsnedaker]

Thanks. There is already a thread under the Psychopaths section which discusses the book and you tube videos.

Here is the link to it: http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,25327.msg314925.html#new

That must I have missed, I did a search beforehand but with the title of the book only.

Understandable, it happens to the best of us. I posted there too. I didn't want you to miss anything with the other thread too. They also might consolidate them.

 

[ScarletBegonias]

I think the word is really getting out! Kudos to all you guys!! A psychopath awareness movement is were it is at.

I'll second that! I made a wordpress site to share info on psychopathy recently and I am so delighted to see that you guys did the same thing on livejournal just a few weeks before I had the idea! I think psychopathy education is becoming increasingly popular and it's about time. I wish I had known about psychopaths before I started studying history in grade school!

 

[rsnedaker]

Here is Thomas Sheridan's blog. There are alot of good videos about psychopaths here to pass around, rate and comment on. I know that there is alot on you tube, but these seem to be ones that were selected from them. I just ordered the book "A Dance with the Devil" which he recommends. It's a story about a lady who was married to a psychopath. I also got Primal Mind, Primal Body and In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma.

http://www.labyrinthpsycho.blogspot.com/

 

[sandrabrownma]

Yes the Cluster B/pathology/psychopathy movement is definitely here. I can't tell you how many book cover blurbs I wrote this year, books I reviewed, manuscripts that were submitted to consider, forwards I wrote, quotes I have given for new blogs, etc. Every day a new page or blog or facebook page is being posted. I have been in the field for almost 25 years and felt like a lone wolf for a long time so glad to see some company here now. I think with all the growth of this field (the most I have ever seen in all my years in the field) is that there needs to be some cohesive language so that it becomes unified as public pathology education. My concern is that when you get survivors who are starting blogs mostly for cathartic reasons, the language used to describe the disorders gets subjective, too general, too pop-psychology-ish and watered down. I would hate for us to miss the opportunity as a movement to really impact it in a strong way by not having the same consistent language to describe the same disorders. While we have tried to be an agency that gives educational material about this, the movement is growing faster than the ability to organize and invite new sites to one unifying language about pathology. No doubt, we are in movement. Not sure if it will be a flash in the pan or if it will wane with over-population. Time will tell!

 

[rsnedaker]

Sandra, thanks for your perspective on the what you are seeing in regards to this taking off. It is certainly encouraging to know. I have read your books, How to Spot a dangerous Man and Women who love psychopaths which I think are great and learned much from.

 

[Laura]

I think with all the growth of this field (the most I have ever seen in all my years in the field) is that there needs to be some cohesive language so that it becomes unified as public pathology education. My concern is that when you get survivors who are starting blogs mostly for cathartic reasons, the language used to describe the disorders gets subjective, too general, too pop-psychology-ish and watered down. I would hate for us to miss the opportunity as a movement to really impact it in a strong way by not having the same consistent language to describe the same disorders. While we have tried to be an agency that gives educational material about this, the movement is growing faster than the ability to organize and invite new sites to one unifying language about pathology. No doubt, we are in movement. Not sure if it will be a flash in the pan or if it will wane with over-population. Time will tell!

I agree. Plus, when this sort of thing happens, it opens the door to pathologicals to insert themselves as "psychopathology experts". Then it descends into confusion and distortion and disruption. Pure Ponerization. It's really important to read Lobaczewski's book to understand how this happens. As he says, it generally starts with the intrusion of what he calls the schizoidal psychopath. Being able to spot this type and their tendency to take ideas and subtly twist them, is crucial in maintaining the hygiene of the field, IMO. A classic example is someone like Liane Leedom.

 

[Cyre2067]

Puck, Have you read Puzzling People by Thomas Sheridan yet? It's a good one! I messaged Sheridan, to let him know how much I appreciated his book, and sent him the Occupy Psychopaths video. He had already seen it, and was rather excited that it took off like it did. Last I checked it's over 17K just on one you tube video. A FB Friend I have that isn't even associated with Sott in anyway are passing it back around to me, along with Sott material about psychopaths that they didn't get from me! I think the word is really getting out! Kudos to all you guys!! A psychopath awareness movement is were it is at.

It's on my pile, there's a few others on pathology, In Sheep's Clothing, The Psychopath Test, and I still need to finish Psychopathy, Emotion & Brain (though that one is a bit too clinical for practical purposes). That's pretty cool though. I'm glad word's getting around.

I'll have to get back on the writing train. Got out of my routine with the holidaze.

I'd like to do some videos with nutrition, explaining the paleo diet and why its beneficial, since I think there is heavy feedback between people's poor diets and their susceptibility to psychological manipulation a la Trans-marginal Inhibition/Pavlov. I think there's also room to market the diet and create products to fill the void of snack foods and such... but that's another discussion.

 

[Laura]

I'd like to do some videos with nutrition, explaining the paleo diet and why its beneficial, since I think there is heavy feedback between people's poor diets and their susceptibility to psychological manipulation a la Trans-marginal Inhibition/Pavlov. I think there's also room to market the diet and create products to fill the void of snack foods and such... but that's another discussion.

That's a big one, IMO. Wrong diet, weakened physical, mental and emotional defenses. It has been amazing to all of us to discover that the feeling of "needing" something - about anything - simply goes away when your body is truly satisfied. Not only that, but your brain chemistry stabilizes in amazing ways. A weakened individual cannot take care of themselves, much less defend against psychopathy. And that means being unable to spot it!

One of the first things that therapists should do with women who have gotten out of pathological relationships is to teach them about the Paleo diet because it will definitely put them on the right track very quickly. Having your body feel better, your hormones sorting themselves out, can create a fast positive feedback loop that helps you heal much faster and feel in control of your life.

 

[sandrabrownma]

Good advice Laura!

 

[cubbex]

Liane Leedom.

:O The one about childs and ADHD? Indeed reading her, it looks like some kind of catharsis as Sandra says. If Liane is a psychopath that means that it can be very very hard to spot a functional one.

 

[SeekinTruth]

Yes, the insane "modern" diet is one of the most important ways of breaking people down, breaking down their defenses in this overall toxic environment created and reinforced by the pathological types. It would be a true service to get people healthy in all ways, and the first and most important way is diet. Paleo approach can restore all the ways we've lost health over the centuries and millenia when the psychopaths completely took over absolutely everything on this planet.

 

[sandrabrownma]

Laura are you talking about The Paleo Diet System book?

 

[Cyre2067]

That one I'm reading is Primal Body, Primal Mind which has the MOST comprehensive view with a LOT of scientific studies backing up her claims. It's also fresh off the presses with a first edition in 2009, and the revised edition coming out last year, so she uses tons of really recent research.

Updated the Blog with this bit: http://cyre2067.livejournal.com/151054.html

What exactly IS a Psychopath? Part 1

The term psychopath may be common enough that we all have some idea of its definition. Instantly Hannibal Lector (portrayed by the immortal and supremely excellent Anthony Hopkins) springs to mind. However, while Dr Lector certainly qualifies, fact tends to deviate, if only slightly from fiction, and the term psychopath has a clinical definition which is certainly worthy of study.

Today, a psychopath is someone who is rated on the gold-standard of psychopathy tests, the Psychopathy Check-list, Revised or PCL-R. This was a test conjured by Dr Robert Hare who is the preeminent researcher in the field and author of several books and research papers on the subject. It's a checklist of twenty items, and for each item the subject gets a score of zero, one or two, if the item does not apply, applies somewhat or is heavily descriptive of the subject's behavior. Someone administering the test has to be trained and qualified just to administer it because it's not terribly easy to label someone a psychopath without having the background understanding of each item and what levels of depravity are required to receive a one or two for each item.

The traits are as follows:
Factor 1: Personality "Aggressive narcissism"

Glibness/superficial charm
Grandiose sense of self-worth
Pathological lying
Cunning/manipulative
Lack of remorse or guilt
Shallow affect (genuine emotion is short-lived and egocentric)
Callousness; lack of empathy
Failure to accept responsibility for own actions

Factor 2: Case history "Socially deviant lifestyle".

Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom
Parasitic lifestyle
Poor behavioral control
Lack of realistic long-term goals
Impulsivity
Irresponsibility
Juvenile delinquency
Early behavior problems
Revocation of conditional release

Traits not correlated with either factor

Promiscuous sexual behavior
Many short-term marital relationships
Criminal versatility

I'd like to break each one down to give the reader an idea of what it means, the goal to make this as understandable as possible to the broadest possible audience.

Glib/superficial charm - Basically it means the individual is charming, they're great at conversations, convincing, but their appeal only goes skin deep. Once you understand that they're after something, you can realize that their charm is just a tool they use, one of many.

A grandiose sense of self worth - Here we get an idea that the individual values himself... a lot. They've done this, that and they have plans to do this other thing. If you ask about accomplishments you'll get a list days long. To say they have delusions of grandeur is an understatement.

Pathological Lying is pretty self-explanatory, while they may be charming and have a resume that impresses, none of what they say or claim about them self is true, often times it is just the opposite.

Cunning/manipulative - The individual is really good at getting people to do what he wants. He may have gotten a prison guard to sneak him favors, or convinced some naive kid to kill someone for him. He may have sold a bunch of toxic assets to a hedge fund and convinced them they were gold. This one really varies depending on the milieu the individual finds himself in.

Lack of remorse or guilt - self explanatory, the individual has no capacity for remorse or feelings of guilt (even though they are VERY capable of creating the impression of such if they think it will get them ahead).

Shallow affect - This basically means they have a very narrow range of real emotions, if any. All of their feelings revolve around themselves.

Callousness; lack of empathy - this is the big shocker when people realize the person they're dealing with isn't quite right. They have absolutely no concern for other people, whether its a lover, family or someone they just met. Humans naturally care for those with whom they are close, for psychopaths this is biologically impossible. Again, they are masters at maintaining an illusion of care if the person is able to get them something they desire.

Failure to accept responsibility - self-explanatory, none of their actions are ever their fault. If a psychopath murdered someone it was because the victim was 'asking for it' in their twisted little minds.

The above traits fit together, and the overall impression is that the psychopath is not only without conscience, but without empathy, without responsibility, and without the core pro-social behaviors that make us human. Does this sound like anyone you've known?

Part two will continue to describe the condition in terms of laying out the other factors in as simple terms as possible. Please feel free to post comments with your questions.

 

[Renaissance]

Laura are you talking about The Paleo Diet System book?

There's a list of books here that relate to the Paleo Diet. Not sure if you're referring to Loren Cordain's book "The Paleo Diet"? If so, he's good in the sense that he's an academic in the field that has brought more attention to the paleo lifestyle, however, he has some big blind spots about saturated fats. The big Paleo book that has been found to have the most up to date and comprehensive nutritional info is Primal Body Primal Mind, as Puck mentioned. I think The Mood Cure might be up your alley too. In it Julia Ross talks a bit about 'true moods' vs. 'false moods' that are influenced by diet and how the right foods stabilize emotions and hormones.