How to Spot a Psychopath
Today I came across a fascinating article about a man (Tony) who faked insanity to get transferred from prison to a mental institution.
The story in itself is reminiscent of the “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” world that’s portrayed in the novel Catch-22. Once you’re diagnosed as mentally ill, it’s hard to prove you’re not. And if you are diagnosed as being a psychopath, it’s even harder to prove you aren’t.
Case in point: Tony went through a phase where he refused to cooperate and spent most of his time alone in his cell at Broadmoor, the institution where he was imprisoned. This, unfortunately, only reinforced the perception of Tony’s psychopathy.
On the outside, Tony said, not wanting to spend time with your criminally insane neighbours would be a perfectly understandable position. But on the inside it demonstrates you’re withdrawn and have a grandiose sense of your own importance. In Broadmoor, not wanting to hang out with insane killers is a sign of madness.
Such are the paradoxes that exist inside the walls of institutions for psychopaths and the mentally ill.
I discovered there is actually a check list to determine if somebody is a psychopath. It is called Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), and it is the most commonly used tool to assess a person’s psychopathy.
Each of the 20 items is scored a 0, 1, or 2. If a person receives a combined score of more than 30 points out of 40 possible points, then he is considered a “psychopath.” Here is the list:
- Item 1: Glibness/superficial charm
- Item 2: Grandiose sense of self-worth
- Item 3: Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom
- Item 4: Pathological lying
- Item 5: Cunning/manipulative
- Item 6: Lack of remorse or guilt
- Item 7: Shallow affect
- Item 8: Callous/lack of empathy
- Item 9: Parasitic lifestyle
- Item 10: Poor behavioural controls
- Item 11: Promiscuous sexual behaviour
- Item 12: Early behaviour problems
- Item 13: Lack of realistic long-term goals
- Item 14: Impulsivity
- Item 15: Irresponsibility
- Item 16: Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
- Item 17: Many short-term marital relationships
- Item 18: Juvenile delinquency
- Item 19: Revocation of conditional release
- Item 20: Criminal versatility
What strikes me about this list is how many of these qualities apply to me and people I know. Call me crazy, but it seems to me we’re all a little bit psychopathic, if you know what I mean.
So we’re not dealing with a black and white method for determining psychopathy, but rather shades of gray. Not only that, genuine psychopaths are just as likely to go into finance and business as they are to engage in purely criminal pursuits. From the article:
After the conference, though, [Robert] Hare seemed introspective. He said, almost to himself, “I shouldn’t have done my research just in prisons. I should have spent some time inside the Stock Exchange as well.”
“But surely stock-market psychopaths can’t be as bad as serial-killer psychopaths,” I said.
“Serial killers ruin families,” shrugged Hare. “Corporate and political and religious psychopaths ruin economies. They ruin societies.”
It wasn’t only Hare who believed that a disproportionate number of psychopaths can be found in high places. Over the following months, I spoke to scores of psychologists who all said the same.
I’m willing to bet there are quite a few psychopaths shilling on Wall Street, passing laws in D.C., and manning the helms of U.S. banks. I’m also willing to bet there are a fair number selling their wares on the Internet, too.
This is why it’s critical to do your due diligence before buying a product or service online, or even joining an affiliate program. The greater the investment and potential loss, the more due diligence is required.
-Ryan M. Healy
P.S. You can distance yourself from psychopaths by becoming a member of Paid On Time and displaying the affiliate trust seal on your affiliate program sign-up page.
Only 2 spots left to be written up and featured on the blog. Complete details in yesterday’s blog post.
