Any psychopaths still around?

Yeah, there isn't much conversation in chat nowadays, unfortunately. I found a chat for antisocials, but I'm not sure how many of the members are actually ASPD.

Narcissists hate everyone.

Were you diagnosed? If not, then how do you know?

I was diagnosed, and I wasn't all that surprised when I got the diagnosis. I already had the feeling that I never really quite belonged anywhere. You really do have to wear a mask to seem "normal." I am not capable of empathizing with other people, and I've never felt true remorse for anything wrong I've ever done. It's a selfish disorder honestly. The only thing that keeps me from doing some really bad things is the fact that there are consequences. Sociopaths can still do good things and be good people, but I've rarely experienced any good feelings from it. I feel embarrassed about it, honestly. Anyway, it's not too hard to pick up on the fact that you may be a psychopath or sociopath. The fact that you care if you are or not leads me to believe that you aren't one.

One interesting way psychiatrists could go about the discovery of psychopathy earlier is by having people play the game The Sims behind closed doors and secretly monitor them. What a person would do in a simulated world with no consequences could be a good indicator as to their real life inclinations. This is just from my experiences though. I've gotten a lot of insight on myself from playing this game as a teenager. It went from highly ambitious and successful to utterly depraved real quick once the doors were closed and no one was around.

I resemble a lot of that. Feeling different, like I fake nearly all of my social interactions. Except the feeling embarrassed part. Why would you feel embarrassed about doing good things? That's how you earn obligation points which you can trade in later for things or favors.

That's what my therapist said. I think people are confusing a general interest in myself with "caring." I certainly don't mind being a psychopath. But my aspirations are loftier than being a mask during the day and a nuisance on the internet. I think I could use these psychopathic urges to my advantage if only I could understand and control them better.

I think that's true for most people, not just psychopaths. ....... So I tried looking up some things to prove my point, and the internet is telling me that, no, not everyone created a large cemetery of paparazzi and mail carriers in the backyard of their Sims' properties. Maybe we should do a poll on it.

As an aside, did you know you can get mods that will add "assassin" as a career option? It even comes with its own associated skill. When you level up your Sim, they can kill other Sims in unique ways. You can also get a sniper rifle that can kill other Sims at range. I had one of my Sims live across from the park so he could shoot pedestrians from his living room.

This is for The Sims 3, by the way. I haven't gotten The Sims 4, and I don't know what mods come with it.

Ahh the Sims. So much you could do with mods. I'm not sure why I feel embarrassed about doing good things. I do a lot of good things, and I just get this strange chill up my spine. The strange thing about me is that I don't think about getting rewards for doing good. I just do it so that I look like a good person. And maybe in trying, that does make me a good person. I have no particular desire to be evil, but the compulsions to do twisted things are ridiculously strong, so I tend to isolate myself when I have them. Not because I would feel guilty, but because I know there are consequences. Psychopaths generally tend to be very successful in their careers and personal lives. It's their sense of grandiosity and power that compel them to be successful by any means. They are very ambitious. I think it's just a matter of their opinion on what success is. It could be politics, amassing knowledge, or in some cases, to be as notorious as possible. Not sure how much of this is fact, but it's what I've noticed personally and is my own opinion.

No, I think genuinely good people will do good even if those actions appear bad to others. However, I think few people have the balls to commit to an action when everyone else is going against them. It takes just the right balance of concern over others and moral integrity. Psychopaths are lacking in both of these things. Consequently, I think psychopaths are capable of doing great things because they do have the balls to commit to an action even in the face of opposition, but the underlying motivator is always going to be selfish and usually has to do with them being bored.

Reporter: "Sir, why did you risk your life to save this woman from her attacker?"
Heroic psychopath: "Because I wanted to fight some-- Err... Because she needed to be rescued."

What sort of twisted things?

I don't feel compelled to do "evil" things, but I tend to disregard any sort of social decorum when I get in one of these moods, only restraining myself enough that I don't get into trouble, and sometimes failing even that. And yeah, I try to isolate myself if I know it's something that'll get me into serious trouble. But I don't want to do that anymore. Do you know how much we could get accomplished if only we could control what triggers these compulsions?

LoL, the Sims. Brings out a memory from when the game was quite new and my neighbor hadn't been caught lying to me and backstabbing me, and hadn't "borrowed" all my savings yet...

She was quite easy going and easy to hang out with, she liked when I popped over just to hang out, she would call me and tell me she put the kettle on.

When she played the Sims, she tried to find all ways of killing them. She had a main Sim that always survived, but she killed off everyone else in her Sim home eventually. She had a graveyard where she collected her tombstone.

And, nope, I didn't react at all to that. Now I know I should have.

Psychopaths lack the most fundamental fear, social pressure. When strangers need help, sometimes they don't get it because normals feel awkward about helping. So they just remove themselves from the situation. While the psychopath could not just save someone, they could simply help out in an everyday situation when no one else is stepping up. Not afraid of looking odd. And killing some boredom at the same time.

What I like the most about the psychopaths I've met is that not only will they tell me whatever they want to say, without sugarcoating it, if they find it unnecessary, they provide a different perspective. A new perspective is often something we need. If everyone else gives the same answers, sometimes we need something fresh. And usually they don't get angry if I disagree with them, it's more like a game than something they take uber seriously. Normals can tense up quite fast.

Now of course all psychopaths aren't the same, I understand that. And some are quite negative. But lacking what they lack and having what they have doesn't HAVE to be a bad thing.

The twisted things I have compulsions are very unpleasant. Talking about it usually gets me in trouble. I won't even tell a therapist about it after they went all Tarsoff on my ***. I lost my job because of the Tarasoff rule.

Its true that psychopaths have some advantages. Not feeling guilt is a plus. It would be great to learn how to direct what gives psychopaths compulsions. They could do so much.

On the Sims, it was always fun to trap neighbors, ex girlfriends, mothers in law, and even firefighters in a tiny room and watch them go crazy. I did give them a sink because it was amusing to watch them pre themselves lol. Another one of my favorites was building a big pool, inviting people to swim in it, and then building railings all around it so they couldn't get out. I never bothered with gravestones. I had a badass gnome collection.

Right, that's another thing I've been meaning to look further into. A remark I hear fairly often is that I "think differently" or that I give unusual answers. I've heard the same about psychopaths in general, and I've been wondering what exactly people mean by that. Maybe our lack of emotion allows us to consider things that wouldn't even cross the minds of normal people?

And what the hell are normal people thinking that they can't see something so blatantly obvious?

I'll show you yours if you show me mine.

Wait, that didn't come out right.

Or did it?

Psychopaths have a lot of advantages; you just need to know how and when to use them.

Case in point.

Serious question: How is it not obvious to people that narcissists are actually weak-willed and easy to manipulate?

People are blind I guess. It's way too easy to manipulate a narcissist. All you have to do is play into their heightened ego and you can do whatever you want to them. Hell, I had a narcissist wife. I could plant ideas in her head and get her to believe it was her idea. Another fun thing to do wad to teach her a new word. She would use it over and over til I got tired of it and taught her a new one.

Willfully blind!

Normal people will fall for the same **** 29 times and still be surprised the 30th time. I just don't get it.

I had a narcissist doctor long time ago. It was like some weird battle between us. Then I realized to get something I wanted, I need to play her. I didn't like it because it would put me in a pretend position where I was sort of way down the ladder. It felt icky. But I needed what I wanted so I decided to really overdo it, I don't remember why I did. But I was so surprised, not that I got my way because I counted on that, sucking up to her and telling her things she wanted to hear, but that she didn't understand how fake I was. Anyone else would have seen how much I overdid it. Yes, so easily fooled.

I have some minor narcissistic tendencies but not at all like that, so I try to be aware of nice people. But it is still sooooo nice to hear nice things about me in the areas I find important! (Yum!)

About playing Sims, I would have been the worst psychopath candidate and so obviously not a psychopath, LOL. I only liked to create my character and build my home. I just liked to make it great. I though a lot about how it would be to really live there. Once I had built my house, I got tired of the game.

I am not a diagnosed psychopath. I too am searching for answers. I'm in the same boat you are in. Trying to figure it out. But I feel anxious. Its usually only in a situation that involves me or putting me at risk. Others I dont care for. Or going to a new restaurant and not being able to control the situation. I agree with what others have said about it seeming impossible to not feel anything at all. At least for me, i have a Very small range of emotion.

I dont get it, how people can be emotionally attached to animals. My dog died lately and because I like dark humor I made even some jokes about it. I have problems with an emotional attachment to my family. Dont even talk about the animals XD
And I am not even a psychopath or sociopath. Only a bit sadistic xd

When a husband of my aunt died, I said to my brother, you know what were his last words? "oh fu.ck, I am dying!!!!" XD
of course my brother didnt appreciate my humor. But you have to admit its a bit funny haha. I like to joke about things thats I am not supposed to. It makes this funny.

Why I have chosen this forum if i am not even ASPD ? Because I cant write about this stuff on normal forums. People are to sensitive. They make posts like "i am worry my grandma will die because of her age" xdd who cares about old grandma, that you see once per week and doesnt contribute anything to your life.

I am just logical and I like a bit of dark humor thats it. The other reasons I am on this forum, is try to improve my english, because i am from Poland, and I am bored.

Hope I can write here what I think and joke about some stuff, that I am not supposed to. Dont take everything so serious my friends and try to be positive even about terrible things.

ASPD with psychopathy features. Lmao, I think I met you on a PD Discord and we talked. Small world.

Anxious? Yeah I suppose I get anxious but it is more of a fun challenge for me than having a panic attack. I respond to emergencies at my current job and I feel so alive when I get an alert on my work pager.

Sad? I just broke a three year relationship and I haven't felt sad. I have memories of good times that I cherish but I don't feel sad.

I think something that really gets me off more than anything is tension. I was watching a movie yesterday with a shootout scene and I felt overwhelmed with a rush that I can't really explain. I produced an entire album of music inspired by tension I created.

Yeah, I recall. You banned me you son of a *****.

Excited? I get excited about things that would make most people anxious. Any sort of confrontation, as an example. And yeah, I see it as a fun challenge. Responding to emergencies would be fantastic. We're talking about something on fire right?

I've never had a panic attack, but I do feel anxiety in a negative sense on rare occasion. Could never figure out why it happens though, so I usually just ignore it.

Of course you wouldn't feel sad. You broke it off. What if your partner dumped you?

Adrenaline! I get a rush, too, but not often from movies anymore. It's fantastic, though.

"Reporter: "Sir, why did you risk your life to save this woman from her attacker?"
Heroic psychopath: "Because I wanted to fight some-- Err... Because she needed to be rescued."

Kid I am mentoring has multiple diagnoses, and I believe one may be aspd. I believe he is actually a multiple (DID) but they often get these multiple diagnoses. Anyway, he is one that would rescue because he wants to fight someone due to boredom. But he isn't lacking in empathy attachments. Would also rescue someone he cared about.

Re not sharing b/c of tarsoff law. To find out what that is I looked it up: What Does The Tarasoff Ruling Mean For Modern Therapy? | Betterhelp Read to the end about a safe chat room where you can vent anonymously.

I was tested using the PCL-R at the behest of my psychologist, due to the severity of my Callous-Unemotional traits and some weird things surrounding my lack of a concrete self-identity. I scored high enough to be considered a psychopath. I didn't even know that I had been tested until months afterwards, but the whole test took a lot longer than 5 hours. Here's what I can tell you about "psychopathy," from my experience and what I learned from my clinicians.


There's no such thing as psychopaths.

Depending on who is administering the test and why, you will score differently. The "cut off" points of 25 in Europe and 30 in the US on the PCL, for instance, are completely arbitrary. Even when you take specific studies into account, which have their own ways of rating psychopathic traits, each study tends to focus on a specific psychopathic trait and have its own threshold.

This line between "highly psychopathic" and "definitely a psychopath" is really a construct designed to give criminal attorneys an edge in court. There's debates over whether even well-known psychopaths like ME Thomas, Ted Bundy, James Fallon, and Jeffrey Dahmer can be considered psychopaths.

And, if we're being honest, no mental health diagnosis is really set in stone. They're meant to be used as guidelines for treatment. While they can function to group symptoms together and give you a label for what you're struggling with, it's not as exact a science as you would think.

But, according to Hare, around 1 in 4 people with ASPD would meet the criteria for psychopathy as he outlines it. There are correlations between the various tests for psychopathy. It's not really that psychopaths don't exist as much as it is that psychopaths are hard to really define, even with the tools that we have.

At the end of the day, "psychopath" is just a term for people who are highly psychopathic. Whether one qualifies for that term can be highly contextual, and even a little subjective. That's why AsPD is in the DSM and not Psychopathy.

I don't consider myself a psychopath, I'll put it that way. I think the term is too broad. Some "psychopaths" are highly boastful and vain, some feel some degree of anxiety whereas others are fearless, some are hotheaded whereas others have cold, spiteful contempt. There's too much variety in even diagnosed psychopaths for the word to mean that much. "Psychopathy" refers to a group of traits that make people more likely to fall into criminal recidivism, and not much more.