I came here because every time I try to find even one study that shows genetic twin pairs where one is a diagnosed psychopath and the other is not, all I find are the studies proclaiming psychopathy is "highly correlated" with genetics. Well, I test at around 6 on the Hare checklist (35 or higher needed to indicate psychopathic tendencies at 0 to 2 per trait), but my sister was tested by a neurologist fifteen years ago and found to have a high score in nearly all psychopathic tendencies. She IS a psychopath. She was trying to scam HIM at the time, in order to scam an insurance company by pretending to have a closed head injury, while running a massage parlor on the side. When things weren't moving fast enough, she started inventing more symptoms, until he finally became suspicious. Clever man, this neurologist tricked her into taking the psychopathy screening test. I read the results. The scores she got were spot on the money, described her behaviors precisely.

My sister has been violent, manipulative, lying, conning, thieving, etc., etc., etc., since we were young children. I finally managed to eject her from my life permanently only five years ago.

There are a few things that STILL mess with my head. One is that this person, my genetic twin, should be the person closest to me in the world, but she is a complete alien, a creature that delights in hurting others, a person who is incapable of feeling any affection for another living soul. The other is that despite our obvious differences, since we looked so much alike, everyone treated us the same as we were growing up and that really messed with my self-image. I imagine most people discover who they are as they grow by saying, "Hey, I'm like that! And that!" For me, the process was "I'm NOT that! Or that!"

The hardest part of having a psychopathic genetic twin is that she repeatedly used me as cover to disarm people. Anyone I got close to, she would then worm in between us, con them and then turn on them, destroying my friendships in the process. She only ever left me three choices when she moved in on my friends: I could denounce her lies, I could say nothing, or I could walk away. She moved so fast and put on so much charm that denouncing her rarely worked because then she would just con my friends into thinking I was lying instead of her. If I said nothing, then that just meant that I was supporting her lies. If I walked away, there went my friendships anyway. Nothing worked, until I moved far away from her. But then she followed me.

Finally, five years ago I had returned to my hometown to finish college and a year later she came moving in with her two kids like she owned the place. She announced that she was going to start attending my university. I had had enough, so I told her, "I don't give a F--- what you do. But if you so much as wave your hand at one of MY professors, I WILL denounce you; I will tell them you are a psychopath and I will tell them how I know. These people know me and they trust me, and I will be DAMNED if I let you f--- that up for me again!" She changed her plans, found a sucker to marry in short order, and moved back out of state.

Long story short, despite knowing the difference between us, despite me having very few traits even remotely associated with psychopathy, despite everything, I have this lurking fear that I must be a psychopath because she is one. I don't know how to banish this poisonous thought from my brain. Someone please help me with this.

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by krikkitz

I came here because every time I try to find even one study that shows genetic twin pairs where one is a diagnosed psychopath and the other is not, all I find are the studies proclaiming psychopathy is "highly correlated" with genetics. Well, I test at around 6 on the Hare checklist (35 or higher needed to indicate psychopathic tendencies at 0 to 2 per trait), but my sister was tested by a neurologist fifteen years ago and found to have a high score in nearly all psychopathic tendencies. She IS a psychopath. She was trying to scam HIM at the time, in order to scam an insurance company by pretending to have a closed head injury, while running a massage parlor on the side. When things weren't moving fast enough, she started inventing more symptoms, until he finally became suspicious. Clever man, this neurologist tricked her into taking the psychopathy screening test. I read the results. The scores she got were spot on the money, described her behaviors precisely.

My sister has been violent, manipulative, lying, conning, thieving, etc., etc., etc., since we were young children. I finally managed to eject her from my life permanently only five years ago.

There are a few things that STILL mess with my head. One is that this person, my genetic twin, should be the person closest to me in the world, but she is a complete alien, a creature that delights in hurting others, a person who is incapable of feeling any affection for another living soul. The other is that despite our obvious differences, since we looked so much alike, everyone treated us the same as we were growing up and that really messed with my self-image. I imagine most people discover who they are as they grow by saying, "Hey, I'm like that! And that!" For me, the process was "I'm NOT that! Or that!"

The hardest part of having a psychopathic genetic twin is that she repeatedly used me as cover to disarm people. Anyone I got close to, she would then worm in between us, con them and then turn on them, destroying my friendships in the process. She only ever left me three choices when she moved in on my friends: I could denounce her lies, I could say nothing, or I could walk away. She moved so fast and put on so much charm that denouncing her rarely worked because then she would just con my friends into thinking I was lying instead of her. If I said nothing, then that just meant that I was supporting her lies. If I walked away, there went my friendships anyway. Nothing worked, until I moved far away from her. But then she followed me.

Finally, five years ago I had returned to my hometown to finish college and a year later she came moving in with her two kids like she owned the place. She announced that she was going to start attending my university. I had had enough, so I told her, "I don't give a F--- what you do. But if you so much as wave your hand at one of MY professors, I WILL denounce you; I will tell them you are a psychopath and I will tell them how I know. These people know me and they trust me, and I will be DAMNED if I let you f--- that up for me again!" She changed her plans, found a sucker to marry in short order, and moved back out of state.

Long story short, despite knowing the difference between us, despite me having very few traits even remotely associated with psychopathy, despite everything, I have this lurking fear that I must be a psychopath because she is one. I don't know how to banish this poisonous thought from my brain. Someone please help me with this.

I havent read the whole post but one thing jumped out at me....you say she was trying to scam the insurance and the mental health provider into thinking she had problems. ummm... maybe the results of the test he gave her was a scam too...yea she may not have known he was giving her a test but most people who are trying to be sicker then they really are for insurance reasons will purposely not tell a treatment provider the truth regardless of what is asked..

so just because she....scored...a psychopath on a test while she was trying to scam a doctor and insurance does not mean she really is a psycho path...

let me give you an example..

I work for a hospital mental ward and a crisis intervention center.. we get many people who come in claiming they have this or that problem. From the moment they enter the hospital or the crisis center they put on an act. last week we had a client walk in claiming she had been raped and suffered from ptsd (anxiety/flashbacks/nightmares/depression/sleep problems/...) during her appointments and in the waiting room and during her hospitalization she presented with the mental disorder. how was she able to do that? the internet, she researched and researched. out in public she runs her own tanning salon, sells avon,...) I gave her the oral evaluation and then the hospital psychiatrist gave her the more comprehensive tests. amazingly this woman came up as being a psychopath, sociopath, neurotic, ptsd, dissociative, ocd, schizophrenic. she hit all the right marks on these tests..why? because she had done her research.. So then the psychiatrist did something she didnt expect...told her she had to be sent to the state mental hospital for no less then 6 months...Suddenly she did a turn around, told us why she had been faking it, how she had researched. We obtained her past medical records and mental health records. she was bipolar. during a manic phase she had run up some bills and wanted to scam the insurance to help pay for her bills. she was not a psychopath or any of the other things she presented to being.

my suggestion since she was trying to scam the insurance and doctors when she took the test that said she was a psychopath, keep in mind she may not really be one, and dont worry about why she became one and you didnt,. Mind you I cant make a diagnosis of you or your sister but if you were here in NY which is in the USA, the fact that she was trying to run a scam invalidates tests results if she was running the scam during the sessions with the treatment provider.

Thanks for responding, but perhaps you should read the whole post. None of the results of the test surprised me. They described her actual personality and behavior in very exact detail. She IS a psychopath. Only the label surprised me because like most people, I had assumed that "psychopath" meant "serial killer." I have since learned otherwise.

Stop trying to make excuses for how she might be a "misunderstood person." She is only misunderstood while she is targeting her next victim, because she puts on a good show.

[Atypical_Disaster]

Long story short, despite knowing the difference between us, despite me having very few traits even remotely associated with psychopathy, despite everything, I have this lurking fear that I must be a psychopath because she is one. I don't know how to banish this poisonous thought from my brain. Someone please help me with this.

Besides being biologically related to a psychopath, is there anything else going on that fuels your fear that you may be one yourself?

Also, even if you are a psychopath(which you're not)... what's so bad about that?

[momiswriting]

Have you read much on epigenetics? DNA is not destiny. It might make you feel better.

Even in the womb, identitical twins experience different stressors in pregnancy and birth.

Even if she is a psychopath, it does not make you one.