have you ever known a psychopath?

I had a good friend who is a Sociopath. I watched him steal from two different businesses, I am not talking petty theft either, I am talking truck loads of cigarettes. He would always be convincing people to go along with him or making himself look like he was right. He got into heroin and a lot of other bad stuff. He started stealing from his best friends just to support his addiction. Once we all more or less excommunicated him from our circle he moved on to younger kids to help support his habit by getting them hooked on heroin and stealing from them. This guy also ruined a nice girl(happened to be his old best friends little sister) got her hooked on heroin and emotionally controlled her for years even after she wised up and left him. This guy also had a silver tongue. I remember going job hunting with him about 5 years ago. We went to so many places. Both had interviews. He had at least 5 offers at some decent places, I had none. But any of the jobs he got he would be fired from within a month of starting...

Hes not a psychopath, but I think he has potential.

Originally posted by Theprimevoyager
I had a good friend who is a Sociopath. I watched him steal from two different businesses, I am not talking petty theft either, I am talking truck loads of cigarettes. He would always be convincing people to go along with him or making himself look like he was right. He got into heroin and a lot of other bad stuff. He started stealing from his best friends just to support his addiction. Once we all more or less excommunicated him from our circle he moved on to younger kids to help support his habit by getting them hooked on heroin and stealing from them. This guy also ruined a nice girl(happened to be his old best friends little sister) got her hooked on heroin and emotionally controlled her for years even after she wised up and left him. This guy also had a silver tongue. I remember going job hunting with him about 5 years ago. We went to so many places. Both had interviews. He had at least 5 offers at some decent places, I had none. But any of the jobs he got he would be fired from within a month of starting...

Hes not a psychopath, but I think he has potential.

Some people are capable of everything while they have their means, as soon as they lose it they become docile animals they are not true psychopaths.

reply to post by Epirus


OMG, I just had this crazy realization. Your story reminded me of a good friend of mine, we use to play together as children and watch wwe together every monday lol. Well anyways one day we we're in his back yard, we caught a toad and he put it into this coffee cup. Then threw the coffee up high in the air in purposeful flipping motion to harm the frog. I was shocked but also followed along because I always thought he was cooler then me..

Then i read this list that somebody put in this thread:

Glibness/superficial charm
Grandiose sense of self-worth
Pathological lying
Cunning/manipulative
Lack of remorse or guilt
Emotionally shallow
Callous/lack of empathy
Failure to accept responsibility for own actions

All my friend Josh. Thats how he has always been. He always thought of himself as the coolest kid ever.
He lied non stop, me and my other friend use to call him a pathological liar, i never knew what it meant for a while. He was manipulative to the point when ever i wanted to go home and leave his house he would beg me not to leave and convince me to stay and hang out with him. Whenever he did something wrong he would never feel bad about it, or if something bad happened to somebody he would either laugh or not really care.
(I did a backflip on his trampoline and smacked my legs off the metal bar.. he just laughed and i had to go to the hospital for two internal bruises on my shin bones. He never accepted that he did something bad, he would either blame someone else or deny that he did that...

I never realized that my friend is a pyschopath until just now.. this is really tough to take in.. but i guess it was best for me to know.. its just shocking i thought pyschopaths we're completely different.. like angry serial killers who just want to hurt, wow.

Just realized that was a sociopath's profile.. but still, shocking news.

reply to post by pasiphae


I have a friend. Let's just call him D for short. Well D and I had been friends in high school. We both had issues many of which weren't helped by our prescription to Ritalin. I myself was proscribed ritalin from kindergarden till my senior year of high school. I could still be prescribed it if I wished it. Either way I think a great deal of my psychopathic tendencies manifested in large part do to Ritalin or if nothing else Ritalin helped unearth what may have already been there. Either way to say I an angry person in high school would have been an understatement. I realized many of my feelings may be related to Ritalin and I stopped taking it.

Anyway...My friend D...he and I had livejournals which is a website to self blog and meet people and such. Well my friend D only had me on his friends list. He also wrote about a lot of homicidal thoughts which he had a on a daily basis usually at school because of people and social awkwardness that he in particular struggled with. I also wrote a great deal of my homicidal thoughts on this website. I believed at the time that it was anonymous enough of a medium that I need not concern myself with what I wrote too terribly much. Either way I had positive things to write about because while I had psychotic thoughts and urges I didn't act on them because of the good things that were happening in my life as well. I wasn't about to throw away the good so I could destroy what I thought was the bad and ruin the good in the process. So there was also good things in my live journal, stuff about girlfriends or college. My friend D though...it was almost exclusively negative and I could see why. His life at the time and in general isn't and wasn't the most pleasant. So he didn't really have a lot of positives to offset the negatives but either way he sort of went more in the deep end then I did. There are few people in this world I can say with certainty are more insane then myself...I'm sure people are out there but I've only met like two people I can honestly say are crazier then I and D is one of them. His last journal entry before stuff went down said he had stood over his younger brother's bed with a knife contemplating to stab him with it in his sleep. I did not see this entry before # went down however he had been increasingly verbal about an attack on the school. It seemed like he wanted my help for some sort of columbine thing but he never laid out a plan and I never really tried to invest much thought into it because I wasn't really ready to do something like that yet. I was angry but not angry enough to act on it...at least not angry enough to act on it anywhere but my own head. I had good stuff in my life and I wanted to pursue those good things. Anyway, the day after he puts that journal entry online, (the one I hadn't seen yet) I get called to the office near the end of the school day. I'm a senior in high school at the time. I walk in and they pretty much sit me down and tell me about how they found D's journal and identified it as his and how I am the only person on his friends list and I have a great deal of disturbing thoughts in my writing. They are concerned that I'm a danger. I lie. I life my #ing ass off because I saw D. D was in shock....D didn't have a good plan to escape from such a scenario and honestly he may have needed the help but it didn't change the fact that D had clammed up. He seemed resigned to his fate. I was not about to let my life change that much though. Even if I had to life my ass off to get out of this situation I would.

So here is what went down. I told them that I had been his friend and as his friend had recognized a great deal of his issues. I then told them that a lot of what I wrote was dark so as to be closer to D so that he could trust me more and maybe I could sort of "defuse" D by building trust with him and getting close to him. They were skeptical and they didn't want to risk the lives of students merely so I could keep going to class. So they thought of a practical solution. They had me taken out of school until I could complete a psych evaluation. If I completed the psych evaluation without issue I could come back to school and it would never be on my record. Given the circumstances and the fact that this was a post columbine society I agreed. I was out of school for two weeks while I completed this evaluation. They had me talk to a doc basically and he also applied a Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory exam or MMPI to me. I lied on the MMPI to appear more "normal". Anyway I scammed them all and was put back in school where I finished my year. I never lied about anything I wrote on that journal though....My friend D was put in in-patient care at a mental health facility of some kind for a couple months. When he got out he transfered schools and finished up. He was a junior at the time.

I guess I know a lot of them then. It is funny how one's station in life dictates the elements one gets to see and know.

Blank, soulless, cold and devoid of all emotions would describe these people that I grew up with, but then again I grew up in a very large, disconnected city during the heyday of mobsters, killers and free-agent goons. These people would have no problem cutting the first throat of anyone who stood in their way.

*I guess location has a lot to play into who you meet in life...along with other factors of course.

reply to post by GrimReaper86


Today D lives with himself and his cat and he has very few friends. I am one of them. He's on psych meds. He is diagnosed some sort of schizophrenic and the government pretty much pays his living expenses because he's so crazy I guess. I myself while still certainly not sane am a lot better then I used to be. I'm a lot less angry. I think a lot of this has to do with me not taking Ritalin anymore. I've also done psychodelics since then and I feel like psychodelics made me feel connected to everyone more no matter how dumb or annoying I might find them. With this connection comes a significant decrease in violent thoughts; at least for myself. I know I still have a something dark hiding inside me though. I can feel it try to come out sometimes and it's a great deal more obvious when my subconscious comes to the surface....let's just say if I drink too much I start to be a real dick so I tend not do do that too much.

I thought I was one until, I started watching an episode of Touched by an Angel...

Cried like a little girl who lost her teddy! Since then even the occasional phone commercial or car commercial will choke me up...

reply to post by maestromason


While I find that psycho's often have emotional dulling or even while they are nearly devoid of emotions that doesn't mean they are completely devoid of emotion. I've never met anyone crazy or sane that didn't feel some emotion some of the time even if it didn't make sense or they didn't understand why. I myself have very few emotions in regards to myself and people I don't like or barely know. However, I love my wife. Also my crazy friend D...he has feelings...most of the time they don't make a lot of sense...but I know that some of them do...I know my friend D can feel loneliness. So often people forget that anger is an emotion or that psychos are often fueled by some form of anger even if it's one that doesn't always make sense to feel. Really psycho's feel things...they just feel them in ways that normal people can't understand or can't sympathize with.

reply to post by GrimReaper86

I was angry but not angry enough to act on it...at least not angry enough to act on it anywhere but my own head. I had good stuff in my life and I wanted to pursue those good things.

And that, my friend, is what differentiates, or separates, the "psychos" from the "normals."

EVERYONE has violent or destructive-of-others urges and thoughts. It's a natural reaction to feelings of having been unjustly treated. It is the ability to REFRAIN from acting them out, to recognize them as human nature and emotional responses to perceived (and possibly real) injustice, that makes one "normal."

Thanks for your disclosure.

Originally posted by BruceEFury
reply to post by Epirus

 

OMG, I just had this crazy realization. Your story reminded me of a good friend of mine, we use to play together as children and watch wwe together every monday lol. Well anyways one day we we're in his back yard, we caught a toad and he put it into this coffee cup. Then threw the coffee up high in the air in purposeful flipping motion to harm the frog. I was shocked but also followed along because I always thought he was cooler then me..

Then i read this list that somebody put in this thread:

Glibness/superficial charm
Grandiose sense of self-worth
Pathological lying
Cunning/manipulative
Lack of remorse or guilt
Emotionally shallow
Callous/lack of empathy
Failure to accept responsibility for own actions

All my friend Josh. Thats how he has always been. He always thought of himself as the coolest kid ever.
He lied non stop, me and my other friend use to call him a pathological liar, i never knew what it meant for a while. He was manipulative to the point when ever i wanted to go home and leave his house he would beg me not to leave and convince me to stay and hang out with him. Whenever he did something wrong he would never feel bad about it, or if something bad happened to somebody he would either laugh or not really care.
(I did a backflip on his trampoline and smacked my legs off the metal bar.. he just laughed and i had to go to the hospital for two internal bruises on my shin bones. He never accepted that he did something bad, he would either blame someone else or deny that he did that...

I never realized that my friend is a pyschopath until just now.. this is really tough to take in.. but i guess it was best for me to know.. its just shocking i thought pyschopaths we're completely different.. like angry serial killers who just want to hurt, wow.

Just realized that was a sociopath's profile.. but still, shocking news.

edit on 11-1-2012 by BruceEFury because: (no reason given)

that must be a tough realization.... and with the frog thing.... it made me remember a kid my son hung out with for a bit. he would step on frogs and was a pathological liar. my son did hurt a frog once because the other kid did it but he never did anything like that again. this kid was older than my son so i guess he was trying to be "cool".

Originally posted by GrimReaper86
reply to post by maestromason

 

While I find that psycho's often have emotional dulling or even while they are nearly devoid of emotions that doesn't mean they are completely devoid of emotion. I've never met anyone crazy or sane that didn't feel some emotion some of the time even if it didn't make sense or they didn't understand why. I myself have very few emotions in regards to myself and people I don't like or barely know. However, I love my wife. Also my crazy friend D...he has feelings...most of the time they don't make a lot of sense...but I know that some of them do...I know my friend D can feel loneliness. So often people forget that anger is an emotion or that psychos are often fueled by some form of anger even if it's one that doesn't always make sense to feel. Really psycho's feel things...they just feel them in ways that normal people can't understand or can't sympathize with.

psychopaths have no capacity for love. they can fake it but not feel it. they can feel anger and irritation... those are the two exceptions regarding feelings. they "feel" a rush from harming others in one way or another whether it be physically or emotionally. they can't feel love or compassion at all.

I'm a physcopath, or at the very least I share a lot of the traits.

Ever since I was I was old enough to contemplate thoughts and feelings, I knew I was different. I felt it.
Master at deceit and lying from a young age, when I needed to be but I wasn't a bad child.

I had a good upbringing and good parents and family. It's almost like I was born this way.
I can show emotion but it's all a front, I basically mimic the required emotions in a reactional way to the enviroment as I know that's how 'normal' people behave.

I watched a documentary about psychos in corporate establishments an it was a revelation, it was like someone was describing my entire life and personality.

I don't want to kill or hurt people, But I am a master of mimicry and deception - there is little I care about beyondy own self worth. I do live a parasitic life style.

But do you know what? If you didn't know this and you met me you would like me. In popular and get along with everyone. Why? Because I am whoever you need me to be, I can mimic personalities and languages and read, manipulate and display subtle behavioural traits, body gestures, talk language and tone to an extent it's second nature to me and you wouldn't even know, you would just walk away thinking I'm comfortable to be around or easy to get a long with.

I left school with nothing and now manage people and earn great money. I'm loyal to this very few who matter to me in some capacity, I don't or wouldn't want to hurt people physically or mentally for fun but I can cut almost anyone loose if I need to(figuratively speaking) I could go on.

It's quite a feeling to be able to speak about this and I don't know why I open up now as I've never said this to anyone.

reply to post by abeverage

I thought I was one until, I started watching an episode of Touched by an Angel...

Cried like a little girl who lost her teddy! Since then even the occasional phone commercial or car commercial will choke me up...

Hi, abeverage....I've been there, too. Kodak commercials were the ones that broke me into tears. I found out that profound depression was the prob. Hope you find peace, and I highly recommend seeking guidance...not from a "psychologist," but from a "clinical social worker." Difference being, the "psychologists" see the client as "diseased and in need of curing", where the "social workers" see the client as being the expert on themselves and capable of determining for themselves where they want to go, realizing what behaviors are keeping them from getting there, and learning the skills required to get there (and to look back at their learning from early childhood and discern from where their thoughts and feelings were steered).

reply to post by jude11


I would say that you stole my joke except its not a joke. I actually did marry one.

Originally posted by GrimReaper86
reply to post by maestromason

 

While I find that psycho's often have emotional dulling or even while they are nearly devoid of emotions that doesn't mean they are completely devoid of emotion. I've never met anyone crazy or sane that didn't feel some emotion some of the time even if it didn't make sense or they didn't understand why. I myself have very few emotions in regards to myself and people I don't like or barely know. However, I love my wife. Also my crazy friend D...he has feelings...most of the time they don't make a lot of sense...but I know that some of them do...I know my friend D can feel loneliness. So often people forget that anger is an emotion or that psychos are often fueled by some form of anger even if it's one that doesn't always make sense to feel. Really psycho's feel things...they just feel them in ways that normal people can't understand or can't sympathize with.

These people are TOTALLY HEARTLESS ^ RUTHLESS to boot. I grew up with them knowing that their adult presence in ordinary society(if they made it to adulthood) would be extremely brief. I will not get into any "dry snitching" scenarios like some previous posters have but what I have witnessed and have heard them do is well worthy of a book and Hollywood movie deal.

Originally posted by The GUT
Sociopathic then I'd have to say yes. Psychopath not so much.

I recently stumbled across someone in another thread who described the difference between the two. Now someone correct me here if I screw this up... but basically a sociopath is someone studied by sociologists... while a psychopath is someone studied by psychologists. Supposedly they're BOTH one and the same. True or False? I haven't got a clue. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

reply to post by wildtimes

No worries this was a long time ago and you are right I had a major falling down period. I have since gotten back up because what else do we do when we fall down? lol

I just had a bad past did bad things that today I would never do or hope to repeat. Not only that I would slap anyone doing them LOL

It was like I was asleep for a long time never caring about anyone but me. I am a little more awake now still selfish but I am trying.

But I actually have gotten help and learned ways to help myself. Although ATS...suckers me down a rabbit hole.

I am not really sure if I have ever met a true so called Psychopath, but I met some extremely dysfunctional/functional people emotionally stunted from this weary world.

reply to post by shushu

I recently stumbled across someone in another thread who described the difference between the two. Now someone correct me here if I screw this up... but basically a sociopath is someone studied by sociologists... while a psychopath is someone studied by psychologists. Supposedly they're BOTH one and the same. True or False? I haven't got a clue. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

You did not screw up, but the person who said that is mistaken. They are (psychopath and sociopath) in many ways the same. But the diagnosis is not dependent on the "school of learning" from which the practitioner obtained their education.

Supposedly they're BOTH one and the same.

Yes, that is true. But it is not a matter of which way one was taught.

Psycholigists and Sociologists are trained differently. The former see themselves as "authority figures" who deem the clients "diseased" and in need of professional "cure." The "sociologists" (social workers) see themselves as helpers, not experts who are above, and capable of, "curing" the diseased client. Clinical social workers are trained to address the client as an equal, a person worthy of respect, and an expert on their own selves, and help the client decide on their own best goals, and the best path to take to reach them.

Originally posted by Neuron
I'm a physcopath, or at the very least I share a lot of the traits.

Ever since I was I was old enough to contemplate thoughts and feelings, I knew I was different. I felt it.
Master at deceit and lying from a young age, when I needed to be but I wasn't a bad child.



It's quite a feeling to be able to speak about this and I don't know why I open up now as I've never said this to anyone.

thank you for sharing that. i know how charming psychopaths can be. the one i dated has a HUGE following of people who think he's great. however, he doesn't follow your way of non harm. he derives "pleasure" in the way he fools people.

Are these conditions that start in childhood or is it someting that can strike for lack of a better word in adulthood.
I know someone who went from being a compassionate, caring, happy person who loved to see everyone around them happy to a coldhearted, to a take no responsibilty for actions, have no guilt for hurting others, It's all about kind of person. The change was absolutely amazing