“I think a lot of psychopaths are just geniuses who drove so fast that they lost control.”
― Criss Jami – Killosophy
My first post, as you have probably gathered, is about psychopathy, However this post serves two purposes, firstly it is the subject that I wish to discuss for my first post, and secondly, I would like to give clarity to the basis of my blog, which as you know is named, ‘life through a psychopaths eyes’.
I find psychopathy, its surrounding field, and societies lack of understanding of what the term actually represents fascinating. Google defines a Psychopath as, ‘a person suffering from chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behaviour.’ and lists ‘madman/woman, mad person, and deranged person’ as synonyms. Dictionary.com defines a psychopath as, ‘a person with a psychopathic personality, which manifests as amoral and antisocial behavior, lack of ability to love or establish meaningful personal relationships, extreme egocentricity, failure to learn from experience, etc.’
These sources are the first two that appear if you type ‘define psychopathy’ into a google search bar, and entering ‘psychopaths in the news’ presents two BBC articles sitting at the top of the list, one of which with the title ‘born evil or a diseased mind’, therefore it is unsurprising that societies perception of psychopaths is inherently bad, and mislead.
So when I use the word psychopath, your mind instantly jumps to Hannibal lector, Ted Bundy, and other famous serial killers through history. Some of you would therefore be shocked to learn that the serial killers you know of, are in fact a minority representing psychopaths in society, they are simply the extremes that make it to mainstream media. The majority of ‘psychopaths’ are actually the people sitting at the very top of the big buildings in the big cities like london and new york, they are the managing directors and CEO’s, the big fishes. But then, it’s all relative really isn’t it? Because the heroes working undercover deep in enemy territory for our armed forces kill without remorse, in the same way that serial killers do and they often share the same psychopathic traits as the convicted serial killers.
Research into psychopathy has brought about a theory that break psychopathy into two different groups. Firstly is Primary Psychopathy, which represents the psychopathic tendencies of those CEO’s and managers i mentioned. Primary psychopathy is the affective aspects of psychopathy; a lack of empathy for other people and tolerance for antisocial orientations. In other words, people that are high in primary psychopathy are concerned solely with themselves, and will do anything in order to further themselves, even at the expense of others around or below them. People in this group are not necessarily going to hurt you physically, but will happily exploit you and cheat you in order to get ahead.
Secondary Psychopathy represents the antisocial aspects of psychopathy; rule breaking and a lack of effort towards socially rewarded behaviour. People high in this form of Psychopathy are the ones you see on death row, having killed countless people. Their perceptions of reward and punishment is twisted, and research has found a possible reason as to why. An investigation into the neurology and cognitive function of convicted serial killers found that most of them suffered from a cognitive malfunction, in which their pleasure centres required much more extreme stimuli in order to be stimulated. Therefore it is the breaking of laws that provides them this pleasure.
As you know, I have referred to myself as a psychopath in this blog, however I am not a diagnosed psychopath. I do however present many psychopathic qualities and tendencies. I recently completed the Levenson self-report Psychopathy Scale, and the results you can see below. (you can take the test yourself at http://personality-testing.info/tests/LSRP.php )
‘You have completed the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale.
The LSRP measures two scales.
Scores range from 1 (low) to 5 (high).
Your score from primary psychopathy has been calculated as 4.6.
Your score from secondary psychopathy has been calculated as 3.8.
You score for primary psychopathy was higher than 95.74% of people who have taken this test.
You score for secondary psychopathy was higher than 92.14% of people who have taken this test.’
As you can see, my scores are pretty high in both aspects, but considerably higher in the primary aspects. Looking at these, people would expect that I am in fact some maniac that doesn’t care for rules and does anything for himself, but thats actually very far from the truth. For example, I hardly ever got into trouble at school, mostly because I was in fact well behaved, but also, and heres where the psychopathic traits become apparent, because I always had a way out, there was always someone else I could blame, or a way I could twist the situation to make me look innocent. The one time I actually got in trouble, I sat before the headteacher, and I cried, not because I was scared or upset, because I knew that would get me out of trouble, the innate human need for her to mother me and make me stop crying med her forget about the trouble I was in.
The quote today reflects my views on criminal psychopaths. These serial killers and fraudsters had the potential to utilise their ‘illness’ in order to get everything they could ever hope for, like the characters Gordon Gekko or Jordan Belfort, or any real life successful stockbroker. People that don’t experience fear like other ‘normal’ humans, that have no problem doing anything it takes to get to the top, the only difference is, they took it further, too far, too fast.
Now ask yourself, is psychopathy really an ‘illness’? Is it a defect? a setback? because I would strongly argue otherwise, I almost feel privileged to have these psychopathic qualities. The way I see it, I’m here for a limited amount of time, and I want to get the most out of that time, whatever the cost. If I have to bring someone else down to get me ahead, well, I’m going to do it, and I’m not going to feel bad, because you should be willing to do the same to me, if not, you’re weak. Now I know people will jump to the ‘no, they aren’t weak, they’re moral people’ argument, but morals are weaknesses, and thats something I’ll talk about in a future post. With all that said, I refer back to googles definition and synonyms, and although some of you would disagree with me, Id say I’m definitely not a madman or deranged, if anything, Im much more sane than everyone who isn’t slightly psychopathic…
Thanks for reading, hope to see you in my next post,
The Good Psychopath.
lifethroughapsychopathseyes 