How would you recognise a psychopath, BEFORE he does anything wrong?

Question

It's a great pity there is no gender neutral singular pronoun in the English Language. I selected "he" to mean in a general sense. Yes, I'm also referring to women, not just men, in this question. Thanks anyway.

Answer 1

superficial charm, self-centered & self-important, need for stimulation & prone to boredom, deceptive behavior & lying, conning & manipulative, little remorse or guilt, shallow emotional response, callous with a lack of empathy, living off others & predatory, poor self-control, promiscuous sexual behavior, early behavioral problems, lack of realistic long term goals, impulsive lifestyle, irresponsible behavior, blaming others for their actions, short term relationships, juvenile delinquency, breaking parole or probation , varied criminal activity,

The idea that psychopaths all kill people is a myth. In reality, a person with a psychopathic personality can lead what appears to be an ordinary life. They can have jobs, get married and they can break the law like anyone else. But their jobs and marriages usually don’t last and their life is usually on the verge of personal chaos. A psychopath is usually a manipulator. They do this by playing to the emotions of others. They typically have high verbal intelligence, but they lack what is commonly referred to as "emotional intelligence". There is always a shallow quality to the emotional aspect of their stories. In particular they have difficulty describing how they felt, why they felt that way, or how others may have felt and why. Psychopaths with low intelligence or a poor education seem to end up in jail more than ones with a higher education. The lack of emotional insight is the first good sign you may be involved with a psychopath. The second best sign is a history of criminal behavior in which a person does not seem to learn from their experience, but merely thinks about ways to not get caught. So what happens to these poor kids if they don’t learn right from wrong? Parents with a child like this usually end up angry and frustrated. The child is always in trouble and doesn’t seem to learn. In a case like this, many parents resort topunishment. But what these children need is guidance, instruction, training, choices, consequences and supervision. Severe and repeated punishment alone is the worst thing you can do. Letting a child like this run around unsupervised with violent and antisocial children is almost as bad. And child abuse is a sure way to create a social misfit or a monster. There is a growing discussion among researchers to suggest there may be a genetic influence that creates a psychopathic personality. Some sociologists believe that a sexually promiscuous psychopath who can live off others is a survivor and may represent one of many genes for survival in the human species. Even more surprising has been the observation that many adult psychopaths do not seem to benefit from traditional counseling or therapy and may in fact commit crimes again and sooner because of it. Research using brain scanning technology has revealed that the brain of a psychopath functions and processes information differently.

Answer 2

No SOCIOPATHS are the ones who can easily hide who they are. If he's a psychopath he'd be a little weird. Seriously, google the term sociopath. And people who are PSYCHOTIC ... psychotic is a totally different thing than psycho or sociopath. Google it all please people.

That being said it's not easy but basically if it all seems too good to be true or too nice to be human, then chances are, they're lies. Keep your eyes open. And TRUST YOUR GUT! :) If you come in contact with a lie, he'll have a way to explain it, if he's a sociopath or pathological liar. But a lie is a lie and if this happens enough, it's obviously contrived.

Answer 3

I manange to pull these chaps every time. I have figured out that psychopaths are usually charmers who can tap into exactly what you want to hear and spin you all the bullcrap. They never give anything away and are generally too good to be true.

Which bodes well for finding Mr right as i am not willing to risk going out with anyone else for a bloomin long time!

Answer 4

See my similar answer to another question in the link below.

Psychopaths are theses days in the UK said to be suffering from Borderline personality disorder or personality disorder and i take it you are talking about those with antisocial BPD not the thousands of unfortunate people that suffer BPD and PD and do not harm to anyone except perhaps themselves

There is a test on line to test if you are suffering from PD- see links.

Some literature about Psychopathy or PD ( including Wikipedia and this needs to be changed as it is wrong) says that they rarely seek help or know that they are ill.

This is not so therefore if you are worried about someone or their behaviour why not talk to them about it as they will know but some may not tell you/admit it.
But most PD or BPD sufferers do know very well that they are not 'right' and need treatment and help but unfortunately in the UK at least because PD is not considered curable there is very little help at all offered except expensive private therapy

Answer 5

it's pretty easy actually...you have to give them questions about things that are truly important to you but have nothing to do with them...if they won't answer...laugh...or give you a real blow off answer...be careful...psychopaths have no concern for others...if it has nothing to do with them...they are not involved personally and you can test this yourself...more than one time would be best to get an accurate test...after all we all have days we could care less about someone else because of our own issues...

Answer 6

It's very difficult. Even doctors can get it wrong. Imagine how the poor fool felt who said:
"Congratulations, Mrs Hitler - it's a boy".

Answer 7

It is easy. Just look at our youth today. Totally psychopathic. If they havn't the correct direction they usually do something wrong.

Answer 8

Psychopaths, however, reacted very differently from controls when looking at fearful faces. While normal males showed a greater response to fearful faces than neutral ones, psychopaths actually exhibited less reaction in the fusiform gyrus.
"In healthy people, visual cortical activation in response to fearful faces is boosted by feedback modulation from the amygdala," the researchers say. "Hence, reduced rather than increased visual cortical response to fearful faces compared with neutral faces in psychopathy may reflect differences in amygdala function in people with this disorder.
This would support suggestions that amygdala dysfunction underpins selective deficits in processing facial expressions of distress in adults with psychopathy and children with psychopathic traits, including recognition of fearful and sad faces, and reduced autonomic responsiveness to distress cues."

In most people, a fearful response from another person is aversive-in other words, it acts much like a "punishment"-and this natural response conditions us not to harm others. "Failure to recognize and emotionally respond to facial and other signals of distress," Deeley and colleagues say, "may underlie failure to inhibit behavior that engenders distress in others during social interaction or, more generally, may underlie the lack of emotional empathy observed in this population."

In a related study, Mairead Dolan and Rachael Fullam compared 49 male criminals with antisocial personality disorder to 49 non-criminal men matched for IQ. The researchers measured the subjects' ability to recognize facial expressions, and found that the antisocial group showed deficits in recognizing sad and happy emotions, even when photos expressed the emotions vividly. The deficits did not stem from impulsive responding, because the antisocial group took longer to recognize all of the tested emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise) than did control subjects.

Moreover, the researchers found that within the antisocial group, those with the highest scores for psychopathy were significantly worse at recognizing sadness than antisocial subjects who did not meet the definition of psychopathy. (While the two disorders are similar, less than 20% of people with antisocial personality disorder meet the criteria for psychopathy.) However, the psychopaths did not have difficulty recognizing happy faces.

The researchers say their findings suggest that due to amygdala deficits, antisocial individuals (and psychopaths in particular

Answer 9

you don't .. most ppl are ok but some have that in them all the time. the FBI rules for psychos is white, shy, very intelligent.. there not alway right ( like with that korean kid) but most psychos are like that.
i had this guy at work who was a pain in the a*s and he bothered this guy who fit the profile and the guy whent psyho on him big time.

Answer 10

Usely carry an Axe... does a lot of lurking in the shaddows and will whisper '...Kill...' quietly to himself sometimes!