Psychopath that can make rational decisions?

Question

the "checklist" for psychopathy:

* 1. Superficial charm and above average intelligence.
* 2. Absence of delusions and other signs of irrational thinking.
* 3. Absence of nervousness or neurotic manifestations.
* 4. Unreliability.
* 5. Untruthfulness and insincerity.
* 6. Lack of remorse or shame.
* 7. Antisocial behavior without apparent compunction.
* 8. Poor judgment and failure to learn from experience.
* 9. Pathological egocentricity and incapacity to love.
* 10. General poverty in major affective reactions.
* 11. Specific loss of insight.
* 12. Unresponsiveness in general interpersonal relations.
* 13. Fantastic and uninviting behavior with drink
* 14. Suicide threats rarely carried out.
* 15. Sex life impersonal, trivial, and poorly integrated.
* 16. Failure to follow any life plan.

is there a catagory for which a person can make rational decitions, life plan, reliablity but follow the rest of the checklist?

Answer 1

He usually can make very hard and calculating decisions when it involves preserving his personal status and soothing his own ego.

The psychopath tends to be quite rational when making those decisions which will tend to accentuate his own perception of himself.

Answer 2

It wouldnt seem like it, however there is an Author I believe her name is Ann Rule and she writes about pyschopaths and their lives and crimes they commit. I have read alot of them and incredibly most of the people were extremely intelligent and had very high position jobs and were married and had children. The people who she writes about were able to live a "normal" life to outside people but people that were close to them were most of the time very intimidated by them and noticed odd behavior and lack of concern or care for others and they all had a huge ego.

Answer 3

take btk for instance. he eluded the law for what, 30 years?? I dont know if he's considered a phychopath but he was very skilled and intelligent for what he did. I am in no way defending him but he was smart enough to kill all those people and not get caught. ever see Con Air? steve bushemi? listen to what he says on the plane...he's technically insane for the murders he has committed but at the same time wouldnt u consider insanity doing something you hate for a long period of time at the end of which they tell you to piss off? the definition of insanity is something like this, doing the same thing over and over the same way expecting different results. more like stupidity to me...

Answer 4

seems to me that if you interpret the checklist loosely enough almost everyone can be force fit into it...

i mean really... who sits down and plans thier life from beginning to end... and doesn't this constitute a failure to follow a life plan?

plan phase one... go to school and become educated
plan phase two... fall in love and marry
plan phase three.. raise happy and healthy children...
etc...

point being... life is what happens while you are making other plans...

and i would guess that even the experts would be able to assign a plan of life to the average serial killer if they just delved a little farther into it...

i mean wouldn't killing as many as possible and becoming famous fit into the category of 'life plan' (revise ted bundy)

Answer 5

I don't know if there is a category per se, but I do believe and have seen where psychopaths have exceeded and been successful with certain facets of their life (i.e. job, personal relationships, college etc.) while matching many of the characteristics listed in the PCL-R.

Answer 6

I like no. 8 I'm been married 4 times. lol. So now I know what the problem is.