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How to Identify a Psychopath
Has anyoneencountered a crazy person or a person who acts differently? Well, sometimes we meet a person that we think is interesting. Even so, we may sense that this person is very strange but something about them bothers us. We might be dealing with a psychopath, a person that is hard to distinguish.However, there are a lot of ways to identify a psychopath. According to the dictionary.com, the definition of a psychopath“is a person with a psychopathicpersonality, whichmanifests as amoral and antisocial behavior, lack of ability to loveor establish meaningful personal relationships, extreme egocentricity, and failure to learn from experience.”From watching an American Psycho, I learned that psychopaths are masters of manipulation, and are often able to get people to do things they might normally might not do. They can use guilt, force, drugs,violence, sex, alcohol, bribery, and even torture to direct a course of action.
The movie American Psycho tells a story how a psychopath wears a mask of his insanity. On a date, apsychopath will use his superficial charm. A psychopath always agrees with everything in his/her story, and he/she will also say that they have the exact same story. That is the psychopath’s way of trapping a person by making someone comfortable.Psychopaths are manipulative. A psychopath will put on a “mask” of sanity that is likeable and pleasant. The longer a psychopath practices this “mask,” the better he will become practically undetectable. Psychopaths are also jealous of what a person has. A psychopath thinks that he’s better than others.
Most mental health professionals define a psychopath as a predator who takes advantage of others using charm, deceit, violence, and other methods to get what he or she wants. Psychopaths tend to believe they are smarter and more powerful than they actually are. In truth, most psychopaths are recklessly impulsive and irresponsible. They will never admit being wrong or making a mistake.
Psychopaths have no long term goals that are realistic. Some have no goals at all; others are a perverse exaggeration of what the individual can actually achieve by his or her own accomplishments or abilities. Because of their apathy, psychopaths are generally prone to belittlement, humiliation, mistreatment, mocking, hurting, and sometimes killing people whobring no benefit to them in any way. Anyone that is easy for the psychopath to dominate and control could become prey.
Kevin Dutton, a psychologist gives tests for suspected psychopaths. “While attending her mother's funeral, a woman meets a man, she's never seen before. She quickly believes him to be her soul mate and falls head over heels. However, she forgets to ask for his phone number, and when the funeral is over, try as she might, she can't track him down. A few days later she murders her sister.’’ If the first answer that springs to your mind is some variation of jealousy and revenge – she discovers her sister has been seeing the man behind her back for example, then you are in the clear. Many arrested psychopaths take part in the test and answer the question correctly. Why did she murder her sister? Because she was hoping the guy would appear at the funeral again.
Kevin Dutton, the originator of this test has a Ph.D. in psychology, and is an expert in the science of social influence. He is a research psychologist and honorary affiliated member of the Calleva Research Centre for Evolution and Human Sciences.
These are guidelines,but people still need to trust their own instincts and intuition. If someone displays some of the characteristics mentioned, it does not mean thatheis for certain a psychopath. It takes an experienced psychiatrist or mental practitioner to correctly identify a psychopath. However, we still have to be careful with a person that we are dealing with. We should not trust a person by his or her kindness especially if we feel uncomfortable unless a family member or a friend knows that person.
Works Cited
Ellis, Bret Easton: American Psycho,publisher Vintage Books, New York published in 1991. The book's graphic violence and sexual content generated a great deal of controversy before and after publication. Transgressional fiction, Novel.
The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson, a Journey through the Madness Industry.
Kevin Dutton is the author of The Wisdom of Psychopaths -- What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success.