Sociopaths - 1 in 4 Americans

Reliable statistics tell us that 4% of the American public are sociopaths. Four out of every 100 people. 3 of these are men, and only 1 of them a woman. They wear a mask of sanity, so you can work with them, socialize with them, and never know how sick and evil and manipulative they are.

 

TWELVE SIGNS OF  SOCIOPATHS...

 

1) The main characteristic of a sociopath is MANIPULATION. They are cunning and conniving. There is nothing benign about their manipulation either.

 

2) Pathological LYING. They simply cannot tell the truth. Liars can always be caught

because they can never remember all their lies.

 

3) Superficial charm, but only on the surface. They are charmers, but only in the short term. This is why they never spend much time with you; you'll see thru them.

 

4) Endless drama, they thrive on drama, histrionics. Negative drama. They have a need for stimulation.

 

5) Complete inability to form relationships. Even with their own families and children.

Even with pets. Shallow emotions. Not only incapable of love, but incapable of like.

 

6) Total lack of empathy, shame, guilt, or remorse. Callous and unfeeling.

 

7) Grandiose sense of self, endless narcissism. It's all about me! However, they are actually very insecure.

 

8) Irresponsible and unreliable.

 

9) Impulsive with poor self control

 

10) Sexual acting out, promiscuity, no morals, high sexual desires. Sexually casual, but claiming to have high moral standards.

 

11) Risk taking. They need cheap thrills in life, and taking risks is one way to do that.

This does not mean bungee jumping, or driving race cars.

 

12) They do have an Achilles' heel, a kryptonite, a fatal weakness- they cannot be rejected. "No one can reject me." This can literally drive some of them to violence.

The only way to unmask one is to spend time with them. This always exposes them for what they are. They often avoid spending much time with anyone, as they know their true colors will come out, their mask will fall down. First, you'll see the lies. Then you'll see the mask fall sometimes very briefly.

The only way a psychiatrist can diagnose one is by spending many visits with them. They will fool a mental health professional (or the police) in the short term. Another way is to give them a psychiatric profile. The MMPI-2 is the very best such profile. They will do anything to avoid this 495 question, state-of-the-art test. No, they cannot pass polygraph tests as some suggest. They don't feel remorse or guilt, but they know they are lying. The mouth can lie, but the brain cannot. Polygraphs test lies, not guilt.

No matter how old you are, how experienced, or how many sociopaths you've dealt with, you can still be fooled by a new one. Fooled only in the short term though if you're very aware.

Good books to read include Confessions of a Sociopath, The Mask of Sanity, The Sociopath Next Door, Without Conscience, and Sociopath. It is a lot more practical to just Google, "articles on sociopaths". There are many good ones that are easy to read.  What is the difference between a sociopath and a psychopath? This can be a very convoluted discussion, but it can be made simple. Actual psychopaths are rare, while sociopaths are all too common. Sociopaths aren't violent overall, while psychopaths will assault, rape, and kill without conscience. This is a good way to separate the two- psychopaths are violent sociopaths.

You are going to run into sociopaths all your life. One in twenty-five. Just be aware and remember the signs.