Warning Signs of a Psychopath

Warning Signs of a Psychopath

Hervey M. Cleckly was a psychiatrist and a pioneer in the field of psychopathy; the following are his 16 indicators of a psychopath:

• Considerable superficial charm and average or above average intelligence
• Absence of delusions and other signs of irrational thinking
• Absence of anxiety or other "neurotic" symptoms considerable poise, calmness, and verbal facility
• Unreliability, disregard for obligations no sense of responsibility, in matters of little and great import.
• Untruthfulness and insincerity
• Antisocial behavior which is inadequately motivated and poorly planned, seeming to stem from an inexplicable impulsiveness.
• Inadequately motivated antisocial behavior
• Poor judgment and failure to learn from experience
• Pathological egocentricity - total self-centeredness, incapacity for real love and attachment
• No deep or lasting emotions
• Lack of any true insight, complete inability to see themselves as others do
• Ingratitude for any special considerations, act of kindness, and trust
• Fantastic and objectionable behavior, after drinking and sometimes even when not drinking--vulgarity, rudeness, quick mood shifts, pranks
• No history of genuine suicide attempts
• An impersonal, trivial, and poorly integrated sex life
• Failure to have a life plan and to live in any ordered way, unless it is one promoting self-defeat

Mental health professionals often use the Hare Psychopathy Checklist in order to asses psychopathy:

Factor 1: Personality "Aggressive narcissism"

• Glibness/superficial charm
• Grandiose sense of self-worth
• Pathological lying
• Cunning/manipulative (Manipulation is their trademark)
• Lack of remorse or guilt (They are often capable of violence)
• Shallow affect (genuine emotion is short-lived and egocentric)
• Callous/lack of empathy
• Failure to accept responsibility for own actions (Whatever the problem is, it is always someone else’s fault)

Factor 2: Case history "Socially deviant lifestyle"

• Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom
• Parasitic lifestyle (They constantly take from others, and give nothing in return; money, love, time, etc.)
• Poor behavioral control
• Lack of realistic long-term goals
• Impulsivity
• Irresponsibility
• Juvenile delinquency
• Early behavior problems
• Revocation of conditional release

To put it in plain terms, these people do not have a conscious or feelings, they wreak havoc in the lives of everyone within their reach (their parents, children, friends, etc.), and they constantly burn bridges and screw up opportunities in their lives.

To make matters worse, they are often heavy drinkers, they often have a criminal past and violent behavior, and they usually minimize or rationalize their shortcomings.

They often claim they do not care about what other people think about them because it is more important what a person thinks about oneself - this may be true, but this is NOT their real reason, in reality, psychopaths simply do not have the capacity to care about anyone else’s thoughts and feelings.