Posted on 10/28/2011 3:59:06 AM PDT by jmcenanly
Crime scene psychopaths reveal themselves through their speech Psycopaths are estimated to make up 1 percent of the population and up to 25 percent of male offenders in correctional settings.
NEW YORK — Psychopaths are known to be wily and manipulative, but even so, they unconsciously betray themselves, according to scientists who have looked for patterns in convicted murderers' speech as they described their crimes.
The researchers interviewed 52 convicted murderers, 14 of them ranked as psychopaths according to the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, a 20-item assessment, and asked them to describe their crimes in detail. Using computer programs to analyze what the men said, the researchers found that those with psychopathic scores showed a lack of emotion, spoke in terms of cause-and-effect when describing their crimes, and focused their attention on basic needs, such as food, drink and money. [10 Contested Death Penalty Cases]
While we all have conscious control over some words we use, particularly nouns and verbs, this is not the case for the majority of the words we use, including little, functional words like "to" and "the" or the tense we use for our verbs, according to Jeffrey Hancock, the lead researcher and an associate professor in communications at Cornell University, who discussed the work on Monday (Oct. 17) in Midtown Manhattan at Cornell's ILR Conference Center.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Gift of Fear was a good book. But the author’s bias shown through at times. He hates guns, and truly believes that they cause crimes. Probably because of the violence done to him and those close to him growing up, he can not see any value to common people having a gun.
And what's even scarier is how many people must think like him.
Thank you red, I don’t even remember the gun part at this point...read it too long ago. I’ll try to remember to post that caveat, because the book is very helpful re: ‘trusting your gut’.
I notice the people posting on this thread that are very big on that understand it/trust it for a reason, and it’s not that hard to figure out why. Problem with learning gut-trusting is our rational, ‘thinking’ brain says; “Naww, that can’t be!”, when all of our other faculties are screaming; “Yes it IS!” It is usually trauma of some sort that changes that, and causes skill-sharpening/radar-honing, etc.
The *general* rule of thumb I use to differentiate is frequency of exposure...
- Narcissists usually stay below the radar, and confine their damage to close individuals, families. They have to be perceived as rainbow-colored, skittle-pooping unicorns to the outside world. They pretty much DRIVE family court drama, as the rest of the normals want to just be done with it, get away, and move on. N’s need to “win”, they’re justified, it’s never their fault.
- Sociopaths appear above the radar more often, as they are less bound by the constraint to “appear” good.
- Psychopaths...not sure...you could argue they’re clever enough to hide their evil...hollywood’s full of those stories, but as the researcher mentioned in the article, spending 2-3 hrs. with the subject was mesmerizing, he felt he had been hypnotized...interesting! (and a trained ‘observer’ to boot!). So I’d say the psycho has the make-your-neckhairs-rise quotient pretty high in a one-on-one.
Even seasoned counselors say; “A Narcissist *feels* this way, and a Borderline *feels* that way.”
It’s ok, we’re talking about complex humans, and as someone mentioned, one of the hallmarks is ‘black and white’ thinking. All good or all evil.
Liberals...in the main...feel like Narcissists to me, and it’s not that far of a leap to see why more crimes are committed by them, since it’s a short walk from there to socio and psycho.
Cheers all!
My sis in law is a psychopath and is all those things. Until I came around the family just left her alone to do whatever she wanted. I butted heads with her and never let her get away with anything. Her slickness didn’t work on me. Eventually she did something that caused a separation of ways with us. We haven’t spoke to her in over 5 yrs and are now in court fighting her over crap she pulled with their Dad’s trust, etc.
There are many non violent psychopaths.
Or that she was a psycho killer.
Qu'est-ce que c'est
hahahahaha...check out this link from The Onion, and you might see it is his writers...:)
http://www.theonion.com/video/obamas-home-teleprompter-malfunctions-during-famil,14383/
(It is hilarious, by the way...)
First thing that came to mind was correlation is not causation. But then I use however and therefore too much in my writing so I’m likely off my rocker.
Correlation is not causation, you’re right. “However” (go ahead and chuckle), if a lot of this is not clear...or, if a lot of this is grey (as opposed to black and white) - I’ll take your rocker :)
This stuff is for tool-purposes only. Not to make a diagnosis. Not to make some “pronouncement”. Not a be-all to end-all. Just a tool. Use it! It’s for you.
Voltaire said it well;
“”There are some that only employ words for the purpose of disguising their thoughts”
Tells you something don’t it? When the pauses are peppered with such dreary uhs and ums...
There’s really no “there” there. They really are - not that smart. In fact one of the best gotcha moments is when you call them out, *pretend* sotto voce with; “You’re really not that smart, are you?” accompanied by a surprised expression, as if it just occurred to you...it helps if the mics pick it up and twitter it about the land with ear-bleeding indignation. That’s a delicious bonus.
“There’s another article on FR this morning about how the elites want to reduce the human population down to around 500 million. If you read the quotes, it sounds like a bunch of psychopaths scheming. “
Do you remember a rough title on this post, or any unique words in the title? I searched population, but couldn’t find it.
For practical purposes, Sociopaths and psychopaths are the same, but I have heard some researchers distinguish between how they are formed. Psychopaths have a pathology with their psychology that is assumed to be innate. Sociopaths are assumed to have begun normal, but had screwed up early socialization experiences which screwed them up, and lead to the same behavioral problems as psychopaths. Think institutionalized from an infant, sexually molested, abused physically, and then set free.
In turht, personality disorders will have a lot of overlap, so it is tough to differentiate some.
“Non-sociopaths find it almost impossible to kill, even in self-defense.”
Not really. Empathy can exist in many layers. Simple empathy runs along the line of “Look at that poor person.” A more complex empathy can run along the lines of, “look at how that guy has no regard for the suffering he is inflicting on those poor people.”
A more complex empathy can easily lead to killing, as it does in our armed forces, who are clearly not all sociopaths/psychopaths, or even close ot all being Sociopaths.
Also, a more indepth understanding of psychology can dehumanize a lot of the more nasty psychologies, also producing an ability to kill in relatively normal people.
Truth be told, we all evolved to be a much more violent species than we exist as today. In a state of nature, we’d all find things out about ourselves that would surprise us.
I can’t believe I found this. I had to go through my browser history.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2799088/posts
The title is ‘From 7 Billion People To 500 Million People (shortened title)’ which is why we couldn’t find it with the search.
That was my first thought: how many psychopaths are in the general population? They’ve only caught the unsuccessful ones.
I think the bulk of liberals fit under Borderline Personality Disorder rather than frank psychopathy or amoral. (Family doc, crazy lady magnet, here, speaking from experience.)
Remember the rule about Borderline Personality Disorder: if they make you angry in five minutes, they probably have BPD. It’s not always because the BPD is angry and obstructive when you meet them. (It’s lucky for us when we have this early clue.) Often, it’s because they make you feel responsible for their vulnerability.
A psychologist pointed out that they set you up to fail them.
The charming side of BPD’s is volatile and turns to fury in a second. Watch for the flattery and neediness, because they’re about to turn.
Good analysis.
AnonymousConservative,
Your response was well thought out and I appreciate the time you took to compose it. I hadn’t thought of layered empathy, for example. Below are two books I found riveting reads on this subject. Since you’ve obviously given the subject much thought you might like these books.
Kind regards,
Bern
“The Sociopath Next Door,” by Martha Stout
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_13?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+sociopath+next+door&sprefix=the+sociopath
“On Killing, the psychological cost of learning to kill in war and society” Lt. Col. Dave Groossman
Thank you so much.
I find Liberal psychology fascinating, and am amassing info on it’s nature and biological origins for a website.
I believe it evolved similarly to the r-selected psychology documented in heavily preyed upon species. Species which are preyed upon heavily see their populations lowered well below the carrying capacity of their environments. As a result, there is always plenty of food and very little competition for anything.
These species are documented as evolving towards a psychology which embraces promiscuity over monogamy, single parenting over “high investment” two parent parenting, and strong aversions to competition with peers, such as capitalism or war offer in humans.
I find it interesting Liberals want to reduce the numbers of humans drastically (much as a predator would), and create a sort of manufactured r-selection. It’s like an ancient program in their brain that makes them crave that r-selected environment.
Thanks for the article.
Thank you. I will look into them. I have heard the Sociopath Next Door is excellent, but haven’t had time for it yet.
“Um’s not an answer!” This is what Judge Judy says to the psychopaths in her courtroom. :D
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