Resources for Understanding Psychopathy
The impact of sociopaths on
American business, government, and families is incalculable.
This growing list provides understanding of the problem, so that together
we can help each other solve our own problems and extend those
solutions into modified practices and institutions which disallow
predatory behavior against individuals and against groups of
individuals.
From professionals and specialists from medicine and psychiatry to sociologists, economists and lay people impacted by the problem, personally and professionally, awareness of the problem presented by those without conscience is growing.
Forums to provide support to survivors are growing in number across the web.
What was once a silent plague is now engaging our understanding.
We understand best when we see it happening. Hearing the stories allows us to understand psychopathy as nothing else can. Using out stories and other stories we can illustrate how the lack of conscience in 1% of the population has destroyed out world.
Understand. Apply research. Identify solutions which make predatory
behavior impossible. This is the goal of Pillsbury Justice. And while
we're at it, we bake the yummiest cookies.
Online Resource for Victims of Psychopaths and Narcissists
Some terrific articles and other resources.Article on how fMRI testing has worked on HowStuffWorks.com
Article and site on the risks and advantages of publicly exposing a psychopath. The site, Love Fraud, also provides a blog which is used for sharing stories and providing support as victims recover from their encounters with psychopaths. Donna Anderson, Love Fraud's creator, has written a book based on the 1,800 cases she has studied over the past several years. The book, now approaching publication, promises to be a real resource in the continuing battle to provide tools, both for recovery and to avoid psychopaths in the first case.
Lovefraud.com
A useful tool for 'seeing' the manipulation.
Hare.org site - A real resource for what is going on regarding psychopathy in the field of psychiatry as well as information on testing using verbal tools.
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By Psychopaths -
Articles and site by a psychopath about their world. Sam Vaknin, Ph.D., is an admitted psychopath. His site is intended, as you will see, to generate an income for him and to be approached with caution. That said, it provides a rare insight into the mind of the psychopath since they nearly never speak about it to potential victims.
Forums:
For Survivors
Aftermath: Surviving Psychopathy
This is an excellent forum with effective support and professional moderation. Your confidentiality is strictly respected and guarded.
Love FraudThis site also provides an excellent forum with compassionate and on point support, both from peers and therapists acting as moderator.
Support for parents worried about their children and contact with psychopaths.
Parenting the At Risk Child
Forum for parents raising the at risk child. Dr. Leedom has provided a very position resource for parents already dealing with extremely stressful circumstances. She has written several books. "Just Like His Father," is one of these and provides great insights and ideas for overcoming the genetic factors resulting in psychopathy.
Subject Updates from Love Fraud
March 9, 2010
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The sociopath's pseudo insightfulness and sensitivity
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sociopaths who posture as insightful and
self-aware,
writes Steve Becker, LCSW, are some of the most
dangerous predators around.
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Could the Chelsea King murder have been prevented? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When John Albert Gardner was sentenced in his first sex
offense, a psychiatrist stated that he expressed no
remorse, was a danger to underage girls, and
recommended the longest possible sentence.
Prosecutors did not follow the recommendation.
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Resource Perspectives: Taking the sociopath to the mat ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fred Dunsing, and attorney listed in the Lovefraud
Professional Resources Guide, lists the questions to ask
yourself when you want to go after a sociopath.
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Letters to Lovefraud: How I got away from the sociopath ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He got her pregnant, he was married to another
woman,
everything he told her was a lie. Still, he kept talking her
into taking him back--until she finally created a stealth
plan to leave.
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Films worth watching:
Psychopaths Among Us - ABC Report
Do you think like a psychopath?
Authorities doing edge work in the area - Articles
Interview with Dr. Robert D. Hare and Dr. Paul Babiak
Antisocial Personality Disorder
Transcripts:
Larry King Live - CNN LARRY KING LIVE, Inside The Minds Of Psychopaths
Aired May 4, 2005 - 21:00 ET
Articles:
These
Men Know 'Snakes in Suits': Identifying Psychopathic Fraudsters
By Dick Carozza
Not all psychopaths become fraudsters, but some fraudsters are psychopaths. A fraud examiner's job is to help deter fraud by discretely noticing those employees who might be exhibiting psychopathic tendencies. Psychologists Robert D. Hare, Ph.D., and Paul Babiak, Ph.D., experts in psychopath studies, explain how these aberrant characters can infect organizations and provide ways to deal with them.
See Psychopathy in action -
Craig Franklin and John Fund are just two of many psychopaths. Be prepared. Know what to look for.
You encounter them through business, in your social live, within your family. They make up only a tiny fraction of the population but they destroy lives as long as they live. They prey on you. They lie, connive, defraud, steal and enjoy your pain. They are without conscience. They are psychopaths and today we can identify them. See this list of behaviors if you have wondered about someone you know. This helps you assess the individual you suspect and there is a test, which carried out by a trained professional may work. But as good as it is the written test can be tricked. Today there are psychopaths training other psychopaths to evade detection.
However, Dr. Kent Keihl, of The Mind Research Network, has shown the real and dramatic differences in brain function between those with normally functioning brains and those without conscience. This technology removes denial and was first tested in the prison population. These tools are becoming more available daily but in most circumstances you will not be able to get the psychopath in your life tested.The only way to deal with a psychopath in your personal life, strongly recommended by experts such as Dr. Robert Hare and others who now understand the totality of the problem, is to confront them with boundaries. End the relationship. You let them know there will be no further contact. Cut them off entirely. But first you need to prepare yourself.
Your assignment starting now, is to make those who know you and the psychopath, aware of the facts and of the nature of psychopathy. For those resources go here.By so doing you reduce the damage
which the psychopath will do to you and your reputation, which is
incalculable.
Getting ready means documenting every act, every interaction. You can get resources online inexpensively. You will need the evidence to prove to third parties what happened. Maintain a journal, keep times and dates. Copy documents. Make recordings of conversations.
You thought it was friendship,
romance, or just business. Perhaps for you this was the case – but
for them it will be war. Documentation is your life line to escape
and to sanity.
Setting boundaries is for your
benefit. This can happen through letter or phone call. It is not
recommended you try a physical confrontation because psychopaths
frequently become violent.
Read this posting
from one individual exiting a relationship with a psychopath. On
the Forum
for Aftermath:
Surviving Psychopathy, you will find hundreds
of stories. Notice the absolute sameness of the strategy in which the
psychopath engages when the victim, you, escapes or he/she is
finished with you.
Cutting them off denies them access to you directly but will not entirely solve the problem. It takes time, tenacity and courage to excise them. You will need support. Aftermath: Surviving Psychopathy also provides that support. It is free and waiting for you. You are not alone. You can survive and move on.
Article Published as Sociopaths - They Prey on All of Us.
by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster
He constantly asks for sympathy,
takes risks , lies to you and when caught shows no remorse. It
is unsettling, frightening. Somehow it is your own fault. But why
would anyone do these things? There is an answer.
The
terms, "psychopathy", "sociopath," "sociopath,"
and others refer to individuals who look human but, in elemental
ways, are not. They harbor a condition which cuts them off from us.
Their automatic emotional reactions, foundational to limiting wrong
behavior, do not exist. These individuals emulate compassion,
concern, affection, kindness and love – only to further their
purposes. They feel no compunction about stealing, lying, or
committing crimes to achieve their goals. They consistently demand
sympathy, knowing perfectly well they deserve none.
They do not want or need sympathy. But they do need you to feel sorry for them, to want to help them. It is all manipulation, emotions emulated to get what they want. They know we feel sorry for them and project the existence of emotions they never feel, just another lie.
People catching their eyes report
feeling a chill of fear, as if looking into the eyes of a predator.
Psychopaths are predators among us. The pain and suffering of those
around them mean nothing, is pleasure to them. Their motivations seem
inexplicable to the emotionally normal, who comprise 96% of the
population.
Psychopaths have no conscience.
Where before little was written on
the condition outside of professional journals, now much more is
known. This is changing.
The evidence, now mounting, indicates the condition has a genetic element which becomes activated when combined with the conditions in the life of the individual. The last few years have taken understanding of the condition known as 'psychopathy' to new levels.
While only 4% of the population
have the condition Martha Stout, PhD., points out in her book, The
Sociopath Next Door, you are likely to have contact with psychopathic
individuals on many occasions during your life time. You therefore
need to understand the danger signs.
Experts in the field of
psychology have been researching the problem since 1980. Much is now
known.
In 1999 Robert D. Hare, Ph.D. published
Without
Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us.
Today, thanks to Robert Hare, David Kosson,
Pd.D, and others, the means exist to reliably diagnose the
condition. The test, carried out by qualified professionals, allows
us the tools needed to understand and to take steps to help victims.
The test, known as Hare
Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) and the Hare Psychopathy
Checklist when used by qualified
professionals makes available the means to identify those with the
condition. As with other tests it, presumably, will soon be commonly
used in court proceedings.
Hare's new book, Snakes
In Suits: When Psychopaths Go To Work,
written with Paul Babiak, Ph.D., and published in 2006, opens
the issue of the impact of the condition on the workplace, including
large corporations.
Since psychopaths live and work in every part of our culture we must consider this issue. How many sociopaths have worked their way into the management structure of corporate America? Estimates vary widely and lacking documented evidence all numbers are open to question. However, the behaviors associated with psychopathy, lack of conscience, lack of concern for the well being of others, a pattern of blatant lies, and others, strike many as strongly present in corporate culture today. Both the recent banking and mortgage implosions are evidence of this conclusion.
What if the present meltdown is partly due to a growing presence of psychopaths in upper management? Disturbingly, this may well also be true in higher levels of government given the massive cross over which exists at the highest levels of each. Logic supports the theory.
The test originated by Robert Hare has proven to be a valuable tool both to help victims and, increasingly, to open the door for victims to find justice. The work of Hare and his associates may, possibly, be used to the benefit of business and politics as well.
Psychopaths can impact us from every
direction. For individual victims there is also hope.
Through
the Aftermath:
Surviving Psychopathy website victims
participate with clinicians, therapists and others to move on with
understanding. The site provides a Forum
for victims, clinicians, and therapists for discussion and could well
become the hub needed to generalize understanding of the condition in
the general public.
Reading books on the subject, such
as the excellent work by Martha Stout, Ph. D., The
Sociopath Next Door,
provide tools and tests which you can use personally. Dr.
Stout, a practicing psychologist and clinical instructor in the
department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, warns the reader
to beware of those who fail the simple tests she outlines. Three lies
and your out, is one of simple suggestions she proposes.
In dealing with the overall problem Stout raises other questions which are profoundly on point for all of us today.
On the question of war: Should sociopaths be tolerated as useful in time of war? Are we intentionally allowing psychopaths into the military? Perhaps recruiting them?
Has our toleration and ignorance smoothed the path for ugly behavior in other parts of our culture? What would a psychopath do, if elected to office? If they were the determining factor in deciding what matters, their profit or your health?
Have we considered the dangers the unchallenged presence of psychopaths present when combined with the tendency in most of us to defer to authority?
If winning is the only thing that
matters there is nothing you will not do. Recognizing no limits,
psychopaths ignore the damage to others. As any small, determined
group can change the world for the good, as Margaret Mead said, so a
small number of individuals could destroy it. We need, therefore to
limit the access of psychopaths to power while identifying them to
the public.
A short tour through the books and the Aftermath: Surviving Psychopathy site raise questions which may well open up new understanding of ourselves. As individuals, parents, activists, and businesspersons, as Americans, we need to know.
This is the first in a series of articles about psychopathy and how we can solve the problems it presents by the author. Thanks to David Kosson, Ph.D., for his help in generously providing information and for his editing. - MP-F
Videos of special interest -
Here you can SEE the difference between us and psychopaths.
