Everyone has a choice between right and wrong, good and evil. I’m not a person to shy away from the use of the word “evil”. It’s a word that like sin is not commonly heard or understood in this age of humanism and ‘abnormal’ gene defence.
First we have to know what we are dealing with and be proactive in how we have a ‘heads up’ to, deal with – or escape that toxic person.
In having anything to do with someone with a severe personality disorder in which their behaviour has the consequences of harm, we might well pray, “..and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil,…”
Isn’t a rapist or paedophile evil in what they do? Their pure selfish intent in obscene lust leads to the devastation of their victims to the degree that victims can spend the rest of their lives being affected by the memory of the abuse.
My purpose, in this article series of Psychopathy that incorporates Sociopathy and Narcissism, isn’t to blind anyone with psychobabble, but to more practically bring to mind the potential of the toxic personality to bring harm upon their victims and maybe a possible sense of yes, there is something outside of what people may merely accept as their lot when dealing with the relationships, particularly close ones – and when faced with the introduction or the ongoing trials of associating with the toxic (sometimes fatally- like a bad marriage) and self-gratifying selfish personality.
Not all selfish behaviour is due to a pathological disorder. Everyone does the selfish thing at times. The people I’ll be talking about in this series are serial offenders: their psychological makeup. Some behaviour, like much of that of the narcissist, will be self evident; their behaviour isn’t so subtle. The end result of their behaviour will speak for itself despite the narcissist’s excuses. Other forms of selfishness aren’t so obvious. This is the stuff really to be careful of. The behaviour can be very subtle indeed but it is consistent so therefore has its equivalent of toxicity.
It’s important in the awareness of the behaviour of people that are constantly causing negative repercussions, to ask, “Is this person merely selfish? Or is this person exhibiting a pattern of behaviours that appear to be enmeshed within their personality?
To launch into this series, the type of personality disorder I want to go into I will call The Siren. I can think of one Hollywood and psychopathic character and that was Catherine Tramell, Sharon Stone’s character in the movie Basic Instinct. I won’t be dealing with the bizarrely insane and murderous here, more subtleties, and the topic of selfishness in common people later on.
An explanation of Psychopathy or Sociopathy. From Wikipedia:
“Emeritus Professor Robert Hare…describes psychopaths as “intraspecies predators who use charm, manipulation, intimidation, and violence to control others and to satisfy their own selfish needs. Lacking in conscience and in feelings for others, they take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without guilt or remorse.” “What is missing, in other words, are the very qualities that allow a human being to live in social harmony.”"
And,
“David T. Lykken proposes that psychopathy and sociopathy are two distinct kinds of antisocial behaviour”….”Sociopaths…have relatively normal temperaments; their personality disorder being more an effect of negative sociological factors like parental neglect, delinquent peers, poverty, and extremely low or high intelligence. ….psychopathy leans towards the heredity whereas sociopathy tends towards the environmental.”
I’ve read varying views on definitions of Psychopath and Sociopath. But through my reading, I’ve formed my own definition of the two sub-headings inside the major heading.
Thus:
Psychopathy or psychopathic personality disorder is the main heading,
under which is that of Sociopathy and Narcissism, the latter two terms will I draw distinction between. But both are under the major heading of “Psychopath”.
Thus Psychopath – with a leaning more towards sociopath – or more towards the leaning of narcissist. This is how I’ll be approaching this series.
Self-righteousness is hyprocrisy as all of us are capable of these things; we are people of free choice after all. However, we do have our own inner voice – the conscience to heed or ignore. So my articles here might be helpful to discern people on a more than face value thus to aid of personal self-preservation.
My next article is about The Siren.
In the following I’ll be relating the personality of the sexually charismatic; people that use their sexuality to manipulate and overwhelm with charisma. You may be able to bring to mind someone you know or have known who demonstrates this in their personality.
(This has been part one of “series psychopath”)
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