Why don't psychopaths let go of their victims?
You probably have heard on the news about the kidnapping of Jaycee Lee Duguard, when she was only 11 years old. The young girl was kidnapped on June 10, 1991 from a school bus stop near her home and held hostage for more than 18 years by Phillip and Nancy Garrido. Garrido raped and imprisoned Jaycee. They had two girls together (age 11 and 15 at the time they were discovered by the police), whom Garrido and his wife also imprisoned in unsanitary tents in their backyard.
At the time they kidnapped Jaycee, Garrido had already been convicted of a sex crime. Despite the fact that parole officers checked regularly the house, they didn't bother to look in the couple's backyard, behind a fence. Nancy Garrido is shown on one tape interfering with the police inspection, harassing the inspector in order to distract him and prevent him from finding Jaycee and the girls. She is a partner in her husband's crime; a fellow abuser. The couple pled guilty to kidnapping and other charges on April 28, 2011 and were convicted on June 2, 2011. Phillip Garrido was sentenced to 431 years of imprisonment while Nancy received a lesser sentence of 36 years to life.
We see this phenomenon of dangerous duos, or partners in evil, on the news over and over again. What kind of women stay with male psychopaths, enable their wrongdoings, participate in them and then cover them up? Sometimes it's female psychopaths who partner in crime sprees with their male counterparts. The most notable example of this is Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo, the young Canadian couple who kidnapped and killed several young women, including Karla's younger sister. They were convicted in 1993 and are perhaps the inspiration behind Oliver Stone's controversial movie, Natural Born Killers (1994). Usually, however, two psychopaths together can't last long. Each has to outdo the other in wrongdoings; each wants to be top dog; each looks out for number one and, at the slightest provocation, turns against the other (as, in fact, happened in the case of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka).
The partnership between Phillip and Nancy Garrido reflects a different dynamic: the equally dangerous yet usually far more enduring combination between a psychopath and a malignant narcissist. In this combination, there is a clear top dog who guides the relationship: the psychopath. However, the malignant narcissist helps him carry out his wrongdoings and covers up for him. What is in it for a malignant narcissist when she teams up with a psychopath? How does this dynamic play out and why does it last? These are the questions I'd like to address next.
I have explained at length the features of a psychopath and why his lack of conscience and empathy, combined with an underlying psychological sadism (enjoyment at causing others pain) would lead him to commit the kinds of crimes Phillip Garrido was found guilty of. But what kind of woman stands by such a man? My hypothesis is: a malignant narcissist. All narcissistic personalities–even those who appear to have high self-confidence and to consider themselves superior to others–crave constant validation. An insatiable need for validation forms the core of unhealthy, excessive narcissism. I say "excessive narcissism" because we all have egos or selves and thus we all have some narcissistic tendencies that are healthy–in moderation–and make us the individuals we are.
Psychopaths are very adept at identifying individuals who suffer from unhealthy, excessive narcissism. Why? Because such individuals appear to be vulnerable and insecure. Caring too much about what others think and pinning one's self-esteem on the opinions of others is, indeed, a weakness and a vulnerability. Those who suffer from narcissistic personality disorder have a weak and relative sense of self that needs constant validation. They need to feel better than others or superior to others in order to have an identity and feel good about themselves.
Psychopaths form a symbiotic relationship with such highly narcissistic individuals by holding out the promise of becoming a superior and very special couple. Because psychopaths have an inherent sense of superiority and because they're thrill seekers who consider themselves to be above the rules and laws, they often manage to convince such narcissistic partners that together they make an unbeatable power couple: closer than other couples, better than them, smarter than them, more cunning than them, hotter than them. During the honeymoon phase of the relationship, there are no words in any language to describe this superlative superiority.
The problem is, as we know, that psychopaths inevitably pass from the idealization phase to a devaluation phase in all of their relationships. This is part and parcel of their personality disorder: to become bored with and emotionally detach from every person they are with. Since a narcissistic partner requires constant reassurance of her superiority to other women–especially since the psychopath,with his constant flirting and cheating, gives her plenty of reasons to be jealous of them–she will feel threatened during the devaluation phase, when he no longer finds her hot, virtuous, brilliant, practical, wise, and all the other qualities he formerly (and all too briefly) ascribed to her.
That's when the most dangerous and pathological aspect of their relationship begins. During the devaluation phase, the malignant narcissist begins to be rewarded almost exclusively by the punishment of other women the psychopath hooks up with, uses, devalues and abuses. She may no longer be as wonderful as she seemed in his eyes in the beginning. However, there's this reward left in their "special" and "superior" relationship: by staying with her; by needing her as an alibi and cover for him; by harming other women jointly, she proves her (sick) love and loyalty to him while he, in turn, acknowledges her superiority to all the other women he uses and abuses worse than he does her.
The worse other women are treated by the psychopath–in more commonplace cases, used and disposed of like dirty condoms; in extreme cases, raped and murdered–the more this abuse confirms her special status in his eyes. Such women are without conscience, without remorse, without empathy just like the psychopaths themselves. They are manipulative, deceptive and abusive like psychopaths. The main difference between such malignant narcissists and the psychopaths is that the narcissists are in some respects weaker and more vulnerable.
They tend to be followers rather than leaders because of their excessive need for validation, which puts them at the mercy of others and makes them especially appealing to psychopaths: as their partners in life and allies in wrongdoings. If you read about other similar cases to that of Phillip and Nancy Garrido or about the psychology of cult followers, you will see this psychological dynamic at play. There are few more enduring and dangerous duos than these partners in evil: the psychopath and malignant narcissist combo.
Categories: antisocial personality disorder, bad men, because you're special, charismatic psychopaths, charming predators, Claudia Moscovici, codependency, confusing relationships, Dangerous Couples, Dangerous Liaisons, dangerous men, dangerous women, deadly couples, devalue and discard, disordered couples, emotional abuse, emotional predators, evil, evil couples, evil men, faces of evil, how sociopaths think, how to recognize a psychopath, infamous psychopaths, infamous psychopaths on the news, insincerity, Jaycee Duguard, Jaycee Lee Duguard, Jekyll and Hyde Personalities, Karla Homolka, Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo, malignant narcissism, mental health, misogyny, Nancy Garrido, narcissism, narcissistic personality disorder, Oliver Stone, Partners in Evil, Partners in Evil: The Psychopath and Malignant Narcissist Combo, pathological couples, pathological lying, Paul Bernardo, personality disorders, Phillip and Nancy Garrido, Phillip Gardio, psychological torture, psychology, psychopath, psychopathic lovers, psychopathic seducer, psychopathic seduction, psychopaths and boredom, psychopaths and emotion, Psychopaths and Psychological Torture, psychopaths and the media, psychopaths as lovers, sexual predators, sexual sadists, social predators, sociopath, sociopathy, The Pssychopath and Malignant Narcissist Combo, the psychopath as puppet master, the psychopath unmasked, the psychopath's emotions, the psychopath's hatred, the psychopath's relationship cycle, The Seducer, The Seducer: A Novel, The sociopath next door, toxic relationships, trauma bonding, trauma bonds, Uncategorized, Wicked Attraction, Without conscience . Tags: Claudia Moscovici, Dangerous Attraction, dangerous couples, Dangerous Liaisons, dangerous men, dangerous relationships, dangerous women, dating bad men, dating dangerous men, deadly couples, Deadly Duos, deception, disordered couples, emotional abuse, evil couples, Hervey Cleckley, Jaycee Duguard, Jaycee Lee Duguard, Karla Homolka, Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo, malignant narcissism, Nancy Garrido, narcissism, narcissistic personality disorder, Natural Born Killers, Oliver Stone, Partners in Crime, Partners in Evil, Partners in Evil: The Psychopath and Malignant Narcissist Combo, pathological couples, pathological lying, Paul Bernardo, personality disorders, Phillip and Nancy Garrido, Phillip Garrido, psychology, psychopathic seduction, psychopathyawareness, social predators, The Mask of Sanity, The Psychopath and Malignant Narcissist Combo, The Seducer, The Seducer: A Novel, The Seducer: A Novel about Psychopathic Seduction, The sociopath next door, toxic relationships, Wicked Attraction, Without conscience . Author: psychopathyawareness . Comments: 19 Comments
A Better and Stronger You: Leaving the Psychopath for Good
Many of the women who love psychopaths intuitively know that they're dealing with a sick man. Yet they feel like they have invested far too much for far too long into the relationship to give up on him. Their self-confidence and sense of reality have been severely undermined. They may tell themselves, hoping against hope, that their love and patience will fix the dangerous man. Or that after spending fifteen years with him, they can't throw away the entirety of their youth, as if those years together were all for nothing.
As Sandra Brown M.A. puts it in Women Who Love Psychopaths, nobody escapes completely unscathed from such a toxic relationship. However, the harm is not linear: in other words, it's not necessarily true that the longer you are with a psychopath the more you are harmed. Even short-term relationships with a disordered man can be very harmful. Conversely, even women who have spent 20 years with a psychopath can escape those toxic bonds and emerge better and stronger from them.
However, the damage seems to get worse from the time you realize you're with a psychopath or disordered man and come to accept his abuse: the pathological lying, the gaslighting, the cheating, the putdowns, the threats and the relentless chipping away at your self-esteem. Women who stay with known psychopaths, or with men they know to be very bad, adapt to increasing dosages of harm. This can severely damage their own personalities and the way they interact with others, sometimes beyond repair.
On the positive side, even if you've spent many years with a psychopath, you can escape this toxic relationship. Chances are, you used to be a strong person. In previous posts we've seen that psychopaths prefer to seduce extraverted, accomplished and confident women. They could easily prey upon passive and weak women. But they prefer the challenge of destroying a strong person instead. We've seen how psychopaths use their partners' strengths against them. They use women's trust to deceive and cheat on them as well as, more generally, to play mind games. They isolate previously sociable women. They undermine the confidence of women with high self-esteem by focusing on their real or imaginary weaknesses. It's not unusual to develop neuroses, post-traumatic stress disorder and eating disorders while involved with a psychopath. He will even cultivate those maladies, and lead you to focus obsessively on them rather than on your strengths and achievements, to keep you under his thumb.
We've seen how psychopaths use women's capacity to love and their tenacity–their high emotional investment in the relationship–to keep them on the hook. They lure them with strategic withdrawals and empty promises to improve, which are belied by consistent, though often hidden, abuse. They dangle whatever women want most in life before their eyes–true love, fidelity, commitment, a happy life together, returning to the romantic and exciting honeymoon phase of the relationship–only to make conditional demands, that erode their partners' dignity and self-respect.
To counteract these strategies and reclaim your life, you need to reassert your agency, your strength and your boundaries. You need to recognize that you're not just a passive victim of the psychopath's control, even if you were, indeed, victimized by him. You have agency. You willingly began the relationship with the psychopath. You willingly stayed with him despite seeing red flags early on in the relationship. You may have willingly taken him back after discovering that he repeatedly cheated and lied. You may have also engaged in some immoral behavior to keep him in your life. You may have hurt or neglected those who loved you for his sake. Each step you took as a couple was not just his own doing. It was also yours. Sandra Brown points out that seeing yourself as an agent in your life decisions doesn't imply denying the fact that the psychopath has hurt you or minimize the extent of your pain. It just shows you that you have the power to determine your life choices. Just as you chose to become involved and stay with a psychopath, you also have the power to disengage from him for good. (How to spot a dangerous man, 32)
To understand why you made such poor and self-defeating choices, you need to assess realistically both your strengths and your weaknesses. In earlier posts, I identified some of the potential weaknesses of women who get involved with psychopaths, which led them down a self-destructive path. The main one is an unrealistic and dichotomous view of themselves, which is narcissistically inflated (as better than other women) in some ways, and too weak (as less than other women) in others. You don't need a psychopath to identify your qualities and flaws. You don't need his manipulative criticisms that undermine your self-confidence. You don't need his fake and conditional flattery to feel good about yourself. You know who you are. And, deep inside, after so much mistreatment at his hands, you also know that it's clearly in your best interest to leave the dangerous man and end the sick relationship with him. Your self-preservation, not just your self-esteem, is at stake.
Exercising your agency also implies reasserting your strength and your boundaries. If you stayed with a psychopathic partner it's because he undermined the strength that he originally admired in you and that drew him to you, like a parasite to its host, to destroy you. You can find that inner strength again to live your life free of him. The longer you will be away from his noxious influence, the stronger you will grow.
The psychopath has strung you along by eroding your boundaries: your moral sense of right and wrong, your sexual boundaries and your empathy. When you draw the line and say no more and mean it, the psychopath loses and you win. By way of contrast, each time you do what he tells you, each time you override your intuition to believe his lies, each time you violate your sense of right and wrong, each time you neglect or hurt those who care about you, each time you engage in perverse sexual acts just to please him, he wins and you lose.
The women who stay with psychopaths may be strong women, as Brown's research indicates. Yet many of them lack sufficiently strong boundaries. They may be strong in other areas of life. But they become weak as far as their personal relations with the psychopath are concerned. These, unfortunately, become the fulcrum of their existence. Staying with a psychopath indicates that they're willing to compromise their values, their relationships and their standards just to keep and please a disordered man.
To reclaim your autonomy and your strength, you need to reassert your boundaries. The negative experience with the psychopath has no doubt made you more aware than ever of what you stand for since you were repeatedly pressured by him to lower your standards and to violate your principles. Each time you did that it hurt because you lost not only part of your values, but also–and more importantly–part of yourself.
Asserting the limits of the person you are and of what you stand for constitutes an essential step towards rejecting the psychopath. Most likely, he won't even stay with you if you assert yourself and don't give in a single inch to him anymore. As a narcissist, he can't tolerate any real equality in a romantic relationship. He has to be "top dog." He constantly reaffirms this status through the power he exercises over you, his family and his acquaintances. Because he doesn't regard you (or anyone else) as his equal, the psychopath can't offer you genuine respect for your values, your activities, your needs and your identity. His fake charm, his controlling and possessive attention, his disingenuous and manipulative flattery and the empty romantic gestures he made (mostly in the beginning of the relationship) are not the same thing as genuine love, mutual caring and respect.
As we've seen, a psychopath is incapable of having a caring and equal relationship with anyone. For this reason, psychopaths seek women who are strong but exceedingly flexible; women whose boundaries they can erode and whose identities they can distort. If you regain your sense of identity and boundaries, you become much less vulnerable to psychopathic seduction and control. Psychopaths are parasites who want to suck the lifeblood–the emotions, the confidence and the strength–out of you. They violate your sense of self, through what psychologists call "enmeshment." As your identity blends into his, your whole life revolves around meeting his ever-changing needs. The more you violate what you stand for and who you are to please the psychopath, the more you dissolve into the dangerous relationship with him. As Sandra Brown states,
"Boundaries are indicators of where we start and end, and where other people start and end. We set limits–or boundaries–in relationships to protect our bodily selves and dignity… Drawing your identity from a dangerous man… can have disastrous outcomes." (How to spot a dangerous man, 201).
Not every misfortunate experience has a silver lining. Some, like fatal illnesses, may be purely tragic. Fortunately, overcoming a relationship with a dangerous man is one of those life experiences that does have a silver lining. After having been involved with a psychopath, for whom "love" means conquest, ownership and dominance, a normal relationship with a decent, respectful and honest partner will seem almost miraculous by comparison. Nothing about healthy human bonds can ever be taken for granted again after one has experienced the worst life has to offer.
Clearly, in choosing a psychopath you lost part of yourself and wasted part of your life. Such a destructive relationship came at a cost. Fortunately, you still have the power of choice as to how your life will continue. You don't have to throw away the rest of your life to him. This experience may have weakened you in some respects. But if you utilize it the right way, it can also make you a much stronger person. Whatever time, energy and emotion you spent on the psychopath weren't completely wasted. They have taught you how to know and defend the limits of your identity and values. They have taught you who to appreciate and love in life and who to reject and keep out. They have revealed your strengths and your limitations. They have made you more independent, since you've seen how flattery and criticism by others can function as a form of mind control.
It's now up to you to decide if you will allow the psychopath to continue to undermine your dignity and the quality of your life or if you will rely upon your strengths and true love bonds with others to live the kind of moral, honest and fulfilling life that you deserve. The psychopath has kept you under his control by narrowing and intensifying the range of your experiences. You consequently focused only on him and on how to twist yourself, like a fish on a hook, to please him.
You can reverse this process. You can broaden the sphere of your existence by expanding your interests and focusing on those who deserve your affection. In fact, you can do more than that by helping inform others suffering at the hands of psychopathic partners about this dangerous and camouflaged predator. Making a clinical diagnosis of personality disorders is, of course, only up to experts. But identifying potentially dangerous traits isn't just for experts. Any of us can be adversely affected when we allow disordered individuals into our lives. Knowledge is the most essential form of self-defense.
Widespread information about physical and emotional abuse has saved millions of people from domestic violence. Spreading information about psychopathy may help save millions of additional lives from harm. Ironically, the disordered man who wanted to destroy you both morally and emotionally can give your life a higher, more other-regarding purpose. In the past, you may have relegated too many of your decisions to the psychopath. But, ultimately, the power of choice in what you do with the rest of your life lies in your hands, not his. May the new year bring you peace and happiness, free of the toxic relationship with a psychopath.
Categories: a stronger you, antisocial personality disorder, bad men, charismatic psychopaths, charming predators, Claudia Moscovici, confusing relationships, Dangerous Liaisons, dangerous men, dating, deception, denial, domestic violence, dumping a psychopath, emotional abuse, evil, leaving the psychopath, love addiction, narcissism, overcoming emotional abuse, overcoming toxic relationships, personality disorders, psychology, psychopath, psychopathic seducer, psychopathic seduction, psychopathy, psychopathy awareness, psychopathyawareness, relationships, sex addict, sexual addiction, sociopath, sociopathy, victim, victim profile, Women who love psychopaths . Tags: A Better and Stronger You in 2011: Leaving the Psychopath for Good, a stronger you, Bitlit, Claudia Moscovici, Dangerous Liaisons, dangerous men, dangerous relationships, dating bad men, dating dangerous men, domestic violence, emotional abuse, http://www.neatorama.com/bitlit/category/the-seducer/, http://www.youtube.com/user/ClaudiaMoscovici, leaving a psychopath, leaving the psychopath, Neatorama's Bitlit, overcoming emotional abuse, personality disorders, psychopath, psychopathic seduction, psychopaths, psychopathy awareness, psychopathyawareness, social predators, sociopath, sociopathy, The Mask of Sanity, The Seducer, The Seducer: A Novel, The Seducer: A Novel about Psychopathic Seduction, toxic relationships, victim, Women who love psychopaths . Author: psychopathyawareness . Comments: 16 Comments
"I knew in my heart something was wrong with him (or with her)". This is what nearly every victim of a psychopath has felt, usually early on in the relationship. The over-the-top flattery. The quick pace of the relationship and demands for instant commitment. The lies and inconsistencies. The callousness towards others. The disregard for social norms. The sense of superiority (absolute narcissism), without having much to show for it or justify it. The aimlessness and lack of responsibility. The random oscillations in mood and behavior, to exert power over others. The demands for isolation from loved ones and friends. The sexual deviancy. The control and possessiveness. There are always very disturbing signs in the psychopathic bond, signs that we tend to ignore or rationalize until the toxic relationship, like a disease, takes over to destroy our lives.
I'd advise anyone who feels this way to start researching on the internet the symptoms they see wrong because this information about psychopathy, and finally paying attention to the red flags and our intuition, has saved each and every one of us. The first –and last–step in recovery from the psychopathic bond is getting information; recognizing the nature of the problem. This is why knowing how to identify the symptoms of psychopathy is so important. Information can save us from denial, false hope, gaslighting and the illusion that a psychopath is likely to foster in victims. It can give us the strength to leave the toxic relationships, substantiated by facts as opposed to just feelings. Psychopaths can manipulate our feelings. But the symptoms of this personality disorder are clear as psychology–which is, after all, a social rather than "hard" science–can identify.
Today I'd like to repost a list of the symptoms of psychopathy, offered by two of the main experts on psychopathy, to whom I've often alluded so far: Hervey Cleckley (author of The Mask of Sanity) and Robert Hare (author of Without Conscience, Snakes in Suits and The Psychopathy Checklist). Obviously, their lists are very similar since Robert Hare built upon Hervey Cleckley's ground-breaking research.
Hervey Cleckley's List of Psychopathy Symptoms:
1. Considerable superficial charm and average or above average intelligence.
2. Absence of delusions and other signs of irrational thinking.
3. Absence of anxiety or other "neurotic" symptoms. Considerable poise, calmness and verbal facility.
4. Unreliability, disregard for obligations, no sense of responsibility, in matters of little and great import.
5. Untruthfulness and insincerity.
6. Antisocial behavior which is inadequately motivated and poorly planned, seeming to stem from an inexplicable impulsiveness.
7. Inadequately motivated antisocial behavior.
8. Poor judgment and failure to learn from experience.
9. Pathological egocentricity. Total self-centeredness and an incapacity for real love and attachment.
10. General poverty of deep and lasting emotions.
11. Lack of any true insight; inability to see oneself as others do.
12. Ingratitude for any special considerations, kindness and trust.
13. Fantastic and objectionable behavior, after drinking and sometimes even when not drinking. Vulgarity, rudeness, quick mood shifts, pranks for facile entertainment.
14. No history of genuine suicide attempts.
15. An impersonal, trivial, and poorly integrated sex life.
16. Failure to have a life plan and to live in any ordered way (unless it is for destructive purposes or a sham).
Robert Hare's Checklist of Psychopathy Symptoms:
1. GLIB AND SUPERFICIAL CHARM — the tendency to be smooth, engaging, charming, slick, and verbally facile. Psychopathic charm is not in the least shy, self-conscious, or afraid to say anything. A psychopath never gets tongue-tied. He can also be a great listener, to simulate empathy while zeroing in on his targets' dreams and vulnerabilities, to be able to manipulate them better.
2. GRANDIOSE SELF-WORTH — a grossly inflated view of one's abilities and self-worth, self-assured, opinionated, cocky, a braggart. Psychopaths are arrogant people who believe they are superior human beings.
3. NEED FOR STIMULATION or PRONENESS TO BOREDOM — an excessive need for novel, thrilling, and exciting stimulation; taking chances and doing things that are risky. Psychopaths often have a low self-discipline in carrying tasks through to completion because they get bored easily. They fail to work at the same job for any length of time, for example, or to finish tasks that they consider dull or routine.
4. PATHOLOGICAL LYING — can be moderate or high; in moderate form, they will be shrewd, crafty, cunning, sly, and clever; in extreme form, they will be deceptive, deceitful, underhanded, unscrupulous, manipulative and dishonest.
5. CONNING AND MANIPULATIVENESS: the use of deceit and deception to cheat, con, or defraud others for personal gain; distinguished from Item #4 in the degree to which exploitation and callous ruthlessness is present, as reflected in a lack of concern for the feelings and suffering of one's victims.
6. LACK OF REMORSE OR GUILT: a lack of feelings or concern for the losses, pain, and suffering of victims; a tendency to be unconcerned, dispassionate, coldhearted and unempathic. This item is usually demonstrated by a disdain for one's victims.
7. SHALLOW AFFECT: emotional poverty or a limited range or depth of feelings; interpersonal coldness in spite of signs of open gregariousness and superficial warmth.
8. CALLOUSNESS and LACK OF EMPATHY: a lack of feelings toward people in general; cold, contemptuous, inconsiderate, and tactless.
9. PARASITIC LIFESTYLE: an intentional, manipulative, selfis, and exploitative financial dependence on others as reflected in a lack of motivation, low self-discipline and the inability to carry through one's responsibilities.
10. POOR BEHAVIORAL CONTROLS: expressions of irritability, annoyance, impatience, threats, aggression and verbal abuse; inadequate control of anger and temper; acting hastily.
11. PROMISCUOUS SEXUAL BEHAVIOR: a variety of brief, superficial relations, numerous affairs, and an indiscriminate selection of sexual partners; the maintenance of numerous, multiple relationships at the same time; a history of attempts to sexually coerce others into sexual activity (rape) or taking great pride at discussing sexual exploits and conquests.
12. EARLY BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS: a variety of behaviors prior to age 13, including lying, theft, cheating, vandalism, bullying, sexual activity, fire-setting, glue-sniffing, alcohol use and running away from home.
13. LACK OF REALISTIC, LONG-TERM GOALS: an inability or persistent failure to develop and execute long-term plans and goals; a nomadic existence, aimless, lacking direction in life.
14. IMPULSIVITY: the occurrence of behaviors that are unpremeditated and lack reflection or planning; inability to resist temptation, frustrations and momentary urges; a lack of deliberation without considering the consequences; foolhardy, rash, unpredictable, erratic and reckless.
15. IRRESPONSIBILITY: repeated failure to fulfill or honor obligations and commitments; such as not paying bills, defaulting on loans, performing sloppy work, being absent or late to work, failing to honor contractual agreements.
16. FAILURE TO ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR OWN ACTIONS: a failure to accept responsibility for one's actions reflected in low conscientiousness, an absence of dutifulness, antagonistic manipulation, denial of responsibility, and an effort to manipulate others through this denial.
17. MANY SHORT-TERM RELATIONSHIPS: a lack of commitment to a long-term relationship reflected in inconsistent, undependable, and unreliable commitments in life, including in marital and familial bonds.
18. JUVENILE DELINQUENCY: behavior problems between the ages of 13-18; mostly behaviors that are crimes or clearly involve aspects of antagonism, exploitation, aggression, manipulation, or a callous, ruthless tough-mindedness.
19. REVOCATION OF CONDITION RELEASE: a revocation of probation or other conditional release due to technical violations, such as carelessness, low deliberation or failing to appear.
20. CRIMINAL VERSATILITY: a diversity of types of criminal offenses, regardless if the person has been arrested or convicted for them; taking great pride at getting away with crimes or wrongdoings.
These lists have been compiled by angelfire, on the link below:
http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/narcissism/psychopathy_checklist.html
Categories: antisocial personality disorder, charismatic psychopaths, Charismatic Psychopaths: Mark Hacking and Neil Entwistle, charming predators, Dangerous Liaisons, dangerous men, domestic violence, emotional abuse, emotional predators, evil, faces of evil, Hervey Cleckley, how to recognize a psychopath, Jekyll and Hyde Personalities, narcissism, personality disorders, psychology, psychopath, psychopathic seducer, psychopathic seduction, psychopathy, psychopathy awareness, psychopathy symptoms, psychopathy traits, psychopathyawareness, Robert Hare, social predators, sociopath, sociopathy, the list of psychopathy symptoms, The List of Psychopathy Symptoms: Hervey Cleckley and Robert Hare, The Mask of Sanity, The Seducer, The Seducer: A Novel, the symptoms of psychopathy, what are the symptoms of psychopathy, Without conscience . Tags: Claudia Moscovici, Dangerous Liaisons, dangerous men, dangerous relationships, domestic violence, emotional abuse, Hare's Psychopathy Checklist, Hervey Cleckley, Neatorama's Bitlit, pathological lying, personality disorders, psychology, psychopath, psychopathic seduction, psychopaths, psychopathy, psychopathy awareness, psychopathy checklist, psychopathy symptoms, psychopathyawareness, Robert Hare, social predators, sociopath, sociopathy, symptoms of psychopathy, the list of psychopathy symptoms, The List of Psychopathy Symptoms: Hervey Cleckley and Robert Hare, The Mask of Sanity, The Seducer, The Seducer: A Novel about Psychopathic Seduction, the symptoms of psychopathy, toxic relationships, what are the symptoms of psychopathy, what is a psychopath, Without conscience . Author: psychopathyawareness . Comments: 32 Comments
A Crazy Roller Coaster Ride: Life with a Psychopath from Idealization to Devaluation
Life with a psychopath quickly turns into a crazy roller coaster ride. Psychopaths usually retain the appearance of calm, even in the face of great duress. However, sharing your life with a psychopath for any significant period of time means living with constant drama and extreme ups and downs. There are four main reasons for this, three of which I've alluded to in previous posts and a fourth that I'd like to examine in greater detail today:
1) The psychopath, not being capable of forming deep emotional attachments, is very easily bored. Consequently, he (or she) will need to provoke constant drama in his personal and sometimes even his professional life, for entertainment.
2) The psychopath, aiming for power and control over others, generally becomes involved sexually and romantically with many individuals at once. This in itself will create a lot of mutual jealousy, fighting over him and drama (among those targets that know of each other), once again, entertaining the psychopath and demonstrating his dominance over his victims.
3) A psychopath will engage in arbitrary displays of power, to maintain control over his targets. If he got upset in a rational manner only for legitimate reasons, this would not demonstrate his power nor psychologically and emotionally unhinge those around him. Psychopaths are always tyrants: be it of their small families or of an entire nation. Whether they wield power over few or over many, their behavior is similar, as are their techniques of maintaining control (deceit, brainwashing, isolation, abuse interspersed with small favors and arbitrary displays of power, manifested from anything to physical violence to gaslighting and emotional abuse and, in some cases, to death itself).
4) However, there's an aspect of the roller coaster ride–the constant ups and downs, the extreme idealization and the bitter devaluation–which is even harder for victims to accept. It's nearly impossible for victims to understand why somebody who made such a great effort to seduce you; who couldn't praise you enough; who gave you so many romantic gifts; who said "I love you Baby" more often than "hello"; who seemed to be lost in your eyes could all of a sudden perceive you as a nothing and a nobody; insult your appearance, accomplishments and intellect; criticize and stab you in the back to others and–above all–hate you as the worst enemy of their lives. I believe that this dramatic and seemingly unmotivated shift from high to low regard absolutely stuns victims of psychopaths, leading some of them to wonder what they did wrong to provoke it.
The answer usually is: you did nothing wrong. In some cases, the flattery and gifts were only a ruse the psychopath used to get whatever he may have wanted from you: be it money, sex, or a cover of normalcy. In other cases, however, the flattery was genuine: which, of course, also means genuinely shallow. It was a sign that the psychopath's pursuit of you was extremely exciting and rewarding to him. You were (for a period of time) a very high priority because of the immediate gratification the relationship with you offered him.
This doesn't mean, of course, that he didn't cheat on you, that he didn't lie to you, or that he treated you well. It only means that he took the trouble to deceive you and hide his secret lives far better because that was the only way to get from you whatever he wanted at the time. He couldn't have obtained your trust, your love, your commitment, or your wealth without doing everything possible to convince you of the lie that he, himself was capable of trust, love and commitment.
The high in your relationship is therefore explicable in terms of the time required to lure you, to get you to buy the false image and bond to him. The low is explicable in terms of his need to control and dominate you. Later, it's also the manifestation of the final phase of the relationship–the discard phase–when the psychopath finally exposed himself for what he is. At that point, he either left you or you left him. Usually, however, psychopaths never leave you for good, but return from time to time to probe for more supply and to destabilize your life.
But it seems as if the psychopath's devaluation of you is so filled with bitterness, hatred and sometimes even violence that it can't be fully explained in terms of him tiring of you and moving on to other promising victims. Loving couples can grow apart and leave each other for better matches and lives. Non-loving couples can grow apart once they're no longer useful to one another. But a psychopath takes this process one step further, to discard his ex-lovers with a degree of vitriol and hatred that astonishes his victims and exceeds any boundaries of normality.
This becomes most obvious in those cases when psychopaths kill their ex-partners and dispose of their bodies as if they were a pile of garbage. Fortunately, this only happens rarely: and when it does, we tend to hear about it on the news. However, even psychopaths who don't engage in such extreme behavior manifest an inexplicably strong vitriol towards their former partners, particularly towards those who left them of their own volition.
It's as if a psychopath feels doubly betrayed in those cases: not only for being rejected by you, but also for the fact you're no longer living up to the unrealistic ideal of the honeymoon phase of the relationship. He projects the blame for the diminished excitement in the relationship unto you. What's wrong with you that you don't thrill him anymore, as you did in the beginning of his hot pursuit? Is it because you're not beautiful enough? Is it because you're not smart enough? Or rich enough? Or sexual and sensual enough? What do you do wrong and how do you fail to meet his needs?
Failing to accept any responsibility for anything in life, a psychopath never really blames himself for any failure in his relationships. Someone else, or circumstances, are always to blame. Like a child who tires of an old mechanical toy and smashes it to the ground when it no longer works, so the psychopath destroys old relationships (along with their positive associations in his mind) after he tires of each of his partners. For a psychopath, it's not enough to end a dying relationship. He must also demolish that person and what she once represented to him. The higher you were initially idealized by a psychopath, the lower you will fall in his eyes when the relationship inevitably fizzles out. Hatred and contempt will fill the place in his empty heart, which was temporarily filled by shallow admiration and lust.
Categories: antisocial personality disorder, bad men, borderline personality disorder, cat and mouse games, charismatic psychopaths, charming predators, Claudia Moscovici, confusing relationships, Dangerous Liaisons, dangerous men, dating, deception, devalue and discard, do psychopaths fall in love, domestic abuse, domestic violence, dumping a psychopath, emotional abuse, emotional predators, emotional vampires, how sociopaths think, idealize, insincerity, manipulative men, manipulative personalities, mental health, psychological torture, psychology, psychopath, psychopathic lovers, psychopathic seducer, psychopathic seduction, psychopaths and boredom, psychopaths and emotion, psychopaths and passion, psychopaths as lovers, psychopathy, psychopathy awareness, psychopathy symptoms, psychopathy traits, relationships, Robert Hare, the psychopath's contempt, toxic relationships, trauma bonding, trauma bonds . Tags: A Crazy Roller Coaster Ride, A Crazy Roller Coaster Ride: Life with a Psychopath from Idealization to Devaluation, Claudia Moscovici, Dangerous Liaisons, dangerous men, dangerous relationships, dating bad men, dating dangerous men, devaluation, devaluation phase, devalue and discard, domestic violence, emotional instability, emotional ups and downs, extreme devaluation, idealize, instability, life with a psychopath, Life with a Psychopath from Idealization to Devaluation, personality disorders, psychology, psychopathy, psychopathy awareness, psychopathyawareness, Robert Hare, social predator, sociopathy, The Mask of Sanity, The Seducer: A Novel about Psychopathic Seduction, toxic relationships, why the psychopath devalues his victims, Without conscience . Author: psychopathyawareness . Comments: 196 Comments
I'm not alone in thinking that the NOT GUILTY verdict in the Casey Anthony trial, the young woman accused of killing her young daughter Caylee–like that of the O. J. Simpson trial before it–was a travesty of justice. What's more appalling than when a clearly disordered person seems to be getting away with murder (at least in the eyes of a large segment of the public) is when she's also getting paid large sums of money by the media for her infamy. It's as if the American media rewards those who seem to be, quite literally, getting away with murder.
Faced with a much-deserved backlash from an outraged American public, ABC news decided to withdraw their offer to pay Casey Anthony one million dollars for exclusive rights to her story. It's a wise decision, although I can't help but wonder what kind of message both the news and the entertainment media send the public when they're even contemplating such an offer. Apparently selling scandalous news trumps any consideration to ethics or the public welfare.
Because of this priority, not that long ago, notorious (probable) psychopaths like Drew Peterson had a field day with the media, manipulating them to the point of ridicule and humiliation. When interviewed on Steve Dahl's Morning Show about his proported grief for his missing wife, Peterson wanted to pitch instead his idea for a dating contest, Win a Date with Drew. Being desperate to get an interview with high profile suspected murderers, even the mainstream media–not only the tabloids–are turning psychopathy into a circus.
Here's one of the latest stories about the outcome of Casey Anthony's trial and the media offers for her story, from Marisa Guthrie in The Hollywood Reporter (July 8, 2011). I'm including below both Guthrie's article and its link, since I believe this case has everything to do with psychopathy (and its rewards in the media). The media has become so motivated by the bottom line that, apparently, they are willing to pay any price for salacious news stories, no matter how much they offend the norms of human decency.
by Marisa Guthrie
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/how-a-casey-anthony-interview-209342
Steven Hirsch, co-chairman of Vivid Entertainment, said in a statement: "It's clear to me now… that there has been an overwhelmingly negative response to our offer and so we've decided to withdraw it. It has become obvious to us that Vivid fans, and people in general, want nothing to do with her and that includes a XXX movie. We want to make movies that people want to watch and we now believe that we underestimated the emotional response that people are having to the verdict. A movie starring Casey Anthony is not what people want to see."
On Thursday, Hollywood agency Paradigm, Jose Baez hours after the company announced internally that it would rep Baez in TV, film and book rights.
Nevertheless, as Anthony is due to be released from jail on July 17, bookers for the broadcast and cable networks are camped in Florida working contacts in hopes of landing interviews with Anthony and her family. But the stench of checkbook journalism and the prospect that Anthony could profit from the death of her daughter is giving news executives back in New York pause.
One executive characterized any Casey Anthony interview as "hugely complicated."
And a booker echoed that sentiment: "It's complicated any time you're paying somebody who everybody thinks is a killer."
"It's going to be one of the biggest gets," said another booker. "But is it worth the bad press? Sometimes it's not."
News organizations are already feeling the heat for the widespread practice of licensing photos and videos from interview subjects. ABC News was revealed to have paid the Anthony family $200,000 in 2008 for what a network spokesperson has described as an "extensive library of photos and home video for use by our broadcasts, platforms, affiliates and international partners." ABC News also paid meter reader Roy Kronk, who discovered Caylee Anthony's remains, a $15,000 photo licensing fee. But it was not for a picture of the remains, rather it was for a photo of a snake. Kronk appeared on Good Morning America. He testified that the snake distracted him when he found Caylee's skeleton. (ABC News did not pay Baez or juror Jennifer Ford.)
Now news organizations routinely disclose on-air if they've paid a licensing fee. And the practice has become so derided, that they take pains to disclose when they haven't paid. Today host Ann Curry noted as much during her interview with Octomom Nadya Suleman on Friday.
News organizations dealings with Anthony, say industry observers, must be squeaky clean if they hope to preserve some semblance of journalistic integrity and also land what is sure to be a ratings bonanza. But Anthony, who is clearly estranged from her family and has no resources to speak of, has little incentive to grant a free interview.
"She's got no interest in granting a regular news interview," says television news analyst Andrew Tyndall. "She's only got interest in granting a promotional interview, which is remunerative. Of course, news organizations should sit her down and say, 'What's your theory of what happened to your daughter?' But that's a news interview. There's no prospect of an actual journalistic interview being done here, where real journalistic questions are asked and answered and we actually gain some insight into the circumstances of this case.
"Journalists, for their own self-preservation," adds Tyndall, "should go a million miles away from this because there's no information, just sensation."
Categories: ABC news, ABC news Casey Anthony, antisocial personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, Casey Anthony, Casey Anthony getting away with murder?, Casey Anthony psychopath?, Casey Anthony verdict, Caylee Anthony, Caylee's murder, charismatic psychopaths, Charismatic Psychopaths: Mark Hacking and Neil Entwistle, charming predators, Claudia Moscovici, Dangerous Liaisons, Drew Peterson, emotional predators, emotional vampires, ennui, evil, evil clowns, evil jokers, evil men, faces of evil, fascination with evil, How a Casey Anthony Interview Could Backfire on News Orgs, how sociopaths think, how to recognize a psychopath, infamous psychopaths, infamous psychopaths on the news, investigating psychopaths, Investigation Discovery, it pays to be infamous, It Pays to be Infamous: Psychopaths and the Media, Jekyll and Hyde Personalities, manipulative men, manipulative personalities, Marisa Guthrie, murder, narcissism, pathological lying, personality disorders, psychology, psychopath, psychopaths and the media, psychopathy, psychopathy symptoms, psychopathy traits, psychopathyawareness, red flags psychopathy, Robert Hare, social predators, sociopath, sociopathy, Steve Dahl Drew Peterson interview, the murder of Caylee Anthony, the psychopath unmasked, the psychopath's emotions, why psychopaths are evil, why psychopathy is everyone's problem, win a date with Drew, Without conscience . Tags: ABC news, ABC news Casey Anthony, Casey Anthony, Casey Anthony and the media, Casey Anthony case, Casey Anthony case travesty of justice, Casey Anthony found not guilty, Casey Anthony psychopath? Casey Anthony got away with murder? Casey Anthony interview, Casey Anthony trial, Casey Anthony verdict, Caylee Anthony, Caylee's murder, Claudia Moscovici, Dangerous Liaisons, dangerous men, dangerous relationships, deception, Drew Peterson, Drew Peterson and the media, Drew Peterson Dating Show, getting away with murder, Hervey Cleckley, How a Casey Anthony Interview Could Backfire on News Orgs, infamous psychopaths, It Pays to be Infamous, It Pays to be Infamous: Psychopaths and the Media, Marisa Guthrie, pathological lying, personality disorders, psychology, psychopath, psychopathic killers, psychopathic seduction, psychopaths, psychopaths and crime, psychopaths and murder, Psychopaths and the Media, Psychopaths in the Media, psychopaths media, psychopathy, psychopathyawareness, Robert Hare, social predator, social predators, sociopath, sociopathic killers, sociopathy, Steve Dahl Drew Peterson interview, Steve Dahl Morning Show, The Mask of Sanity, The Seducer, The Seducer: A Novel about Psychopathic Seduction, The sociopath next door, toxic relationships, win a date with Drew, Without conscience . Author: psychopathyawareness . Comments: 3 Comments
Psychopaths often fool others with their mask of sanity. As we know, they appear glib and charming in casual contact, hide their wrongdoings from others and lie smoothly with no compunction. But usually they're far better at fooling their buddies and professional acquaintances–those they have only superficial contact with–than they are their long-term significant others. For a number of reasons I've explored so far–including fear, dependency, a sense of helplessness, PTSD, loyalty and deep emotional attachment–women sometimes stay with known psychopaths. Perhaps a less obvious reason for this that I'd like to discuss today is a self-defeating fascination with evil. Many of us are intrigued by evil, partly because of it's caused by human beings who are fundamentally different from the rest of us. Just as it's impossible for psychopaths to relate to what's good about human nature—they see conscience, empathy and love it as weaknesses–it's almost as difficult for most people to understand what motivates psychopaths to harm others.
The film The Dark Knight (2008) was a box office hit largely due to the popularity of the evil character. The Joker kills not in order to become richer, as do the other outlaws in the movie, but solely for the sport of it. His characterization as a psychopath is plausible: except perhaps for the unfortunate fact that most psychopaths are much harder to identify. They usually don't look as repulsive and don't act as obviously crazy as the Joker does. Yet, fundamentally, all psychopaths are evil jokers. Their idea of entertainment, and of a life well-spent, is duping and destroying others.
Similarly, Dracula novels remain international best sellers for a similar reason. In spite of ourselves, we're drawn to human vampires who feed upon our lives, to weaken and destroy us. Even crime shows that feature psychopaths are very popular. Evil individuals also tend to monopolize the personal interest and crime stories featured on the news.
Because most of us are capable of empathy and love, and thus can't identify with those who completely lack these capacities, we imagine evil people to be far more complex and intriguing than they actually are. We may be initially mystified by the contradiction between a psychopath's apparent charm and his underlying ruthlessness. But once we realize that the charm of evil people is purely instrumental, to get them whatever they want at the moment, this contradiction is resolved and ceases to intrigue us. In reality, normal people are far more interesting and less predictable than psychopaths. The depth and range of our emotions complicates, nuances and curbs our selfish impulses and desires. For psychopaths, however, nothing stands in the way of their absolute selfishness. Each and every one of their actions, including seemingly other-regarding acts, can be plausibly explained in terms of their quest for dominance.
Evil men may appear to be masculine, self-confident and in charge. They seem to know what they want from life and how to get it. Keep in mind, however, that it's so much easier to know what you want when you're considering only your own desires and are willing to sacrifice everyone and everything to satisfy them. Even animals manifest deeper emotions. They care about their young and bond with others. Psychopaths don't. If decent men sometimes hesitate, it's because they're more thoughtful and other-regarding. They put other people's needs into the equation before reaching a decision. Thus, paradoxically, it's only because of their deficiencies and simplicity with respect to normal, more multidimensional, human beings that we consider evil individuals our "Others" and are intrigued by them.
Categories: A Fascination with Evil: Addiction to a Psychopath, addiction, antisocial personality disorder, bad men, boredom, charismatic psychopaths, charming predators, Claudia Moscovici, confusing relationships, Dangerous Liaisons, dangerous men, dating, deception, devalue and discard, domestic abuse, domestic violence, emotional abuse, emotional predators, emotional vampires, ennui, evil, evil clowns, evil jokers, Evil Jokers: The Dark Knight and Other Psychopaths, evil men, fascination with evil, insincerity, Lovefraud, Lovefraud.com, psychology, psychopath, psychopathic lovers, psychopathic seducer, psychopathic seduction, psychopaths and emotion, psychopathy, psychopathy awareness, psychopathy symptoms, psychopathy traits, psychopathyawareness, Robert Hare, sexual predators, social predators, sociopath, sociopathy, The Dark Knight, The Joker, the psychopath unmasked, the psychopath's emotions, The Seducer, The Seducer: A Novel . Tags: A Fascination with Evil: Addiction to a Psychopath, Claudia Moscovici, Dangerous Liaisons, dangerous men, dangerous relationships, dating bad men, emotional abuse, evil, evil clown, evil joker, evil jokers, Evil Jokers: The Dark Knight and Other Psychopaths, evil psychopaths, fascination with evil, personality disorders, psychology, psychopath, psychopathic seduction, psychopaths, psychopathy, psychopathy awareness, psychopathyawareness, Robert Hare, social predators, sociopath, sociopathy, The Dark Knight, The Joker, The Mask of Sanity, The Seducer, The Seducer: A Novel, The Seducer: A Novel about Psychopathic Seduction, toxic relationships, what is a psychopath, Without conscience . Author: psychopathyawareness . Comments: 13 Comments
Why Do Sociopaths Waste (Our) Time?
In reading Donna Andersen's book Love Fraud, I was struck by how much time and energy her sociopathic ex-husband spent inventing phony business schemes which were doomed to failure. Given his intelligence, charisma and powers of persuasion, he could have created enough successful businesses to last him several lifetimes. But he chose not to create a single successful business venture during his predatory scams of so many trusting and loving partners. So the question arises: Why? Why do sociopaths waste (our) time?
The main answer I've given before is that sociopaths don't have any constructive goals in life. On the contrary, they aim to destroy people and their lives however they can: emotionally, physically and sometimes also financially. Their behavior fits into a pattern that destroys human life and its meaning largely by wasting our time. Nearly everyone I've talked to who has been involved with a sociopath expresses one main regret: I wasted my life, for x number of months or years, on a fantasy, on a total fraud.
The feelings of "love" a sociopath expresses are never real. At best, they express need for you (or, more precisely, for using you for their purposes) or sexual desire. The so-called "truths" a sociopath shares with you are largely lies or manipulative bits of truth, intended to sway you in some way that serves his purposes. Often a sociopath will invest an enormous amount of time and energy to construct a web of lies. He will repeat to you the same false information, to lead you to believe that he's trustworthy; that he shares your life goals; that he loves you. He will even get others to corroborate those lies or half-truths. He will pretend to be interested in your interests. Not only that, but he will mirror you consistently enough and for a long enough period of time to gain your trust. He will sometimes go so far as to ingratiate himself with your family and friends, to gain their confidence as well. He will also take great pains, for as long as you're useful to him, to hide his bad behavior, including the cheating, web of lies, crimes and/or financial scams. He will put in his best effort to brainwash you into accepting his false version of reality. Even the energy sociopaths invest in demeaning their targets is enormous, given that to be effective they do it gradually, insult by insult, demand by demand, over time. If they became abusive upfront and at once, their victims would be much more likely to be shocked by the mistreatment and reject them.
Because they find no inherent meaning in human life–no higher purpose, no real feelings of loyalty and love–sociopaths perceive life as an empty stretch of time that they must somehow fill up with diversions, schemes and games at other people's expense. Even most sociopaths who are well-educated and intelligent waste their natural abilities and their lives, on playing constant mind games, pursuing a string of vacuous and ultimately unsatisfying sexual relationships, manipulation, and often pointless deceit. Sociopaths lie to attain their short-term goals, of course. But they also lie when it doesn't serve any obvious useful purpose, just for the fun of it. Deception fills their empty lives with sadistic entertainment and ephemeral pleasure. As Janis Joplin sings in Me and Bobby McGee, for them "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose." In that sense, sociopaths are free.
Normal people, however, have everything to lose in becoming involved with sociopaths. For us, time is very precious and life is not something to be wasted. It's filled with positive desires and goals, with the meaning we find in fulfilling emotional bonds with those we care about, with what we can accomplish for both ourselves and others. Because of the vast difference in our concepts of time, a sociopath has nothing to lose in engaging in empty diversions while we have nothing to gain from them. This is why victims involved with sociopathic predators describe their time together as wasted time: as months or even years that can never be recaptured and were essentially thrown away. Most sociopaths don't commit actual murder. Wasting our time with their lies, intimidation tactics, manipulation and mind games is the most common way in which sociopaths waste our lives.
Categories: antisocial personality disorder, bad men, boredom, cat and mouse games, charismatic psychopaths, charming predators, Claudia Moscovici, confusing relationships, cyberpath, cyberstalking, Dangerous Liaisons, dangerous men, deception, devalue and discard, domestic abuse, Donna Andersen's Love Fraud, emotional abuse, emotional predators, emotional vampires, ennui, evil, Hervey Cleckley, how sociopaths think, Lovefraud, Lovefraud.com, manipulative men, manipulative personalities, psychology, psychopath, psychopathic lovers, psychopathic seducer, psychopathic seduction, psychopaths and boredom, psychopaths and emotion, psychopathy, psychopathy awareness, psychopathy symptoms, psychopathy traits, psychopathyawareness, pushing your buttons, social predators, sociopath, the psychopath's emotions, Why Do Sociopaths Waste Our Time, Without conscience, Women who love psychopaths . Tags: Claudia Moscovici, Dangerous Liaisons, dangerous men, dangerous relationships, dating bad men, dating dangerous men, deception, domestic violence, Donna Andersen, Donna Andersen's Love Fraud, emotional abuse, Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose, Hervey Cleckley, Janis Joplin, Lovefraud, Me and Bobby McGee, pathological lying, personality disorders, psychology, psychopath, psychopathic seduction, psychopaths, psychopathy awareness, psychopathyawareness, Robert Hare, Sandra L. Brown, social predator, social predators, sociopath, sociopathy, The Mask of Sanity, The Seducer, The Seducer: A Novel about Psychopathic Seduction, toxic relationships, what is a psychopath, Why Do Psychopaths Waste Our Time, Why Do Sociopaths Waste Our Time?, Why Do Sociopaths Waste Time? . Author: psychopathyawareness . Comments: 23 Comments