Psychopaths and Sociopaths

Just the other day I was told that I have no feelings, my reaction to that was to immediately laugh it off, should have made a dark joke to increase the validity of the claim. Anyways that got me thinking how many of us hide their true feelings. At least it gave me a good topic to write about sociopaths, psychopaths, fake friendships and favors.

What do sociopaths and psychopaths share?

They lack empathy, they have a hard time maintaining meaningful relations and they lie in order to get what they want.

But is this all there is to it?

If so, how many of us have psychopathic tendencies?

Psychopaths are more likely to create an environment for themselves through lies and deceit. Meanwhile sociopaths are more likely to have given up on empathy due to abuse or trauma in childhood. Psychopathy unlike sociopathy has largely genetically basis. Furthermore psychopaths are more likely to become killers due to empathic displacement with their victims. They do not feel remorse and usually torture animals as kids. Lastly they lack a moral compass. Or at least that is what media tells us about psychopaths, in reality there are few signs that somebody is psychopathic and it is generally agreed that it appears in people who have less gray matter in certain areas of the brain. The part of the brain that is used in social interactions, also named the ‘social brain’. Remember psychopaths can be both intelligent and unintelligent but as it is an anomaly of the brain one can assume that it is not the only part of the brain that has issues.

Do you see yourself as a cold, remorseless and calculated killer while maintaining a perfectly balanced second life?

I myself have problems sometimes empathizing with others but would be very unlikely to harm any kind of living being. Furthermore I can understand human reason and logic behind their decisions but have a hard time taking emotions into account. I can understand through logic how an emotion alters their decision making processes and can give meaningful advice but mostly as an objective 3rd party. Perhaps we all have become a little sociopathic due to society. There is not much need to maintain meaningful relations with work colleagues or neighbors. One can occupy his time or distract himself with so many other things. Another problem in our society is that we sadly enjoy hearing about psychopaths and their stories because they blend so well into society.

Did you know that Psychopaths are more likely to actively seek interest into what differentiates normal humans from psychopaths?

It is my opinion that this happens for them in order to blend better in the society. They can perfectly mimic gestures that show feeling without actually experiencing the respective feeling. As previously discussed humans many times enjoy seeing the bravery of soldiers that go to war. Sadly we also seem to enjoy a good story about how a serial killer almost got away with murdering many tens of humans and almost did not get caught. This is our fault, when somebody is killed we are more focused on the killer than the victim. Two good examples would be Ted Bundy and Jack the Ripper. We even find nicknames for these murderers.

We can only hope that we become interested in these cases in order to see punishment being applied to these individuals. Sadly, I do not think this is the case. More likely we look at movies and series about serial killers in order to satisfy a grim curiosity, but there should be a strong concern about the effect and the ideas these men can spread for all types of generations. We tend to forget the victims but not their killers and this is a tragedy of society. Furthermore, some can take inspiration from these sick men and become killers themselves. Pedro López is the second serial killer with the highest proven victim count of 110 victims. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_serial_killers_by_number_of_victims "During his incarceration, he claimed that he was brutally gang-raped in prison and that he hunted down his rapists and killed them all while still incarcerated. López said that after his jail term, he started murdering young girls in Peru." He is currently free, alive and aged 70. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_L%C3%B3pez_(serial_killer)  Luis Garavito shares the most possible victims with over 300 equal with Pedro López. He was found guilty for 138 victims. " Garavito(La Bestia) targeted boys between the ages of 6 to 16 who were either homeless, peasants, or orphaned". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Garavito I'm still wondering how it is that Pedro López was not given a life sentence in jail for the crimes he committed. The tragedies of the impacted parents by these 2 children serial killers are unimaginable. I personally did not want to look further into the lives of these men to find any kind of justification for these murders as they are unjustifiable. Another topic I wanted to write about was fake friendships, if I were to be cynical, I would categorize all friendships as fake friendships, it is rare where 2 individuals stand to not gain anything by having a relation with one another and still continue to be friends. So, all friendships are interest based. Neither families nor friendships are perfect, but we try and seek the company of individuals that resemble us, people we have something in common with. A true friend would be an individual that appreciates the company itself that one can offer. How could one gain anything by just mere company, well it would be hard to say, more probably the exchange of information is what makes or breaks a relation. It may be gossip, jokes or information to train your mind. Of course common activities would be the next step in a friendship, hanging out, going to eat something, playing video games together, your pick really. The more years spent together, the more one should trust one another. After a few years of friendship you could even confide in these people. Seeking advice could be done earlier, although theoretically some things are better to remain in the family. I should note it is not uncommon to find broken families. In that case a friend is closer to you than certain members of your family. I feel that all of this was not even worth mentioning, the point I was trying to make, is that there are stages of evolution in friendships, and it requires effort from both parties involved. When I actually think about fake friendships, I think of one way streets and information given that a "friend" may misuse to either gain an advantage or to harm you. This of course is more likely to happen in a workplace. There is a saying telling you to separate work from family and I would add from friends, however nowadays we spend so much time at work that it would be in everyone's best interest to create as good of a relation as possible with your workmates, make them your friends, the effort goes into deepening such a relation to the level is not only about work anymore all the time. For me a friendship should be based on mutual loyalty and a relationship based on fidelity. Without these pillars it stands to break faster or later. Lastly, there are the mutually beneficial relations based on favor for favor, although many times you will find individuals that will not offer their help even if you helped them. The same goes for money, a personal rule I made for myself is not to ever lend money expecting it to be returned. At least you stand the benefit of finding out if an individual is trustworthy or not.

But hey, what do I know?

Maybe all there is to friendship is having a good time, cheers to that.

Movie recommendation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBqmKSAHc6w