The most controversial issue in modern psychology is who is a psychopath. There is no such diagnosis in the qualification of mental illness. Often this term is understood as a sociopath. Disputes on this topic and research are ongoing, and opinions are expressed diametrically opposed. From the complete denial of such a thing as psychopathy, to advanced tomographic studies with the establishment of typical brain activities in sociopaths. You can see what kind of brain a psychopath has. The photo below clearly demonstrates this.
Psychopath brain
The brain of a psychopath is characterized by reduced functionality in the frontal and temporal regions. These areas are responsible for control and empathy. Empathy is defined as the ability to sense the emotions of others. Psychopaths can be figuratively defined as intraspecific predators that prey on their own kind and use their resources and energy for their own well-being.
For many people who live with psychopaths and don't know it, knowing that a loved one is sick is a relief. They understand that they are not to blame for anything, and emotional exhaustion and neuroses are not their personal problem. A psychopath is a person who, due to a disease, can bring the whole family to nervousbreakdowns.
Who is this?
Psychopath - who is this? It's hard to answer in a nutshell. The symptoms should be acute, cumulative and over a long period of time. Each person has certain inclinations and weaknesses of character, all people, not necessarily sick, face neuroses and nervous breakdowns, especially if there are reasons that cause emotional outbursts. It is important to realize that such drastic changes in life, which are accompanied by the death of a loved one, loss of a job, betrayal of a companion and naturally suggest a certain reaction of a person to stress, cannot be taken as a pathology. Often, it is these reactions that can be mistaken for a personality disorder. But if all the traits of deviation from the norm are present in a complex and systematically without visible external causes, it is already possible to draw some conclusions.
The presence of signs of psychopathy does not give us the right to label a person, especially in public. This information should only help us personally make decisions about continuing to communicate with the person.
How to spot a psychopath
How do you know who a psychopath is? Symptoms and signs are below:
- Gabbling and superficial charm. Often these are friendly, talkative people, using gestures, artistic. Others consider such people cute and charming. If you listen to what such a person says, it turns out that all the information given out is very superficial, this is a conversation for the sake of a conversation.
- Psychic needexcited. These people often get bored when nothing happens, when everything is quiet and calm. They cannot occupy and entertain themselves, so they definitely need to arrange something - a feast, a scandal, some kind of trip, call people home. They are adrenaline addicts, and if everything is calm, they become uncomfortable.
- Even if they work, they are looking for a job where they can do nothing. Ideally, he does nothing at all, lives off his husband, wife, children, parents, etc. psychopath.
- This disease involves poor behavioral control. They can't control themselves, explode easily, get irritated.
- Promiscuous but not always.
Psychopath personalities
What is a psychopath personality type? This is important to know in order to protect your emotional he alth.
- Emotional superficiality. They do not have deep feelings, no deep fear, anxiety, love, affection. All emotions are formal and superficial. They never think about anything for a long time, they are indifferent to difficulties, whatever they may be - financial, social, emotional, physical, etc. The feeling of love is not characteristic of them. They may experience sexual feelings, an obsessive thought about controlling a person or manipulating his life, and this is perceived by them as love.
- The ability to manipulate. Such people will bring loved ones to tears, force them to do what they need. Everyone in the family will follow along. Manipulate psychopaths with the help of screaming, bad mood, feeling unwell, blackmail andthreats (disinherit).
- Deceit. Sociopaths tell a variety of stories that didn't exist, passing it off as the truth. When they are caught in a lie, they refuse, claiming that they did not say such a thing.
- Lack of compassion and empathy, heartlessness. Nothing can evoke any sympathetic reaction in them - neither illness of loved ones, nor death, nor poverty, nor abandoned animals or homeless children.
- Inability to regret and remorse. Even if the guilt is obvious, these people will shift it to another. They are not ashamed, they will never say: "What a pity that I did this." They feel no remorse. You won't get any apologies from them.
- Egocentric.
Beware of a psychopath
A psychopath is a person who, due to his own inadequacy, is able to humiliate others, endanger them, cause pain and suffering, and not once or twice, but systematically. Sociopaths are extremely deceitful, and given their effective abilities (flat effect), their lies are very difficult to determine. Even experienced verifiers and profilers often make mistakes when working with them. When defining a lie, experts often ask themselves at the very beginning whether the person in front of me is he althy or not.
Who is a psychopath, you will not immediately understand, these people have a superficial charm and are excellent at disguise, causing others to have Stockholm syndrome (justifying the actions of a person who causes suffering).
Varieties of psychopathy
Is the interpretation limitedterm sociopathy? What can be a psychopath? Varieties are described in the book of P. B. Galushkin. He proposes this classification.
- Cycloids - the life regime changes abruptly, intervals of complete inactivity - to hyper-efficiency. There are cyclical ups and downs in mood for no reason.
- Asthenics are people who are characterized by anxiety, suspiciousness and the possibility of developing nervous obsessive states. The main feelings are “what if something happens”, “I said something correctly or not”, “what if I get sick”. Create predictable safety spaces around them, avoid unpredictable situations.
- Schizoids - they leave the world, do nothing, close themselves in a shell and refuse to interact with people, limiting the circle of contacts.
- Hysterical characters - do not refuse contact with the world, but on the contrary, they try to demonstrate themselves, surprise everyone, throw tantrums.
- Paranoids are super-suspicious for no reason, people with no sense of humor. They sacredly believe in their delusional conjectures and ideas, there is no need to convince such a person - it will not work.
- Epileptoids (they do not suffer from epilepsy) - structure the reality around them, they know what lies where, the house is always perfectly clean. Everything should lie strictly in its place, everything should happen at a strictly appointed time and in a certain order. Resentful, everyone can remember. They can be identified by handwriting or signature. They usually have a very beautiful, complex signature, very clear and unchanging. They are suitable for work that requires precision,stereotyped, neat, they enjoy it.
- Unstable psychopaths - cannot strain in terms of study, work or stressful situations, tend to live under someone's guardianship. They do not deny themselves anything, so there may be problems with alcohol, drugs, a promiscuous sex life.
- An anti-social psychopath is a complete lack of interest in others, including family. They have no friends, they do not know how to empathize. They lie shamelessly, are prone to cheating, act impulsively and do not plan far. Often criticize others but not themselves.
- Constitutionally stupid - nice, sociable personalities, good conversationalists. Disorderly, extremely sloppy and lazy. They feel good only because of a strong hand and leadership.
Varieties of personalities
The following disorders may also be psychopathic.
- Narcissistic personalities - they love attention and will do anything to get it. All for me and all the attention on me. And if this does not happen, the person becomes aggressive. It becomes common behavior to extract both material and emotional resources from the family for their own personal goals, to maintain their external position in society. Half of the salary of such a person goes to expensive suits, ties and watches, and he does not see anything unusual in this, although the family saves on food for children, hoping that the husband will climb the career ladder, will bring more money. But the family has nothingwill get it even if the narcissist-psychopath gets rich. It's a disease, but that doesn't make it any easier. The absolute self-centeredness of such psychopaths seems somewhat childish and infantile. In fact, it is: this is a big narcissistic child who plays with toys and will never stop. When deciding to establish a relationship with such a person, you need to understand that if you don’t put him on a pedestal, he will behave aggressively, and in the opposite case, he will pull all the resources out of his loved one. For him, there is no word "no" in sexual relations, he does not stop, but continues harassment. In the company of such a person there is a high risk of rape, he considers the other as a thing to support his own ego.
- Emotionally unstable - jumping on all spectrums of feelings, from extremely positive to extremely negative mood. At work or in some public place, they can be charming, being on an emotional upsurge, and at home the smallest difficulty, any unpleasant information will lead them to the very bottom of the negative emotional spectrum. Home will have to pull them out of there, acting as a lifeguard. Those who associate closely with such people pay an emotional tribute for life, so tired that they are completely exhausted, depriving themselves of the opportunity to lead a normal life. Sometimes such psychopaths are figuratively called energy vampires. Such people can move from one person to another, and then back, waiting until the old partner has a rest, forgets the emotional fatigue from their relationship and can be used again. Suchmultiple connections is one of the characteristics of such psychopaths. In attempts to get emotional support, they are extremely manipulative, their typical threat is suicide. It must be treated realistically, it is best to persuade a person to visit a psychotherapist. But still you need to leave, these relationships are destructive by definition. Interestingly, one of the signs of such a disorder is self-harm, for example, multiple healed skin cuts. Seeing such scars, you can prepare forces for emotional support or leave immediately.
- Paranoid. The motto of such people: "trust no one, and you will not be offended." They see the whole world through the prism of threat. The first sign is distrust in relationships, constant monitoring, surveillance, checking the phone and e-mail. If there is no evidence of infidelity, the tension only grows. Paranoid psychopaths consider themselves very logical and are able to convince everyone of the correctness of their picture of the world. As soon as words are heard about a conspiracy, a world government, flying saucers, or just about colleagues at work who are making cunning plans to fire him, it is worth considering, even if everything looks logical and truthful. Paranoids are consumed by irrational distrust and fear, tend to collect threats, and if they don't see support, write the person off as an "enemy".
Predators are people in whose presence many experience a literal physical malaise, the so-called social discomfort. This applies not only to ordinary people, but also to trained specialists, psychotherapists, and polygraph examiners. Often have toseveral hours, or even days, to recover after communicating with such a person. This is not always the case, predators often have to deceive people, for a very long time they can seem quite nice. This category includes pedophiles, rapists, brutal robbers, human traffickers. A typical situation: the mother is in love and lives with a charming male predator who systematically intimidates and rapes her adopted daughter, and the mother turns a blind eye to this and does not believe her daughter. It is difficult for a predator to express emotions, he literally peers into a person’s facial expression and tries to figure out how to react and how to adapt.
Is the disease treated?
Can a psychopath heal? The symptoms and treatment of this disease is largely a mystery even to doctors. Such violations are difficult to correct. If the psychopath himself is aware of his own problem and wants to treat it, he has a chance to correct his behavior. Unfortunately, this awareness is available to few, and the possibility of pushing a psychopath into treatment seems unlikely.
Before treatment, you need to make a diagnosis from a specialist psychotherapist. To do this, a conversation is held with a person, his behavior is observed, and a tomography may be needed.
Usually no drugs are prescribed, you can only maintain a stable state with the help of antidepressants. To begin with, they are prescribed in small doses, gradually increasing, but it is extremely difficult to convince a person to take something. They mainly try to treat the side effects of psychopathy - drug addiction, alcoholism andother kinds of addictions.
Also, such people are given a course of psychotherapy, conducting conversations and directing the patient's behavior in the right direction, eliminating negative painful stereotypes of thinking.
What might diagnoses sound like?
Who is a psychopath? Signs in women and men are almost identical. Diagnosis may include:
- Paranoia.
- Hysteria.
- Schizoid psychopathy.
- Psychoasthenia.
- Excitable psychopathy.
- Variable psychopathy.
- Sociopathy.
So we found out who a psychopath is. Signs in men and women are very similar, but men are more susceptible to such diseases and are more likely to show aggression. Maybe that's why alcoholism is a problem, rather, of the stronger sex.
In old age, dementia is added to personality disorders, especially if a pensioner stops social and social activities and does not use his brain actively. A sedentary lifestyle, serials from morning to evening, a narrow social circle - all this aggravates the situation.
How common is mental illness
According to the US National Institute of Mental He alth, 26% of Americans over the age of 18 suffer from some form of diagnosable personality disorder. Perhaps the figures are different in Russia, but there are no prerequisites to expect a significant decrease in this percentage.
More than 30% of the subjects felt something similar to a mental disorder throughout the year. About 50% suffered, havingthis kind of dysfunction during their adult life. According to a deeper analysis of the study materials, mental disorders account for 23% of all years lost due to disability. Nearly a quarter of people who become incapacitated for a year lose it due to mental illness. These diseases easily compete with neurological diseases and injuries of the musculoskeletal system in prevalence.
And perhaps Viktor Tsoi was right: “And I don’t know what the percentage of crazy people is at this hour, but if you believe your eyes and ears, it’s several times more.”
