Patriot, i am glad you shared this, because it really assists people in relating this experience in life to what is being applied today. And how one can overcome this.
I agree with you, I do not see them changing either. We have seen this in LE in the past to many times.
And time for people to realize, it is one thing to have compassion, but one must not allow that compassion to override the reality.
Also makes one ask, how many personalities do they really have ?
As with any mental abnormality away from being healthy to truly dysfunctional and or dangerous there is always going to be a wide spectrum of disorder from mild and annoying to dangerous and pure evil destructive.
Just as in autism spectrum you have high functioning and intelligent to severely effected and not able to function in life and take care of needs and personal goals you can have the same variety of dysfunction in psychotic minds that vary from being somewhat disinterested and unfeeling to a person who has a criminal mind set that can vary in behavior and goals depending on the type and severity of the dysfunction.
However, I've learned over time there are some signs that cover almost all of these ranges of dysfunction.
Faking emotions to manipulate others. Some are good at it and others just crude and easy to spot. But, the faked emotions are most often overplayed for effect.
Laughter is often forced faked or inappropriate. They just don't get it so they laugh at things most people don't think are funny, they fail to get real humor and can't laugh at themselves. If they do, it's insincere. They don't feel it, but they can mimic it.
If they are offended they lash out viciously attacking the person they supposed offended them. Either attacking by disparaging remarks or physically. Or attack by sabotage. In their mind a person becomes an enemy and must be destroyed either socially or physically.
They love to gather personal details to remember and use later against a person when needed.
Music is one thing they can't feel emotionally so either they are just never interested in music or fake it for show.
Another strange thing I noticed. They often do tuneless humming or whistling. Why? To fill the void in their own mind or distract them from mental chaos.
I worked with a guy and when we were taking a break I wanted to share some touching music with him. He was unimpressed. I tried to share other music with him but nothing impressed him and he finally said he didn't enjoy music but just listened to it for the noise. I found that puzzling as he always seemed to be doing some tuneless whistling or humming.
Later I discovered he had played me to get the job and was busy scheming to get me run off, take over and take my job. Toward the end he was openly challenging me on a project interjecting his own agenda and messing things up. When I tried to correct him and confront him and remind him why he was there in the first place and why I let him work with me he became offended and angry and started making threats. I reported him, the boss refused to deal with it so I just quit. I won't be around these sorts but his behavior puzzled me so I looked up the psychology of tuneless whistling or humming. Turns out he was exactly what I feared. Mentally ill but high functioning. He couldn't care less how bad he hurt me or upset me by threatening me. He cared nothing for my position and how much effort I put into learning my trade and had no gratitude to the trade secrets I shared with him. If I had known in advance his mental condition I would never have shared a thing with him or let him work with me. He's an example of a high functioning psychotic. Believe me, they come in all ranges and often with other complications depending on how they were nurtured as a child.
Here's the main difference between a psychotic and a sociopath. A psychotic is born a sociopath is created. A psychotic can't really be changed but a sociopath can be helped.
Reaching out to help a psychotic will just give them more tools to do more harm as they learn techniques. That's why a psychologist who knows better will not try to help a psychotic. They will learn the psychobabble and then use it to fool other mental health experts. They can go on a long time fooling well meaning experts until the expert wises up that they are being played and stops treatment. You've got to be pretty clever to fool an intelligent mental health worker but these psychotics do it all the time.
A sociopath often really wants to be better but due to very dysfunctional family life has learned to distrust any authority, rebel against society and becomes a criminal. Or just a dysfunctional person who knows they are messed up and withdraws from society, can't hold down a regular job or creates conflicts in jobs and relationships, knows they are messing up and struggles.
Anyone can grow up to be a sociopath but you have to be born a psychotic to be one.
Remember the politician who laughed inappropriately and found great mirth in the murder of a head of state? "We came, we saw, he died! Bhahahahaha!". A born psychotic. They lie with ease because they feel no remorse. They feel no shame and never will and they never repent. If they say they are sorry, it's a lie. These are the human predators. You are safe around them until the moment they realize you see right through them and understand. They wear the mask of humanity and if you dare to peek under it they are outraged and know they must destroy you to hide that vital bit of knowledge you just discovered.
Patriot, I am amazed how they are able to manipulate people as you so well pointed out. And I noticed they are able to get people they control to remove themselves from friends and family and allow themselves to be isolated and controlled even further. I have noticed that many times the friends and family thinks it is the person, and some catch on and realize it is the person they are with. Sadly they allow themselves to be isolated and mentally and physically abused.
There's another dark side to this enabling. People who grow up being abused, lied to, and beaten in a dysfunctional family are psychologically marked in their behavior and responses.
Many psychotic predators are subconsciously aware of this or even knowingly aware of this dynamic and prey on the vulnerable and needy. Giving them affirmation they desperately need and teaching them to shun the rest of their family, often rightfully so but then take the very place of the abusive family.
Such vulnerable people lack the social skills to stand up for themselves as they've historically been primed to submit to abuse and punished for protesting abuse. They are easy targets.
All the predator personality has to do is heap them with praise, gifts and compliments and they own them. It all seems wonderful until the victim realizes they are being subsumed by the other person and tries to resist, or leave, and then the relationship can suddenly turn vicious and frightful. It's very hard to get an emotionally abused and weak person to stand up for themselves but it should always be attempted. Sometimes just providing a path of escape and protection with some encouragement is all that's needed.
Helping such a victim understand the cues they gave off, how the dynamic developed and how to counteract it is very insightful to the victim but hard for them to accept. Just taking responsibility for their role in enabling an abusive person is difficult to confront. But what ever happens, never let the victim hear you blame them for what happened when they were a child. Children accept the world that's presented to them as they know no other until it's shown to them. They've seen abusive relationships demonstrated and often model their behavior on that demonstration to either become an abuser themselves if they identify with the abuser or become the subject of abuse.
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