Psychopathy in men and its signs: basic information

Psychopathy is a pathology in which a disharmonious personality pattern is manifested, in which a person’s adaptation is impaired, the totality and stability of psychopathic characteristics are noted, which are irreversible.

• Characteristics of the disease
• Etiology (causes)
• Classification of psychopathy Constitutional-depressive type
• Hyperthymic type
• Cycloid type
• Emotionally labile type
• Asthenic type
• Hysterical type
• Excitable epileptoid type
• Paranoid type
• Schizoid type
• Unstable type
• Psychasthenic type

Who is a psychopath?

People suffering from this disorder are characterized by a lack of any empathy, guilt and remorse. This disruption leads to perverted and immoral behavior. At first, such individuals may seem normal, pleasant to talk to and friendly, but it must be taken into account that they are capable of masterfully copying emotions in pursuit of their goals.

Thus, psychopaths are social predators. Many famous people have had this disorder. Often, a person’s psychopathic character manifests itself in the fact that, using manipulation and deception, he directs all efforts to the social destruction of another person for his own pleasure.

A psychopath's brain can perceive other people's emotions, but he cannot experience them. At the same time, such a patient does not experience any disturbances of consciousness. Thus, a person suffering from this disorder, by harming other people and manipulating their emotions, has a good understanding of his actions and is aware of their consequences.

Many people confuse concepts such as psychopath and sociopath. These mental disorders have many differences. If a psychopathic person always tries to communicate with other people to gain benefits, then a sociopath experiences difficulties in communicating and understanding the actions of others. Often sociopaths lead secluded lives and try to reduce their contacts with other people to a minimum. However, both of these conditions entail impairments in the ability to sense emotions and understand the feelings of others.

Dynamics of psychopathy

With psychopathy, certain personality traits are almost always enhanced (depending on the type - from those discussed above). With the excitable type of psychopathy, for example, a person falls into a state of passion and excitability. With the hysterical type, accordingly, hysterical attacks occur. With the paranoid type, overvalued invention occurs, etc. The social factor is important in the dynamics of psychopathy. If the conditions are unfavorable, the symptoms only become brighter (and vice versa). In diagnosis, it must be taken into account that during age-related crises, the manifestations of psychopathy become brighter. The same thing happens during menstruation in women and girls, as well as after childbirth.

Decompensation is most evident during puberty. Psychopaths increasingly display the following traits:

• hot temper
• disobedience
• stubbornness
• affective outbursts over trifles with fainting, hysterics and manifestations of anger
• emotional lability

Signs of psychopathy

Psychopathic deviations are accompanied by a number of symptomatic manifestations. People suffering from the disorder are not capable of long-term relationships. Pathology is often manifested by the desire to establish relationships only with those people who can bring material benefit. The patient deliberately ignores existing norms of behavior. The following signs may indicate the presence of this disorder:

• superficial charm;
• hypertrophied sense of self-esteem;
• rancor;
• short sleep duration;
• pathological deceit;
• outbursts of rage;
• inconsistency in actions;
• frequent change of place of work;
• sexual depravity;
• inability to assess the degree of danger;
• frequent change of character masks;
• accusing the opponent of shortcomings and lies at the slightest dispute;
• own set of moral laws;
• presence of high intellectual abilities;
• charm and visual attractiveness;
• out-of-the-box thinking.

Psychopaths are characterized by attacks of groundless jealousy, irresponsibility and impulsiveness. Such individuals often try to sow chaos and discord around them, because... By quarreling other people, they get pleasure from it. They lead a parasitic lifestyle. They cannot be relied upon in an emergency.

In men

Men suffering from psychopathy are distinguished by thoughtful tactics of behavior in society. They often hide or smooth out facts to their advantage. The behavior of a psychopath in most cases is hypocritical, so in public and in the family they are 2 different people.

Such a man can achieve high success in business or at work. Present yourself to colleagues and friends in the best possible light. At the same time, physical and psychological violence at home is the norm. It is extremely difficult for any woman to leave such a man. They deftly manipulate feelings and can threaten and intimidate.

Among women

A psychopath is characterized by emotionality and hot temper. Such women are unbalanced. Despite their outward goodwill, psychopaths are extremely hostile towards others. Especially often their aggression is directed at other women, communication with whom cannot bring them material benefit. The patient is dismissive of the feelings and problems of her family.

Patients suffering from this disorder have too much selfishness. It begins to appear in adolescence. Despite her attractiveness in the eyes of men, such a woman is not able to experience feelings of love and affection. Such women often build relationships on cold calculation, leaving their partner as soon as personal interest is realized or a better candidate appears. The patient is not able to love even her children. They are often the ones who suffer the most from her words and actions.

In children

Psychopathy can have different manifestations in childhood, because During this period, the child is just learning to communicate with others. Some children already at an early age acquire the skills to manipulate the feelings of others and show signs of selfishness. In other cases, children with this disorder have difficulty communicating with peers. They gradually hone their manipulation skills. Possible behavioral problems.



Personality Varieties

What kind of psychopath is this is important to know in order to protect your emotional health.

• Emotional superficiality. They do not have deep feelings, there is 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, obsessive thoughts about controlling a person or manipulating his life, and this is perceived by them as love.
• Ability to manipulate. Such people will bring loved ones to tears and force them to do what they need. Everyone in the family will walk in line. Psychopaths manipulate with the help of screams, bad mood, poor health, blackmail and threats (to disinherit).
• Deceit. Sociopaths tell all sorts of stories that never happened, pretending they are true. When they deny them, they claim that they didn’t say that.
• Lack of compassion and empathy, heartlessness. Nothing can evoke any kind of sympathetic reaction in them - not the illnesses of loved ones, not death, not poverty, not abandoned animals or homeless children.
• Incapacity for regret and repentance. Even if the guilt is obvious, these people will shift it to someone else. They are never ashamed, they will never say: “What a pity that I did this.” They feel no remorse. You won't get any words of apology from them.
• Self-centeredness.

The following disorders may also be classified as psychopathic.

• Narcissistic Personalities – They love attention and will do anything to get it. Everything is for me and all attention is 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 one’s own personal purposes and to maintain one’s external position in society. Half of such a person’s salary is spent on expensive suits, ties and watches, and he does not see anything unusual in this, although the family saves on feeding the children, hoping that the husband will climb the career ladder and begin to bring in more money. But the family will not get anything, even if the psychopathic narcissist 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 true: he 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 do not put him on a pedestal, he will behave aggressively, and in the opposite case, he will pull all the resources from his loved one. For him there is no word “no” in sexual relations; he does not stop, but continues to harass. In the company of such a person there is a high risk of rape; he views the other as a thing to support his own ego.
• Emotionally unstable – they jump across all spectrums of feelings, from extremely positive to extremely negative moods. At work or in some public place they can be charming, being on an emotional high, but at home the slightest difficulty, any unpleasant information will lead them to the very bottom of the negative emotional spectrum. The family will have to get them out of there, playing the role of a rescuer. Those who associate closely with such people pay a lifelong emotional toll, becoming so tired that they are completely exhausted, making it impossible for them 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 rested, forgotten the emotional fatigue from their relationship and can be used again. Such multiple connections are one of the characteristics of such psychopaths. They are extremely manipulative in their attempts to gain emotional support, and their typical threat is suicide. You need to treat it realistically; it is best to persuade the person to visit a psychotherapist. But you still need to break up; this relationship is destructive by definition. Interestingly, one of the signs of this disorder is self-harm, for example, multiple healed skin cuts. Having seen such scars, you can prepare your strength for emotional support or leave immediately.
• Paranoid. The motto of such people is: “don’t trust anyone, and they won’t hurt you.” They view the whole world through the prism of threat. The first sign is distrust in relationships, constant control, surveillance, checking your phone and email. If there is no evidence of infidelity, tension only increases. Paranoid psychopaths consider themselves very logical and are able to convince everyone that their picture of the world is correct. As soon as words are heard about a conspiracy, a world government, or simply about work colleagues who are making cunning plans for his dismissal, it’s worth thinking about, even if everything seems logical and truthful. Paranoids are consumed by irrational mistrust and fear, tend to collect threats, and if they do not see support, they write off the person as an “enemy.”

Predators are people in whose presence many people experience literal physical discomfort, so-called social discomfort. This applies not only to ordinary people, but also to trained specialists, psychotherapists, and polygraph examiners. It often takes several hours, or even days, to come to your senses after communicating with such a person.

This does not always happen; predators often have to deceive people; for a very long time they may seem quite nice. This category includes pedophiles, rapists, violent robbers, and human traffickers. A typical situation: a mother is in love and lives with a charming predatory man who systematically intimidates and rapes her adopted daughter, but 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 the person’s facial expression and tries to understand how to react and how to adapt.

What are the types of psychopaths?

The types of psychopaths identified in psychiatry differ in the characteristics of their manifestations and the degree of their severity. Determining the type of psychopath will allow people who are forced to contact him to smooth out rough edges in communication.

Hysterical psychopath

The hysterical or hysterical psychopathic personality type is more often observed in women. Such patients strive by any means to get into the spotlight. The lack of a positive assessment of their creative and working qualities becomes the cause of uncontrollable and inadequate emotional reactions.

An acute reaction to any criticism makes it difficult to interact with such a person. Hysterical psychopathic individuals often use their ugliness or attractive appearance, constantly deceiving and flattering to achieve their goals. They often throw fake tantrums.

Schizoid psychopath

People with this type of disorder have congenital schizophrenic personality traits. Such people are characterized by an inadequate assessment of current events and their role in them. They can behave unpredictably. There is no harmony and naturalness in behavior. Often the speech of such people does not agree with their facial expressions. Speech is often characterized by pathos and ornateness; in some patients, on the contrary, it becomes inexpressive and meager.

Such people are not able to understand the inner world of others. They perceive reality through the prism of their thoughts and preferences, and when a discrepancy is identified, they may react inadequately. They do not like to express their thoughts and emotions. They are selfish.

They may exhibit inconsistent behavior. Often such people are withdrawn and do not trust others. They often become vagabonds because... cannot exist in society. It is not uncommon for such people to be creative, but their work is difficult to understand. Increased daydreaming and inability to cope with life's difficulties are possible.

Paranoid psychopath

This form of disorder is accompanied by the emergence of suspicions regarding the presence of insidious plans among others in relation to the patient. Suspicions of bad intentions prevent people suffering from this form of psychopathy from building normal personal and work relationships.

Individuals suffering from this disorder are observant and meticulous. They often show an unhealthy interest in other people's personal lives and emotions. With this form of the disorder, patients have a tendency to pathological jealousy and the formation of overvalued ideas.

Asthenic psychopath

Asthenic psychopaths are distinguished by a tendency to increased irritability, rapid mental exhaustion and attacks of anger. Among this type there are hypochondriacs, who are distinguished by excessive neuropsychic excitability, increased fatigue, apathy, lethargy and lack of initiative.

In addition, there are enthusiastic asthenics in whom the personality is captured by individual interests. Such people are quick-tempered and irritable. They quickly get tired, which leads to the onset of apathy. Often there are patients characterized by increased impressionability. They are often too sensitive and insecure to take any action.

Dissocial psychopath

People suffering from this form of pathology have all the signs of underdevelopment of higher moral feelings. They often do not adhere to any social norms and often lead a criminal lifestyle. Such patients live according to the “here and now” principle, without worrying about the future. They are almost incapable of self-restraint and self-control. They lack willpower.

Causes of psychoptia

The causes of psychopathy have not been thoroughly studied. Some scientists believe that the character traits that form psychopathy are genetically determined, just like eye color, for example. Others are inclined to think that a psychopath is shaped by an unfavorable environment. There is also an opinion that psychopathy is based on unrecognized organic brain damage.

Content

So what is psychopathy? Disease? Caprice? Bad character or the consequences of poor upbringing and environmental influences? There is some truth in all assumptions. But there is still debate about this type of “sickness of the soul” (this is how the term is translated from Greek). There is no consensus yet on the causes of this condition and its varieties.

Even the term “psychopathy” itself is not entirely unambiguous, which is not very good for trying to give an accurate definition of the phenomenon. This expression is quite often used to refer to various mental illnesses. But other sources define psychopathy as a dissocial personality disorder.

Maybe these are simply the consequences of the negative influence of external circumstances? Or was it his irresponsible and short-sighted upbringing that made him this way? One can partly agree with such statements. Important factors for the development of psychopathy are indeed the negative (psychogenic) influence of the environment in which the individual developed and is located.

But there are also certain characteristics of the body that make it possible for the development of psychopathy.

There are three reasons for the occurrence of this pathological condition:

1. In the presence of hereditary characteristics (biological factor), the emergence of nuclear or constitutional psychopathy can be assumed.
2. Acquired organic deficiency can cause a condition called organic psychopathy (mosaic psychopathy). Life circumstances still play a significant role in this case.
3. In the case when biological factors play a very small role in the formation of a personality disorder, we can say that marginal psychopathy occurs. The occurrence of psychopathy depends on the characteristics of the general life situation and psychogenic factors.

Distinctive Behaviors

It is possible to identify a number of behavior patterns that, when expressed intensely, are characteristic of psychopaths. However, people suffering from this disorder can change them. Changes in behavioral patterns can occur suddenly if necessary to achieve a goal.

Desire for dominance

Almost all patients are distinguished by pronounced narcissistic and dominant tendencies. With this disorder, people inadequately assess themselves and their own importance. They are often distinguished by an inappropriate, exaggerated sense of entitlement. Their sense of fear and danger is smoothed out. They are distinguished by their ability to charm people. Often, a pronounced tendency to dominate has a positive effect on a person’s ability to build a career, but greatly interferes with his personal life.

Emotional Indifference

Both women and men suffering from psychopathy are characterized by emotional indifference. They can only build superficial relationships. They are incapable of empathy and sympathy. A study involving people with this disorder revealed a lack of neural networks in their brains that are normally responsible for sensitivity and anxiety.

Psychopathic individuals tend to experience only negative emotions, incl. jealousy, disappointment, anger and rage. Due to the lack of such deep feelings as compassion, love and kindness, such people strive only for superficial and easily accessible variety.

Tendency to aggression

Not all psychopaths, despite their cruelty in judgment, display a tendency to act aggressively. Violent acts are most characteristic of individuals characterized by weak self-control. Both women and men with this disorder often resort to psychological violence. Outbursts of rage may cause physical harm

Thrill seeking

This disorder predisposes to the development of a pathological thirst for adrenaline. They do not fully understand the danger and possible consequences. They prefer extreme sports. They often impulsively commit actions that are potentially dangerous to themselves. Patients do not like to obey rules and consider themselves above the laws. Despite the fact that they try their best to avoid going to prison, they often break the law, realizing the illegality of their actions and without feeling guilty.

Desire for manipulation and personal gain

Patients seek to manipulate the feelings of others for their own moral satisfaction or material gain. They are pathologically deceitful. Often, people with this disorder use kindness and goodwill to achieve their goals.

Self-centeredness and irresponsibility for one's own actions

With this disorder, people tend to justify any of their actions. They often blame others. They often try to impose a feeling of guilt on their victim. People with this disorder often do irresponsible things, but never take responsibility for their actions.

Treatment of psychopathy

It is impossible to completely eliminate this violation. Some patients with psychopathy recognize that they have characteristics that make it abnormal for other people to live with them. If a person himself is aware of the presence of a problem, psychocorrection turns out to be more effective.

The patient can learn to control his impulses and change his attitude towards others. Family psychotherapeutic consultations and explanatory conversations with the patient can be of great benefit. Hypnosis is often used. In especially severe cases, psychotropic drugs are selected for patients.

How to recognize a psychopath?

Psychopaths are distinguished by a penchant for publicity. They actively communicate on social networks and often post their photos. Such people prefer foods and drinks with a bitter taste. They are almost not susceptible to such a phenomenon as mirror yawning. You can often notice that they are indifferent to various tragedies and troubles of other people.

The presence of such a problem may be indicated by narcissism and pretentiousness. From the outside, with the proper level of attention, you can notice how subtly such a person manipulates others. Psychopaths are characterized by rigidity and violent emotional reactions if their opinion is not taken into account, or the implementation of their plans does not go as they intended.