[Vision2020] The Sociopath Next Door

[DonaldH675 at aol.com]

Visionaries:
 
Last night on the Auntie E and Brother Carl radio show, Auntie read some  
excerpts from the recently publishedThe Sociopath Next Door  by  Martha Stout, 
Ph.D., Harvard Medical School, Broadway Books, (a division of  Random House) 
2005.  Dr. Stout maintains that one out of 25 "ordinary  Americans" is without a 
conscience, i.e. sociopathic.  Auntie read  some of the identifying 
characteristics of this personality type on  air.  I wanted to share a few more with 
v2020 readers.  Remember, very  few sociopaths are serial killers or rapists, but 
they do effectively destroy  lives in other ways.
 
"You [i.e. the sociopath] become unimaginably, unassailably, and maybe  even 
globally successful.  Why not?  With your big brain, and no  conscience to 
rein in your schemes you can do anything at all.
 
Or no--let us say you are not quite such a person.  Your are  ambitious, yes, 
and in the name of success you are willing to do all manner of  things that 
people with conscience would never consider, but you are not an  intellectually 
gifted individual.  Your intelligence is above average  perhaps, and people 
think of you as smart, maybe even very smart.  But you  know in your heart of 
hearts that you do not have the cognitive wherewithal, or  the creativity, to 
reach the careening heights of power you secretly dream  about, and this makes 
you resentful of the world at large, and envious of the  people around you....
 
As this sort of person, you ensconce yourself in a niche, or maybe a series  
of niches, in which you can have some amount of control over small numbers of  
people. .... you do enjoy jobs that afford you a certain under-supervised  
control over a few individuals or small groups, preferably people and groups who 
 are relatively helpless or in some way vulnerable.  ...Whatever your  job, 
you manipulate and bully the people who are under your thumb, as often and  as 
outrageously as you can without getting fired or held accountable.  You  do 
this for its own sake, even when it serves no purpose except to give you a  
thrill.  Making people jump means you have power - or this is the way you  see it 
- and bullying provides you with an adrenaline rush.....And this is  power, 
especially when the people you manipulate are superior to you in some  way.  
Most invigorating of all is to bring down people who are smarter or  more 
accomplished than you, or perhaps classier, more attractive or popular or  morally 
admirable. pg 3-4
 
"One of the more frequently observed of these traits [sociopathic] is a  glib 
and superficial charm that allows the true sociopath to seduce other  people, 
figuratively or literally--a kind of glow or charisma that, initially,  can 
make the sociopath seem more charming or more interesting than most of the  
normal people around him.  He or she is more spontaneous, or more intense,  or 
somehow more "complex", or sexier, or more entertaining that everyone  else.  
Sometimes this "sociopathic charisma" is accompanied by a grandiose  sense of 
self-worth that may be compelling at first, but upon closer  inspection may seem 
odd or perhaps laughable.  ("Someday the world will  realize how special I 
am.")   pg.    7
 
and most chilling,
 
"Sociopaths are infamous for their refusal to acknowledge responsibility  for 
the decisions they make, or for the outcomes of their decisions.  In  fact, a 
refusal to see the results of one's bad behavior as having anything  to do 
with ones self - "consistent irresponsibility" in the language of the  American 
Psychiatric Association - is a corner stone of the antisocial  personality. 
pgs 49 -50.
 
"When deciding whom to trust, bear in mind that the combination of  
consistently bad or egregiously inadequate behavior with frequent plays for your  pity 
is as close to a warning mark on a conscienceless person's forehead as you  
will ever be given."   pg.109
 
Dr. Stout, does not offer a hopeful outcome for these personality  types - 
after all, they can not acknowledge that they are the  problem. Consequently, 
therapy does not provide insight or impetus  for change.  However, for the rest 
of us - the book is a useful  tool to learn to recognize and avoid these folks.
 
Rose Huskey
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