[Vision2020] The Sociopath Next Door

[Tom Hansen]

Wow, Rose!

 

That describes Doug Wilson better than any picture could.

 

It's like Martha Stout knows Doug Wilson better than His Whineyness knows
himself.

 

Scary, isn't it.

 

Take care, Moscow.

 

Tom Hansen

Moscow, Idaho

 

We could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some are
dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors....but they all
exist very nicely in the same box. 

  _____  

From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of DonaldH675 at aol.com
Sent: Monday, April 18, 2005 6:11 PM
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] The Sociopath Next Door

 

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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