THE PSYCHOPATHS AMONG US!

THE PSYCHOPATHS AMONG US!

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.
© June 21, 2009


”Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,’
Is the immediate jewel of their souls;
Who steals my purse steals trash; ‘tis something, nothing,
Twas mine, ‘tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of what which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.”

Shakespeare, “Othello.”

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Of the many psychological gems of Shakespeare, none better describes crushing psychopathology than the treachery of Iago towards Othello. He exploited Othello’s insecurity with regard to his beautiful wife Desdemona, which led to her tragic murder at the hands of her husband.

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This psychopathology has become endemic to our times. In our culture, you are guilty until proven innocent. Not long ago a Hillsborough County Commissioner was handcuffed and led off to jail because he threw his sixteen-year-old son down when he came home at 4 a.m. in the morning with his little brother. The father was enraged not only at the insolence of his son, but also with his corrupting influence on his brother. It was a front-page story in The Tampa Tribune for days with pictures and commentaries of this brutal father, who, incidentally, had a reputation of not only being a fine professional man, but a community leader of the first ranks. Fortunately, a sensible judge dismissed the charges, but the man’s reputation was sullied.

The sixteen-year-old knew the system was geared to support his charge of abuse despite his own lawless and compromising behavior. In his petulant immaturity, he could care less if he sullied permanently his father’s reputation and career. He was pissed.

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In my preteens, I was an altar boy at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Clinton, Iowa. The assistant pastor at the time was a young priest, 27, who I got to know well. I shopped with him for a hi-fi set on one occasion, and on another, I met his family in Davenport and had dinner with them. I remember him and his family fondly to this day. Imagine my shock when he was posthumously accused of child abuse, something I couldn’t imagine, as he couldn’t have treated me with more respect. I am not suggesting that some priests did not abuse children, but I know this priest never did. My wonder is how many psychopaths are among these priest accusers.

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When I was a teenager in the 1950s, if I had come home drunk with my little brother in tow, there is no question in my mind that my da would have decked me. Should I have protested to the media, it would have fallen on death ears. My da wouldn’t have been thought an abusive parent but rather a concerned one

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When I was in college, I knew a psychology major, a young lady that was nice to everyone. She hung out with a lot of students, especially one, whom she tutored doing all but taking his examinations. One day he made sexual advances, which she rejected. Not wanting to hurt his feelings, she told him she wasn’t ready for a relationship. He went to her friends in tears, claiming they had been having a clandestine affair for months, and that out of the blue she broke it off. He claimed she said if he told anyone they “had been seeing each other,” she would claim he raped her, and even threatened to go to the police. Her friends believed him, and not her, isolating her from their circle. She eventually dropped out of school.

Notice how this psychopath used a grain of truth, his academic dependence on this young lady, contriving how to compromise her reputation now that he wouldn’t be getting any more help.

* * *

By a set of serendipitous circumstances, of which I’ve written about at some length elsewhere, I jumped from a field manager to an international executive with Nalco Chemical Company in the 1960s. In hierarchical terms, it was the equivalent of jumping four rungs of the corporate ladder in a single promotion. At that level, I was privy to confidential records of my whole career. I was shocked to find some of the most Iagoistical references to me by my former boss, who, obviously, was not over joyed with my rapid rise. Fortunate for me, my new boss looked at my record against these insinuations and half-truths, and rejected them out of pocket.

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Years later, when I was a management psychologist with Honeywell, a young lady came to me for help in acquiring a promotion to a job that seemed perfect for her. I contacted the manager seeking such a person, and he agreed she was what he was looking for. Then, one day he came to me and said, “I can’t take her on. Her boss has serious reservations about her suitability.” She didn’t get promoted. I talked to the young lady, and shared with her my disappointment. Then, I asked out of curiosity, “How does your boss feel about this opportunity?” She told me that her boss was doing everything in her power to make it happen. “She was as surprised as me when I didn’t get the job.”

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Psychopaths sully the reputations of others out of spite, jealousy, envy, cruelty and vengeance, yet such people are not recognized as psychopaths. These evildoers know there is no such thing as cause and effect when it comes to the efficacy of malicious and poison gossip. They know that people will believe the worse in people because they believe the worse in themselves.

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Scandal magazines such as the Enquirer, et al, count on people believing celebrities live scandalous lives, finding vicarious satisfaction in such reportage. How do these magazines get away with this? I’ve already answered that question. Psychopathology has become a norm of our times. Soap operas play on this theme with people sullying the reputation of other people in fictional psychodrama as mid-day entertainment.

Now, we have the creation of “Internet Legends.” They are having a field day with President Barak Obama. People read these and believe them; people, you would otherwise think at least reasonably intelligent, feast on this dribble. It is part of the sickness of our times.

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The psychopaths among us are born liars. No matter what corner they paint themselves into they can lie their way out. They can kill the reputation of someone without remorse because they have a low threshold of anxiety.

Novelist Patricia Highsmith personified this psychopathology in the central character of Tom Ripley in a series of books. Ripley is charming, affectionate, and a mirror image of the qualities he seeks in others, but of necessity and only necessity, he is a murderer. He has an identity crisis and constantly changes to suit his company. The psychological vampire comes out in him when he fears being discovered. He is a doppelganger, a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. A movie was made of Highsmith’s first Ripley book, “The Talented Tom Ripley” (1999). Little did she know how this twisted character is common amongst us.

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That is the problem. Psychopaths mirror how we want to be seen and therefore we find them engaging, gradually finding ourselves buying into their treachery as if we were naïve. There is no one no matter how astute that is not vulnerable to this madness. Psychopaths make us question our perceptions of others and ourselves.

A common practice is for a psychopathic parent to turn the children against the other parent. This can be fatal as it can turn the mindset of the child away from love and towards hate, crippling and confusing the child in its approach to life, and paradoxically, leading to that child being psycholpathic towards others.

Psychopaths among us have no conscience, no empathy, are pathological liars, manipulative, charming, intuitive, attention seeking, and easily bored. They are narcissistic and this can turn very nasty when they are thwarted.

If you should confront the psychopath, they will quickly turn the tables on you making you seem the psychopath and they the reasonable one. They become the concerned and sane party in the conversation.

No matter how vicious their behavior, once found out and confronted they will admit nothing. Psychopaths don’t really do fear. They mainly do aggression, insinuation, boredom and pleasure. They have an ambulance chaser mentality and delight in coming to the aid of the crippled seeing no irony in the fact that they might well have been the cripplers. Psychopaths get their kicks by having power over other people, manipulating them, inflicting pain, and then playing the role of the comforter. Other people aren’t real to them, just the equivalent of icons in a video game. So beware!

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