“Nobody Understands Neurosis Like a Psychopath” Comments, Page 1

Just click to return to the article “Nobody Understands Neurosis Like a Psychopath”.

10 Comments (4 Discussion Threads) on “Nobody Understands Neurosis Like a Psychopath”

  1. Do all psychopaths kill or are there varying degrees of the character disturbance? Is it inevitable that they go toward murder eventually, escalating with each move toward manipulating the system and people?

    1. You ask the very question that prompted me to write my books “In Sheep’s Clothing” and “Character Disturbance.” Professionals are slowly coming to recognize that character disturbance exists along a continuum, with psychopaths being at the extreme end. And not all psychopaths are killers, either, although they’re certainly capable of cold-blooded murder. Some are even – as one other author describes – “the sociopath next door,” and can rise to high levels of power and status within organizations or even politics. I have several posts on this site that discuss the continuum of disturbance, some of the most recent ones being “Psychopathy: Is it Really Everywhere” and “Budding Psychopaths or Immature Characters.

      Fortunately full-blown psychopathy is a rare phenomenon. The much bigger problem is the wide variety of character disturbance that falls just short of psychopathy, so big a problem that I dubbed it in my book as the defining phenomenon of our age.

  2. Dr. Simon; I am a psychology major currently writing a research exploring the dangers of court’s mandating attendance of parolees, probationers, and those in drug court at 12 step meetings. My concerns are the unsupervised, unstructured nature of meetings and the vulnerability of members vs the likelihood of many coming from the courts being psychopathic. 20% of prisoners, 70% of psychopaths being alcohol drug abusers. These meetings seem to be a kind of an ideal setting for which psychopaths to flourish. Do you think I’m on the right track? Do you think this is an important issue to pursue? Thank You. I look forward to your response.

    1. Great question, Kevin. In my experience, it’s one thing for a court to mandate completion of some type of treatment but quite another to mandate participation in a 12-step program. In the 12-step model, the only “requirement” for participation is “a sincere desire for sobriety.” And while psychopaths might say all the right things, they’re rarely of the mental frame of mind to really take any of the first 3 steps. I’ve found, however, that SOME select folks with moderate psychopathic features do respond to extremely tightly structured therapeutic community type treatments, which intensely confront thinking errors and manipulative and responsibility-avoidance behaviors and which also occasionally incorporate 12-step principles.

  3. DR. Simon,
    Thank you for the prompt response. My research (Hare, FBI, Ferri (no advantage from 12 step programs), etc..) paint a picture that looks like almost a hang wringing by professionals (Justice dept., prisons) who haven’t found a treatment for psychopathy and are sending them to integrate with fragile, vulnerable, dogma-led members of AA and other 12 step programs. The values taught at AA such as: tolerance, “look at yourself as the problem”, delusional, alcoholic mind, if asked to help “don’t say no”, don’t drink, don’t think, go to meetings seemingly play right into the hands of a psychopath. Charm, glib, and no connection between emotions and words can lead to some very convincing “sharing” at meetings and to the potential for sponsoring many. I truly believe that AA, without a real mouthpiece, was disregarded when the decision was made to mandate people to meetings. Research shows that prisons and justice dept. know very well who they’re sending to these meetings. The disregard for the recovery and safety of 12 step members is more than disturbing. Also, my research shows that nobody has ever tried to connect these dots through research.
    Thank you again for your response.

    1. You’re welcome. And most psychopaths not only know that the justice system is grasping at straws over what to do with them but also know how to play the system and meet all the requirements placed on them (trying to look good in the process and otherwise manage impressions). Some of the psychopaths I knew who completed such programs managed to become highly regarded by both the treatment and correctional staff while becoming ever more sinister and disturbed in their character makeup. And they had a very demoralizing effect on others in the program who were sincerely working on change.

  4. Dr. Simon,
    May I have permission to quote your last reply? I’m describing the psychopath in therapy as a part of my project. I will cite appropriately. Thank you,
    Kevin Eldridge

    1. Yes, you may quote me. And you might also find some helpful thoughts in Dr. Robert Hare’s and Stanton Samenow’s many writings and books on psychopaths and how they fare in treatment both mandated and otherwise.

  5. I hope for the justice system to help us. I just cannot imagine what kind or person (another psychopath) is the defendant of Ben Butler. How can an attorney feel like when they work to protect these people?

  6. I believe my husband is a psychopath. He has done many bad things while on parole. I checked off the Hare test. He got a least 26 if not more as I was being generous. I called his parole officer after I called law enforcement to make report/s. The parole officer seemed to blame me for husbands behavior. I am not an enabler. I called him on his behaviors…drugs and spousal abuse. I am separated. How do we deal with the criminal drugged society who are like this? How do I deal with him continually lying and manipulating if we go to court?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
 characters available

In accordance with our Privacy Policy, your email address will not be published with your comment or shared in any other way. Please do not SPAM. Comments which solicit personal advice, are rude or inflammatory, are not about this specific post, or are otherwise not in keeping with our Terms of Use may be deleted at our discretion. If you would like to make a comment or ask a question about something other than the subject matter of this post, please do get in touch directly.

Overseen by an international advisory board of distinguished academic faculty and mental health professionals with decades of clinical and research experience in the US, UK and Europe, CounsellingResource.com provides peer-reviewed mental health information you can trust. Our material is not intended as a substitute for direct consultation with a qualified mental health professional. CounsellingResource.com is accredited by the Health on the Net Foundation.

Copyright © 2002-2024. All Rights Reserved.