Some of the longstanding and commonly accepted explanations we’ve been given about human nature are simply wrong. Worse, believing them leaves us vulnerable — both individually and as a society — to the manipulations of predators among us. And there are predators among us. They are not “sick.” They are just disturbingly different and unfathomably dangerous.

True psychopaths are neither as common nor as easy to identify as the popular media would have you believe. But many do go unnoticed or are totally misperceived. Avoid victimization by those devoid of empathy, remorse, and conscience by understanding more about this personality type.

For better or worse — no, actually for better and worse — psychology has developed a huge number of labels for classifying and describing human behavior. It’s up to all of us to make sure these labels are used constructively.

You might want them to see the self-defeating and other-harming consequences of their behavior, but the fact is many disturbed characters already see, they just disagree.

If your manager lies as easily as he breathes, violates workplace boundaries with impunity, and makes you feel three inches tall, you may be managed by a genuine sociopath. Read on for strategies to survive and escape these damaging and dangerous individuals.

While so many things are chillingly accurate, there is one thing that bothers me about the portrayal of psychpathy in US television drama Dexter: it’s the way the writers seem to explain how such people get to be the way they are.

Have you always suspected it? Just one diagram explains it all: social networking as the intersection of narcissism, ADHD, and good old fashioned stalking.