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Letter From A Psychopath

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Re: Letter From A Psychopath

#281

Post by andy_boot »

jamesbritt wrote: post #143
doctorfoo wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funnily enough, I didn't feel any empathy at all. Does this make me a psychopath too? ;) Instead, reading it gave me the impression of somebody obsessed with themselves - somebody with a superiority complex. Nothing more, nothing less, and I've met plenty of people who have that in different amounts. But maybe that is what psychopathy is?

Does this make me a psychopath too? ;) I hope not because I had a similar reaction to the letter. Made me wonder if this person is indeed changed, or if there's a just new manipulation game underway.

Although it is somewhat confusing: Worrying that you may be a psychopath is a sign that you aren't.

Re: Letter From A Psychopath

#282

Post by chrischen »

throwaway83294 wrote: post #185
selmnoo wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm finding most of these posts to be deeply unsettling. Psychopathy is a mental disorder -- you guys are writing off psychopaths en masse as 'bad people', who cannot contribute to society at all. Consider if the submission piece is genuine: a guy with a mental disorder sought out help to curb any harm he might have otherwise done to others. That's a happy ending isn't it? Be cautious, sure, but let's not just take t…

It's easy to either over-demonize or underestimate the nature of actual psychopathy if you've never encountered it. By definition, a pure psychopath feels absolutely no remorse, no guilt, and has an unshakable egocentric view that does not change. They're effectively intelligent rational agents without the natural mammal-evolved desire to benefit the group -- they only seek to benefit the self. They would stab you in…

If they're rational agents, then they should understand the results of the iterated prisoner's dilemma, and understand that screwing people over doesn't pay, remorse or no remorse.

Re: Letter From A Psychopath

#283

Post by jevinskie »

mikedmiked wrote: post #258
throwaway83294 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For reasons I won't get into, after he was confronted, he did what I'd describe as "firing a warning shot", but in terms of social power. Basically it was his way of saying "Don't mess with me. I have influence and can destroy your life." Following that, I've been forced to take precautions in terms of carefully bringing friends into this knowledge, among other strategic preparations in case he "attacks" some day wit…

Thanks for all your insight here in this thread. I went through all this myself and haven't really been able to talk about it. Its reassuring to see others have been through the same. My psychopath convinced everyone I had psychosis when I questioned her once. I refused to believe something that I saw her do was a 'hallucination'. For months I was gaslighted by everyone I knew. I would think I was in the clear and th…

What does "accident and emergency" mean? A (mental) hospital?

Re: Letter From A Psychopath

#284

Post by eruditely »

mikeash wrote: post #74
peterwwillis wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thing is, in their mind, they're not rambling. They believe they are saying something intelligible. They have thoughts, sometimes mixed up, and feelings, and try to express them - but something in the delivery smashes it to bits. So the interesting thing to me is how you can read these ramblings and actually extract feelings and intentions from them, even though they make no sense. Usually it's very sad and lonely.

There is a fascinating internal logic underneath it all. I had a schizophrenic guy send me regular e-mails for about two months. For reasons still unknown to me, he decided that I was the one person in the world that he could trust. The first e-mail was very short and looked like spam. It was a brief note about how the death of some professional wrestler wasn't an accident. Then they got longer and longer, and finall…

What the fuck? Maybe this is too much of an immediate response for me, but why the fuck would you contact the police? Do the police seem like they take care of people like him well? Shit I feel bad for him, the one guy he thought he could trust just snitched on him, even if he was crazy. Must have been hell to undergo that. Maybe you should have posted to a forum about how to help him first, as opposed to helping? Now the police thinks he is harassing random people and has a legal trail just in case they want to discriminate against him.

Re: Letter From A Psychopath

#285

Post by CamperBob2 »

throwaway83294 wrote: post #169
tfb wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've known a few psychopaths myself. It is interesting how they react when you make it clear you know all about their deception. I personally find it hilarious that they think they're able to dupe everyone they meet, but I also feel sad that it still works on so many. It's hard though to differentiate true psychopaths from those who simply share a few traits. When I read about psychopaths, I tend to find common trait…

> I can't tell if I'm a psychopath or not. Are those who desire power, control, and inflated egos always psychopaths? No. I, and I suspect most ambitious people, also desire power, control, and have inflated egos to some extent. Psychopaths are still human (though broken) and also have these traits, but since they lack other traits like compassion, generosity, etc., the former tend to show through more.

I have a problem with the whole notion that runs throughout this conversation -- the notion that psychopathy is a binary state. Everyone should do a mental find-and-replace of "psychopathy" with "homosexuality," and re-evaluate their views in light of the existence of the Kinsey scale.

One thing you can say about the human mind is that there's nothing binary about it.

Re: Letter From A Psychopath

#286

Post by oofabz »

eruditely wrote: post #284
mikeash wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a fascinating internal logic underneath it all. I had a schizophrenic guy send me regular e-mails for about two months. For reasons still unknown to me, he decided that I was the one person in the world that he could trust. The first e-mail was very short and looked like spam. It was a brief note about how the death of some professional wrestler wasn't an accident. Then they got longer and longer, and finall…

What the fuck? Maybe this is too much of an immediate response for me, but why the fuck would you contact the police? Do the police seem like they take care of people like him well? Shit I feel bad for him, the one guy he thought he could trust just snitched on him, even if he was crazy. Must have been hell to undergo that. Maybe you should have posted to a forum about how to help him first, as opposed to helping? No…

I was involved in this incident, as one of the friends who helped track him down. I believe contacting the police was a good move because his letters indicated that he was a danger to himself and to others.

Re: Letter From A Psychopath

#287

Post by dmoney »

scott_s wrote: post #254
VladimirGolovin wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's quite possible that this is not a disorder, but a stable evolutionary strategy.

I don't think it is evolutionary stable. I think a society of sociopaths would fall apart. We evolved to live in groups; we are social animals. Social animals need empathy, otherwise they are unlikely to cooperate and live in mutually beneficial ways.

"Psychopath" could just be the degenerate form of the personality type that evolved to lead those groups. In other words, a leader is a psychopath with better impulse control.

Re: Letter From A Psychopath

#288

Post by StavrosK »

jevinskie wrote: post #283
mikedmiked wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for all your insight here in this thread. I went through all this myself and haven't really been able to talk about it. Its reassuring to see others have been through the same. My psychopath convinced everyone I had psychosis when I questioned her once. I refused to believe something that I saw her do was a 'hallucination'. For months I was gaslighted by everyone I knew. I would think I was in the clear and th…

What does "accident and emergency" mean? A (mental) hospital?

It's what the ER is called in the UK.

Re: Letter From A Psychopath

#289

Post by StavrosK »

selmnoo wrote: post #138
pndmnm wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you'd like to read a community actually interacting with him rather than hellbanning him under the rug, check out this Metafilter thread: http://www.metafilter.com/119424/An-Operating-System-for-Son... Long, but worth the read.

And here he is asking us for help and being ignored: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1782800 Actually just go through the his submission history and randomly click a few links: https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=losethos You can actually see his condition gradually getting worse over months and years. I wonder if he would have turned out differently had we embraced him - and helped him?

Ah, damn, the fact that that post is dead is very sad. I know it's years old, but, losethos, do you still need advice? (I'll probably see your reply, as I have showdead on). We could probably get a thread going, if so.

Re: Letter From A Psychopath

#290

Post by interpol_p »

sliverstorm wrote: post #148
hootener wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's brilliant about this letter is how easily I stepped into it. C admitted to possessing the abilities to be a master manipulator and exploiter of weakness; and I still let C manipulate me into thinking exactly the way he/she wanted me to by the end of the letter. It was the literary equivalent of the cup-and-shell game. I saw the con happening right before my eyes and still got duped. Brilliant writing. (Note: I…

So you're saying the letter is a long-con to increase trust in psychopaths to make it easier for the author to take advantage of people? You say you don't necessarily mean "con", but "manipulated" definitely implies you feel you were led to believe something likely false that you wouldn't have otherwise via trickery, etc.

It might not be a con, the letter just demonstrates a self-serving nature written in a manipulative, empathy inducing style.

The letter may have no long-term purpose, but it might be written that way because the author is so used to this way of thinking.

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