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Letter From A Psychopath
81–90 of 347 posts
Re: Letter From A Psychopath
#82Many of the best venture capitalists and entrepreneurs have psycopath-like tendencies.
Think about the similarities. A good entrepreneur/venture capitalist should be:
-Ruthless, selfish, unsympathetic
-Capable of manipulating, good at acting, great at selling a concept and convincing others to drink the kool-aid
-Unfazed by negative outcomes
-Unaware of (or at least, unfazed by) social norms and the status quo
-Creative, capable of thinking radically differently than everyone else
I've seen this comparison a few times, and now I can't seem to find any of the articles that I have read.
Re: Letter From A Psychopath
#83>psychopaths hate weakness they will attempt to conceal anything that might present as a vulnerability [...] ability to rapidly find weaknesses in others, and to exploit it
There seems to be confusion about what constitutes 'strength' and what constitutes 'weakness' in regard to human personalities (or 'hard' vs 'soft')
For example, compulsively manipulating other people is more properly regarded as a weakness, I think. Whereas getting up on a stage and being open and vulnerable in front of a crowd, that's strength. It can inspire people and produce lasting change.
People with heavy streaks of psychopathy, or narcissism, or whatnot, are on a different path to the rest of us. It's better to avoid them where possible, tempting though it is to hope they will eventually acknowledge their faults and apologise. However, not having access to various feelings is going to create straightforward problems in their lives which can in principle lead to private acknowledgement and progress being sought. So I refuse to regard them as incurable cases
Re: Letter From A Psychopath
#84[deleted]
Re: Letter From A Psychopath
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Purely as a matter of opinion, the way to think about this is not as an advantage for an individual, but for as a gene pool. Mostly a human gene pool's survival and prosperity is best served by community co-operation, mutual support and self sacrifice for the good of loved ones and other community members. Sometimes though, the group as a whole has had it and the route to the survival of any of the gene pool is for o…
I'm not going to rule out that psychopathy can have been a good thing in some society roles, but they do look more like shirking parasites? (An evolved strategy that is turned on sometimes, depending on environment.) [Edit: Afaik, psychopathy is not turned on after someone reaches adulthood. An evolved strategy for catastrophes would be turned on at e.g. hunger or stress.] I especially wonder if warfare is a good exa…
Historically, soldiers have generally been reluctant to use their weapons. During WWII, around 20% of soldiers actually fired their weapons in combat. Even fewer shot to kill often aiming over the heads of the enemy. This is a form of posturing both to the enemy and their comrades. Through extensive use of conditioning, that rate and lethality of fire was raised during Vietnam and subsequent wars.
Even among tribal societies, warfare is highly ritualized in a manner that does not optimize for maximum lethality. Richard Gabriel, in studies on tribal societies in New Guinea have noted that hunts occurred with accurate feathered. Tellingly, tribal warfare employed featherless arrows. Similarly "counting coup" among American Indians involves touching rather than killing the enemy.
Cold blooded killers have their uses for society, especially in warfare. An excellent book on this subject is On Killing.
Re: Letter From A Psychopath
#86Earlier 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…
Believing that one might be being surveilled through one's own glasses is a paranoid fantasy that gets closer to reality every day!
This story makes me think of the portrayal of John Nash in a beautiful mind.
Re: Letter From A Psychopath
#87I have extensive experience w psychopaths. They have almost destroyed my life given my vulnerability to them because of a mother who is a psychopath and a father who had major
psychopathictraits. I had to seek nurturance from a snake and learn how to feed it and placate it while trying to stay alive.
Re: Letter From A Psychopath
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't it possible the person who is genetically predisposed to being manipulative is manipulating your feelings here? Yes, what he wrote is interesting, and I read all of it. No, I don't believe he feels "satisfaction in contributing to society." I believe he feels satisfaction in contributing to himself and his own self-image, even unblinkingly at the expense of others. I'm of course biased in this, having been the…
"Isn't it possible the person who is genetically predisposed to being manipulative is manipulating your feelings here?" Absolutely yes, but I also can't help but notice the argument as you are making it is a bit too powerful; no matter what he says or does, there's no way for him to overcome the argument. We're only a short step away from simply labeling someone a psychopath, then declaring you can't trust anything t…
"You knew I was a snake when you picked me up"
Re: Letter From A Psychopath
#89Amazing and fascinating. His state of consciousness is so very different from ours. It is his reality. I'm so happy he shared this.
Re: Letter From A Psychopath
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pathological lying and manipulativeness are hallmarks of a psychopath [1]. It would be like befriending a spider - when you're the fly. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hare_Psychopathy_Checklist
I have a friend who's a pathological lier and I've never seen any indication he's a psychopath. I've seen him go out of his way to help people many times and have never seen him try to manipulate others. Just because you have one condition doesn't mean you have the other.
Those are indications, not definite diagnosis. Think about it the way you think about symptoms of many other illnesses. They often start with „tiredness, lack of concentration, bad mood, weight change…”
So being a pathological lier means there’s something wrong. It might be psychopathy. It might be some consequence of anxiety. Or something else entirely.