[quote]alexus wrote:
…
(sorry. i can rant about this stuff for hours)
:-/[/quote]
Don’t be sorry! I can read it for hours 
[quote]Tyrant wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
[quote]alexus wrote:
it depends on how you define ‘psychopath’.
different researchers define psychopath differently.
narrower definitions result in less prevalence. psychopaths are serial killers and the like.
broader definitions result in higher prevalence. thus we get this idea of the high functioning psychopath that is a successful member of society.
even broader definitions result in a fairly large number of first year psychology students counting as psychopaths. now there is a handy way to obtain a sample to do research on!
how much those findings generalize back to telling us stuffs about the people who meet that narrower definition is…
A) stupid. most probably.
B) helpful. thanks very much for the funding grant :-)[/quote]
Actually there is a single agreed measure for psychopathology across the globe. It’s the Robert Hare Psychopathology checklist. It’s used in every prison for the criminally insane and every psychiatric hospital across the globe. The higher the score(out of 40) the more likely you are considered to be a psychopath. Prior to developing this test Robert Hare used pain tolerance and fear to measure psychopathology but these methods are no longer allowed.[/quote]
I just self-took the test, it’s the PCL-R if any of you are interested. I scored a 19, 30+ is defines you as a psychopath in the US, 25+ for UK and Canada. The only thing keeping my score low is the fact that I have long term goals and am working towards them.
Supposedly “normal” people get between a 0 and 2. So by this definition I’m not a psychopath.
On the other hand “Psychopathy is a term which, until the 1980s, formally referred to a personality disorder characterized by an abnormal lack of empathy masked by an ability to appear outwardly normal” on THIS definition, I’m um…quite psychopathic.
edit: What I think is comical, is that if someone who knew me in real life tested me on the PCL-R, I’d probably score between a 0-2, so what does that tell you according to the older definition?[/quote]
An ‘abnormal lack of empathy’ is not a good trait. However if that’s what you have it shouldn’t bother you. Ever feel really bad about something you did? I remember when I was a primary school kid I deliberately threw a bastketball at another kid’s face. It hit him in the nose and he got a really bad nose bleed. I’ve always felt terrible about that. I guess that makes me abnormally empathetic. Maybe even precious. He was a nice kid though. Didn’t even complain. Just mopped up the blood with a bunch of tissues and went about his day.
30+ is defines you as a psychopath in the US, 25+ for UK and Canada.
hahahahahahahaha
thats hilarious.
know how to cure a psychopath? ship 'em to the US
A thread hijack, but just a small one, I promise:
What is the opposite of a psychopath?
I ask because over the last few years I’ve started to believe that I am hyperempathetic (my word). I feel like I am an empty emotional vessel and I take on the emotions of those around me. Seeing people suffering causes me terrible emotional pain and I’ll avoid social situations that might put me the position of listening to the hardships of others. For example, I skipped visiting family this weekend because I couldn’t stand to see the pain in my cousin’s face as she recounts aspects of her very difficult divorce.
I can’t watch TV shows or movies about sick children, loss, seperation, etc. I tried watching the movie “Eat, Pray, Love” and in it, a character recounts driving home drunk one day and nearly running over his 8 year old boy who was playing in the driveway and I broke down at the thought and couldn’t continue watching.
That being said, all my close friend are very up, happy, optimistic people and when I’m around them I take on those feelings.
I’m just wondering if there is a name for what I experience.
TIA
[quote]Test Icicle wrote:
A thread hijack, but just a small one, I promise:
What is the opposite of a psychopath?
I ask because over the last few years I’ve started to believe that I am hyperempathetic (my word). I feel like I am an empty emotional vessel and I take on the emotions of those around me. Seeing people suffering causes me terrible emotional pain and I’ll avoid social situations that might put me the position of listening to the hardships of others. For example, I skipped visiting family this weekend because I couldn’t stand to see the pain in my cousin’s face as she recounts aspects of her very difficult divorce.
I can’t watch TV shows or movies about sick children, loss, seperation, etc. I tried watching the movie “Eat, Pray, Love” and in it, a character recounts driving home drunk one day and nearly running over his 8 year old boy who was playing in the driveway and I broke down at the thought and couldn’t continue watching.
That being said, all my close friend are very up, happy, optimistic people and when I’m around them I take on those feelings.
I’m just wondering if there is a name for what I experience.
TIA[/quote]
I’m not qualified to give any advice about this sort of stuff, but that being said it sounds to me like you are suffering from depression. I personally don’t like the idea of taking substances we don’t understand very well, especially substances that affect neurotransmitters but if your life is unpleasant perhaps you should consider going on anti-depressants. I say YOU should consider because a Doctor will give anyone anti-depressants if they go to them and tell them them feel depressed or describe symptoms that they would consider to be depression.
This is just my interpretation of your hyper-empathetic responses. I’m wondering if you feel excessively shameful/remorseful about your own bad behaviour? That would seem to indicate a tendency towards hyper-empathy it seems to me.
‘opposite’ is hard. psychopaths = antisocial. williams syndrome = hypersocial:
but that isn’t what you meant…
um… a name…
human?
EDIT: actually i take that back. pretty sure williams syndrome is thought to be the opposite of autism not psychopathy. sorry bout that. altruism is sometimes thought to be the opposite of psychopathy (if we accept the model of psychopaths where they are cheaters and defectors by definition)
here ya go. (note the caveat that the article is a bit dodgy.)
it is a bit of a self-helpy notion rather than a psychiatry notion…
but some clinicians are sympathetic to it (or related notions) to a certain extent…