Are You a Psychopath?

From an article in Salon. Psychopaths: how can you spot one?

By Tom Chivers

Posted 04/06/14

Here is a list of 20 criteria, each given a score of 0 (if it doesn’t apply). 1. (if it partially applies). 2. (if it fully applies). The list is composed by the criminal psychologist, Professor Robert Hare, creator of the PCL-R, a psychological assessment used to determine whether someone is a psychopath.

If ya feel like taking a look... how do you score?

     1.      Glibness and superficial charm.

     2.      Grandiose sense of self-worth.

     3.      Pathological lying.

     4.      Cunning/manipulative.

     5.      Lack of remorse.

     6.      Emotional shallowness.

     7.      Callousness and lack of empathy.

     8.      Unwillingness to accept responsibility for actions.  

     9.      A tendency to boredom.

   10.     A parasitic lifestyle.

   11.     A lack of realistic long-term goals.

   12.     Impulsivity.

   13.     Irresponsibility.

   14.     Lack of behavioral control.

   15.     Behavioral problems in early life.

   16.     Juvenile delinquency.

   17.     Criminal versatility.

   18.     A history of revocation of conditional release (I.e. broken parole).

   19.     Multiple marriages.

   20.     Promiscuous sexual behavior.

A pure psychopath will score a perfect 40. A score of 30 + qualifies as a diagnosis of psychopathy. Most certainly above 35 or 36.

The terms cognitive empathy and emotional empathy were of the most interest to me. Cognitive empathy is the ability to know what others are feeling and emotional empathy is the ability to feel what others are feeling. A typical psychopath lacks emotional empathy but is quite adept at knowing what you are feeling, thinking and so on. 

I suspect that most people read these lists and see many of these traits in ourselves... at least I do. At various times it appears that most of us just don't give a damn one way or another how others feel about anything outside of our immediate circle of family or friends. CEO's, politicians, sales people, and poke players may have developed a high degree of cognitive empathy but are sometimes lacking emotional empathy. They can say "I feel your pain" but simply don't give a shit accept for manipulating our emotions to close the deal. 

I include myself in this analysis. My emotional empathy is stunted. I know it is and am sometimes actively developing a seed of it that needs nurturing. I don't say this to set myself aside from those who are naturally empathetic so much as to recognize it for what it is. Though I'm no Ted Bundy, I am confident that I score higher than most. I'm thinking that this might have something to do with being an Alpha male. Maybe... maybe not.