10 Signs for Spotting a Sociopath

[Maunagarjana]

That was very inspiring, music, and I'm sorry that happened. But as you say, it made you stronger and wiser. I find it interesting how many people cannot see that the things they detest the most are in fact (in the big picture) good for them. Not because they are good, but because they are not, and because they challenge you to bring the best out in yourself. It's so easy to get stuck in this "why me, poor me" viewpoint and never get wise to the larger patterns playing out. And before people think "But what hardship have you gone through to say such a thing"....haha, I'm not as brave as you, music, but suffice to say, I know precisely and intimately of what I speak.

I'm reminded of some lines of poetry I wrote:

For all curses are blessings in grotesque disguise
When you can suffer to open up your eyes
And pull yourself from that egoistic dream
To see few things in life are ever as they seem

[music]

Thanks for the blessings and love. I know my description was a bit full on, TMI for most people, but really, I wrote bluntly for those few souls who might read my words and feel more empowered or less alone. Apologies to those who were put off, but hey, consider it a test of the old empathy circuit - if it's hard for you to read, imagine what it would be like to live. Blunt talk wins few friends, but my opinion is that in matters like this it is the only way to go. The time for sweeping this stuff under the rug of denial or false-memory syndrome is long passed. My partner commented that the thread kind of died after, but I kinda knew it would anyway I'm not saying most people don't care, bacause most here do, just acknowledging how difficult it is to reply to something like that.

[Guest]

Thank you for the thread very informative and good advice.

One of the most difficult tasks for me has been in understanding and seeing clearly that there are human beings in the world that do not consider other, lack the ability to have compassion and view other human beings as prey.

I do not know if the psychopath/sociopath has a soul or not, whether they are more connected to the hind brain or if it is nature/nurture. These are all questions I've thought a lot about since I discovered that wiring complexities in some human beings are completely different than most.

In the case of the Soul maybe it is detached from the spirit and body or significantly underdeveloped. Maybe they are predisposed to it genetically and it is enforced by their environment. Perhaps it is a combination of spiritual, genetics and environment. I don't know.

It brings about in me a degree of sadness that they do not have a full spiritual and emotional human experience.

Music, I'm so sorry that something so horrific happened to you as a child. Amazing you forgave the person that molested you. You are very brave and strong.


Love

Nora

[minkton]

Posted by DouglasDanger (here)
I disagree fully, as a child of a sociopath, learning thier naturre who and what they come from is not easy. When they are attempting to teach thier brand of sociopathy is when you learn where when and by whom thier sociopathic button was pressed, once pressed it cannot be easily turned off, as it is an off button to begin with, you turn off your caring for anything else but yourself... But IMHO it is a button or switch that is pressed or turned off, Not something you are born with. We learn to become a sociopath from our mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles grandfathers and grand mothers.... It is labeled " family tradition" most of the time it is hidden..( competition and sport is an in your face display of training for sociopaths, " you must be number one, must be the smartest, must be the the most liked and popular, you must be the best"..). This would explain why certain families generation after generation have so many prominant sociopaths and psycopaths. It is something they have been teaching thier offspring for many generations..

Searingly astute. Thanks for clarifying about the "off button" that has been pressed. Makes complete sense of the entire pathology.

[music]

This would be a good point to ask if anyone has every heard/read/experienced a sociopath being "unmade". If we are "made" something, we can be "unmade", if we are born something, that is what we are. Sport, as an example, feeds off so many insecurities, I don't think we can label all people who overly push their kids to succeed at sport as sociopaths. This would appear to me to just as easily be the action of one who is grossly insecure and disempowered psychologically (no matter how "strong" they appear), where a sociopath is the opposite of this. True they have one point in common - they are both good at hiding who they really are. Or maybe sociopaths are sociopaths because they know only fear, nothing but fear. Could their behaviour stem from this?

And also, back to a former point - what are they here to teach us? Where do they fit in? Perhaps they are a warning to us of what we shall become if we continue to labour under the fear-based reality we allowed ourselves to be hoodwinked into?

[Sérénité]

The sociopath who I'm unfortunate enough to know has two children (both now adults)
One who is most definately the carbon copy of his father, is also a sociopath, quite possibly worse than his father, if that is at all possible!
The other child, a daughter, has slowly over the years increased in the negative traits leaning towards this disposition also.

The father/grandfather of those mentioned, I believe had severe mental health issues, but am unaware as to the exact clinical diagnosis/personality disorder genre for him.

I guess this means they could fall into either or both of the nature and nurture conclusions for the root of sociopathic tendancies? But the fact the daughter has only over the past decade during her 30's increased these traits makes me wonder...

...is it a genetically imprinted trait? but maybe conditioning during childhood/early adulthood either allows the individual to suppress and over come it, or push them to the edge into full-blown sociopathy?

[Sérénité]

Posted by music (here)
And also, back to a former point - what are they here to teach us? Where do they fit in? Perhaps they are a warning to us of what we shall become if we continue to labour under the fear-based reality we allowed ourselves to be hoodwinked into?

In my experience, these people have taught me valuable life lessons. At first, for the first 10-15 years they were just a constant bain in both mine and a loved ones life. I cursed the day they were brought into my life and looked forward to the day they would hopefully be removed from it. It never happened!
Over the past few years Ive come to realise that everything happens for a reason and even the bad things that happen to us, the bad people that come into our lives, are here to teach us a life lesson, about either what we need to change in ourselves or make sure we do not ever become.

These people have taught me so much. Rely on nobody, stand on your own feet and be beholden to nothing and nobody. Have self respect and compassion for others. Do not let the world around you make you hard, but stand bold and stand strong. Above all, love and be loved, with integrity, passion and pureness of soul.

That's something these people will never, ever, be blessed enough to have and behold!

[Eram]

One more sign to spot a psychopath is to study the fathers of woman who are very firm on remaining childless.

Many daughters of male psychopaths, for some reason, do not want to have children.
When talking about the subject, they tend to be 100 % sure about not wanting to bring children into this world.

[seeker/reader]

------------------

[music]

Posted by Sérénité (here)

Posted by music (here)
And also, back to a former point - what are they here to teach us? Where do they fit in? Perhaps they are a warning to us of what we shall become if we continue to labour under the fear-based reality we allowed ourselves to be hoodwinked into?

In my experience, these people have taught me valuable life lessons. At first, for the first 10-15 years they were just a constant bain in both mine and a loved ones life. I cursed the day they were brought into my life and looked forward to the day they would hopefully be removed from it. It never happened!
Over the past few years Ive come to realise that everything happens for a reason and even the bad things that happen to us, the bad people that come into our lives, are here to teach us a life lesson, about either what we need to change in ourselves or make sure we do not ever become.

These people have taught me so much. Rely on nobody, stand on your own feet and be beholden to nothing and nobody. Have self respect and compassion for others. Do not let the world around you make you hard, but stand bold and stand strong. Above all, love and be loved, with integrity, passion and pureness of soul.

That's something these people will never, ever, be blessed enough to have and behold!

Thank you so much, Sérénité, your strength and wisdom garnered from your experience is inspiring, and your ability to remain in the heart is a blessing and hope to us all. I really can't thank you enough. I think we can certainly learn from others, from the "good" and the "bad", and I like the way you say "do not let the world around you make you hard". This is a key point for me too. In this unrelated thread, I say some things I think are relevant here "We grow when we learn to listen to others, but see as truth only what we find within ourselves" and "Magic is the intelligence of Love in action.

You earlier post too is interesting. It is true that in most things we look at, both nature AND nurture play a key role, and it can be difficult to tease out which is which.

[music]

My partner reminded me of something just now. Her father was at a psychology conference having a discussion with a world leader on psychopathy and sociopathy. He said one way to spot a sociopath is to look at their shoes. If the top half is well-presented, but the shoes are old, scuffed or generally crappy, there is a chance we are dealing with a sociopath. They are so secure in the belief that we will be captivated by their faces, they neglect the bottom half.

[music]

Posted by seeker/reader (here)
I wonder if the sociopaths are utilized or influenced by the phenomena called "dark satellite".

I have listened to a few interviews with Santos Bonacci where he mentions something called "the dark satellite". He references the Thomas H. Burgoyne book, "The Light of Egypt".

Santos states that this dark satellite, which is the animal chakra of the planet Earth, is the possible source/mechanism behind the malignant forces that operate on this planet (TPTB). The dark satellite, is called by Burgoyne, the realm of the undeveloped good in Nature.

It reminds me somewhat of the description of the Arcontic forces that John Lash says exist in another dimension, that try to deviate humanity from their true path.

I started a thread that has excerpts from Burgoyne's book that describe the dark satellite here https://projectavalon.net/forum4/show...e-Thomas-H....

Hi seeker/reader, I reproduce here the reply I made to the thread you linked to. You will see I am in polite disagreement

Hmm, thanks for posting, but this seems like disempowerment to me. Though I could be wrong of course. In this post in another thread I say:

Kundalini is a feminine energy (as is Christ consciousness), but like all in this physical realm, She is made up of a masculine and a feminine stream. Just as the ley lines that circuit the earth, meeting at points of power (fundamentally earth chakras) are made up of a feminine and a masculine stream. In the context of this thread, we may posit that the miracles of Christ stem from a mastery of Kundalini. Christ is Love (which is the God that we all are), and it is no mistake that the most commonly portrayed hand gesture of Christ in art is the mudra for dispelling fear. To be beyond fear is to be Love.

In my opinion, evil is a product of ego-based consciousness, whether that consciousness be embodied or not. We have been manipulated into demonising our darkness to disempower us and prevent us from achieving unity consciousness. The dark principle is the feminine principle, and it one half of all physical manifestation, including life. It is one third of the trinity of masculine/feminine/magic. Magic is the thread that ties us to all that is BEYOND the physical, including all higher dimensions.

"A little learning is a dangerous thing"? This is classic ego-based consciousness stuff. This is a disempowering tactic, and a lever to gain the author elitism over the reader. The problem is, in my opinion, that we have allowed ourselves to be led into the trap of the mind, when our true nature and intelligence lies in the heart. We have been tricked into believing nature (which is analogous to our nature) is evil, harsh, something to conquered. The opposition of the poles is the fundament of physical mainfestation, and it is the game we have set up for ourselves. The problem is, most of us have now lost the rules of the game, and we live our lives based on the rules of those who have prospered under the dominance of the masculine principle only (which they themselves made pre-eminent). These people put ideas like this (evil earth death-star chakra whatever) into our heads to draw us away from our truth. How better to re-inforce and maintain the fear-based paradigm than making us fear the very earth we walk on, which is analogous to the feminine principle.

[Chester]

Hi Music, interesting post.

I decided to run down your check list as there have been times I was convinced I was a psychopath (which seems to be just about the same thing as a sociopath).

I am and/or do #1, #2, #5, #6 and #8

I am opposite #3 a.) as I feel shame, guilt and remorse at times and even regret, but then I examine my error and do my best to grow from the situation. #3b – when I obtain new information, I may shift my point of view which might be a surprise to others who counted on me to remain in the old point of view. Then sometimes, because of my new point of view I may perform actions which are considered betrayals by these others. I think that’s their problem, not mine. I perform actions based on my best judgment at the time as to what might be best for others in the bigger picture and over the long run. I don’t care what they think about it – again, that’s their problem.

#4 – I did this when I was young. I am now incredibly and rigorously and sometimes brutally honest. I do not have to embellish any aspect of my historical story at all whatsoever.

More about #5 - If I am to enter into any contest, I will absolutely do everything I can to win but within the pre agreed rule set. If no rule set is established, I do whatever I have to do to “win” unless I feel that the person I am beating is handicapped. I have learned to do this though still not at all as good at this as I hope to be. It is seen in the fact my post count has dropped so much. If I posted what I would like to post, I would become 9justone9.

#7 – I exist to experience love, which I find I experience the most love when I am giving in some form that is appreciated by the target.

#10 – I used to be quite delusional. I believe I am much less delusional now. Am I deluding myself? Perhaps.

[music]

I think all of us could relate to some of the points, we all have our place on the spectrum. True regret for harm to others counts you out. Sociopaths regret only what affects their control, when they lose a lover one, they regret the hassle of having to find another.

#7 – I exist to experience love, which I find I experience the most love when I am giving in some form that is appreciated by the target.

haha, sorry, definitely not a sociopath!

[carnavas]

As we are different and yet similar, we may all have perspectives but different ones,so I would like to give another perspective on this matter,this is just my opinion
what if this is stereotyping?I always thought if only one swan of the pond is black we can't say swans are white, this type of generalizing and putting white as a characteristic of the swans will violet the very rights of that only black swan(as ignoring its existence)and thus it would be wrong. I have always encouraged eveyone to break the limitations, to break the boxes, to push the barriers in everything. no matter how much you read and describe the color red, if you don't have the eyes to see you will never be able to spot that color. if we open our eyes to see, we will never again read the descriptions to spot things, we will meet everything and act accordingly as it comes to us and then we will know. sure there are people that hurt and harm and people who plan destruction in complex and unbelievable designs but this is how this world is anyway, we can either simplify and add lightness or overcomplexify and add darkness. life is full of mystery and wonders be it good or bad, we should not havoc in fear and remorse and go on hanging a warning sign everywhere we can. I think it would be better to put that energy into eliminating the fear and remorse that we don't need, sociopaths psychopaths devils beast dragons reptilians and etc are just the symptoms of a cause that is just here in this world in every one of us, these symptoms are either by our own self centered ego caused by separation or others, we are all part "sociopath" part "mentally illed" part bad and part good, some overcome those parts and some havent still, what have we done in the bigger picture to help? if we focus more on the harms and our open doors that they enter from instead of the harmer itself, we would have more control. it is as simple as closing the door. it would be better to not to give common sense branches and leaves until it ends up like a big unbeatable evil tree!if we practice to be suspicious of unknown things then we will be suspicious of everything cause everything has an unknown side and what of a good will it do?maybe we'll dodge one or two harms by stressing ourself all the time but if we look at it in another way, to invite harm cause we know this is what makes us who we are, we will be freed of their greed. how these dark streets are all part of us, we will come to love even the unlovable. when we're dying we will be thinking of all the things that made us who we are not the things we avoided, nature, our own body, is telling us this one truth, we shall not harm each other and as we continue, unite, the beings that are caught in a delusion and get incapable to understand this are incapable of the power of oneness and being incapable is to be destroyed and to fall.
Even in the side of the victim who wants to spot the traitor, it all depends on how much you're connected. if you see and feel humanity as a whole organ in a whole body then you wont be willing to lock away the spotted "sociopaths" cause they are just the diseased cells of a cause, but we will put our power for eliminating the cause instead of removing and locking the symptoms.we can kill the pain of our leg with a painkiller, but if we are more connected to our body and respect that part of our body as our leg, we will instead listen to its pain and focus on helping the cause not killing the pain and thinking everything is good now and go on with our lifes, well our body is our life anyway!I dont know if I'm putting my words right or if anyone is getting what I'm saying, but the more you get selfless instead of selfish the more these people cannot harm you.
this truth is even within us and as we look inside we will see, the more selfless the cells are and see themselves as a whole the more conscious and united you will be in the soul,or the consciousness of the cells are so united that they seem selfless.
By the way, I still do have thoughts about wanting to save the world and I'm okay if I die along and I don't put this as a self harming behaviour, I put it as the selflessness that is needed now to eliminate the causes, just like the cells that put you first than themselves. you must be empty to contain the magic.
I respect and cherish the human race so much that I cannot accept that someone is being born a "sociopath" or with something wrong in it, they either rise or fall. just because they fell it doesn't mean they were born wrong, they choosed wrong.
You see, my mother sometimes has very bad behaviours wich hurt me to the point of losing the will to live! but as soon as we forgive each other and get back the relationship I feel like I can even move the world. it is the best feeling.my hurt turns to a blessing.
Just my thoughts
Love

[Delight]

Thank you for this list and the discussion.
I read a book a few years ago called "The Saint and the Sociopath".
That is a provocative subject and the title implies that the two may be hard to distinguish because an element of glamor (the glow) attracts us to the ones who stand apart from the herd.

We all have heard that it is the "thought" and the intention and not the behavior that signifies the meaning. It is to society's advantage that we all police ourselves. So, despite the problems we have when we become mixed up and manipulated by people, maybe sociopathy by any other name means uncontrolable?

By any definition, a person who is outside the bounds of the socially accepted norms is capable of acting in very unpredictable ways, being without "conscience" (and conscience might only be the fear of shunning for approval oriented persons). I have had discussions with friends about "sociopathy" and we have come to the conclusion that sociopathy is only considered to be a problem for the victims of manipulation.

I was raised by crazy people and I have emotional scars and yet, here I am and will continue to be.
I think the whole notion of what is labeled sociopathy is purely about control and security measures attempted to prevent "perpetration"

That in turn is based on the idea that people are EVER victims.

I am really sure that we have a game plan as beings which may include some ugly looking experience.
However, I definitely suspect that there is advantage to being unattached to the ties of social bounds.
Despite feeling I am an affectionate and loving being, I also may be a sociopath because when I see victimization, I chalk it up to that being's attachment to victimization.

[Sidney]

A sociopath has no caring bone in their person. If they refuse to get help for their abusive routines, then it is self destructive to continue a relationship with that person. We have to protect ourselves. i am sure they don't say when they are small "i wish to become a sociopath when I grow up". But it happens. And I believe that somehow evil has found their way into the persons aura and taken over. This is my personal opinion.

[BrianEn]

Find a sociopath in your life lose them as quickly as possible. You will not be able to change them so don't even try. I had one in my life for a long time. They were so deeply entrenched in my life I found it impossible to get rid of them. Here's my to remember fact about sociopaths.....They need you a #&^ lot more than you need them. So ditch them as quickly as possible.

Here's some more web help.
http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/narci...checklist.html


How do I get rid of a sociopath in a way that does not show?
http://www.justanswer.com/mental-hea...-not-show.html

[Flash]

Posted by music (here)
My partner reminded me of something just now. Her father was at a psychology conference having a discussion with a world leader on psychopathy and sociopathy. He said one way to spot a sociopath is to look at their shoes. If the top half is well-presented, but the shoes are old, scuffed or generally crappy, there is a chance we are dealing with a sociopath. They are so secure in the belief that we will be captivated by their faces, they neglect the bottom half.

So wow interesting. i had never made the link, but yes, the psychopath I knew did not take care of his shoes that much, very expensive shoes, but not brushed or cleaned to a point where it was detrimental to the whole appearance.

[Sidney]

I don't know how common this is, but, he had no sense of smell, and he had terrible body odor and was not aware of it. Total lack of hygiene, yet was obsessed with things like his hair and exercise.

I guess I just answered my own question. Found this on Huff post.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A new study has suggested a poor sense of smell may be a marker for psychopathic traits.

Australian researchers studied 79 non-criminal adults and found those with psychopathic tendencies were more likely to struggle to both identify smells and tell the difference between them.

In a statement, the authors concluded: "Our findings provide support for the premise that deficits in the front part of the brain may be a characteristic of non-criminal psychopaths."

Psychopathy is a broad term that covers a severe personality disorder characterized by callousness, manipulation, sensation-seeking and antisocial behaviors, traits which may also be found in otherwise healthy and functional people.

Previous studies have shown that people with psychopathic traits have impaired functioning in the front part of the brain - the area largely responsible for functions such as planning, impulse control and acting in accordance with social norms.

In addition, a dysfunction in these areas in the front part of the brain is linked to an impaired sense of smell.

Researchers added: "Olfactory measures represent a potentially interesting marker for psychopathic traits, because performance expectancies are unclear in odour tests and may therefore be less susceptible to attempts to fake good or bad responses."

The research is published in online in Chemosensory Perception.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012...n_1915341.html