This is the first time I’ve ever seen this search. All I can say, the most extreme female sociopath I’ve ever known said cats and dogs hated her. Was this just something unique to her or do dogs and cats have some innate sense of fairplay? Did they recognize her as a rapacious, reptilian-minded predator? I don’t know. [More in the comments below.]
Other searches
Pseudologia fantastica in real person: Yep, it’s real alright. Actually if one is not immediately caught up and swept away by the pseudologue’s “pity play” then they are more obvious than regular sociopaths — their stories are so extreme and fantastical.
How to get a workplace sociopath to leave: Good luck.
How to let go of a sociopath: This will happen when your soul (not your mind) realizes there is no soul in the other person. If this doesn’t happen, perhaps the other person is not a sociopath or perhaps you are actually fighting a realization that one of your parents is sociopathic ($50 please).
Or in the emotional immediacy of transsociopathica‘s words:
A few months after you have recovered you will wonder what you ever saw in these things. They will rapidly seem cold, ugly, empty, pathetic, distorted and almost deformed to you. That’s because this is what they are, always were, and you are finally perceiving them in their real unmasked state. This ‘broken beast’ is all that’s left and the only memory you’ll have of them going into the future. It’s all they deserve, because it is all they are. http://transsociopathica.blogspot.com/2009/10/farewell-my-sociopath-hello-real-love.html
Sociopath at parties: Due to few inhibitions and no shame they can be real lives of the party. Read “The Incredible Charlie Carewe” (http://www.amazon.com/incredible-Charlie-Carewe-Mary-Astor/dp/B00005W69S). Some are also very, very skillful at party crashing. (https://kat.cr/the-incredible-charlie-carewe-mary-astor-mobi-t7972573.html, https://openlibrary.org/books/OL5798604M/The_incredible_Charlie_Carewe).
Sociopath and blackmailing: Goes together like ham and eggs. They love crimes without consequence.
Pictures of Thomas Capano: Hmmm. This is a repeat search. He’s the only one of my blog’s possible sociopaths (more than possible in his case) whose picture people seem particularly interested in. I don’t know why.
I was with a sociopath for 8 years…why? For one thing, since no one is ever informed of this possibility as they are growing up or upon reaching romantic age, it often takes years for someone to realize their situation. Also, as the sociopath often cons relatives of the non-sociopath, individuals in your position are really on their own. Addressing this is one of the main missions of my blog.
You have a lot of company. Ann Landers was married for thirty years to the sociopath, in my opinion of course, Jules Lederer (who she described as the best salesman in the world). They met while she was shopping for a wedding dress for her upcoming marriage to another person. Just the kind of challenge that might appeal to a “super” sociopath. Also, as I recall, her sister, Dear Abby, criticized her after the divorce for not understanding her husband.
Are sociopaths giving to neighbors and friends? I have witnessed such behavior, but it was only used to engender goodwill to set up later depredations. Like a “pity play” (all sociopaths excel at inducing people to feel sorry for them) it brings people to their side emotionally. Often, it seems, they want a reservoir of protectors before they commit their antisocial depredations (such as date/friend rape, “dress gray” rape, tricking a teen neighbor into prostitution, outright thievery, “murder by suicide” bullying (this is no exaggeration), blackmail, etc.). They want the accuser to be met with angry disbelief (anger that such a nice person would be accused). Not only do they wish to protect themselves through “plausible lies,” they want to place their victims in the position of having to claim “implausible truths.”
Can God change a sociopath? The short answer is no. That would be akin to changing a stone into a block of wood, or lead to gold. If the question is actually can sociopaths be lead to see the error of their ways and cease being sociopaths, unfortunately the answer is absolutely not. Sociopaths have their own nature, they are the way they are born to be. “Socially acceptable psychopaths” (SAPs) who, by definition are capable as passing in normal society, can choose whether or not to follow society’s norms and laws but they can’t feel them. Justice and empathy are just empty words, even to them. This searcher might be interested in the post, “More structural brain abnormalities seen in psychopaths“. I think its clear that most sociopaths are born with these brain structures. Related posts on psychopathy/sociopathy brain structures: https://pathwhisperer.info/2014/12/09/psychopathy-marker-neurodevelopmental-marker-for-limbic-maldevelopment-in-antisocial-personality-disorder-and-psychopathy/, https://pathwhisperer.info/2011/11/29/criminal-minds-will-testing-the-brain-even-before-birth-separate-the-good-seeds-from-the-bad/, https://pathwhisperer.info/2015/02/01/psychopaths-brains-dont-grasp-punishment-scans-reveal/, https://pathwhisperer.info/2014/02/03/post-redux-what-the-heck-are-these-brain-structures-meaningful-or-not/, https://pathwhisperer.info/2015/09/18/test-all-presidential-candidates/.
Drifter & sociopath: The drifters and rolling stones of life are in fact often sociopaths, driven by boredom and lack of emotional bonds. Boredom is simply one of their prime driving forces. Thus the backwaters, catch basins and outposts of empires or large nations have a much higher sociopathic percentage — for example, California, Australia and New Zealand.
Will my baby be born a sociopath?: Here’s a heart breaker. From the little I know, it seems the genetics of sociopathy is very complex. I’ll try to look into this further. If this searcher was attracted to a sociopath because one of her parents was sociopathic the odds aren’t good.
thanks for a great post
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I had thought this company was trolling for DNA testing business. However, when I asked them if they had any psychopathy tests or would test for the genetic markers listed in https://pathwhisperer.info/2014/12/10/the-genetic-cocktail-of-psychopathy-genetic-markers/ they never responded. Hmmm.
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Hi there, this weekend is fastidious designed for me, for the reason that this point in time i am reading this enormous educational paragraph here at
my residence.
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Happy Thanksgiving, Pathwhisperer and everyone. I have a couple of hours to kill while the ham cooks, before I have to prep the turkey, so I was reading over this thread. I really enjoyed the Q&A approach – a few things I hadn’t seen before.
I never knew Ann Landers was married to a sociopath. I like reading her column since she took over as “Dear Abby”. Now I see where she gets her wisdom – 35 years of experience living with a sociopath. I can relate, although I was only married to one (more of a psychopath really) for a couple of years.
But I have a bizarre story – “fantastical”, I believe, is the word that was used. In fact it’s so fantastic I’m often not sure if I believe it myself. As such, I felt the need to point something out. First of all, practically my entire life story was “given” to me by a sociopath who has stalked me since I was an infant (so I didn’t have to make it up). He has manipulated practically everyone around me for as long as I can remember. When I was young I always wondered why everyone seemed so unsympathetic – and I admit I would have liked, and even expected, a little sympathy although “pity” has never been very high on my list of favorite things. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I have been, literally, laughed right out of the room for trying to explain my situation.
That said, you might be surprised how many people had no trouble believing the astronomically incredible things he told them about me from the time I was just a toddler. For the most part, no one even challenged him and accepted everything he said as utter fact.
On the other hand, most sociopaths I’ve known manage to garner pity, continuously, through the same tired old sob stories. Susan’s diabetic husband, Linda’s abusive ex, and Donna’s difficult divorce, just to name a few. And no, I didn’t start out as unsympathetic to any of their problems until I realized it’s basically a ploy for the pity they crave – as well as all the “freebies” that comes with it. I know people who are in genuine dire situations and they tend to exhibit extraordinary strength (as do I).
Personally, I no longer feel the need for sympathy – certainly not pity – but the problem is that there are a lot of people who really need to hear my story, and verify the truth to it, for very dire reasons. See, the reason my sociopath stalker has went to so much trouble to “invent” my life story is to protect his “image”. If people knew what he really is he would not have the power he has acquired over the years by building his reputation as a “good guy”.
Actually, I stopped trying to convince anyone once i became convinced he must be the devil – literally.
Just for the record though, perhaps the difference is in what a person has to gain, or not to gain, by telling bizarre stories. If you really think about it, all true life-stories are inherently bizarre. Perhaps a sociopath’s story is merely attempting to “imitate” a true story. Just a thought.
– buster
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Happy Thanksgiving. Are you talking about your father? Grandfather, older brother?
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No. It’s kind of complicated. I actually grew up in a large family with several brother and sisters. Sometimes I think they all must be sociopaths but then again sometimes I wonder.
However, before that, from the time I was born until I was around the age of two years old, I lived with a legal guardian whom I adored very much. While I was living with him there was a man who, I don’t know, I guess “visited” often, for lack of a better word. He was abusing me and then a baby boy after I began walking. My guardian wasn’t aware of it. He constantly complained to my guardian about the care I, and later the boy, was receiving, and eventually I was placed into an institution – perhaps an orphanage – for a short time, and then another foster home, until I began living with a family permanently.
At the institution, there were some older kids, boys, about 8 – 12 years old, who were kind of mean. I witnessed the man influencing the boys to be mean to me – it wasn’t a big deal but just the fact that he openly influenced them and rewarded them for it. Then, after I was placed into another foster home, I witnessed my foster father there brutally murder a little girl who was close to my age. I suspect he was also influenced by that same man because he wasn’t real bright.
After I came to live with my permanent family, he would show up there from time to time and talk with my parents. When I was in the first grade, he would occasionally come into my classroom and speak with my teacher. He also dated her for a while during that time and I think it was so he could convince her to pick on me or harass me somehow but I don’t recall anything, like, “horrible” or anything, just more or less weird accusations, and she also held me back some – although I made good grades I wasn’t given the same “extras” as a couple others that were at my same level.
But after fourth grade when I started at a different school, he would be there every day. He was always picking on me and getting some of the other kids (a certain group) to pick on me.
It didn’t become serious until a younger man, who had previously befriended my parents and older brothers, began driving my school bus. I suspect he may have been one of the mean boys from the institution but I can’t know that for sure. Before long they were tag-teaming me.
I’m not going to go into details but once I saw the two of them kill a 5 year old boy and then shot and killed a cop. Several years later I witnessed the two of them kill another 6 year old boy, but that was after I was no longer in school.
When I went to the new middle school after the fifth grade, the older man became one of the staff at that school. Halfway through the seventh grade my family moved to Kentucky. We lived in the country and I had a long bus ride to go to school every day. It wasn’t the same bus driver (although he did visit my family a couple of times after we moved), but it was like the horror started all over again – and worse. One of my older brothers was nearly killed while trying to protect me and he was paralyzed after that – however the story goes that he dove in shallow water.
High school was somewhat better until one day I saw him sitting outside on my campus talking to a girl I knew but not very well.
Later she approached me wanting to know if it was true that I falsely accused six men of raping me on my seventh grade school bus. It wasn’t something I talked about with the people I was closest to and I barely knew her so I simply replied that I wasn’t raped, and I guess people took that to mean that I had made false accusations. In truth, at the time, I really didn’t care what they thought, I just didn’t want to talk about it – or even think about it for that matter.
As an adult, I’ve tried gathering facts to prove at least some of these claims but, strangely enough, there have been fires in every single records department of every single facility that would hold any types of records that would be of any help to that cause. In fact, even my brother’s wound was botched by a “guinea pig” operation which he was told might fix him so he would be able to walk again, but which only served to leave him in severe pain for several years, until another surgeon did another operation and he was no longer in pain. Before the first operation he had been making slow progress and had even written a letter to us from the rehab hospital where he was a resident for five years or more. I suspect the purpose of the operation was to cover up proof that he had actually been shot, but as is often the case with severe trauma or injury, he never remembered exactly what had happened to him. I knew because I was there, but by the time I was ready to face my own traumas my brother had passed away – at the age of 34.
It’s true that I want justice, for my brother, for myself, for the small children they killed, for the cop who probably had a family, and for who knows how many others, even though it has been a very long time. But there’s also the fact that I believe he may still be an “active” sociopath. He’s a weasel who is the type of person to sleep with secretaries of powerful men or political figures in order to garner inside information. After some of the things I’ve seen him do, I figure only God knows what he’s capable of. Plus there’s so much more I couldn’t begin to list it all at once.
Sorry it’s so long but there seems to be a particular danger in explaining too little, if mentioning it at all, if you know what I mean.
– buster
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Some sociopaths see the world as their ‘happy torturing grounds’, and other sociopaths cover for them. Most normal human beings can never see this because their understanding of others is from the basis of “walking a mile in the other’s shoes” — which seems like a good thing, but sociopathic behavior can be so alien that it is impossible. Unfortunately what then falls is the possibility of recognizing sociopaths not their procedure for understanding others. I’m sorry for your terrible experiences. Foster kids are the weakest of the weak, essentially unprotected, thanks for lifting the corner of the curtain. If memory can be manipulated, drugs used to reduce self agency sociopaths will go to town on all of us.
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Memory is actually very easy to manipulate and very difficult to recall accurately.
Consider this scenario from the cartoon series “Rugrats”. The oldest girl of the group of small children asks the twins, who are the youngest of the group, “which of you is the favorite?” Each of the twins begin to imagine the other twin as the “favorite”. They start “remembering” all the times they were left hungry, cold, lonely, etc., while their twin was being coddled with warm blankets and bottles and attention. It’s just a silly cartoon, but in a way it very accurately portrays the human psyche. What’s even more interesting is that, the twins in this case, may actually be recalling accurate instances from memory but those instances are warped when perceived out of their original context. In other words, perhaps their parents tended to them one at a time in order to give each an equal amount of undivided attention. See what I mean?
I tend to avoid falling into the self-pity trap. Not only that but I keep in mind that what the man put me through, he put those around me through as well. The end result is that a great deal of the people around me have a screwed up view of things they really know nothing about. This has always been worrisome to me on several different levels, yet trying to set the record straight only seems to make matters worse.
I remember once when I was a kid about 8 – 10 years old, we watched a movie one night, I and my family. It was called the “Bad Seed” and my mother was very interested in watching it, which she generally only watched the news that intently – she was never one to sit and watch television shows, but she was interested in the psychology of the story of this small girl who was a sociopath that killed a boy and took his trophy that she had coveted. I’m actually intending to buy the movie from amazon, and the book as well, because I don’t remember it very well and I want to see what my mother saw when she watched that movie. I still remember her expression when she turned to me and said the movie was about “…a BAD girl”.
Years later she became a juvenile treatment officer at a residential facility housing delinquent 11 – 14 year old boys. She worked there several years and boasted an “80% success rate” in the facility’s reforming abilities. I think she considered herself a large part of the reason for that success rate, and if the success rate was actually that high I have no doubt that she probably was. However the facility was shut down permanently when a 13 year old boy died of an athsma attack while being “restrained” – a routine procedure that was routinely necessary when one of the boys would get out of control (the other kids, under the supervision of the staff, held the boy in a prone position on the floor until he calmed down). The kid probably became most violent during his final moments of life due to a natural phenomenon of a living being’s will to survive. A tragic accident with a “political” twist insofar as it outraged the public and devastated a family. It’s not that I blamed my mother personally, it’s just that she said to me afterwards, “…he was a BAD boy”, and it was like a dejavu. Of course she regretted it as soon as she’d said it – she was suddenly ripped from the job she loved and had held so proudly and it was like she was trying to blame the poor kid who lost his life, but I think she realized that and amended her thinking at that point.
It’s all so complex and I feel like I have a unique understanding from my personal perspective. Getting people to listen…that’s the tricky part.
– buster
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Yes we are a DNA testing company – buy our great DNA tests
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I find this article intriguing however there are some glaring inaccuracies in it as well. Saying someone that is of a sociopath or psychopath for that matter doesn’t have a soul. That doesn’t make any sense scientifically speaking. If someone says to you that psychopaths and sociopaths don’t have emotions, that too is wrong. If they didn’t have emotions at all, they wouldn’t feel the need to kill something or someone for “annoying” them.
From what I gather and understand about the psychopathic and sociopathic mind is that they have a different set of rules and priorities they go by, not what is expected of them by society.
Also, there are both psychopaths and sociopaths that happen to love animals but have no regard for human life. Then there are, some that have no regard for life in general, other than their own.
Leaving the article so broad, it’s not necessarily a good idea.
It’s true to some extent, animals, like some people are a good judge of character but it’s not true for every animal or person. There are some dumb / too trusting people, cats and dogs out there as well.
Animals, since they tend to have a lot more non audible or visual cues and pay attention to them more often than we do to each others body language, the animals know when they are in danger more often than humans do.
It also has to do with bio-chemistry too, since animals can smell things most humans cannot, they can tell if someone is a danger to them or not, or they can even smell “fear” and that they are “easy prey”.
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On emotions, basically the theory is that they only have shallow emotions, linked to biological drives and immature development. I have known a few who seemed to be utterly emotionless, almost like human calculating machines, emotionlessly calculating what emotion to mimic at which moment.
Of course, it is complicated. I argue that in the instance of the serial killers Dahmer and Bundy, that their killing sprung from vast unmollified infantile rage. Both, as I recall, were left “emotionally unclaimed” (or even left in the neonatal ward for months (I don’t have the specific facts at hand)) and never bonded. Then as adults, they had both adult and psychopathic talents that the still rageful and still present infant could use to act on its rage.
Regarding animals of course nothing is cut and dried.
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I had a sociopathic friend once who told me she hated animals. She said that her mother-in-law’s cat would sit on her lap when she visited her inlaws. She said she pretended to like the cat’s attention. Later she told me about the stray dog that stayed under her house. Her husband wanted to keep the dog. I think he finally got his way. She then posted a photo of herself holding the dog on a blog. She and her husband are trying to adopt. Isn’t that scary?!!!. I think I’m the only person who knows she’s being a fake.
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“Can God change a sociopath? The short answer is no”.
I would answer this yes AND no. At age 14, I was in prime mental condition to become another Rodney Alcala. However, it is my belief I later turned into a socialized type psychopath due to all the classes I took in the humanities. Every class taken within the humanities drills into your brain an appreciation for, guess what? Humanity! This is precisely why engineering students should never be allowed to graduate without them. We need humane engineers more than we need humane psychologists.
On the other hand, my struggle with life has not gotten any easier since I was 14. I continue spend all my conscious efforts to hold a job. I can do it but it’s not easy and never for more than 5 years. I take Rx drugs in order to stay alert enough to work. I take opiod pain killers to get my pain down to where I can concentrate. The doctors who prescribe the stimulants cannot know about the doctors who prescribe the opiods. In our society, taking two types of class one narcotic is not allowed. Because of the stimulants, I occasionally get severe depression. And then there’s the severe muscle tension headaches lasting 3 days which have also always been a big part of my life. Even with the drugs, I feel the effects of no self control. I’m not committing any illegal acts but I am not doing what I feel I should be doing, either. So, in that sense, the song remains the same.
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I believe that all things are possible through God, but not necessarily that He will do it FOR you, although I’m sure He probably CAN – but what would be the point?
It’s up to us to figure these things out.
– buster
PS – sounds like you have many difficulties and have overcome a lot. Holding a job for five years is pretty good, I think.
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Looking back over this again, I see that I forgot to mention a particular point I wanted to point out, and that is that the age of 14 can often be a critical turning point for a young boy on the edge of manhood. Often it happens that if a young man headed down a bad road, meets someone – a male figure – that he can look up to and respect, and hopefully it’s someone who takes an interest in teaching him, it can turn his whole life around – change his perspective, so to speak.
It’s very fortunate you were able to change your perspective at that point in your life. If not, by the time you were 16 or 17 you likely would have been well on your way to becoming a full-fledged psychopath. However, your inability to hold a job for more than five years is probably due more to your pain and need for drugs to manage it, as well as perhaps the psychological traumas you experienced in your early years that had you heading in a bad direction to begin with that contributes to the difficulties you are now experiencing and has little or nothing to do with your overall perception of right and wrong, with the latter being the most important aspect of your humanity.
In other words, even a homeless street bum with a good heart is doing better than a successful sociopath with no soul, in my opinion.
– buster
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Cats are sociopaths :http://www.mile73.com/?p=400
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That’s very funny. Thanks for posting the link.
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Cats are “vain”, not necessarily sociopaths.
– buster
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yes cats and dogs have something against sociopaths
the female sociopath i was with was morbidly afraid of even the smallest dogs.
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Cats can, but dogs can’t. This is why Female Sociopaths have small dogs. It serves the function of making them look compassionate in the eyes of others.
They see the dog as an object, not a life. No matter how much they tell you their pet dog is their “baby”, female sociopaths will begin shopping for a replacement dog before the previous dog has died. This is something a human being who loves their pet would never think of doing. Apart from the stress a new dog may cause a dying old dog in the last weeks of its life, this also shows how for all their “my baby!” talk the female sociopath sees the dog as an object with no real love for it. Which is also how they people.
http://transsociopathica.blogspot.com/
Thanks.
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Hmm. Interesting. Any other ideas about or experiences with this out there? That searcher obviously had a reason for making that search.
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You’re right for the most part, about cats being able to sense sociopaths but not dogs. However, I think it’s just that most cats (not all) are way more intelligent than most dogs (not all). I know more about cats than I do any other animals but I would think horses would probably be the best judges of human character than any other domesticated animals, although I would be hard pressed to explain why I think that. I haven’t been around horses much at all but from things I’ve read and seen on tv – the way they act towards humans shows a high perceptibility to humans’ intentions.
I’ve also known a few “fake” animal lovers like the one you speak of so I can see where you’re coming from with that. As it happens, I was very close friends with a cat before I was old enough to walk or communicate verbally with humans and he was very protective of me, especially when it came to a particular person who tried several times to harm me. No one else was aware of what he was doing to me, except the cat.
I don’t consider myself an animal lover – that cat, to me, was like a person, like family. I’m in my fifties now and I still miss him, almost as much as I miss my legal guardian at that time (who was a true animal lover). I’ve been close to a couple of animals since then but I don’t like all animals. I also have a deep-seated fear of dogs, especially big ones, if I don’t know them, even if they’re seemingly friendly, but even with small dogs I can feel that inner fear when they bark or run at me although I don’t feel physically afraid of small dogs.
I don’t know – just a lot of blah, blah, blah, I guess – but I’m just saying that you can’t necessarily judge a person because they’re afraid of something. Everyone is afraid of something. On the other hand, people who fake an affection for dogs will undoubtedly fake other affections as well – and that is what sociopaths do. Just to clarify things.
– buster
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[…] Finally, The Path Whisperer touch on an amusing yet very serious question, Can cats sense someone is a sociopath? https://pathwhisperer.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/unusual-search-can-cats-sense-someone-is-a-sociopath/ […]
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