There isn’t any. Pseudologues (i.e., sociopaths who are also pathological liars) are the way they are born to be. Neither freewill or individual psychology plays any role. Their brains are even different (www.futurepundit.com/archives/001998.html, www.futurepundit.com/archives/003035.html.
However, there are other types of psychological liars so each individual should obviously be evaluated. A problem with this, though, is that those individuals we would assume to be experts, therapists, probably have less experience with pseudologues and sociopaths than we do in daily life. Pseudologues and sociopaths, being perfect in every way, simply do not often present themselves for treatment. Further, if they do, their purpose is not to change but to learn how to pass for normal more easily — in effect they seek to use talk therapy to become more adept as sociopathic predators.
I agree with those that believe pseudologues and sociopaths should never, ever be accepted into talk therapy. I would go even further to state that any therapists who do in fact do this should lose their licenses — since it is only by their being out of touch with their own soul that they could fail to recognize the soulless, could fail to recognize that they couldn’t reach the sociopathic client. Any therapist out of touch with their own soul can not be of any use to anybody, is by definition not even a therapist in the first place.
The worst situation I have ever known of in this regard involved a therapy group that allowed sociopathic members along with the depressives, neurotics, incest victims, etc. I’m sure the therapist (Nancy Becker, LCSW, http://nancybeckertherapy.com/, https://therapists.psychologytoday.com/rms/name/Nancy_Becker_LCSW_New+York_New+York_145736) would never have thrown piranhas into a goldfish bowl, but this she found acceptable. I’m not a fan of group therapy in the first place (I believe it is a grotesque lowering of boundaries before strangers one can not know) but accepting sociopaths into group therapy should be grounds for automatic malpractice suits against a therapist.
A universal among sociopaths (including pseudologues) is delight at manipulating the non-sociopathic into behavior betraying their souls.
In the instance above I consider the therapist to be a rigid or malignant narcissist herself (one of Scott Peck’s mentally ill evil described in his book, People of the Lie). Many people object to the concepts of evil and mental illness being joined, I can only assume they have never dealt with any malignant narcissists. Group therapy with such a flawed therapist would become a celebration of her defect. Sociopaths would effortlessly join that effort. In addition narcissists are very attracted to sociopaths, narcissists themselves have to spend eternity fighting their souls, their consciences, their dreams and do in fact wake up to their true humanity occasionally. Sociopaths have none of these problems.
A small grotesquery in an extremely grotesque story is that this therapist was called Mother by her clients. It is hard to imagine a greater perversion of reality or semantics.
I have been in group therapy for around four years and recently a sociopathic person has joined.
Every week he mentions the people he likes in the group and those he doesn’t, he tells people what they are thinking and is extremely aggressive if what he is doing is pointed out to him
I have now decided to leave the group as the therapist is completely useless in containing his manipulation, in fact she does not even try – it will probably be a relief to be out of the group.
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Leave immediately, find another therapist and group. The therapist should lose her license. A therapist is only useful to a client if he or she can form a ‘soul to soul’ connection with the client to help the client figure out how and why they are alienated from their soul and their true nature or to ‘license’ the client’s soul to reassert itself. If a therapist is not aware of the soulessness of a sociopath or at least the impossibility of forming a soul to soul connection with one then the therapist is essentially deaf, dumb and blind to the needs of the human soul. If anyone stays and is damaged by the presence of the sociopath (and they will be) they should consider suing the incompetent therapist.
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But how do you prove anything? Your word against the therapist …l would love to have been able to indict the therapist I saw back in the 70s. He ridiculed me, lied to me, and betrayed me. He forced me to join his group therapy…worse thing I could have done.
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[…] Search: pseudologia fantastica treatment « The Path WhispererJun 13, 2010 … Search: pseudologia fantastica treatment … I’m not a fan of group therapy in the first place (I believe it is a grotesque lowering of boundaries … […]
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You are very wise. It makes me sick that people just don’t get it that sociopaths are evil and will exploit anyone they choose to. I grew up with sociopaths and after recovering and being in a sociopathic relationship I will never give them the benefit of the doubt. I can spot them easily now- even sometimes in line at the grocery store. How true that if you are not in touch with your soul and who you are they will flock to you like candy and fuck with your head until you will want to die. Then there are those who will make you think you are crazy until you abandon your soul and who you are so they can toy with you and ruin your life. This article hit it on the nail- finally. And they are born that way, trust me.
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Thanks for the very direct and succinct comment. More people just have to come to know this.
I don’t know how wise I am. This computer has been under almost continual attack. Not long ago I came back after a weekend away, turned on the computer to find a message that it was recovering from an improper shutdown, which I hadn’t done, there were programs in the pull down menu that I hadn’t run, my security software wouldn’t run properly, and my browser would access the net in only the most unsecure manner. I had to overwrite the entire memory using the original factory disks. Then recently I found that remote access had been turned on. Two days after turning it off, I received a call “from Microsoft”, the voice telling me that Windows had become infected and that he would help me clean my PC. But of course I would have had to turn remote access on. . . . Sure. . . . Obviously, I have been hacked.
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“I agree with those that believe pseudologues and sociopaths should never, ever be accepted into talk therapy”.
I’m not sure this makes much sense. I know Robert Hare said psychopathic criminals were the worse for group therapy. Even so, the psychopath needs to know he has a mental defect and the nature of that defect. How else would you accomplish this other than talk therapy? Psychopaths need to be given the opportunity to modify their behavior based on the knowledge of their impairment. Society and psychopaths, alike, all believe the psychopath engages in bad behavior worthy of punishment because the psychopath is essentially evil. This is simply the wrong approach. The psychopath should be taught that they are good people who, because of defect, make horrible decisions.
How would you counsel a person who makes a lot of mistakes at work? You would say, “Look, you need to slow down a little and pay more attention to what you are doing”. In other words, you are tearing down that person’s self confidence. If their work has numerous errors then their high self confidence is unwarranted. Questioning self confidence may lead them to double-check their work. In a similar fashion, a talk therapist needs to drill into the brain of a psychopath that he is not a competent decision maker. Psychopaths should be taught to question their ability to make decisions on their own. Making horrible decisions does not make you a bad person. However, if you are fully aware that you make bad decisions due to mental defect AND you continue to rely on those decisions, THAT would make you a bad person. That would be analogous to a blind person driving a car. However, your garden variety psychopath is a blind driver who has never been told he is blind.
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I don’t know what percentage of psychopaths would be capable of taking your suggested path. It is an interesting question.
In terms of talk therapy, psychopaths are famous for playing their therapists. I’m not sure how that could be guarded against. In any case they should never, ever be allowed in group therapy with non-psychopaths. Any therapist who does so should be sued for malpractice by her other clients and lose her license.
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