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Hah! Sociopathy is real, see?

April 10, 2009 by pathwhisperer

Sometimes I get searches asking “Is sociopathy real?” Sometimes friends say, “You have the strangest interests.”  And sometimes I criticize scientists who I feel have emotionally straitjacketed themselves in the pursuit of their vision of science.  Also, I believe strongly that any individual is “allowed” to draw conclusions from their own experiences and life.  However, for those who believe only what comes with an “official imprimatur”, please check this out:

Research in the real world

Research in the real world

Psychopathy and the Law Symposium http://www.psychopathysociety.org/forms/sssp_law.pdf

Mind you, I’m not ceding that their approach is superior to mine.  I claim to understand sociopaths from an acting “motivation of the soul” level, which I believe is the deepest level of understanding.  However I’m delighted with any high profile, public forays into sociopathy.

It’s interesting to note that non-sociopathic actors can indeed play sociopaths, but sociopathic actors cannot play characters of any real psychological depth.  I recently caught portions of two sociopath movies, Catch Me If You Can and Training Day. Catch Me left me thinking that the writer had no real understanding of sociopathy, unless he was intentionally glorifying it.  The main character wasn’t written as a sociopath but more as a nice guy with strange talents.  Then I found out (just now) that it was written as an apparently autobiographical sketch by the main character (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264464/).  Wow!

I thought Denzel Washington did a good job playing the corrupt cop, Alonzo (though a sociopath of that caliber would most likely have really “dead eyes” in my opinion — I don’t know if that would be playable).  Training Day is a true sociopathic study (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139654/).  Note that it features multiple socipathic characters, they do in fact run together, they are not all egotistical loners.  I should study both of these movies in depth.

It turns out that the Psychopathy and the Law Symposium, above, is simply a warm-up, a pre-conference workshop, for the following:
3rd Biannual Conference of The Society for Scientific Study of Psychopathy, April 16-18, http://www.psychopathysociety.org/forms/sssp_conference_2009.pdf

UPDATE

Over at Lovefraud Blog Liane Leedom, M.D.,  has three posts covering the above conference:

Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy, meeting highlights: At-risk children

SSSP meeting highlights: The psychopath’s inability to love

SSSP meeting highlights: Psychopathy in women

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More judges behaving badly

March 30, 2009 by pathwhisperer

Judges Accused of Jailing Kids for Cash

Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=7178686&page=1

Penn. Judges Get Kickbacks for Placing Youths in Privately Owned Jails

An unprecedented case of judicial corruption is unfolding in Pennsylvania. Several hundred families have filed a class-action lawsuit against two former judges who have pleaded guilty to taking bribes in return for placing youths in privately owned jails. Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan are said to have received $2.6 million for ensuring juvenile suspects were jailed in prisons operated by the companies PA Child Care and a sister company, Western PA Child Care. Some of the youths were jailed over the objections of their probation officers. An estimated 5,000 juveniles have been sentenced by Ciavarella since the scheme started in 2002. http://www.democracynow.org/2009/2/17/penn_judges_plead_guilty_to_taking

At this point it’s hard to say whether either of the two judges are in fact sociopathic.  However it is a sociopathic characteristic to see others as pawns to be manipulated in one’s own interest.  Blighting or destroying young lives would be of no concern, at all, to sociopathic judges.  Sociopaths see us as cows to be milked, with no concern for our lives, let alone our emotions.

Obviously, not all evil, corrupt individuals are sociopathic.  However I believe sociopaths set the bar — whether we’re talking of wilding teens, Abu Ghraib torturers, criminal speculators or corrupt judges.  I do not believe one can understand evil and corruption without a knowledge of sociopathy (this is one of the main reasons I write this blog).  Non-sociopathic corrupt individuals still have a conscience, that acts as a drag on their actions similar to friction.  The example of the conscienceless sociopath is of great use to them and to a certain extent frees them from that drag in my opinion.

I would say that sociopathy is the wind in the sails of corruption, crime and evil.  (I have to apologize to my loyal readers who read every post, I will be repeating succinct but communicative phrases that I write or borrow, again and again.  It seems I have a number of accidental visitors with no real interest in sociopathy — if I can send them away with a phrase or two that sticks in their mind that would be good.  Of course it’s not like there are legions of such loyal readers, in fact, next time you are all in town, maybe I’ll take everyone to lunch.)

Back to judicial and judicial system misconduct I would encourage every accused individual to insist on a jury trial if possible (I don’t know if this applies to juvenile court).  This may be more important than legal representation.  Too often lawyers enter into the process of assembly line injustice, automatically plea bargaining, even if their client is innocent.

Last but not least, the jury pool should be educated to the possibilities of jury or grand jury nullification.  Juries, in effect, are the law, they don’t necessarily have to follow it.

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Post Redux: Reflections on Josef Fritzl and Incest (5/23/08)

March 18, 2009 by pathwhisperer

Fritzl, of course, is the Austrian accused of imprisoning his daughter in a cellar and fathering a family with her (three of the children also imprisoned, three raised in the aboveground household), BBC. All incest fathers are vampire fathers, they truly are draining the child’s lifeforce, but this is absolutely the most extreme case in my memory.

The question here is whether Fritzl is a sociopath.  Roughly what I do is check facts and behavior against an informal checklist and then attempt to flesh out the individual and understand his motivations.  For those interested there are well-thought out formal checklists for sociopathy.   The linked Mask of Sanity lays out a checklist in Section III, Clinical Profile, pgs 337 – 366, or see the Table of Contents.  Robert Hare, author of Without Conscience, has a formal diagnostic one, which can be used informally by anybody, in my opinion — not to diagnose, but in an attempt to understand behavior.  This seems to be a reasonable overview: PCL Overview. His own site is www.hare.org.

Fritzl certainly appears to be a sociopath.  There is no internal prohibition against incest for sociopathic fathers at all. Non-sociopathic incest fathers need to overcome their conscience and a very severe prohibition against such acts.  For sociopathic incest fathers it is merely childhood sexplay, as is all their sex.  They are absolutely, totally unaware of any “soul effect” on the daughter (or often, the son).  The sociopathic sense of entitlement is absolute — check.  Urge to dominate — check.  Lying ability — check.  Telling his wife the imprisoned daughter had run away and joined a cult.  Explaining three foundlings to the authorities and his wife (the three infants he brought up from the cellar).  This ability to lie while appearing totally sincere, with complete eye contact with the target to be duped is one of the key sociopathic abilities.  Self confidence — check.  Arrogance — check.  Optimism — check.  No remorse or guilt — check.

I understand he’s been complaining that his wife hasn’t visited him.  Sociopaths don’t understand the “beyond the pale” aspect of their extreme behavior.  For them it’s not beyond the pale, it’s not extreme.  Presumably they believe all of us are capable of the same behavior or would behave the same if we thought we could get away with it.  So now he’s hurt and perplexed that his wife doesn’t visit.

It’s reported that the possibility that he also molested his 19 year old daughter/grand-daughter, Kerstin, is also being investigated.  (It was the hospitalization of Kerstin that exposed the whole situation.)  It would be shocking if he hadn’t.

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Incest Dad represents self in court, cross-examines daughter

March 8, 2009 by pathwhisperer

Rabbi Israel Weingarten cross-examines daughter at molest trial

A rabbi charged with molesting his daughter subjected her to hours of cringe-worthy cross-examination Tuesday in Brooklyn Federal Court.

Israel Weingarten, 59, who chose to represent himself against charges that could send him to prison for 20 years, rambled on all afternoon as his daughter looked away, wiped tears and struggled to understand what he was asking.

“Do I have to answer?” the now-27-year-old asked Judge John Gleeson in a trembling voice before gathering the strength to shoot back when asked why she didn’t complain sooner.

“My feeling of your molesting me was at most fear and blackmail and years of torture,” she said, eyes widening as she wiped tears off her cheeks. “Fear because you hurt me because I told my mother. Didn’t I get hit enough?”

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/03/03/2009-03-03_rabbi_israel_weingarten_crossexamines_da.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Israel+Weingarten

Father Charged With Murder, Rape, Incest Arraigned

Cass County prosecutors on Friday announced charges against a man for allegedly raping his teenage daughter and killing at least one of the babies.

Danial M. Rinehart, 47, was charged with one count of second-degree murder, endangering the welfare of a child, statutory rape, two counts of incest and two counts of abandonment of a corpse.

Authorities allege Rineha More..rt fathered four children with his then 13-year-old daughter. The girl is now 19. Only one of the girl’s children is alive — a 3-year-old who is now in custody of the state.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=113_1232832702

Possible sociopathic elements of the above stories

Depravity of both crimes and/or situation, though to sociopaths incest is the equivalent of the sex games of childhood, though with dominance and orgasms added.

Rabbi Weingarten representing himself.  Their ego seems to drive them to testify or even represent themselves in court and it seems they can’t imagine losing.  I would say their optimism is often pathological.

A strangeness in reasoning.  After his wife testifies of her discovery of the incest, Weingarten “complained to Judge John Gleeson that the translator misunderstood Faige’s answer about his father’s ailing health at the time of the alleged sexual abuse.  Gleeson was incredulous. “And you think that was the important part?” he shot back.”  http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/03/05/2009-03-05_exwife_rabbi_israel_weingarten_halfnude_.html It seems that since the crime is of no real significance to them, they can’t sort out what’s truly significant or not.

Israel Weingarten is a rabbi.  The clergy, of all faiths, are an excellent hideout for those who excel at being wolves among sheep.

Danial Rinehart seemed to live as a drifter and freeloader.  His mother:  “Dolores Rinehart described her son as a drifter.  “They’ve been on the run. Dan’s run from Social Security — Dan’s run from everything,” she said. “He didn’t want to work.””

Reflections on incest

Incest varies from rape to seduction, usually closer to seduction.  It is after all using the human body to be close to another that one wants very much to be close to and using the body in ways that it is designed to be close to another.  In a way, the young women in these cases are better off due to the crude and obvious criminal nature of their fathers’ actions — the evil of the vampire father is obvious and the element of self betrayal is nearly absent.  The element of self betrayal and the horribly conflicted emotions are what cause such psychic damage in incest situations, in my opinion.  A father who portrays the seduction of his daughter(s) as being “one of those wrong things that people just do” can be even more damaging to a daughter’s psyche than an incest closer to rape.

The focus on preventing incest must rest on appealing to the fathers, in my opinion.  No daughter can resist a father so inclined, the situation is too close to the normal and healthy “family romance” or so I’ve heard from incest victims and reports from incest group therapy.  Furthermore, incest is not going to occur in a healthy family with a healthy marriage so relying on the mother to protect the daughters is problematical.  For example, an abused wife who cannot protect herself certainly cannot protect the daughter.  Or a woman in a long marriage to a sociopath has had her own personality degraded.  Or the incest occurs at the same point where the wife feels she may be losing her sexual allure.  If the father’s sexual charge from the incest rebounds in the marriage the wife may be even more reluctant to peer behind closed doors.  The “club-over-the-head” to prevent incest by both sociopathic and nonsociopathic fathers must be the fear of discovery and subsequent destruction of reputation of the fathers in my opinion.  Cases such as these should receive prominent coverage.

[March 13 edit] Father too close to daughter is one of the searches that found this post.  Basically I’d say believe the hairs at the back of your neck.  If a situation feels wrong, say the observed physical contact, it probably is.  A family is such an inviolable unit that it is very hard for an outsider to have much influence and a “doting parent” is considered fine and acceptable.

Assuming the search was written by a mother I’d suggest paying a lot of attention to nonverbal cues.  For example, before normal accompanied errands or ferrying the child back and forth from activities (particularly at night), do the child and the father show a heightened state of excitedness?  If you insert yourself in such a trip is there a sudden change in mood or sudden irritability?  The same question if you arrange for the child and father never to be alone?  Does the father become and stay angry?

If the situation is as you fear, do not enter into a situation of “living with craziness,” which is sadly too easy to allow to happen.  Both of the mothers in the above news stories did, though fortunately Faige Weingarten is supporting her daughter now.  A child only knows that they are entitled to their emotions if an adult mirrors them (read Alice Miller, http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_3_12?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=alice+miller+prisoners+of+childhood&sprefix=alice+miller&sprefix=alice+miller&sprefix=alice+miller&sprefix=alice+miller).  The father has to be brought to justice to protect the child, even though this will mean destroying the facade of the  family (the family is actually already destroyed by the father’s actions).  Failure to do so will leave the child prey to evil manipulations throughout the child’s life.

Incest children (boys also, but most comments here are geared toward girls) grow up with an inability to judge trustworthiness in their relationships — both male and female relationships.  They’ll be taken advantage of over and over again, often by fake female friends.  Girls will sometimes go into prostitution — ‘Nothing wrong with my Dad.  See it’s just like shaking hands,’ and they will effectively Lucia di Lammermoor themselves (drive themselves insane by having sex against the wishes of the soul, effectively taking part in their own rape).  Or an incest victim/participant may go narcissistic — making the calculation that ‘If I didn’t have any emotions, I wouldn’t feel the shame’ and accept only the will and mind as being of the self, emotions then being split off as a manipulation from outside.

(Narcissism is a huge topic I should explore further.  In brief, rigid narcissism is frequently confused with sociopathy.  Both live in a universe of one, are incredibly selfish, have no concern for others’ feelings and can end relationships/marriages as though turning a page in a book.  However, narcissists actually have deep emotions and a soul, they just deny them — sociopaths have neither.  Narcissism is a deep psychological choice, sociopathy is genetically determined.)

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Ah, so that’s why UBS had us study how to prevent money laundering

February 26, 2009 by pathwhisperer

UBS Admits To Massive Tax Evasion Scheme

Banking giant UBS has agreed to pay $780 million and turn over once-secret Swiss banking records to settle allegations it conspired to defraud the U.S. government of taxes owed by big clients.

. . .  UBS executives helped U.S. taxpayers open new accounts in the names of sham entities.

Prosecutors contend that UBS executives used encrypted software and other counter-surveillance techniques to prevent anyone from detecting that they were actively marketing such Swiss bank secrecy — and tax evasion — to American taxpayers.

The clients, in turn, filed false tax returns that omitted the income they earned in their Swiss accounts, according to the court papers.

Federal officials said they had pulled aside a veil of secrecy that hid a corrupt international banking practice.

“This was not a mere compliance oversight, but rather a knowing crime motivated by greed and disrespect for the law,” said Alexander Acosta, U.S. attorney for southern Florida.

http://www.dollarsandsense.org/blog/2009/02/ubs-admits-to-massive-tax-evasion.html

In 2006 and 2007 UBS was having everyone brush up on their “‘know your customer’ (KYC) skills and the identification of new trends in suspicious behavior” — even operations staff (on the computer side in my case).  We had to “undertake regular training courses, [. . .] in the form of on-line training” or compliance modules as they were called.  These had absolutely zero to do with our jobs, we never dealt with clients, let alone their money, so we used to call in banker friends to help us with the online tests.  (Above quotes from “Contributing to society, Preventing money laundering, corruption and terrorist financing,” http://www.ubs.com/1/e/about/corporate_responsibility/society/fighting_money_laundering.html.  OOPSIE, that page has been deleted!  OK, here’s another one:  http://www.ubs.com/1/e/polandcareers/ourcultureandvalues/corporate_responsibility/society/fighting_money_laundering.html.  Note that this page is under the heading, Our Culture and Values — one trait of the truly advanced, truly high ranking sociopathic mind is the depth and breadth of its hypocrisy.  Criticizing a sociopath for being hypocritical is like criticizing a fish for swimming — it’s simply their nature.)

It’s apparent now what the strategy was — window dressing.  UBS was putting on a big show of complying with anti-money laundering laws by having all firm personnel be trained in recognizing it — all the while carrying out that very thing through encrypted software and other counter-surveillance techniques (according to the U.S. DOJ).

Now what kind of mind would think a transparent ruse like this would accomplish anything?  Perhaps an arrogant, childish sociopathic mind.  Obviously not every crook is a sociopath.  However, in my opinion, sociopathy is the wind in the sails of evil and corruption.  The normally corrupt are forever fighting their consciences, following the conscienceless, the sociopaths, is a relief to them.

Unfortunately it seems UBS is still the same bank that accepted holocaust gold and sought to deprive the heirs of concentration camp victims their rightful funds.  As late as 1997 bank management thought they could order underlings to destroy Nazi-era banking records.  Fortunately, Christopher Meili, a security guard, turned them in.  (For more information:  “‘Nazi gold’ settlement mixed intangibles with money,” http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/views/y/1998/08/hirsch.nazigold.aug21/; Swiss Banks and World War II, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banking_in_Switzerland.)

Suggesting to a sociopathic banker that accepting gold collected from the teeth of concentration camp victims was wrong or the same to an athlete gaining the top of the podium through fraud would only convince the sociopath that the questioner was the one with the problem.  Their code:  you call it cheating, I call it winning.   If the point was to amass gold, the source, to a sociopath, would be utterly of no concern.

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How could Madoff not have made any trades for 13 years?

February 21, 2009 by pathwhisperer

No problem for a sociopath.  Consequences, cause and effect are far beyond the developmental stage of most sociopaths. Joe Jett of Kidder Peabody never thought the parade would end either.

Look at that “little boy lost” look.

Robert Kegan in “The Child Behind the Mask: Sociopathy as Developmental Delay.” In W. H. Reid, J.W. Bonner III, D. Dorr, and J.I. Walker (Eds.) Unmasking the Psychopath. (New York: W.W. Norton), 1986. (1986), p.  68:

The sociopath can sit still, inhibit immediate aims, defer gratification.  Indeed, if he did not have these abilities (which most latency-age children also have), people would not confuse him with an adult even with his adult-looking body (which most latency-age children do not have, and which has more to do with why latency-age children are not confused with adults than people realize).  [Kegan is saying I believe that it is the sociopath’s adult looking body that gets him into the door of adult life which he is actually unsuited for and absolutely untrustworthy in.]

A list of Kegan’s publications:  http://www.gse.harvard.edu/faculty_research/profiles/publications.shtml?vperson_id=318

Earlier posts:

Bernie Madoff, probable sociopath, following in the footsteps of Charles Ponzi, definite sociopath

More Madoff — for sociopaths there is no such thing as an ingroup

Welcome to our sociopaths-gone-wild-economy

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Heavy duty searches that have found me

February 19, 2009 by pathwhisperer

From some of the searches that find this blog, it’s evident that people out there are wrestling with very difficult sociopathic problems.

My son is a sociopath, what do I do? This was one recent search.  The best I can do is send the searcher over to the Lovefraud blog (see link to the right) where a number of posters have been in this position.

One thing I can say is that as a sociopathic son enters puberty it is essential to protect younger siblings, particularly sisters but also brothers (sociopaths know only friction orgasms, they are essentially pansexual).  It would be nothing to most sociopaths to get a sister drunk and share her with his buddies.

Secondly, apparently some of the children dropped off in Nebraska were sociopathic.  If institutionalization or this route is taken I think I would (I’m thinking out loud, trying to feel my way through this) suggest staying in contact with the child.  Sociopaths fully experience most of the normal prepubescent emotions of childhood I believe.  Abandonment would be very real to them, not to mention also to the parents (who no doubt would be in a terrible bind).  Contact would be better for the soul of the sociopath (such as it is) and the parents.  Total abandonment would leave a sociopathic child angrier and more dangerous.  I believe the argument could be made that Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer were serial killers due to never having bonded as infants (Ted Bundy was left in the hospital for months with his mother hesitant to keep him as I recall) not due to their inherent sociopathy, which only made them more skillful at it.  Thus their murderously angry infant selves became a permanent part of their psyches, coming forth to use an adult’s capabilities and intelligence together with a sociopath’s manipulativeness and cunning to carry out their murders.

How to get a sociopath fired?  My advice would be to focus strictly on the malfeasance.  In my opinion it is very difficult to persuade someone of another’s sociopathy.  It seems that everyone thinks they are a perfect judge of such matters, even if they have never heard of a sociopath, or think they have never met one, or expect never to meet one in their lifetime.

If the problem is sociopathic workplace bullying or harassment then there are totally different problems.  Are any managers devotees of the sociopath, lovers, or blackmailed lovers?  Nobody wants to leave a job or co-workers they like but sociopathic bullying is very detrimental to the victim.  In my experience management and HR are usually of no help.  If you stay and fight, in my opinion, you need to get as vicious as possible as quickly as possible (maybe not, if you take the bull by the horns you may get gored).  Furthermore if a friend is seduced and blackmailed by a sociopathic enemy, then your friend is your enemy.  The situation can get very ugly, very fast.

To those who say that such things could never happen in their world I beg to differ.  ‘See no evil, a preyer’s prayer’ — to borrow a phrase.  Think what a shield to the corrupt the response of “Oh, that just can’t be happening” is. Or to those who say they have no enemies, ‘I’m a nice person why should I have enemies.’  I’m afraid you don’t understand sociopathic motivations.  The pick of a target for sociopathic workplace bullying may make no sense anywhere other than in the mind of a particular sociopath.

Without a professional and ethical management and HR department there are really no good options. While at UBS, I actually proposed creating an office to deal with sociopathic employees but was not taken up on it (https://pathwhisperer.wordpress.com/proposal-to-ubs-upper-management/).

Sociopathic employee and HR.  Ha, ha, ha.  What does HR stand for?  Human Resources.  One would assume that HR’s job would be to take care of the human resources of a company, to see that their rights are respected in terms of both company policy and labor law.  Wrong.  In my experience HR’s job is to assist management in exploiting the workforce.  The term, Human Resources, is often merely a 180 degree lie.  Such lies are a great favorite of sociopaths so many sociopaths go into the field themselves, in my experience.  I have, more than once, seen sociopathic HR reps side with sociopathic employees, even criminal or mentally ill ones.

How to beat a sociopath in court? Another hard one.  Occasionally they defeat themselves, Thomas Capano and Wayne Williams insisted on testifying on their own behalf driven by their high self regard and pathological optimism.  In general I believe there is a vast problem of sociopathic judges, prosecutors and even defense attorneys siding with a sociopathic pleader even if this goes against the law or even the interests of a client.

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Items of interest, some recent, some not so, some that suggest possible sociopathy, some that scream it

February 18, 2009 by pathwhisperer

As always I’m merely saying that in my opinion the following stories raise issues of possible sociopathic behavior or sociopathic-like behavior.  I suggest we all scan all news stories for possible sociopathic elements.

Brandon Darby

Prominent Austin Activist Admits He Infiltrated RNC Protest Groups as FBI Informant

LISA FITHIAN: Well, I think this community has really been reeling as a result of this news. We feel sickened. We feel traumatized. We feel as if somebody that we thought actually had good intentions and cared for this community has been a lie. . . . I have no question that he’s a provocateur. I mean, I’ve worked with Brandon for a long time, and everywhere that Brandon has worked, there has been discord, tension, aggression. http://www.democracynow.org/2009/1/6/prominent_austin_activist_admits_he_infiltrated

“[E]verywhere that Brandon has worked, there has been discourse, tension, aggression” — that’s what you would expect from a sociopath.  In addition, he buttered up those in authority, which sociopaths tend to do before commencing their campaigns.

MALIK RAHIM: I’m going to tell you, Amy, it broke my heart. It broke my heart. It literally broke my heart, because from the time that we founded—and I hate to—because Lisa is also a person that I love and respect, but Brandon was here from the very beginning. He was one of the founders of Common Ground. He was here. When we started Common Ground, Brandon was right here. He was out trying to find kin. I don’t know what happened. It was a lot of animosity. It was a lot of things that we had to deal with, like Lisa said, and always Brandon was at the forefront in it. You know, I feel—I mean, in retrospect, as I look back at it now, you know, I feel guilty about a lot of things. . . . I know that there’s been many people that left from Common Ground in frustration, and many of it was due in part because of Brandon. Many young ladies, many individuals that he literally ran off, you know? It just tackles me. I couldn’t read the whole letter. You know, I haven’t been able to read it, because of the fact that every time I do, it breaks me down into tears. http://www.democracynow.org/2009/1/6/prominent_austin_activist_admits_he_infiltrated

Notice the depth of the feelings of emotional betrayal — you see this over and over again.  It seems that sociopathic betrayal of friendship and love (both of which they only mime) leaves a mixture of heartbreak and the feeling of having been slimed.

Activists should always worry about sociopathic agent provocateurs — it is a perfect match of talent to task.

This item seems to have attracted some attention so let me list some traits to keep in mind.  Look for (in no particular order) any or all of the following:  a Zelig like ability to be all things to all people, an incredible ability to inveigle themselves into the good graces of authority figures, individuals for whom the phrase two-sided is a vast underestimation, a delight in causing discord through subtle puppet mastery, a vast and deep irresponsibility, an “eggshell” type personality which is always threatening to respond in childish anger if thwarted, and as always both a deep arrogance with no discernible cause and an extreme talent at eliciting pity.  Some of these insights may come in “a blinding flash” — you should pay attention to them.  Of course some of these traits are not unique to sociopaths, however in sociopaths they have a “unique flavor” which I think will become evident after recognizing the first few sociopaths.

Samuel Kent

One must always be careful not to jump on a guilty as charged bandwagon simply because the charges are so outrageous.  Judge Samuel Kent will have his day in court, the point here is the alleged behavior, which I have heard of before with likely sociopathic jurists.

Judge in Texas pleads innocent to new sex charges

A federal judge charged with fondling a court employee and trying to force her into a sexual act pleaded innocent Wednesday to new allegations brought by another former employee. http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/weird/107030.php

Federal Judge Indicted in Sex Abuse Case

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/FedCrimes/Story?id=5681319&page=1

As a sociopathic acquaintance once said to me, “Why have a position of authority if you can’t take advantage of it?”

Once the MRI test is considered reliable enough, I believe all judges and prosecutors should routinely be screened for sociopathy.  Futurepundit article quoting Adrian Raines, http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/001998.html.  John Seabrook’s article on Kent Kiehl’s brain scanning machine in the The New Yorker, http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/10/081110fa_fact_seabrook.

Bart Whitaker, Kent Whitaker

The Whitaker family

The Whitaker family

Bart Whitaker

Bart Whitaker

Kent Whitaker, father

Kent Whitaker, father

Forgiving the Son Who Killed My Family

http://www.oprah.com/community/message/947018

The Sugar Land Conspiracy

An All-American Family Is Gunned Down In A Bizarre Plot

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/18/48hours/main3381002.shtml?source=mostpop_story

Heather Mills and Paul McCartney

Paul and Heather McCartney in happier days

Paul and Heather McCartney in happier days

‘Dignified’ McCartney Rips Mouthy Mills

Heather Mills and Paul McCartney: The rock icon and former model split up in 2006 after a four-year marriage. In court papers, Mills accused McCartney of being violent and abusive. He denied the claims. In March, she was awarded a $48.6 million settlement. At the hearing, she doused McCartney’s attorney with water. http://www.popeater.com/music/article/paul-mccartney-heather-mills-divorce/320260

Is Heather Mills a sociopathic golddigger?  The wealthy, beautiful and famous are always targets for sociopathic love cons (fortunately I don’t have any of those problems).

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More Madoff — for sociopaths there is no such thing as an ingroup

February 4, 2009 by pathwhisperer

Madoff Even Scammed His Own Sister

Bernard Madoff’s own family was not spared from his greed and the Ponzi scheme that is said to have pilfered a massive $50 billion from unsuspecting investors. He is now said to have scammed millions from his sister, who is now desperately trying to sell her Florida home.

http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/8522

This is always a shock to people.  Everyone thinks that crooks and the corrupt have an ingroup in which they are caring about individuals.  John Gotti, for example, seemed to genuinely love his family.  However this is not true for sociopaths.

I recall an episode of Unsolved Mysteries that featured an “evil couple” consisting of a criminal sociopath and his corrupt normal wife.  Plan A, the crime (an impulse killing over an insult to his imperial sociopathic ego), failed, i.e., they were caught.  Plan B, their defense was failing.  So wife suggested Plan C, escape through faked suicide.  However, he neglected to inform her that he had a plan C1.  He salted the escape with real evidence, her body.  There is no such thing as a cherished ingroup to a sociopath.

Ripples of Madoff scandal spread everywhere

“Your spirit and love of life have touched and changed all who knew you,” one friend of 40 years wrote in a paid death notice for [Norman] Levy that ran in The New York Times. “You taught me so much. I’ll cherish our relationship forever.”

The friend was Bernard Madoff.
. . . . .
In the summer, both families headed to the Hamptons.  . . .

For more than 30 years, the Levys also entrusted their personal investments to Madoff. When they chartered the Betty and Norman F. Levy Foundation, which reported assets last year of $244.4 million,  as the vehicle for their charitable giving, they again put their trust in their longtime friend.

“My father believed in Bernie Madoff,” Norman Levy’s son, Francis, . . .  said in a recent interview with FOX Business News. “The one thing he said about Bernie (was), “If there’s one honorable person, it’s Bernie.”

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Dec21/0,4670,RipplesofaFraud,00.html

That’s why they are called confidence artists, they truly inspire confidence.  But what’s a sister, friends of 40 years or neighbors to a sociopath, let alone charities and co-religionists? We’re all suckers to them.

I once worked with a very vivacious young woman, a real life-of-the-party type, uninhibited and fun loving.  She used to call us, her friends, “Suckers” and then laugh, and we’d laugh too.  But it was no joke. (This individual is worth expanding on. We shouldn’t have been surprised. She often regaled us with her wild and wacky life:  Great Adventure (an amusement park) had taken her picture and ordered her to never return (sociopaths in the absence of authorities they respect such as bosses or the police can really go wild); she said she sometimes slugged medical and dental personnel when getting shots (in the face of the pain, she totally dropped the adult self control act and her true primitive self came forward — she was an animal under attack and she had to respond.  With any sociopath or possible sociopath it is a very good idea to note at what point they lose the facade of self control.); and finally she said that cats and dogs generally hated her instantaneously (perhaps this indicates that cats and dogs have an innate sense of fairplay, I don’t know).)

Yet one more interesting twist, is that Madoff’s parents may themselves have been conartists.

Madoff’s mother tangled with the feds

The late Sylvia Madoff was registered as a broker-dealer in the 1960s but left the business after being cited for failing to file reports.

Accused Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff was not the first person in his close-knit family to run afoul of federal authorities.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/16/magazines/fortune/madoff_mother.fortune/

In my opinion, Bernie’s genetics and brain structure should be studied for clues to his crimes. Is Bernie Madoff one of the “mimics walking shoulder to shoulder with us, who share no fellow human feeling, no empathy, no conscience” (to borrow my own phrase, https://pathwhisperer.wordpress.com/past-notes/)?  It seems likely.

It should never be forgotten that he was a past Chairman of NASDAQ.  Why would investors question the bonafides of a person who once had that responsibility?  In my opinion, no one, no matter what their position, education or background, should be exempt from consideration as a possible sociopath or SAP (socially adept psychopath).

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Blog matters

February 4, 2009 by pathwhisperer

After a short hiatus I’m back in business.  Greetings, a belated Happy New Year and Happy Holidays.  There are a couple internal blog matters to cover.

Donations of any size are gratefully accepted.  If there are any deep pocketed individuals or organizations that would like to sponsor my work that would of course be great (this must be the eternal plaint of independent bloggers).  I currently simply don’t have the time to do more indepth studies.  At some point I’d like to do a study of Ronald Reagan concentrating on his autobiography, “Where’s the Rest of Me,” and his “I filmed Buchenwald” lie – was our president a sociopathic pathological liar (a pseudologue),  a longer piece on Adolf Eichmann’s sociopathy (as I see it) along with an attempt to understand Hannah Arendt’s error, a reading of Orwell’s Burmese Days as a blueprint for sociopathic murder by suicide, and I’d like to have the time to spend in the Paley Museum of Television and Radio tracking down documentaries of interest.  All this would take time which equates to money.

Concerning the comments, they often go straight into the spam folder.  Unfortunately some spam seems to be deleted immediately, though it is not supposed to be that way.  I’ve never not published a non-spam comment.  If a comment does not show up, feel free to email me the comment at pathwhisperer@yahoo.com if you wish.

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