Today's Friday • 7 mins read
Most people imagine psychopaths as serial killers and violent inmates. Surprisingly, more psychopaths exist outside jails than inside.
They may be your neighbor, colleague, dentist, housekeeper, or your child’s teacher. These are the non-violent high-functioning psychopaths.
You may be falling in love with such a psychopath, since they are smart, charming, and nice. So, the big question is:
Can psychopaths fall in love? If yes, how’s their ability to love different from that of normal people?
Can Psychopaths Fall In Love?
Psychopaths can feel and fall in love, but it’s not real or deep love. Their shallow feelings, limited emotions, and need to control others make their love unemotional transactions.
They understand that love is important. They may even feel sad when they don’t have it. But they can only learn to act more normally in relationships if they get therapy.
Can Psychopaths Experience Romantic Love?
People with psychopathy can and often do have romantic relationships. But these relationships often lack deep emotions and closeness in the normal sense. They can’t form strong romantic bonds.
Psychopaths struggle with emotional bonding. They may want love, but they can’t form deep emotional connections. This makes it hard to have meaningful relationships.
They tend to fear closeness. They have trouble letting people get emotionally close to them.
Their limited emotional range also stops them from feeling love like the rest of us do.
Think about these factors:
Psychopathic Love Has A Selfish Reason
For psychopaths, love may be more about getting what they need than truly caring for another person. They may see their partner as an object to use, rather than a person with feelings and needs.
Psychopaths Can Change How They Act In Love
While psychopathy is often seen as a stable personality trait, there is some proof that psychopaths may change in certain situations.
Therapy and treatment can improve their emotional ability. This allows them to experience love more normally, if not genuinely.
Emotional Ability of Psychopaths
Psychopathy often shows as a lack of guilt or empathy, shallow emotions, and lying. They are often skilled at tricking people. They use others for personal gain without feeling bad.
This can make forming close emotional bonds hard for those with psychopathic personalities.
However, psychopaths can still feel emotions like affection and romantic passion. But they feel these differently from people without psychopathy.
Not connecting emotionally and bad attachment styles are also common in psychopaths. This leads to problems forming close relationships and feelings of love.
Despite these problems, people high in psychopathy can still form romantic relationships. But the qualities of these relationships may differ from those of non-psychopaths.
Acting without thinking and being irresponsible can be common in psychopathic people. This makes forming deep connections in romantic relationships even harder. It’s important to note that psychopaths’ approach to love may involve struggles with attachment, avoidance, and worry.
Psychopaths are known for not connecting emotionally and having fake charm. However, their emotional ability is not completely gone.
Shallow Feelings and Limited Emotional Range
Psychopaths show something called shallow affect. This means they have a limited emotional range and fake emotional expressions.
They may feel basic emotions like anger, frustration, and pleasure. But their ability to feel deeper, more complex emotions like love, empathy, and guilt is badly damaged.
Tricks and Control
Psychopaths struggle with the ability to form secure attachments and emotional bonds.
Instead, they often use tricks and control to keep power in their relationships.
They may easily use their partner’s weak points, lie to them, and play with their emotions. This dynamic does not help create a loving, healthy relationship built on trust and respect.
Role of Understanding Others’ Emotions
While psychopaths usually lack emotional empathy, they may have cognitive empathy. This is the ability to understand and predict others’ emotions.
They may use this skill to fake love and affection. This creates an illusion of a loving relationship.
Psychopaths And Relationships
Psychopaths have bad attachment styles in relationships. Their love can sometimes show as an unhealthy obsession. This is driven by control and personal gain rather than real affection.
Although it may be hard for them to show emotions, they can feel something like affection or even strong romantic passion.
However, they are usually unable to fall in love or love someone the way normal people do. This is because they lack empathy and compassion, have limited emotional range, and are self-absorbed.
While they may not feel normal love, psychopaths can temporarily fake and copy love and loving relationships. They do this to hide their true nature.
FAQs
- Do psychopaths have feelings of love?
Psychopaths can have feelings of love, but their experience differs from typical emotional connections. This is due to their limited emotional range, shallow feelings, and tricky tendencies. Their ability to love may be more focused on selfish reasons rather than genuine care for their partner.
- Can a psychopath be obsessed with someone?
Yes, a psychopath can be obsessed with someone. This is often driven by personal desires or a need for control. Their obsession may show up as stalking (offline and online), gossiping, hurting their public image, or being too possessive. It can make the psychopath quite dangerous, so the targeted person must be careful and alert.
- Who are psychopaths attracted to?
Psychopaths may be attracted to vulnerable people because they are easier to trick and control. They may also be drawn to confident, successful people who offer a challenge or have the resources the psychopath wants. In the end, their attraction is driven by personal gain and control within a relationship.
- Can psychopaths love their child?
A psychopath may feel a form of love for their child, but it is different from typical parental love. This is due to their limited emotional ability. Their attachment may be based on control or personal gain. It lacks genuine empathy and care for the child’s well-being. It is hard for psychopaths to build a healthy parent-child bond.
- Can a psychopath be a good person?
Whether a psychopath can be considered a “good person” largely depends on their individual choices and actions. A psychopath’s ability for good behavior is limited by their personality traits. These include a lack of empathy and tricky intents. However, some psychopaths may choose to engage in socially acceptable activities or avoid causing harm to others.
- Can psychopaths be depressed?
Yes, psychopaths can experience depression, despite their shallow emotional range and affect. They are not immune to mental health issues. The results of their behavior can contribute to feelings of sadness or despair. They should seek professional help for proper diagnosis and treatment.
- Can psychopaths cry?
Psychopaths can cry, but their tears may not reflect genuine emotions. This is due to their shallow affect and limited emotional range. They might use crying as a trick to deceive others or get sympathy. Context and reasons should be carefully looked at when judging a psychopath’s display of emotions. Why Do Narcissists Cry? The Answer May Surprise You.
Final Words
Can two psychopaths truly fall in love? It may seem strange, or not, but two psychopaths can fall for each other.
Some psychopaths can form romantic relationships with others with similar traits. This may be due to their mutual understanding of each other’s personalities. (Think of Bonnie And Clyde.)
In these relationships, acting without thinking, explosive rage, and dangerous antisocial behavior can lead to high attachment avoidance and worry.
Finally, romantic relationships between two psychopaths may need huge self-control and sacrifice to stop trying to outsmart each other.
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√ Also Read: Quiz: Are You A Psychopath? Take A Quick Self-Check!
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