Today's Saturday • 10 mins read
— By Dr. Sandip Roy.
What comes to mind when you hear “psychopath”? A deranged prisoner in a high-security prison? A serial offender?
Not all psychopaths are alike. Some are born cold-blooded; others develop through trauma. Some are extremely dangerous to even cross your eyes with.
Rude surprise: There are nearly 80 million psychopaths in our world today, as psychopathy affects about 1% of the general population.
Most psychopaths live outside prisons. They live undetected but have the potential to harm anyone if they lose control of their traits.
Inside prison, between 5% and 25% of men are psychopaths, as research by Neumann and Hare (2008) found.
A basic definition of a psychopath is that this person cannot connect emotionally with anyone and has a deep need to be impulsively antisocial.
Just a glimpse into how dangerous they can be:
- You cannot expect kindness from psychopaths. They have “fear-blindness,” which means they can’t read suffering or fear in other people’s faces.
- Psychopaths don’t understand the severity of their hurtful acts. They stay unperturbed, both before the act and after they commit it.
- When they are focused on a chosen goal, psychopaths cannot process threats. They can’t even stop themselves once they make up their mind. Nothing can deter them once they decide to come after you.
Are there different types of psychopaths? Yes. Read on.
4 Types of Psychopaths
The four possible types of psychopaths are:
- Primary
- Secondary
- Distempered
- Narcissistic
Each of them has some unique characteristics, but all of them have these two:
- Emotional coldness: Stark lack of empathy, remorse, guilt, or shame. Have shallow emotions and can coldly hurt almost anyone if they fix their mind on it.
- Reckless antisociality: Antisocial by nature, with a deep disdain for social norms and laws. Have an unstable lifestyle, a history of impulsivity, antisociality, recklessness, and hostile behavior.
4 Types of Psychopaths Explained
Psychopaths cannot form genuine emotional connections, even with people they meet daily, like their parents, teachers, colleagues, friends, or even lovers.
1. Primary Psychopaths
Primary psychopaths are thought of as born psychopaths. Experts think their genes predestinate them to psychopathy more than factors like early life trauma.
When we look at someone’s face, we focus on their eyes to check how they are feeling. But psychopaths don’t pay attention to others’ eyes, whether just viewing naturally or to identify the emotion.
Researchers tracked the eye movements of 108 male law-breaking offenders as they looked at emotional faces. The results:
- The more psychopathic traits (especially egocentricity and deceitfulness) they had, the less they looked at the eyes of scared faces.
- The more callous and unempathetic someone was, the worse they were at recognizing fear in others.
This is called fear-blindness: a reduced ability to register threat cues, including difficulty recognizing fear in others’ facial expressions.
- They willfully commit unlawful acts, even if they have seen others punished for similar offenses.
- They don’t care or realize that punishments are meant to prevent future wrongdoings.
And this study‘s authors write:
“A subset of antisocial children and adolescents show callous-unemotional (CU) traits, characterized by lack of guilt, remorse, emotionality, and empathy, that produce a chronic and severe antisocial pathway. CU traits can be measured as young as 4 years of age…”
Many primary psychopaths openly live an antisocial and lawless lifestyle. They are often referred to as “classic” or “true” psychopaths.
Their extreme and lifelong antisocial tendencies make it seem like they exist to hurt others. Many of them get involved in heinous offenses or aggressively hurtful behavior before they are 18 years old.
Research suggests primary psychopaths may have a defect in their brain’s emotional processing centers, particularly the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex (Blair, 2003; Marsh & Cardinale, 2012).
Psychopathic behavior has long been attributed to a fundamental deficit in fear that arises from impaired amygdala function.
— Larson & Baskin-Sommers, 2013
- The “glitch” in their amygdala may be the reason they cannot process emotions or fear.
- The reduced gray matter in the prefrontal cortex may be why they cannot control their behavior.
While there is no cure for psychopathy, treating these people means helping them control their dangerous urges and reduce the risk of harm to others.
A worse side of this is that primary psychopaths are resistant to therapy. And that makes them the most dangerous of all types of psychopaths.
- First, they don’t seek therapy, as they don’t see anything wrong with their behavior.
- Second, they lack the motivation to change despite enforced therapy.
- Third, they default to their natural selves after therapy.
For those eager to know more, six genes have been shown to influence the risk of developing psychopathy: ANKK1, DRD2, DRD4, MAOA, COMT, and 5-HTTLPR.
2. Secondary Psychopaths
Secondary psychopathy develops in response to environmental adversities. These psychopaths often have a history of childhood abuse, neglect, or trauma.
Their early childhood troubles may cause them to struggle to control their emotions and face problems forming healthy relationships.
They often develop a deficit in recognizing and responding to fear-related stimuli, such as fearful facial expressions (Marsh and Blair, 2008).
- Secondary psychopaths are sometimes referred to as sociopaths (Dutton, Kevin, 2012).
A horde of research suggests individuals with secondary psychopathy have differences in brain structure and function compared to non-psychopaths (Rilling, 2007; Dolan and Fullam, 2009; Jones, 2009; Harenski, 2010; Finger, 2011; Marsh, 2011a).
Experts think secondary psychopaths may not have received the stimulating environment necessary to develop gray matter in the brain areas linked to emotional regulation, decision-making, and empathy.
Secondary psychopaths respond better to treatment, unlike primary psychopaths. They can be taught to manage their traits and symptoms, control their impulses, and seek counsel when feeling out of control.
Medications can help them control their impulses by desensitizing brain pathways.
Therapy might help them develop better ways to cope with their disruptive thought patterns.
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) can help them build coping mechanisms and strengthen their emotional regulation skills.
- Mindfulness-based therapy can help them become more aware of their thoughts and feelings and improve their ability to resist acting on their emotions.
You might say there is some hope with this type of psychopath: treatment and support could improve their quality of life and help them become better citizens.
3. Distempered Psychopaths
Distempered psychopaths are psychopaths with a mercurial temper. They can suddenly fly into a rage or frenzy, without any warning, over a minimal trigger.
Many of them have disorderly, chaotic lives, so they are also known as disorganized psychopaths.
They have anger issues. They are controlled by their anger and can lash out at others in response to even minor provocations.
They have extreme mood swings. They can quickly change from episodes of intense anger or hostile behavior to periods of extreme calm or even euphoria.
These psychopaths often display heightened impulses and can become consumed by compulsive urges during intense behavioral episodes.
They typically engage in highly impulsive, reckless, and risky behaviors.
They don’t have a Plan B. Their explosive, unplanned actions often lead them to break laws or civic norms, making these psychopaths more likely to be in prison.
A distempered psychopath can be a primary or secondary psychopath. Since the main issue is their high reactivity and unchecked rage spells, they are usually treated with anger therapy, cognitive-behavior psychotherapy, or medication to control their reactivity.
Emotional attachment is something no psychopath ever has.
4. Narcissistic Psychopath
Narcissistic psychopaths exhibit traits of both psychopathy and narcissism. They carry a grandiose sense of self-importance and a lack of empathy, along with a tendency for antisociality.
Narcissistic psychopaths are sometimes called Charismatic Psychopaths. They have fine social skills and charming mannerisms.
They are attractive and friendly at first contact. Their high levels of charm and exuberance draw people to them. They also use their charms to gain the benefit of the doubt and escape unscathed when caught.
- The good part is that they are less likely to have a history of lawbreaks.
- The bad part is that they might have escaped unpunished because of their charm and niceness.
They can easily exploit almost anyone without any guilt or remorse. They can stay immune to shame or sorrow after seriously harming others.
Worse, they are repeat offenders. They can re-target someone they exploited earlier to trap and deceive them again.
A narcissistic psychopath can be a primary or secondary psychopath.
[If you have a narcissist in your life, you must read: How To Confuse A Narcissist?]
Narcissistic psychopaths can be highly dangerous. Their need for control over others can lead them to charm others into doing their dirty work and then scapegoat them for the negative consequences.
Since they are often highly competitive, aggressive, and enjoy taking risks, they may engage in impulsive, reckless, and even downright cruel acts to impress or coerce others.
Some famous examples of charismatic psychopaths are Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, and Jim Jones. They used their charm and social skills to trap innocent victims.
Robert Hare, a leading expert in psychopathy, notes,
“Psychopaths are social predators who charm, manipulate, and ruthlessly plow their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered expectations, and empty wallets.”
Further Reading: Kiehl, Kent. “A Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective On Psychopathy,” 2006
10 Traits of A Psychopath
Psychologists refer to psychopaths as people with a certain set of personality traits, including antisociality, fearlessness, mental toughness, and a lack of conscience.
These are the common 10 traits of a psychopath:
- 1. Impulsivity.
- 2. Lack of empathy.
- 3. Superficial charm.
- 4. Pathological lying.
- 5. Proneness to boredom.
- 6. Lack of remorse or guilt.
- 7. Shallow emotional response.
- 8. Grandiose sense of self-worth.
- 9. Cunning and manipulative behavior.
- 10. Irresponsibility and failure to plan ahead.
More psychopaths live among us than in prisons. You cannot exclude someone being a psychopath based on their clean history or legal records.
Many of them easily blend in with society. They are called high-functioning psychopaths. They can work as surgeons, lawyers, professors, plumbers, or any other profession. They function normally, hiding their true nature and core personality.
Note: a diagnosis of psychopathy should only be made by a trained mental health professional.
FAQs
1. What is primary psychopathy?
Primary psychopathy refers to individuals who are born with psychopathic traits. They are often called “cold-blooded” because they were probably born with their brains set up for psychopathic traits.
They have an innate lack of empathy, guilt, and concern for others. Their more tell-tale personality quirks appear from an early age, often before the age of eighteen.
2. What is secondary psychopathy?
Secondary psychopathy is often the result of stressful environments. Their psychopathic tendencies may appear after tough life experiences like relationship abuse, police brutality, or childhood trauma.
Secondary psychopaths are sometimes referred to as sociopaths (Dutton, Kevin).
3. What’s the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath?
Both psychopaths and sociopaths have antisocial and callous tendencies, but there are differences:
- Psychopaths can blend into society and may achieve high success in business, politics, or bureaucracy. Their “cold,” antisocial nature is often untreatable due to genetic or brain-related factors.
- Sociopaths have a harder time blending into mainstream society. Their behavioral issues are more obvious, with frequent run-ins with the authorities. However, they are more responsive to therapy, as their antisociality is often the result of external factors like a troubled childhood or previous trauma.
Find out more on how sociopaths differ from psychopaths.
Final Words
Psychopaths don’t get hair-raising experiences when facing threats.
Normally, when we feel scared, our skin reacts with electrical signals (like piloerection or goosebumps), and we show a startle response.
Psychopathic people don’t seem to have those when facing threats. They have “fear-blindness,” a reduced sensitivity to threat cues, including fearful facial expressions, which makes them more dangerous.
- Their brains cannot perceive or process threats and fear-related stimuli.
- They cannot recognize fear in the faces or body language of others.
√ Also Read: 10 Warning Signs of A Psychopath
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