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— By Dr. Sandip Roy.What comes to mind when you hear the term “psychopath”? A deranged prisoner in a high security? A serial killer?
Rude surprise: There are nearly 79 million psychopaths in our world today, as psychopathy affects about 1% of the general population. The majority of them live outside prisons, hiding in plain sight.
Inside prison, between 5% and 25% of men are psychopaths, as researchers 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”—an inability to recognize fear or worry about what might happen.
- When focused on a goal, psychopaths cannot process threats. They can’t even stop themselves once they make up their mind 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 impulsive criminality and reckless aggression.
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 predestine 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 studied tracked the eye movements of 108 male criminal offenders while they looked at emotional faces. The results:
- The more psychopathic traits (especially bring egocentric and deceitful) they had, the less they looked at the eyes of scared faces.
- And the more callous and unempathetic someone was, the worse they were at recognizing fear in others.
This is called “fear-blindness” — an inability to recognize fearful faces of others.
- They commit willful crimes, 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 criminal 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 crime or violent 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.
The 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).
Unlike primary psychopaths, secondary psychopaths may better respond to treatment. They can learn to manage their psychopath traits and symptoms, improve their quality of life, and get better with treatment and support.
- 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.
Medications may help them learn impulse control, and develop better coping mechanisms.
Research has shown that individuals with secondary psychopathy may have differences in brain structure and function compared to those without the disorder (Rilling, 2007; Dolan and Fullam, 2009; Jones, 2009; Harenski, 2010; Finger, 2011; Marsh, 2011a).
They may not have received the stimulating environment necessary to develop gray matter in areas of the brain involved in emotional regulation, decision-making, and empathy.
3. Distempered Psychopaths
Distempered psychopaths are psychopaths with a mercurial temper. People know them for their sudden outbursts of rage or frenzy.
A distempered psychopath can be a primary or secondary psychopath.
They have anger issues. They are controlled by their anger and can lash out at others in response to even minor provocations.
Distempered psychopaths also have extreme mood swings. They can quickly change from episodes of intense anger or aggression to periods of extreme calm or even euphoria.
These psychopaths often have strong sex drives and can become obsessed with sexual urges during their frenzies.
They typically engage in highly impulsive, reckless, and risky behaviors.
They don’t have a Plan B. Because of their explosive, unplanned actions (that lead them to commit crimes), these psychopaths are more likely to be in prison.
Distempered psychopathy is usually treated with anger therapy, cognitive-behavior psychotherapy, and medication to control their reactivity.
Emotional attachment is something no psychopath (or sociopath) ever has.
4. Narcissistic Psychopath
Narcissistic psychopaths, in particular, exhibit traits of both psychopathy and narcissism, which includes a grandiose sense of self-importance, a need for admiration, and a lack of empathy.
They can easily exploit others for their own benefit without feeling any guilt or remorse. They manage to stay immune to shame or sorrow even when they harm others.
Worse, they can approach someone they previously exploited to help them out 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?]
Since are often highly competitive and aggressive, and enjoy taking risks, they may engage in impulsive, reckless, and even downright cruel acts to impress or coerce others.
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.
Narcissistic psychopaths are sometimes called Charismatic Psychopaths. They have impeccable social skills and charming mannerisms.
They are attractive and friendly at first contact. Their high levels of charm and exuberance draw people to them.
- The good part is that they are less likely to have a criminal record.
- The bad part is that they might have escaped being caught because of their fine charm and demeanor.
Some famous examples of charismatic psychopaths are Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, and Jim Jones. All of them 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
You cannot mark out a psychopath just by their actions or criminal records. Many psychopaths live among us, working as surgeons, lawyers, professors, plumbers, or any other profession.
Some psychopaths are good at blending in with society. They are called high-functioning psychopaths — they act and behave like normal people, hiding their true nature and core personality.
When psychologists discuss psychopaths, they refer to people who have a certain set of personality traits, including ruthlessness, fearlessness, mental toughness, charm, persuasiveness, and a lack of conscience and empathy.
- 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.
Note: a diagnosis of psychopathy should only be made by a trained mental health professional.
FAQs
What is primary psychopathy?
Primary psychopathy refers to individuals who are born with psychopathic traits. This means they have an innate lack of empathy, guilt, and concern for others. Primary psychopaths are often called “cold-blooded” because they were probably born with their brains set up for psychopathic traits. Their personality quirks appear from an early age, rather than developing later under stressful environments.
What is secondary psychopathy?
Secondary psychopathy is associated with more reactive and impulsive behaviors that develop due to factors like childhood trauma, abuse, or other environmental influences. Secondary psychopaths, sometimes referred to as sociopaths (Dutton, Kevin), mostly exhibit psychopathic behaviors due to a close link to their life experiences and upbringing.
What’s the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath?
• Psychopaths tend to be untreatably antisocial and “cold”, often due to genetic and neurological factors.
• Sociopaths are more responsive to therapy, as they are thought to develop their antisociality and apathy due to external factors, like troubled childhood or previous trauma.• Psychopaths can typically blend into society and may be successful in professions like business, politics, or bureaucracy.
• Sociopaths have a harder time functioning in mainstream society and may have more obvious behavioral issues, such as frequent run-ins with the law.
Final Words
Usually, when we feel scared, our skin reacts with electrical signals (like piloerection or goosebumps), and we show a startle response.
Psycho types don’t have those. They have low fear, and this “fear-blindness” is a bigger issue than their lack of other emotions.
- Their brains cannot perceive or process threats and fear-related stimuli.
- They cannot recognize fear in the faces or body language of others.
Both make them outstandingly dangerous and violent.
√ Also Read: 10 Warning Signs of A Psychopath
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