excerpts from the book

Defense Against The Psychopath

by Stefan H. Verstappen, 2011, paperback

p5
Of all the criminal types that inhabit our society, the psychopath is by far the most destructive, the most successful, and the least understood.

p5
One may not notice a psychopath until you see him do something that requires them to have a conscience.

p5
You are more likely to find psychopaths in the boardroom than on the wrong side of the tracks.

p6
Within the highest circles of power and wealth, a lack of pity and remorse is practically a prerequisite to success, and only the psychopathic mentality can thrive.

p6
Empathy is the ability to experience within oneself, the feelings and emotions expressed by others. It is what allows us to feel what others are feeling.

p6
Empathy allows us to experience the grandeur of life, to be truly alive, and it is one of the defining characteristics of what makes us human.

... Psychopaths have no empathy and as a result, they are neither truly human, nor truly alive.

p6
Psychopaths realize at an early age that they are different, and that they should act as everyone else does in order to be accepted into society. They learn to mimic what they see others do, but they can never understand why they should act this way.

p7
Remorse is an emotional expression of personal regret felt by a person after he or she has committed an act, which they deem to be shameful, hurtful, or violent... A psychopath cannot feel shame, nor comprehend that anything they do can be hurtful to others.

p8
Psychopaths live in a falsely constructed worldview in which they are both literally and figuratively god. Often seen as megalomaniacs, they also have an equally overblown sense of entitlement.

p8
Psychopaths are irresponsible because nothing is ever their fault... Nothing wrong can ever originate with them and so the psychopath's logic dictates that everything bad is always someone else's fault.

p8
One of the earliest writers on the subject of Psychopathy, J. C. Prichard coined the now defunct term, Moral Insanity as a way to describe Psychopathy in 1835.

p9
Without empathy, shame, and remorse [psychopaths] are free to lie as often and as outrageously as they please... for the psychopath lying is as easy and natural as breathing. This is why they often pass polygraphs. They do not register the physiological reactions that nonpsychopaths would when lying. They are so good at lying they can fool trained psychiatrists and even other psychopaths. What is important to know is that given the right circumstances they can fool anyone.

p10
Psychopaths are masters of manipulation and experts on knowing how to push our buttons to use our emotions against us. They use this ability to keep those around them confused, unable to think clearly, and off balance.

p11
Narcissists are so overcome with self-love that nothing else in the world matters but them. They need a constant source of attention, adoration, recognition, awards, and praise.

p11
There are two basic types of narcissist, the Somatic, and the Cerebral. Somatic Narcissists take pride in their looks and appearance. They will flaunt their sexual exploits, brag of their accomplishments, show off their muscles, and display their toys. They are often health nuts, hypochondriacs and sex addicts.

Cerebral Narcissists love their own minds. They are arrogant, condescending, and 'know-it-alls' that pride themselves on being smarter than everyone else is. Contrary to the somatic type, cerebral narcissists often regard their body and its maintenance as a nuisance and burden and are physically lazy, unfit, and often celibate. Their narcissistic supply comes from fame, notoriety, awards, and displays of wealth to create envy in others.

p15
Psychopaths litter history with genocides and the destruction of entire nations and empires. Historical examples include such monsters as Stalin, Pol Pot, Ivan the Terrible, and Caligula. While there are many that make it to the pinnacle of the political stage there are also such historical figures as J.P. Morgan, Randolph Hearst, and Mayer Rothschild, professional psychopaths that reach the pinnacle of the financial stage where they cause no less misery and destruction as their political counterparts.

p15
In politics the professional psychopath's ruthlessness and cunning gives them a distinct advantage over any nonpsychopath rival. They make charismatic leaders manipulating and brainwashing the naive, vulnerable, uneducated, or mentally weak. Mastery of lying allows them to make whatever outrageous campaign promises straight faced with, of course, no intention of keeping any of them. A life spent faking being human give them the ability to assume the roles of virtuous public servant, the perfect father, husband, advisor, mentor, and everyman. In addition when things get rough they have no inhibitions in playing dirty and readily resort to murder, assassination, persecution, war and genocide.

p16
Since most if not all 'great' religions are constructed on falsehoods, compulsive liars make the perfect proselytizers. A look at recently created religions such as Mormonism and Scientology show their founders, Joseph Smith and L. Ron Hubbard respectively, were at least compulsive liars, and more likely full-blown psychopaths. Charismatic cult leaders such as Jim Jones and Sung Yung Moon were indeed psychopaths, while televangelist preachers that rake in millions from their gullible flocks are at best con artists of the highest caliber.

p17
There are certain groups that will attract psychopaths because of the opportunities of power and influence membership provides. Usually such groups will quickly become led and dominated by psychopaths. Other nonpsychopathic members of these groups would have to become psychopaths in order to survive.

p18
The money and power of a corporation attract psychopaths. In a corporate environment they have many advantages over their non-psychopathic competitors for promotion. Not surprisingly most corporations end up being run by psychopaths. As with a criminal gang a corporation's culture adopts the twisted values of its leaders. Those who would seek employment must likewise adopt or at least appear to adopt the corporation's essentially psychopathic mindset.

p18
A mob has no conscience. Individual members may or may not have a conscience but when they are part of a mob, they will have none... corporations are mobs. It would be a mistake to place your trust in them since they can turn predatory in a moment and deprive you of time,

p20
In an organizational setting, psychopaths are the consummate office politicians. The seek to create factions within the organization and then turn those factions against each other to create as much chaos as possible. Psychopaths swim in chaos and the more the better. Secretly they start to draw the gullible, weak minded, and fellow psychopaths to their side while intensifying their efforts to have the most talented, honest, and incorruptible members, ones that could have the strength of character to expose them, expelled. They poison the environment in a variety of way so that everyone feels irritable, edgy, and unable to perform their jobs. Control of the organization slips into the hands of the source behind the dysfunction, the psychopath who created it all.

p21
Countries ruled by psychopaths become corrupt and brutish police states constantly at war with created and imaginary enemies. The population becomes paranoid, neurotic, and ultimately secondary psychopaths. In a psychopathic culture, everyone must adopt a ruthless attitude as a survival strategy.

p23
Empathy cannot defeat the psychopath. You cannot change them, you cannot reform them, you cannot find the goodness inside them, you cannot show them the way to god, and you cannot teach them about love. All these approaches are doomed to failure since psychopaths can never understand nor can they care about these concepts. While they may lead you to believe that you are getting through to them, in reality, your empathy infuriates them and far from admiring your compassion, they despise you even more. While you try to 'understand' the psychopath, they are secretly calculating how best to cause you the most suffering.

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