BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: SINSULL
Date: 01 Jun 09 - 11:26 AM

"All bad" doesn't fit the profile, Barry. Sociopaths are charming and amazingly cunning. And they are very dangerous although I don't see deliberate murder as in their realm. As a side effect, yes. The lies and convoluted thinking are frightening. I have stopped trying to figure out how and why my son is what he is. I accept it and protect myself.

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: Barry Finn
Date: 01 Jun 09 - 12:50 AM

Sorrrrry, that was "Whitey" Bulger, not his brother Billy. Getting these old family ties mixed up.

In the above post, the line that read
"Most people may have some of the above traits but they also posess other traits to offset the negitive ones"

should've read "Some"

Barry

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: Barry Finn
Date: 01 Jun 09 - 12:45 AM

To really qualify as a Sociopath one needs to be almost, if not all, pure evil. Strike like an animal on the prowl & have no quams about putting their teeth into your neck with out flinching. Some people may have some of the above traits but they also posess other traits to offset the negitive ones. Hardly is someone almost all rotten
I have known one person who really fits this bill. I knew him as a child, knew his brothers, worked with him & his brothers as an adult. He was always in & out of prison, even his brothers couldn't be around him. You couldn't turn your back with hm around & most everyone prayed that he stayed in prison.
I met one other person like this & that was Steve "the Rifleman" Flemmi. My father knew 2 that fit the same bill, Flemmi's partner Whitey Bulger. The other was a family friend's brother, William "Wimpy" Bennett. What the last 3 all had in common was they were all common career criminals tied to orgianized crime. Usually these people cannot survive undertected & unprotected for long without the cover that the criminal world offers them. They are even feared but are used by those that live in the same enviorment. They are mostly "hit men" & by their nature they're very good at what they do.
The strange thing about the two families I mentioned. The guy I knew, his 2 brothers thought him worst than dirt & they themselves were hard working family men who were graet people. The same with the family my father knew. The brother he knew (& I knew) was a great family guy & would help anyone & so I've heard of his other brother. But "Wimpy" was a disaster, though my father loved his brother he hated "Wimpy". All bad, not a shimer of good in his bones.
Funny, (no really) those last 3 were all assocates.

You've never met someone all bad until you've met a human that can walk & talk, smile & chat like the rest of us then turn & saw the head off a living body. You couldn't make a horror movie that comes close to covering the truth.

Barry

typos fixed
joe clone

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 31 May 09 - 10:08 PM

Interesting "Cottage Psychology" - but the contradictions within the text are like gypsy-palmstry ("history of juvenial deliquency VS- too clever to have a crimal background") it permits anyone to say "Ah - So !!! that is TRUE !!! )

An interesting description of all the wiccans I have known...(and I have known too many.)

I thought McAfee were supposed to be..."anti-virus"...folks...in this case...."lookout for the swine flue in the chimmney."

Appears pretty "Wicked" to me.

SIncerely,
Gargoyle

The book I am currently reading (for the FIRST time...it surprised me..I .knew the first paragraph,,,and also "Barkus is willin"...and the explanation of economic folly...and somehow ... missed this amazing novel ) is David Copperfield ... Dickens is an absolute genius ... and the sculpting of "Steerforth" throughout the novel far pre-dates any sort of "psychological profile" ... but it is true, True, TRUE....to the McAfee description that is referenced.

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: Joe_F
Date: 31 May 09 - 08:50 PM

Oh, and (obMudcat) a song: Jellon Graeme (Child 90).

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: Janie
Date: 31 May 09 - 12:42 PM

My experience working in public mental health has apparently been very different from yours, VT.

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: Alice
Date: 31 May 09 - 12:24 PM

Don't worry about me, folks. I'm fine. I have a cell phone with me all the time. If he shows up, I'll call the police, but I won't set up a meeting with him to be a decoy as the detective suggested.

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: Penny S.
Date: 31 May 09 - 12:12 PM

Alice, you have alerted the police, haven't you? Have you got a safe place to be for a while?

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: pdq
Date: 31 May 09 - 11:35 AM

Please show when a psychological profile was needed to become a stand-up comic? A singer? A state senator?

When was the last time that passing battery of psychological tests was not a prerequisite to becoming a cop?

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: Riginslinger
Date: 31 May 09 - 11:20 AM

"Sociopathy is more likely to be found in entertainers and politicians than it is in police or military people."


                  I think this demands a little closer examination.

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 31 May 09 - 11:13 AM

That article had to be written after studying one of my ex sons-in-law.


Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: Bobert
Date: 31 May 09 - 11:11 AM

The term "path" (pathology) is a misleading term... When I worked as a social worker most of my clients came from the state mental hospital in Petersburg, Va. and, yeah, most of them suffered from mental illnesses of one sort or another but...

...pathology doesn't tell the entire story... There are many folks who exhibit some of the traits/behaviors that are listed in the above link yet seem to stay out of mental hospitals and have real jobs and real families and do normal stuff yet exhibit behaviors that aren't necessarily diesease based...

I kinda like the term "personality disorder" myself... It's shy of disease yet above what would be considered normal behavior...

I believe we all know folks who fall more into this category and seem to function in society somewhat normally...

I think it is dangerous for folks who haven't worked with severely diseased people to look at this list and go, "Yup, that's Ralph, allright" just because Ralph is superficial and a purdy decent con-man...

The folks out there like Drew Peterson, for instance, are the typical Ralph's-of-the-world and labeling sometimes gives the wrong picture of lot's of people...

With that said, I'd like to throw Dick Cheney into the mix (joke)... Nah, I think Dick falls very much into the personality disorder category...

B;~)

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 31 May 09 - 10:50 AM

And a baseball bat to the knees, once he is blinded.

I worked in community mental health as an admin. In my experience much of the description applied to more than a few of the social workers, nurses and consultants.

Very scary. Forced me to make a conscious decision never to need mental health care, ever.

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 May 09 - 01:27 AM

A can of spray paint can be very effective when sprayed in the eyes. I hope the cops are giving you support, Alice.

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: Alice
Date: 31 May 09 - 12:41 AM

No worries, Dorothy, I'm not the gun owning type.

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 30 May 09 - 11:58 PM

pdq: I doubt that
Alice: no gun; it can be used against you too easily. Get a friend to stay with you, please!!!

That describes my ex; is it any wonder that 8 years of him stuck with me for the next 40. Esp. concern that two sons would be like him - THEY ARE NOT!!!

I have met only two other people with those tendencies - a probation officer and a plain person whom I thought was a friend until his real self surfaced. Oh, and a couple of clients when I was a probation officer. The only two times I recommended prison. One got it, the other, a "white collar crime" got probation with community service. Where do you place a person with no sense of right or wrong - in a day care center?? He got off scot-free. One of the scariest people I ever met. And when I am scared - that is rare, indeed.

Clinton -I doubt, just foolish. Bush - absolutely. And a few others of his cronies. Or are they intelligent enough?

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: Janie
Date: 30 May 09 - 09:35 PM

I would hypothesize Narcissistic Personality Disorder has a higher prevalence rate among the populations you mention than the general population, but that the prevalence rate of Antisocial Personality Disorder would be about the same as within the general population.

However, I have seen no research that would lead me to make any assertions. Only suppositions and hypotheses. Can you give citations of the research that documents your assertions? I'd be very interested in reading it.   My DSM IV is a few years old so the prevalence information in it is outdated, and does not address specific sub-populations.

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: pdq
Date: 30 May 09 - 09:21 PM

Sociopathy is more likely to be found in entertainers and politicians than it is in police or military people.

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: Janie
Date: 30 May 09 - 09:16 PM

Didn't see your post before I posted, hg, but your observation is right in line with my own observations.

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: Janie
Date: 30 May 09 - 09:15 PM

It is probably overdiagnosed in men and underdiagnosed in women. Lots of people have strong antisocial traits that do not quite reach the level that warrants a diagnosis. Most people with this personality disorder are not so sociopathic as to be killers.

I would love to see a study of the rate of prevalence of Antisocial Personality Disorder among law enforcement officers.   I suspect it is higher than in the general population, though not as high as among habitual criminals and those heavily involved in organized crime.

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: GUEST,hg
Date: 30 May 09 - 09:03 PM

Describes Drew Peterson pretty well!

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: mg
Date: 30 May 09 - 08:36 PM

For sure get a restraining order and do whatever you have to protect ourself, including a gun I hope. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: Alice
Date: 30 May 09 - 08:09 PM

Fits a con man I met over 20 years ago who had women all over the country giving him money (including me). I later had to call the police about harassing phone calls after he left the state and went back to California, and found out there is a warrant out for this guy's arrest in Montana for setting up a checking account, writing hundreds of dollars in bad checks, then skipping the state. They wanted me to be a decoy if he ever came back here, as they want to arrest him. It's too scary for me to do that... but a few weeks ago, I suddenly got a threatening phone call from him after not hearing anything from him for years, and said he was coming up to Montana to confront me. Anyone care to be my bodyguard? Wish my dog was still alive.

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: Joe_F
Date: 30 May 09 - 08:08 PM

I do not admire such people, but I envy them, because my own mental atmosphere is saturated with shame.

Here are some literary portraits:

Short story: "No Fire Burns" by Avram Davidson.
Novel: _The Porkchoppers_ by Ross Thomas.
Biography: _A Bright Shining Lie_ by Neil Sheehan.
Poem: "Song of the Devil" by W. H. Auden:

Since men are like goods, what are shouldn'ts and shoulds
When you are the Leading Brand?
Let them all drop dead, you're way ahead,
Beat them up if they dare to demand
    What may your intention be,
      Or what might ensue:
    There's a difference in dimension be-
      -tween the rest and you.

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: SINSULL
Date: 30 May 09 - 07:51 PM

My son. You have no idea how sad and scary it is.

Subject: RE: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: pdq
Date: 30 May 09 - 07:50 PM

The article perfectly describes Bill Clinton.

Subject: BS: Sociopath/AntiSocial Disorder
From: Sorcha
Date: 30 May 09 - 07:36 PM

Read it and decide if this fits anyone you know......it's actually kinda scary to me.