Name: The Psychology of Psychopaths - Predators who Walk Among Us
Uploaded: 2023-07-16T06:36:07.000Z
Duration: 13 min 44 s
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“Human predators populate our society.”

  Stefan Verstappen, Defense Against the Psychopath

They coerce, manipulate, lie, steal, defraud, abuse, and take life, without feeling guilt

A leading expert on psychopathy, Robert Hare, estimates that 1% of people are psychopaths;

while the clinical psychologist Martha Stout suggests this figure is closer to 4%.

Studies indicate that psychopaths are over-represented in the corporate executive world and in politics.

In this video we are going to explore the psychology of the psychopath as this knowledge

can help us minimize the damage they inflict on us, those we care about, and humanity at

“…compared with other major clinical disorders, little systematic research has been devoted

to psychopathy, even though it is responsible for far more social distress and disruption

than all other psychiatric disorders combined.

Psychopaths are found in every segment of society, and there is a good chance that...you

will have a painful or humiliating encounter with one.

Your best defense is to understand the nature of these human predators.” 

Individuals such as Ted Bundy, Charles Manson or Jeffrey Dahmer are who come to mind when

most people think of the psychopath and while such individuals are psychopathic, they represent

Most psychopaths, rather than committing violent crimes, engage in immoral acts that fly under

the radar of the criminal justice system; they will abuse family members, or neglect

their well-being, they will cheat others out of money, pathologically lie, or manipulate

“…many people know nothing about this disorder, or if they do, they think only in

terms of…people who have conspicuously broken the law many times over, and who, if caught,

will be imprisoned...most [psychopaths] are not incarcerated.

They are out here in the world with you and me.” 

The reason most of us refrain from routinely exploiting and harming others is because we

We empathize with the suffering of others, and if we make another suffer, we feel guilt.

Psychopaths have no conscience, and they lack the ability to feel empathy and guilt.

In fact, a psychopath does not feel love, friendship, or any emotional connection to

If psychopaths maintain ties to other people, it is only because they see them as a possession,

This emotionless void which exists in the heart of the psychopath makes them capable

of repeatedly engaging in acts that harm other people. 

“Even experienced and case-hardened professionals find it unnerving when they see a psychopath's

reaction to a gut-wrenching event or listen to him or her casually describe a brutal offense

as if an apple had been peeled or a fish gutted.”

“[The psychopath is] a self-centered, callous, and remorseless person profoundly lacking

in empathy and the ability to form warm emotional relationships with others, a person who functions

If you think about it, you will realize that what is missing in this picture are the very

qualities that allow human beings to live in social harmony.” 

In place of the emotional connections which create meaning in the lives of normal people,

the internal life of the psychopath is driven by the pleasure-principle and the need for

Many psychopaths are alcoholics, addicted to drugs or sex, and engage in highly risky

But the most seductive stimulant for a psychopath is power.

No matter whether they are a career criminal, an unemployed freeloader, a middle manager,

a CEO, a financier, bureaucrat, or politician, the mind of the psychopath is obsessed with

“The prize to be won can run the gamut from world domination to a free lunch, but it is

always the same game—controlling, making others jump, “winning.””   

Robert Hare shares a snippet from a psychological report about a psychopath named Earl: 

“The most salient thing about Earl is his obsession with absolute power.

He values people only insofar as they bend to his will or can be coerced or manipulated

He constantly sizes up his prospects for exploiting people and situations.” 

While from our vantage point the psychopath is suffering from a severe mental disorder,

psychopaths see nothing wrong with themselves and are sometimes forthright in stating that

Their lack of emotional attachments and inability to feel empathy and guilt grant them an unprecedented

advantage in what is a dog-eat-dog world - or so they say.

Ted Bundy, for example, referred to guilt as an “unhealthy social control mechanism”

that “does terrible things to the body.”

Given that they see their psychopathy as a benefit, it should come as no surprise that

attempts to “rehabilitate” psychopaths fail miserably.

In summarizing the literature on the so-called “treatments” for psychopathy, Robert Hare

“…many writers on the subject have commented that the shortest chapter in any book on psychopathy

A one-sentence conclusion such as, “No effective treatment has been found,” or, “Nothing

works,” is the common wrap-up to scholarly reviews of the literature.” 

To make matters worse, psychopaths are notoriously difficult to identify.

For although inwardly they are as different from us as night and day, outwardly they camouflage

their predatory nature with what the 20th century psychiatrist Hervey Cleckley called

Psychopaths are akin to predatory creatures who mimic the appearance and behaviour of

In his article Snake in the Grass, the psychologist Daniel Jones explains that: “There are spiders

in Australia that smell and behave like ants: some are so convincing that the ants will

allow a spider to live permanently as one of them.

This spider will then feast upon its new friends, but it won't eat all the ants, or even a significant

number; instead, it extracts resources slowly, sustainably, and over time."

Like the Australian spider, on the social stage psychopaths often appear normal.

In fact, they tend to be more charismatic, charming, and confident than most people.

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The Psychology of Psychopaths - Predators who Walk Among Us

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