Any tips for writing a psychopathic character?

Yes, seriously. Don't attract his attention any more than you need to. If he's truly a psychopath and begins to see you as a challenge, or a threat to his existence or lifestyle, the consequences might not be pretty at all.

 

Are you able to overcome your tendency for humility, empathy without actual head trauma? Maybe if we find a way to activate inactive parts of the brain at will, we could change them.

 

I don't know. At the moment I don't see any need to try to overcome humility (if I have it!) or empathy. These are definite pluses within our culture. However, if they became social liabilities, would I be able to overcome or subvert them? I don't know. I guess that's the question.

 

Certainly many experts over the years felt this, and especially Robert Hare who's done really important ground work. But with that aspect of his understanding I must disagree. Psychopaths are as difficult to understand as autistic people, if you take away the evil, you are left with people who simply don't know how to relate to others due to some kind of cognitive impairment.

What makes psychopaths much more socially successful than the autistic spectrum individuals is the psychopath's ability of mimicry. As they can't experience emotions, or that experience is much reduced (other than rage, anger and hate, which are intensely felt, typically) and as they tend to misinterpret emotions in faces of others (some good studies showed this trait), psychopaths learn how to copy those emotional expressions perfectly, and pull them out when needed.

This is what makes psychopaths especially dangerous. Alongside sadism and narcissism, they are able to pass themselves off as quite empathic, even sympathetic characters. People feel they have the strength to do what needs to be done, but get fooled by apparent empathy, so they not only trust them, they tend to choose them as leaders, at their own peril. The evil comes from unopposed power - imagine how easy going through life, getting what you want, would be if you felt absolutely no guilt, shame or compassion? Power is know to corrupt even the best of us. In many ways, I think psychopaths are victims of their own success, not failure. and better that they are at mimicry and impulse control, the less likely they are to end up in jail.

ps. Empathy is hard-wired in human brains, it's what made it possible for us to function as a society, so individual ability to 'turn the empathy off' is directly related to the inborn lack of empathy itself. In other words, the less empathy one is capable off, the easier it is to turn it off. Except in extreme circumstances, when one is able to prioritise empathy, and carry out self-sacrificing tasks which is the highest form of empathy, even if it makes people act heroically and apparently unempathically (like freedom fighters or saviours in disaster situations, for example) but the emotional situation is much different from 'turning off' overall empathy which only people with primary impairment should be able to do.

 

I wanted you to see that it's the same concept, except opposite.

 

Is it possible that power does not corrupt, rather that psychopaths get power, and are then able to indulge their whims, now unfettered? After all, if it is true that power corrupts, why is only a proportion of the corridors of power, etc., being investigated by Operation Yewtree?

 

Not to cherry-pick your post, but this is exactly what I was getting at. It seems impossible to mention mental illness in the context of fictional characters on a forum like this without someone showing up and presuming to lecture the rest of us about our 'insensitivity'. My belief is that the vast majority of such people do so in a sort of denial (oops, there's another one) about their own professionally-proffered diagnoses.

In the world I live in (the 'real' world, as far as I know) people often describe others using technically medical terms without the training to use such terms clinically. We use them, as @jazzabel said, colloquially. It's unusual for a week to pass without my describing someone as 'narcissistic'. Now, it may be that those peoples' behavior doesn't meet the strict definition of narcissistic personality disorder in whatever big fat book you're using as your source authority, but everyone I say it to knows exactly what I mean.

And I don't have a cousin named Brad.

 

I had to go back and re-read the whole thread to understand this!

 

Anything is possible, of course, and these are simply judgements we make because we don't yet have a scan available that would prove assumptions beyond any doubt. I would say, though, that power can corrupt, and the more deviant and psychopathic someone is, the more evil their corruption will manifest. But they've done load of studies on power, including prison wardens on high security placements, and it can get so bad, people are routinely transferred away from those jobs. The problem is these massively wealthy families and individuals but also politicians, generals, highly placed bureaucrats, who get to stay in positions of power for so long, they start believing they are gods.

 

But why only some of them?

 

Well, we are all born with our unique personalities and issues. The more destructive a person is naturally, the more drastic consequences power will have on them. Power corrupts everyone equally, but it depends on our baseline personality on how that corruption will manifest. For example, Schindler had to lie and cheat and embezzle, but he did that in order to save the Jews from persecution. Someone else in his position would use his power to condemn even more people to death camps. It all depends on who you are, how you'll react to power. But power itself puts everyone who has it, into the position to circumvent the rules, which is often all it takes.

 

I am quite late with jumping into the party OP but I thought I could offer you some kind of insight into the mind of, not just a psychopath, but of the other Dark Personalities in the triad.

I would recommend primarily in thinking about what it is that has made her the way she is. I am a complete believer that there are predispositions to certain conditions, (aka epilepsy and psychopathy) but that it is learnt behaviours that push you more towards actually living the conditions. With epilepsy it can be a fall that results in hitting your head, and triggering the condition. With psychopathy, something can happen in your childhood and adult life that triggers these traits to become more dominant. I say dominant, purely because a psychopath, as well as the other two, are not CONSTANTLY acting under this condition. These people are usually intelligent and self-aware of their conditions, and so their thoughts are not incessantly dark. They are normal human beings just like everyone else, but who happen to have personality disorders. That is not to say that they will not have moments where they cannot control themselves. These times usually occur when under stress.
The reason I am talking about the Dark Triad is because you usually do not have just ONE trait in a person. There will be hints of all three with one usually being the dominant party.

You have the Dark Triad and this consists of: Narcissism, Machiavellian and Psychopathy.

Narcissism is more than what people imagine is being in love with yourself. I personally think that this is the worst of all three but that is just an opinion. Narcissists grandiose themselves and their lives. They want to project an image of perfection, everything in their life is amazing and everyone loves and adores them. It is almost like stepford wife syndrome. The problems arise when people do not behave the way they wish them to, if they criticise the narcissist, or if they do not fall into line in the narcissists grand plans. The reason I say this is the worst one is because a real narcissist cannot ever stop being a narcissist. They are not aware of their actions and behaviours because they are perfect. The only negative self image they ever have is shame and that is redirected at the person who made them feel this way. They cannot feel remorse for the 'objects' in their lives, nor guilt or any other genuine emotion towards other as they lack the basic ability to empathise and seeing others as having emotions. Think of how people are only emotionless objects to those on the Autistic Spectrum and you have an idea of what I mean. They also do not feel love. They marry purely to help the projected image. They lie, they brag and they genuinely believe the lies they tell.

Machiavellian is one of my favourites. Sadly I personally exhibit a lot of these traits, nothing to be proud of, and I work hard at keeping it at bay. This personal involvement is why I think I can be of use. With my personal experiences of it, Machiavelli's are incredible at reading people. You see patterns in the human race to a point where it is even possible to predict what someone is going to say before they say it due to these patterns. This is not a constant thing, you have to really work hard, but if you know you are going to be in a predicament at a later date, it truly comes in handy. To a Mach, social interactions are like playing chess. Every pawn has it's place and you are King of the board. You are the one controlling the game. If you say one thing to one person, it will affect another. It is the same way I know that if I want something brought to someone's attention, find out who it is that confides in them and get them to do the legwork for you. That sounds simple but finding out this information takes a lot of 'reading'. You are always watching people, and you are fantastic at telling when people are liars. The only way I can describe it is you have an almost psychic-like ability to read people. I guess a natural kinetics is present. You also have no shame in using people to get what you want. Whether it is manipulating them to do something for you, or using your cunning to make someone a fall guy, you have no remorse when making sure you, as the Mach are not taken down. It can be one big game and it can be the most satisfying thing when you bring down a rival who has had you sweating. You like to feel better than people, to do better than people. It is also lonely. You feel like you can never meet someone like you, someone who is not merely a pawn but also a King. Even if you did you would have to either take the King out or let them have their own dominion. You are also very self aware and this is what I mean by I try not to allow myself to be an asshole with it. I have a high level of emotional intelligence, something Mach's tend not to have so I know the effects of what I do, whereas Mach's do not/do not care.

Finally we get to psychopathy. This one is just wonderful, it could be a dark triad in itself with 3 different sub-types. You have the boldness as expressed by others before me, the kind of psychopathy where there is a complete lack of inhibitions. This could be the guy who approaches a woman in the bar KNOWING that he will get her to sleep with him that night. There is no fear, no social anxiety, he will have her because he wants her. The next one is the poor impulse control kind, these ones are the ones who flip out if they want something and do not get it. This then results in nonconstructive behaviour such as stabbing someone to death or physically abusing someone. Think Patrick Bateman and you can label him as this kind of psychopath. The final one is the real shitty one. The one who enjoys hurting others, feels no empathy, remorse, abhors any close attachments, a true and utter soulless creature. What makes people this way? Honestly, I do not know. Psychopathy genuinely scares me more than the others but I also do not think it is the worst one because a psychopath does not necessarily HAVE to indulge in their more aggressive urges. In fact, a more successful psychopath is one who is so good at controlling and using people, at being charismatic to get what they want, they do not have to have moments of aggression. Aggression signals a lack of control which ultimately is a weakness, so keeping it together is the prime directive. I think the meaner trait is a result of the other two traits undergoing adverse issues. That means you cannot have the meanness without the disinhibition or the boldness. It is when something goes wrong within those constructs that the meanness rears its head. It is how psychopaths are not always the most obvious people.

I read that article on the difference between sociopathy and psychopathy and it has a lot of good points. To put it plainly, sociopaths find it harder to hide their true face than psychopaths do. That is not to say that psychopaths tend not to be imprisoned after cracking, they do. But when a true psychopath does crack, it will not be easy to get them, it will be even harder to analyse them and most importantly, it is rare. I think a lot of people are misdiagnosed as psychopaths due to this similarity with sociopathy.

I think the most common factor with all of these three disorders is control. Having control means you are King of the world, a lack of it threatens to shatter your world and you will do anything at all costs to minimise that. Be it removing people or playing a game of lies, something has to be done, it is an impulse that will drive you beyond any form of sanity you have clung to if not followed.

Anyways I hope this has been SOME help. I am not an expert, will never claim to be, but after years of living with it, I understand how someone can be that way. I would be interested in reading this girl. A child can exhibit all of these traits from a surprisingly young age. Good luck with writing her, I await your completed manuscript!