May 3, 2022·edited May 3, 2022Liked by Athena Walker
After following you on Quora, I am grateful how you have clarified what psychopathy is and is not. Also for encouraging me to look into the biological basis for psychopathy. With your literary ability and "passion" for the subject have you considered writing a book maybe something in the vein of 'psychopathy from a psychopath's viewpoint'?
I am afraid I disagree with what you write about low-functioning psychopaths. I think as with all other aspects of their lives, their masking is far from perfect and they are not particularly charming. I would say, it can be that they can be very charming at times, but they will not be able to maintain it for a long time.
I’m sure it must be frustrating to hear the same blind misinformation repeated again and again on this subject. I appreciate your comments and clarification on this article and others like it.
Don't let the ridiculous name of the diagnosis make it worse. I was only diagnosed retrospectively when already much better, and it's just as well, because at the time, the doomy prognosis and stigma might have been too much. I tried weed a very long ago but am one of the minority for whom it always just feels really dreadful, but it seems to help others in many ways and let's face it, psych meds have huge downsides. Turning your existence into something you actually want to live is a good way of putting it. I'm having to do that over again to some extent because like for many people, the past two years have set me back a long way, which I had not expected to happen.
Watch out, if you're perpetually busy and then pass out from exhaustion, you might be misdiagnosed bipolar. (KIDDING!) Well that was my dark joke.....
I am so grateful for your informative articles. My experience with a narcissist is that they have very high sex drives and are very good at it usually. They will wow you and then take that experience away and then basically use you as a vessel in order to fulfil their needs. They will pull out the good stuff in bed after the initial "love" wears off when they sense your going to leave. They usually have more than one lover. And they get attached to you very quickly. I do not understand it but they seem to invest their entire emotional being into a relationship, very dependant on you to meet their needs. But over time, either it's humanly impossible to meet their needs, or they are ashamed or their need and begin to treat you with contempt. Basically everything she said was so far off base. This response from you on her articles is much needed. My last boyfriend curled up into a ball screaming "Dont leave me baby I need you!!!! I cant live without you!!!" Which is complete b.s. as he has lived his entire life without me and has only known me for 7 months total. Boggles my mind. I have never ever heard a phycopath act like that and i never will. There needs to be more accurate information desperately.
Apart from the understandable public misperception about these neurotypes, I had no idea so much guff was written. Maybe it's not relevant, but I am irked by her tone when she mentions sexuality. There is an air of old Freudianism here, with its preoccupation and prescriptions of what constitutes 'healthy' sexuality. 'Womanisers and sluts', hey. AKA people who like to have sex with many people, no need for pejorative terms. The way they treat partners during these affairs and whether the effect on their own life is positive are up to the people involved to assess, not some crank. And asexuality cops it as well. Dear oh dear.
(On BPD misinformation, a bugbear of mine is the perception that people constantly act out and cause drama and chaos. Not necessarily. Depending on personality and upbringing, there may be enormous effort put into performing normal on a daily basis and staying in control, with most of the pain internalized and only some lapses when overwhelming emotion causes this control to fail.)
A commenter refers to your 'passion' for this work. I think of this site as a 'crusade'! I am trying to call up in my own mind what it would feel like to be so driven and motivated and prolific about such a project, without an emotional component as an impetus beyond the academic. And I can't really! And yet you have mentioned having the same sort of drive with dance, without the usual utter passion that dancers tend to feel. I am going to have to keep digging through my memories until I find something comparable.....
I thought this author deleted her terrible content? She makes most of this stuff up, I swear, just to attract readers fascinated with the horrors of human nature, whether true or false. It is badly written fiction and unfortunately, frustrates me to no end.
Reading your stuff I was reminded of a book I had years ago, likely back in the mid '80's by a self described 'hitman'
He described himself as "asocial and law abiding" meaning that he didn't break even speed limits without a reason. He had a lot of interesting examples of his vocation including have associates he'd call on who had a range of skills including sexual sadism.
He never used the term psychopath or made any sort of psychological claims but his self description was dead on for being an incredibly dangerous "above the snowline" A Tier psychopath. And of course he was nothing at all like these goobers describe psychopaths.
After following you on Quora, I am grateful how you have clarified what psychopathy is and is not. Also for encouraging me to look into the biological basis for psychopathy. With your literary ability and "passion" for the subject have you considered writing a book maybe something in the vein of 'psychopathy from a psychopath's viewpoint'?
I am afraid I disagree with what you write about low-functioning psychopaths. I think as with all other aspects of their lives, their masking is far from perfect and they are not particularly charming. I would say, it can be that they can be very charming at times, but they will not be able to maintain it for a long time.
I’m sure it must be frustrating to hear the same blind misinformation repeated again and again on this subject. I appreciate your comments and clarification on this article and others like it.
Don't let the ridiculous name of the diagnosis make it worse. I was only diagnosed retrospectively when already much better, and it's just as well, because at the time, the doomy prognosis and stigma might have been too much. I tried weed a very long ago but am one of the minority for whom it always just feels really dreadful, but it seems to help others in many ways and let's face it, psych meds have huge downsides. Turning your existence into something you actually want to live is a good way of putting it. I'm having to do that over again to some extent because like for many people, the past two years have set me back a long way, which I had not expected to happen.
Watch out, if you're perpetually busy and then pass out from exhaustion, you might be misdiagnosed bipolar. (KIDDING!) Well that was my dark joke.....
I am so grateful for your informative articles. My experience with a narcissist is that they have very high sex drives and are very good at it usually. They will wow you and then take that experience away and then basically use you as a vessel in order to fulfil their needs. They will pull out the good stuff in bed after the initial "love" wears off when they sense your going to leave. They usually have more than one lover. And they get attached to you very quickly. I do not understand it but they seem to invest their entire emotional being into a relationship, very dependant on you to meet their needs. But over time, either it's humanly impossible to meet their needs, or they are ashamed or their need and begin to treat you with contempt. Basically everything she said was so far off base. This response from you on her articles is much needed. My last boyfriend curled up into a ball screaming "Dont leave me baby I need you!!!! I cant live without you!!!" Which is complete b.s. as he has lived his entire life without me and has only known me for 7 months total. Boggles my mind. I have never ever heard a phycopath act like that and i never will. There needs to be more accurate information desperately.
A completely off the subject observation.
I imagine that a psychopath would be an excellent Blackjack player, and could do well in that vocation
Apart from the understandable public misperception about these neurotypes, I had no idea so much guff was written. Maybe it's not relevant, but I am irked by her tone when she mentions sexuality. There is an air of old Freudianism here, with its preoccupation and prescriptions of what constitutes 'healthy' sexuality. 'Womanisers and sluts', hey. AKA people who like to have sex with many people, no need for pejorative terms. The way they treat partners during these affairs and whether the effect on their own life is positive are up to the people involved to assess, not some crank. And asexuality cops it as well. Dear oh dear.
(On BPD misinformation, a bugbear of mine is the perception that people constantly act out and cause drama and chaos. Not necessarily. Depending on personality and upbringing, there may be enormous effort put into performing normal on a daily basis and staying in control, with most of the pain internalized and only some lapses when overwhelming emotion causes this control to fail.)
A commenter refers to your 'passion' for this work. I think of this site as a 'crusade'! I am trying to call up in my own mind what it would feel like to be so driven and motivated and prolific about such a project, without an emotional component as an impetus beyond the academic. And I can't really! And yet you have mentioned having the same sort of drive with dance, without the usual utter passion that dancers tend to feel. I am going to have to keep digging through my memories until I find something comparable.....
I thought this author deleted her terrible content? She makes most of this stuff up, I swear, just to attract readers fascinated with the horrors of human nature, whether true or false. It is badly written fiction and unfortunately, frustrates me to no end.
Was the reason your sister wasn't on good terms with you jealousy over your 'charmed' life due to your mask and outlook on life in general?
Reading your stuff I was reminded of a book I had years ago, likely back in the mid '80's by a self described 'hitman'
He described himself as "asocial and law abiding" meaning that he didn't break even speed limits without a reason. He had a lot of interesting examples of his vocation including have associates he'd call on who had a range of skills including sexual sadism.
He never used the term psychopath or made any sort of psychological claims but his self description was dead on for being an incredibly dangerous "above the snowline" A Tier psychopath. And of course he was nothing at all like these goobers describe psychopaths.