The Challenge of Self-Diagnosis Among Psychopaths
The psychopath is an excellent actor who primes his audience to listen, often getting them to believe incredible lies. According to psychoanalyst Ben Karpman, the psychopath’s “acting” … “is a conscious method for exploiting other people, for influencing them to do what he wants.”1 The glorification and minimization of psychopathy through books, articles, forums, and other media mislead. Determining if someone is a psychopath is not some parlor game involving online quizzes or tests.2,3
As psychopathy expert Dr. Paul Babiak has stated, “The psychopath is the most dangerous of all personality disorders.”4 Dr. Robert Hare, who developed the most vetted tool for predicting psychopathy, The Psychopathy Checklist-Revised ("PCL-R"), notes it is “a complex tool for professional use only.” He explicitly states, “Do not use the PCL-R to diagnose yourself or others.”5
Psychopaths see nothing wrong with themselves. As Benjamin Karpman succinctly states, “The psychopath who has no insight,........
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