Can you identify the psychopaths in your life?

This is edited from an online article I read, by Rob Hastings?, re the BBC 2 Horizon documentary ‘What Makes a Psychopath?’ (29th August 2017) 

The article focused on Professor Essi Viding - a researcher into the most disturbing people in society, working at UCL – studying how genes and childhood environments together lead some people to become this way.

Vilding referred to The Hare checklist - which scores people between 0 and 40, based on different antisocial personality faults. ‘psycho’ territory is a score of 30 and above. 

The Hare checklist of the key traits that define psychopaths 

1. Superficial charm 

2. Grandiose sense of self-worth 

3. Excess need for stimulation 

4. Pathological lying 

5. Manipulative 

6. Lack of guilt or remorse 

7. Shallow emotional responses 

8. Lack of empathy 

9. Parasitic lifestyle “is only interested in somebody as long as they can be useful to them but then readily drops them if they’re not, gets very frustrated if they don’t get what they want”. 

10. Poor behavioural control 

11. Promiscuous sexual behaviour 

12. Childhood behavioural problems 

13. Lack of realistic long-term goals 

14. Overly impulsive 

15. High level of irresponsibility 

16. Failure to accept responsibility - always blames other people,

17. Lots of short-term relationships 

18. Juvenile delinquency 

19. Not taking the chance to reform 

20. Criminal versatility 

There are an estimated 300-400,000 psychopaths living in Britain, and they are not all convicts – many walk among us in ordinary life, even if their condition makes them extraordinary. 

It’s thought those capable of holding down jobs tend to be drawn disproportionately to business careers, where they can be cut-throat about their work. 

They often like to target vulnerable individuals who may be less likely to report any criminality to authorities. 

“You may be antisocial in ways that don’t get you convicted but are still very unpleasant,” professor Essi Viding says. 

“You may threaten people, you may engage in domestic violence, you may control and coerce people, you may steal money from people you live with, you might actually live off them, you might scam them.” 

As well as high-flying corporate jobs, politics could also satisfy the desires of a psychopath, given that they seek gratification by exerting power over people. 

Professor Essi Viding said, “It suggested that even if you have children predisposed to developing these ways, if they were adopted to families where the parents were very warm and consistent, they were less likely to develop these sorts of traits than children who were equally vulnerable but were adopted where the families were less good at being warm and consistent: the genes are not your destiny.” 

“You don’t have to throw these people into prison and throw away the key, intervention is possible.” 

“These kids get no help and then we happily lock them away when they become a danger to society.” 

The Moors murderer, Ian Brady, was a ‘psycho killer’. His prevailing tone was the ‘injustice’ to him being in prison and how he’s being treated and misunderstood,” says Viding of Brady’s letters. “There is not a mention of all the young people whose lives he cut short – it’s such a striking illustration of complete inability to feel empathy and kinship to your fellow human beings and it all being about your own comfort.”