A psychopath, a.k.a., sociopath, is a person who is totally incapable of empathy or guilt.
Which means that the average intelligent psychopath can look like he feels a lot more guilt than you can.
A normal person has odd reactions. Sometimes a person will hear of the death of a loved one and hardly react. A psychopath will always show just the right reaction at the right time.
The psychopath has spent his entire life LEARNING to react exactly right at exactly the right time. You depend entirely on your real emotions, which is a poor substitute for a lifetime of study.
And study begins early. A psychopath knows there is a feeling called “guilt” from an early age. He knows people around him expect a certain reaction to this alien concept. So, by trial and error, he learns what is the RIGHT reaction.
The average person seldom reacts just the way he should. He reacts in ways that may strike others as insincere or wrong. After all, his reactions are real, they are concentrated on what has happened or what he really feels. None of that interferes with the life of a psychopath. He hones his reactions to perfection.
No normal person can ever attain the perfection a psychopath learns as a matter of course.
Successful preachers have exactly the right emotion at exactly the right time.
My family has been in church work for an awfully long time, and this will be news to nobody who has that sort of familiarity with the workings of mainline churches.
Pat Robertson strikes me as such an obvious psychopath that I simply cannot believe others don’t see it. But I have a lot of background in interrogation and other fields, so maybe they don’t.
Every Catholic bishop knew about the boy-rapes. Many if not most of them caused thousands of those rapes by moving around molesting priests. All the protestants try to blame this on Catholic celibacy.
I blame it on the fact that to get ahead in the clergy you have to have the special expertise of a psychopath. All mainline churches go along with anything they need to go along with. If they need to be fanatical about it, they are fanatical about it.
That’s what psychopaths do.
#1 by Peter on 03/14/2005 - 5:50 pm
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant, Bob! What certified psychologist could say it better?
Can you give us trusting types some practical pointers on how to spot these people quickly? It would be useful to separate these people from those who have simply been corrupted, from those who may have a way by which we can work with them.
We need Psychopath 101.
Let’s hear some of those interrogation techniques, please.
#2 by Mark on 03/15/2005 - 8:02 am
Peter –
Look for the dark suit, white collar, and name tag that says “reverend” or “pastor” or “deacon”…
Of course as an agnostic I’m sure I’ll catch hell for saying this.
#3 by Peter on 03/15/2005 - 12:36 pm
Mark-
You should meet public school administrators.
The profession is a magnet for psychopaths. The job requires no talents, no skills, and getting certified as an administrator means attending classes that are as easy as high school (but less work). Once on the job, you have good pay, dictatorial power, and accountability to no one. If any teacher under you shows you up by doing a whiz-bang job, you fire him and ruin his life for the pure fun that arbitrary power brings a psychopath. You can do everything wrong to everyone every day, but the inmates and the tax dollars keep on rollin in.
Just like the jails.
—
PS: I sing in a church choir, but I have never found a church where I didn’t feel like I had to put up with something big. Yes, I still believe in God. But since we live in enemy occupied territory, God is a Rebel. So am I.
#4 by Mark on 03/15/2005 - 12:56 pm
Peter –
I come from a family of school teachers. My father was a principal in two school districts as well. I understand what youre saying. Good points all the way around. Concerning your belief in God, that’s great for you and I hope it works for you. But then, if you mistook the word agnostic for atheist, you need to grab the dictionary ’cause the two words, tho they may be cousins, are as different as lighting and the lightning bug.
#5 by Peter on 03/15/2005 - 3:35 pm
Mark-
I respect agnostics’ honesty. Agnostics are also cousins to faith.
I respect, too, the honorable principals I have worked with that have to put up with unethical colleagues. Not a job I would ever want. I am sure your father has had some stories to tell.
#6 by Bob Whitaker on 03/16/2005 - 7:05 pm
Mark and Peter, if we were not ALL agnostics, Jesus would not have said so much about the need for faith.
#7 by Peter on 03/17/2005 - 5:41 pm
Bob-
Didn’t Benny Hinn say he saw God?
I’ll bet Pat Robertson did too.
#8 by Peter on 02/09/2007 - 10:46 am
Pat Robertson is an example of the perfect psychopath. He uses religion, but he secretly worship the devil. He beleive that entity will give him power to conrol resources.
Jimy