How to spot a psychopath
It is highly likely that you too have met a psychopath. They make up between 0.5 and 1pc of the population, so in Ireland there are anywhere between 22,500 and 45,000 walking among us.
Scientists have discovered that psychopaths possess significant impairments that affect their ability to feel emotions, read other people's cues and learn from their mistakes. There are more male psychopaths than female, with a ratio of six to one.
To diagnose the condition, the experts use the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, created by Bob Hare, which consists of 20 criteria, each of which is scored a 0, 1 or 2. Thus the maximum score is 40.
Anyone who scores 30 or higher is considered to be suffering from the disorder.
Everyone falls somewhere on the spectrum, with the average person scoring a 4.know the signs
1 Glibness/superficial charm
2 Grandiose sense of self-worth
3 Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom
4 Pathological lying
5 Cunning/manipulative
6 Lack of remorse or guilt
7 Emotional poverty
8 Callous/lack of empathy
9 Parasitic lifestyle
10 Poor behavioural controls
11 Promiscuous sexual behaviour
12 Early behaviour problems
13 Lack of realistic long-term goals
14 Impulsivity
15 Irresponsibility
16 Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
17 Many short-term marital relationships
18 Juvenile delinquency
19 Committing a wide variey of crimes
20 Violating parole or probation regularly
- Jon Ronson
Originally published in
