The following main features characterize psychopathy:
- lack of empathy
- Lack of guilt and remorse
- emotional coldness
- superficial charm
- pathological lie
- manipulative behavior
- Unexpected calmness and rationality
- Irresponsibility and impulsivity
- magnificence
Selfishness and greed for power are the dominant characteristics of psychopaths. They do whatever they want without considering the consequences of their actions. Not all psychopaths are violent, but they are likely to be so because they cannot feel the pain of others.
You can think of Psychopathy as being at one end of the Psychopathy-Empathy spectrum. Most people fall in the middle of the spectrum. They have a mixture of selfish and empathetic traits. Some are overly empathetic, some are psychopathic.
Scary things psychopaths say
Psychopaths may say or do things that ordinary, feeling people would not say in the same context. That, and their thinly veiled threats, make some of the things they say truly terrifying. Feeling creepy is just our body telling us we’re in danger.
Context plays a big role in making what psychopaths say scary, as you’ll see in the examples below:
1. “I don’t feel anything”
This sentence is not scary at all, coming from a depressed person who is feeling emotionally numb at a bad time in his life.
However, psychopaths say this when the people around them expect them to empathize or feel something.
For example, they might use this line when:
- You tell them your troubles and they don’t mind.
- Their loved ones die, but they see no point in mourning.
- They do something wrong and don’t feel guilty about it.
2. “I enjoy watching others suffer.”
Psychopaths tend to be rational and calculated in the crimes they commit. They are often caught because they brag about the suffering they inflict on defenseless people and sometimes animals.
When they say things like that, you know they’re not joking like the average person sometimes does. No, they are serious. They get the urge to do harm and act on that urge.
Similarly, they will say:
- “I wonder what X will be like.”
- Where X harms others in the most bizarre and unimaginable ways.
3. “It’s no big deal.”
Psychopaths are not as affected by tragic events as ordinary people. For example, when ordinary people are told that they have a life-threatening illness, they panic, become melancholic, or at least reflect on their lives.
You can tell a psychopath that he’s going to die in a week and he’ll say, “That’s crazy!” says. This much. They then continue on their way and have a cup of coffee like it’s business as usual.
Their unexpected calmness and rationality in the face of extremely threatening events can turn them into cold-blooded killers.