How do Psychopaths behave in interpersonal relationships?

Knowing more about the figure of the psychopath seems to be captivating for the majority of society: in the world In cinema there are many characters like the Joker or Hannibal Lecter, who tend to be classified as psychopaths. canonical; At the level of scientific research, despite being an unusual personality disorder, interest also abounds.

It is believed that the prevalence of people with psychopathy—a term that was replaced by different authors and diagnostic manuals by antisocial personality disorder by emphasizing the maladjustment of these subjects with their social environment—rounds between 0.7% and Number 3%. Perhaps it is the primary difficulty of this pathology, the affective dysfunction in interpersonal relationships, that causes such interest to arise in us. In line with this, In this article we will describe what psychopathy is and how we can detect its behavior when establishing social ties..

• Related article: "The main theories of personality"

What is psychopathy?

It is common to hear that the media quickly labels a person who commits a serious criminal act a psychopath, or The term is used in informal conversations to categorize someone who is distant, dry, or who has difficulty demonstrating their keen. However, the tendency to use this name in our everyday language only leads makes it difficult to establish a univocal and consistent definition of what is meant by psychopathy.

Different authors have conceptualized this pathology based on different theoretical and epistemological assumptions. Beyond this, his descriptions of psychopathy have several elements in common. In the first instance, a factor on which they seem to agree is that the alteration of affectivity is what resides at the heart of psychopathy. Psychopaths have a series of personality traits such as callousness, lack of remorse, pathological lying, and the ability to manipulate others. Many authors also include high egocentrism as a personality trait of these people.

On the other hand, an element that is present in psychopathy is that of social deviation. This implies that the psychopath has a tendency to behave impulsively or irresponsibly in relation to the social environment. It is common for psychopaths to carry out behaviors such as making quick decisions without considering the possible consequences of their actions, neither on themselves nor on others; that demonstrate a lack of concern regarding the damage they could cause in the future. For this reason, There is a tendency to assign certain social roles to psychopaths, generally linked to committing a crime or criminality.. However, it is necessary to note that this does not mean that a person must inflict the law to fall under the category of psychopath, but rather it is a set of characteristics that must be present for a professional to carry out a diagnosis.

• You may be interested: "Psychopathy: what happens in the mind of the psychopath?"

The empathy of the psychopath

Now, something that is usually firmly held both in the academic field and in the ordinary use of the term is that the psychopath is incapable of empathizing with others. Although it is not a completely erroneous conception, we could argue that it is not entirely accurate either. Following a study carried out by a Swedish research team, it was determined that, surprisingly, psychopaths do feel empathy.

To reach these conclusions, 278 subjects were surveyed in order to discriminate those participants whose traits were classified within the so-called “dark triad.” This is a construct that brings together three personality types whose common characteristic is the tendency to violate the shared values ​​of a society: Machiavellianism subclinical (manipulation and cynicism), narcissism (arrogance and grandiloquence), and, of our particular interest, psychopathy (antisocial behavior and impulsivity destructive).

The guiding question of this research was whether people with these personalities were incapable of feeling empathy—in the sense of not possessing the ability cognitive ability to, for example, read objective emotions in human faces—or whether, on the contrary, they had a diminished tendency to behave empathically with others. The results indicated that People with these characteristics could cognitively empathize with other people but, nevertheless, they had a very low willingness to do so..

• Related article: "Empathy, much more than putting yourself in someone else's shoes"

What do the interpersonal relationships of psychopaths look like?

In light of the findings presented, it is clear that psychopaths, despite being able to feel empathy, The structure of your personality determines the existence of a tendency not to behave in such a way. It is logical that this has a transversal impact on the social circles in which they move. Psychopaths are frequently perceived by their environment as people who They don't care about anything except themselves, and it is logical, since this phrase only highlights the fact that psychopathy, per se, would not be so problematic if it were not in relation to others and the set of social and institutional regulations that frame our lives. It is for this reason that the correlation between high scores in psychopathy and tendencies towards vandalism, gender violence or crime, all acts that threaten the morality.

On the other hand, the interpersonal relationships that psychopaths tend to forge are based on lies and dishonesty. For example, some behaviors that people with high scores of this trait usually carry out are using an alias to hide their true identity, scamming others to obtain individual benefits or lie repeatedly, without weighing the fact that such behaviors end up having a negative impact on the lives of others (and one's own). also). Lastly, psychopaths do not recognize responsibility for their actions or the damage they can cause to their families, co-workers or friends. A psychopath may use extremely subtle emotional manipulation techniques to make the person who accused him or her question his or her beliefs. own judgments, denying their responsibility, with the aim of getting what they want and evading the consequences of their her behaviors.

Such is the case of, for example, the gaslighting, very common in couple relationships, but also in parent-child ties. In short, the traits of psychopaths make it very difficult to establish healthy bonds with them, which could affect the mental health of their loved ones. For his part, the psychopath also suffers as a result of his own behaviors.