Learn to embrace your inner psychopath
The word ‘ psychopath’ typically conjures up images of a woman in a shower screaming as a man lunges at her with a knife — the famous scene from Alfred hitchcock’s 1960 horror thriller, Psycho. Or possibly hannibal Lecter in the chilling film The Silence Of The Lambs.
We tend to assume all psychopaths are brutal murderers with no regard for the feelings of others. They are assumed to be sadists, gaining pleasure from other people’s pain.
We even use the word semi-jokingly, saying ‘my boss is a psychopath’, or ‘my ex was a psycho’ and such like.
A number of political commentators are claiming U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump is a psychopath.
They seem to base this on the billionaire’s scant regard for what others think and his apparent glee at causing anger and hostility among liberal Americans.
Trump will probably revel in this label — but I’m not convinced. Simply dismissing him in this way is lazy.
Being racist, misogynistic or generally offensive — as Trump undoubtedly is — is not the same as suffering from a serious psychological problem. So, what actually is a psychopath? Well, first, it isn’t a diagnosis used in psychiatry. The proper diagnosis is antisocial (or dissocial) personality disorder. It is characterised by a lack of remorse, difficulties with empathy, superficial charm, unwillingness to accept responsibility, lack of behavioural control and impulsiveness. And, yes, it’s strongly linked with criminal behaviour.
There has been much debate about what causes someone to become a psychopath.
We kNOW that brain scans show differences in people with antisocial personality disorder, particularly the parts of the brain (such as the parahippocampal gyrus and the amygdala) that are involved in empathy and emotional responses.
It is likely that there’s a genetic element, with people being predisposed to psychopathic behaviour. But there’s an environmental aspect, too, with people’s upbringing playing a big role.
That said, many psychopathic traits aren’t necessarily disadvantages. And all of us — to a greater or lesser extent — have psychopathic traits in our personality.
Nor is that necessarily a bad thing. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Occasionally getting in touch with our inner psychopath can help us to be focused, dedicated and to prioritise what we want to achieve.
Sometimes we need to be a little self- centred, able to cut ties with someone destructive or willing to challenge people despite it being socially awkward to do so.
Interestingly, many surgeons score highly on psychopath tests — and when you consider what they have to do, day in, day out, that’s a positive thing.
When you’re operating on someone, you have to suspend the fact they are another human being and focus instead on the task in hand.
To be able to detach like that is a psychopathic trait.
And it’s not just surgeons. As an NhS psychiatrist, I hear heart- breaking stories every day. Of course, a key aspect of my work is empathising and trying to understand the patient’ s experience. But, equally, I have to be able to detach myself, because otherwise I’d be a gibbering wreck and no use to anyone.
YeArS ago, I remember once watching a doctor in A&e tell a grandfather that his daughter and baby grandson had been killed in a car accident. As the elderly man sank to the floor sobbing, the doctor did his best to console him.
he then moved from this scene to treat a child who had fallen off a climbing frame — immediately managing to switch from the scene of unimaginable distress to laughing and joking with the child.
he didn’t allow the horror he’d just experienced to affect his next patient. Yes, that is ‘psychopathic’ — but it’s also what made him such a good doctor. DrMax@dailymail.co.uk