Analysis of dark triad and how to recognise it GTFIH

[ggg.tv🤫]

I know you did this once in your life: you searched up "psychopathy" or "what is psychopathy", only to find 10+ different definitions by 10+ different people claiming they were psychopaths themselves (diagnosed, always diagnosed).

Where you ended up, eventually.

So this time, I'll exactly tell you what it is, why it is, and even what it means for society. And not only that: why talk only about psychopathy, when I can talk about the whole Dark Triad?

Introduction: The Dark Triad​

What exactly is the Dark Triad, though?

You see, in social sciences there are a lot of perspectives about things. Sometimes, these perspectives conflict over some points, and work on other points where the other fails. So, to be as flexible as possible, social science adopts them all and use them depending on the context.

The main perspective, the one that excludes all other perspectives outside it, is called "Paradigm". To make an example: at the time, the main paradigm about the earth was that it was at the center of the universe. Today, the main paradigm is that the universe is infinite and we are a grain of sand inside it.

Inside a Paradigm, we have the "models", perspectives of the paradigm itself. Example: "The universe is expanding" and "the universe is still and fixed". They conflict with each others, or they may work together, we can't tell yet, but we work inside them to define things anyway.

In the same way, when we talk about the Psychology of Personalities, the paradigm is the "Trait Theory", the most used model is the "Big Five", and today's focus will be a second, complementary but separate model called "Dark Triad"

To summarize briefly what the "Trait Theory" and "Big Five" are:

-The Trait Theory defines the personality over stableand measurable traits. This model goes against the more fluid theories about personality (like comportamentism), that defines it as something heavily influenced by the environment.

-The Big Five is an extremely popular and used model inside the Trait Theory. If we have to understand the Dark Triad, we have to understand the Big Five first.

How the test works is not important, but to explain it briefly: you get several questions on each sub-dimension, you vote from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 or 7 (strongly agree), and once you finish, you sum up the points and see where you land.

The "Big Five" model.

What is important, is to understand what a low score or high score means with each of sub-dimension:

• Openness. High Score: Curiosity, creativity, imagination, interest in new experiences and ideas. Low Score: Pragmatism, prefer routine and familiarity.
• Conscientiousness. High Score: Responsibility, self-discipline, organization, goal orientation. Low Score:Impulsiveness, disorganization, tend to procrastinate.
• Extraversion. High Score: Sociability, energy, assertiveness, seeking social stimulation. Low Score: Reserved nature, independence, lower need for social interaction.
• Agreeableness. High Score: Empathy, cooperation, trust in others. Low Score: Competitiveness, skepticism, tendency toward conflict.
• Neuroticism. High Score: Anxiety, emotional instability, tendency to stress. Low Score: Emotional stability, resilience, calm under pressure.

Now that we know what it means... the Dark Triad is another model, just like the Big Five, that instead focus on the inherently evil traits of humans.



Unlike the Big Five, which defines and evaluates traits in general, mix them and see what your personality is all around, the Dark Triad is a framework used to classify strong selfish and manipulative traits. It correlates with some traits of the Big Five (like Neuroticism score), but unlike the Big Five, the Dark Triad studies more about their Behavioral tendencies, rather than personalities. Specifically, if the Big Five uses the O.C.E.A.N. set of traits, the Dark Triad uses sub-clinical psychopathy, sub-clinical narcissism and machiavellianism.

Here, I won't classify them using the Big Five model, otherwise this shit would be 50k characters. I'll classify PRIMARY PSYCHOPATHY ONLY just to show how it works, but it's not actually a good way to measure it. If two people score low on Neuroticism, one can be a very calm individual, and one can be a sub-clinical psychopath. I should be using the specific SD3, Short Dark Triad test. Why I'm not using it? Because it's extremely easy to use and gives exactly the results as they are. I'll leave the link to the test at the end of the post. (Note that psychologists use different tests together to know your personality, not just one)

AN EXTREMELY IMPORTANT NOTE:​

we have to absolutely clarify a thing. What we are is NOT just what the society makes of us. The idea that "every child is born the same, and determined by where they grow" is true only partially, and it sounds almost as an insult. Today, we know that our mind is defined since we are born, with a series of biological-enviromental factors we call TEMPERAMENT. To put it simply: what we lean toward since we are infants is determined by genes (hereditary) and by our environment (if our mommies experiences trauma in their life, even before pregnancy, we will be affected because of the change in hormones and such. Example: more dopamine, more extrovert children). This Temperament is strong, but it has not any extra gene to be measured with. It just is as we are. I can't explain this here because otherwise this post would be infinitely longer than intended. Refer to Temperament page hereand Stella Chess page here

Beautifully explained

Temperament defines our main disposition toward several traits. For example, an experiment (I think it was by Thomas & Chess) showed how infants, with the same treatment in the same environment, grew up to have different personalities. Many experiments with monozygotic twins showed how they, even when grew in different contexts, maintained very similar temperament.

Another side note: even with deviant personalities, or even with atypical brain functions, they still are humans,on the sense that they are not made with the cookie stamp: every psychopath is different from one another, even just by personal life experiences.

1. Psychopathy​

1.1 - Sociopathy or Psychopathy?​

Psychopathy is the most misunderstood concept in psychology, to the point that even among experts in psychology the terms are used interchangeably. Finally, I'll hope to set things straight for you.

There are two types of psychopathy: primary psychopathy and secondary psychopathy. When people talk about psychopathy as "cold and emotionless", they are talking about the primary one.

Ever read that "psychopaths are calculating and pragmatic", only to read just after that "they are impulsive and lack self control"? This is misleading. Psychopaths are calculating and pragmatic. When you read that they are "impulsive" and such, they refer to the secondary psychopathy. Secondary psychopathy is the same as Sociopathy. Sociopathy is used by criminologists (talking about the social factors), while secondary psychopathy is used by psychologists for scientific accuracy.

Primary psychopathy is biological determined, the brain structure is different. Secondary psychopathy/Sociopathy occurs as a consequence of abuse, trauma and other environmental events.

Notice "low/high on Neuroticism." The Big Five model has been used!

Now... Psychopathy can be clinical and sub-clinical.When clinical, we refer to primary psychopathy, because we refer to a clear and notable biological factor, plain and simple. When sub-clinical, we DO NOT refer to the secondary psychopathy/sociopathy.

Sub-clinical psychopathy is a TEMPERAMENTALdisposition toward traits associated to primary psychopathy, without the extreme biological impairment.

Clinical Psychopathy can be found on the DSM-V, while neither sociopathy and sub-clinical psychopathy can be found there.

The main goal of a psychopath is always their self-satisfaction. it can come in many forms, but hardly it will be about ideologies. Ideologies, concepts and things like that are usually the thing they use to get their satisfaction, which usually is power, dominance and control.

1.2 - In society: The vibe checker​

Anecdote: ever heard the phrase "a lot of CEO and successful people are psychopaths"? This refers to sub-clinical psychopathy, and as such, to the Dark Triad.

Anyway, now that we know the three degree of psychopathy, let's analyze just the primary psychopathy, then let's try to apply them to people.

Primary Psychopathy​

• Origin: biological. The brain structure is atypical, with the mirror neurons (those used for feel the same emotions as other around us*) dysfunctional or lacking altogether, because of short brain's connections between the limbic system, the part regulating the emotions. They also have a smaller amygdala.
• Empathy: . Realistically, it depends by how compromised is the brain. Practically, none.
• Impulsivity: almost none. Impulsivity is given by the reaction to external stimuli. They lack strong reaction to stimuli altogether, so not really a surprise here. By extension, they almost completely lack fear as well: in fact, most of them seek the thrill of their life to feelsomething.
• Social adaptation: better than y'all. Lacking the complete remorse for their actions, given the 0 empathy and fear of anything really, they won't refrain from manipulating the hell out of you, for anyreason they feel like. They can't feel empathy, but they sure as hell can read it from you, and they willuse it against you!
• Relationships: use and discard. They get in relationships only for one reason: themselves. Why though? You have something that they want, that can be money, help, a follower (they usually value loyalty to them, as long as their aren't a hindrance), sex or intellectual stimulation. If you stop giving them what they need from you, the relationship is over.

On the Big Five scale, they score:

• Openness: average to high (can be very open minded to new experiences, but they lack the emotional insight and curiosity).
• Consciousness: high (they usually are very disciplined and plan ahead a lot, but the moral consciousness is non-existent).
• Extraversion: very high (they lack social fear and fear of consequences, resulting very charismatic. They are always dominant, because they need to control things around them, not risking to not get what they want)
• Agreeableness: very low (the distinctive trait: they lack empathy, guilt, fear and any social redeemable quality, manipulating others for their needs).
• Neuroticism: very low (they can't feel fear and anxiety, and they are disturbingly calm under any pressure, even life threatening).

Famous examples: Ted Bundy and Anton Chigurn. Ted Bundy is the primary psychopath by literal manual, you literally only need to read the point above to see Ted Bundy. Anton Chigurn, I mention him because he's probably the second most famous psychopath in pop culture, is not a psychopath by manual. Why? He's exactly one by all the points above except extraversion,he's not charismatic. Primary Psychopaths are charismatic just because they know it's useful in all social contexts, something Chigurn couldn't care less.

Someone gently asks you to step out of the car, what do you do?

Secondary psychopathy​

Aka Sociopathy. Now, we have to specify another thing, to be precise and not create confusion: ASPD (anti-social personality disorder) and Sociopathy are not the same thing. Why? ASPD is slightly biologically shaped, but is otherwise made by the environment around the person. The real reason lies on the definition: it's a disorder.

The Dark Triad talk about personality traits that function in society, while ASPD impairs one's cognitive capabilities. All sociopaths are ASPD, not all ASPD have sociopathy. Sociopathy is a set of destructive, impulsive personality traits, ASPD is a cognitive impairment. ASPD can be found on the DSM-V, sociopathy is not there.

Then why sub-clinical psychopathy is in the Triad, while sociopathy isn't? Aren't they both caused by environmental (in large part) and personality traits? Like I said, the Dark Triad studies personality traits that function in society, and sociopathy not only does overlap with ASPD, but it doesn't work in society as well.

Let's see sociopathy:

• Origin: environmental. The brain structure is normal, if not for slightly different brain structure in some ASPD cases. Sociopathy is born by trauma and abuses.
• Empathy: reduced. They feel empathy, but they have a very destructive way to show it. They can love you, in the sense that they perceive love as control and possession. If you refuse to be own by them, you not only don't love them, but you also step on their feelings. They also change mood very fast and dangerously: they show you real love, then they spill their coffee and beat you up because of rage.
• Impulsivity: extremely high! They are walking bombs. Literally. For the same reason above: they get angry, and can't control themselves further, no matter the consequences.
• Social adaptation: zero. They not only absolutely despise social and state laws, but they'll do all they can to break them all. It's their way so assert control over anything. They can actually find small jobs and work, depending on their level of sociopathy. God forbids that they land on a authoritarian, high stress and dangerous job
• Relationships: dysfunctional. They can have friends and even partners, but just like their empathy, these relationships are more a "possessive" control than friendship. They can care for you, even love, but they do it in a very bad and violent way, just like the shitty novel on Wattpad. how romantic!

Famous examples: Richard Ramirez and Tommy DeVito. Unlike our pal Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez was plain chaos: go there, satisfy yourself with some poor random girl, leave a lot of shit as a proof all around the crime scene because you're an unorganized, pathetic animal, leave and pretend to be okay. Tommy DeVito... I mean, we all watched Goodfellas, right?

He counts too!

Sub-clinical psychopathy​

Now we get finally to the Dark Tried shit. You see, Clinical Psychopathy is estimated to be around 1% of total population, Sociopathy is around 50% of all criminals, while Sub-clinical psychopathy is 15% of all people! (note: numbers took with inference methods).

Now, it sounds scary, but like I said: the Dark Triad trails work in society, even if they are evil. Let's take a look:

• Origin: innate and environmental. They have a biological strong disposition toward it by born, but it's further shaped by the environment they grow up. If you notice it in your kid, you can change it with therapy, and the kid will simply grow to be pragmatic but normal.
• Empathy: reduced. They feel empathy and emotions, but they feel them in a shallow way. They can see someone cry and feel very well nothing, but they can also see a friend crying for... idk, something they also like (like dogs) and feel sadness, though not deeply. They can grow fond of people, rarely, but they also are very stern about it: if they feel crossed by them, it's instantly over. Other than specific cases, they act like clinical psychopaths regarding empathy.
• Impulsivity: low. They can rarely impulsive, but they heavily plan ahead. Like clinical psychopaths, they usually seek something thrilling to do, but given their existent feel of fear and empathy, they simply prefer extreme sports, like bungee jumping or boxe, since they have reduced fear.
• Social adaptation: very high. They are usually your leader guy/girl (ratio is 1 on 6), and they get to be very charismatic too. They WILL fuck you up if it's needed, much like clinical psychopaths.
• Relationships: kinda. They can have friends (extremely few and precisely picked) and a partner too, but they won't refrain from discard them. Unlike clinical psychopaths, they could act "irrationally" and cover them up if they do something they don't like, but it of course depends by the person itself more than anything.

Famous examples: lmao I can mention any world leader right now, but I'll keep this non-political. Adolf Hitlerand... i don't know, maybe Hans Landa? Hitler had few real people he loved/appreciated truly in his heart, most notably his mother and his family doctor, a jew. But even so, he wasn't really afraid, nor he probably felt guilty about exterminating 11 millions of people, nor he really felt bad about the Night of the Long Knifes. He also was a narcissist and became extremely paranoid around his last years. Hans Landa I'm not sure. He probably had friends, and if not, he still shitted himself at the end of the movie, so he surely felt fear at least, I can't think about a better fictional example.

2. Narcissism: the Ego and the sad.​

Alright things are going to get FINALLY easy. First thing first, as always, we have to distinguish NPD and Sub-clinical Narcissism. NPD is a disorder, it doesn't work in society and is diagnosed by the DSM-V, while Sub-clinical Narcissism works in society and has special personality tests to be "diagnosed".

All degree of narcissism, however, share the same goal: social status and approval.

NPD and Sc Narcissism share practically everything in common, except Sc Narcissists have a "milder" form of it. Let's analyze them.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)​

• Origin: strongly environmental. The brain structure is slightly altered on the limbic system, but the origin is utterly environmental, shaped by the family system-reward management: neglect, overly critical of the child or overly praised...
• Empathy: absent. The empathy is extremely flawed, to the point of being unusable. They do have empathy, but they see it as something to use to get praised. Example: they act smoochy to you, making you feel loved, only because they want you to give them the same love. Try to not love them, see what happens.
• Impulsivity: Explosive. The "what happens" part. Much like sociopaths, a NPD boiling point is instantly reached when they don't get recognition, or worse, when they feel humiliated. They explode in the same way as sociopaths as well, sometimes trying to gaslighting you into oblivion (crying desperately, accusing you and others), and other times they will have fit of rages, and they can be very dangerous.
• Social adaptation: low. They can work, but if they work with others, they will pretend recognition or will be douchebags against you to raise further in the hierarchy, and that's why employers don't usually take them.
• Relationships: dysfunctional. They have a distorted sense of relationships, seeing everyone as an object that have to praise him, and they will do anything they can to be praised, or they will resort to other coercive methods.

Famous examples: well, that's hard, both because NPD people almost never seek help, and because we don't really have a clue about how deeply some figures were NPD. Some examples could be Madonna or Kayne West or even Charles Manson, though the degree varies, and these are suppositions. Fictional characters, though?

Sub-clinical Narcissism​

• Origin: innate and environmental. Just like Sub-clinical psychopaths, they have a biological strong disposition toward it since the beginning of their lives, but it can be further shaped by environmental factors as those of NPD. The brain structure is normal, sometimes the Limbic system is slightly smaller. If treated with therapy, the child will grow to be extrovert and a bit arrogant, but not thatdysfunctional.
• Empathy: reduced. They feel shallow empathy, and it's mostly used with a "cognitive-active" approach, aka they see you crying, they'll pretend to care for you. They can feel sadness themselves, but it's selective and almost always still aimed toward their goal: be praised.
• Impulsivity: Low to moderate. Unlike NPD, if they don't feel praised they won't outright try to kill you. They can control themselves, even if you insult them in there face, and instead will either gaslight you subtly, or outburst you in a milder manner. Do you know the "my ex girlfriend" stereotype? That's a good representation.
• Social adaptation: high. Unlike NPD, they will work their ass off to get high in a career. NPD will try too, but they simply are too volatile to stay long. Sub-clinical Narcissist are still oriented toward socialsuccess, but they will hardly be swayed off by critics or humiliation. Actually: if they are in power, they'll probably bite your ass back. They are very vindicative.
• Relationships: exploitative. They can be verysubservient to higher status people, unlike NPD. They'll get friends not only to empower themselves through validation, but also to use them to further raise their rank. Once they get at the apex, however, they'll either abandon you (who want to associate themselves with low rank people anymore?) or use you for strategic interests (if you were loyal enough and useful). They can have real friends, like Sub-clinical psychopaths, but just like them, they put themselves above everything else.

Famous examples: the same real life examples can be done here, because we simply can't do any diagnosis over them. If we want to add someone, I could add Joseph Stalin and Steve Jobs, in some degree. If we talk about fictional characters, without any doubt The wolf of wall street.

3. Machiavellianism​

Yes that's a real personality cluster!

And so, who are they? Well, they are the most dangerous, manipulative people you can meet, but they also are the only ones in the Dark Triad that can, VERY MAYBE, honestly to God care about you in a degree outside their view of life.

Their goal, unlike psychopaths, is not to be thrilled and feel alive, but it's to archive the maximum amount of social/political/any kind of power they can. So, let's see them in details:

• Origin: environmental. Unlike the others in the triad, machiavellists (?) are perfectly normal when they are born, and learn to be extremely manipulative as part of their education. They are taught that, to get what they want, they have to be smart, play clever and dirty, do all things necessary to get their goal.
• Empathy: restrained. Their empathy is slightly impaired because of their environment (if you tell a child to never show emotions because they are weakness, they'll eventually learn that). But, even so, they can well feel it, they just coldly decide to repress them when needed, and they can repress them even better. Do you know the "cold evil guy" that shots his friends, you can see regret in his eyes, but he continues without further doubt his plans? That's machiavellianism.
• Impulsivity: zero. They are as calm as psychopaths actually, which is very cool. They are even less impulsive than psychopaths, because unlike them, they don't seek the thrill, they live for the power, and if they need to wait years to get it, they will.
• Social adaptation: monstrous. They are charismatic by nature, because they need all the weapons they can have to archive their goal, but they're also extremely good at manipulating. They show the right amount of good and bad things in a long time to appear the most down-on-heart good and affable guy to you, to everyone really. They can cry on command, they can even fucking fake body language.
• Relationships: Extremely manipulative. They will do anything they can to get to their goal, no matter what. They have empathy, and so, unlike the others, they can actually have real and genuine friendships, but they'll do that with either people that don't cross them and their plan, or people that actually help them get there and are loyal.

Famous examples: real life, abso-lutely Cardinal Richelieu, the Gray Eminence himself, the epitome of machiavellist. Also Henry Kissinger, if we want to get contemporary. Fictional people? Gustavo Fring, no doubt. Gustavo can actually be the perfect famous representation of machiavellanism: he was extremely patient in getting his goal, he had a genuine friend whom didn't last enough to see Gus get at the apex, he clearly felt emotions, like fear, in certain situations, but repressed them in favour of rationality.

What a good looking, Christ-loving old man! Surely he won't enforce absolute monarchy at the cost of Catholic Church under your nose, right?

Conclusion​

Well, I hope to have given you some further insight over the social bad guys in the world, and hopefully now you know what a psychopath really is by definition!

Sources​

Leonardo Benvenuti "Lessons of Sociotherapy" (Lezioni di Socioterapia);https://issuu.com/baskerville.it/docs/benvenuti_lezioni_baskerville (Once more, for his excellent explaination of what is empathy, what are the mirror neurons, and what is psychopathy)

E. Aronson, T. Wilson, R. Akert "Social Psychology" (Psicologia sociale); (extremely good book for social psychology).

M. Picozzi, A. Zappalà "Criminal Profiling"; (criminal profiling book, talks in depth about the Dark Tried as well).

SD3 Short Dark Tried test for the lil curious, but remember that this, official as it is, is one of the manytests psychologists must do to get a complete

Tagging bhais @Schizoposter @160cmcurry @Shahnameh @greycel @Jason Voorhees @anthony111553 @Thebuffdon @asdvek @Clavicular @REGULUS

 

[Jonas2k7]

Another dark triad cope thread

 

[halal rizzler]

Just have low set eyebrows

 

[Schizoposter]

Dnr cope. Curry

 

[alurmo]

good thread OP

 

[alurmo]

Another dark triad cope thread

Dnr cope. Curry

Just have low set eyebrows

 

[wall]

I know you did this once in your life: you searched up "psychopathy" or "what is psychopathy", only to find 10+ different definitions by 10+ different people claiming they were psychopaths themselves (diagnosed, always diagnosed).




So this time, I'll exactly tell you what it is, why it is, and even what it means for society. And not only that: why talk only about psychopathy, when I can talk about the whole Dark Triad?

Introduction: The Dark Triad​

What exactly is the Dark Triad, though?

You see, in social sciences there are a lot of perspectives about things. Sometimes, these perspectives conflict over some points, and work on other points where the other fails. So, to be as flexible as possible, social science adopts them all and use them depending on the context.

The main perspective, the one that excludes all other perspectives outside it, is called "Paradigm". To make an example: at the time, the main paradigm about the earth was that it was at the center of the universe. Today, the main paradigm is that the universe is infinite and we are a grain of sand inside it.

Inside a Paradigm, we have the "models", perspectives of the paradigm itself. Example: "The universe is expanding" and "the universe is still and fixed". They conflict with each others, or they may work together, we can't tell yet, but we work inside them to define things anyway.

In the same way, when we talk about the Psychology of Personalities, the paradigm is the "Trait Theory", the most used model is the "Big Five", and today's focus will be a second, complementary but separate model called "Dark Triad"

To summarize briefly what the "Trait Theory" and "Big Five" are:

-The Trait Theory defines the personality over stableand measurable traits. This model goes against the more fluid theories about personality (like comportamentism), that defines it as something heavily influenced by the environment.

-The Big Five is an extremely popular and used model inside the Trait Theory. If we have to understand the Dark Triad, we have to understand the Big Five first.

How the test works is not important, but to explain it briefly: you get several questions on each sub-dimension, you vote from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 or 7 (strongly agree), and once you finish, you sum up the points and see where you land.




What is important, is to understand what a low score or high score means with each of sub-dimension:

• Openness. High Score: Curiosity, creativity, imagination, interest in new experiences and ideas. Low Score: Pragmatism, prefer routine and familiarity.
• Conscientiousness. High Score: Responsibility, self-discipline, organization, goal orientation. Low Score:Impulsiveness, disorganization, tend to procrastinate.
• Extraversion. High Score: Sociability, energy, assertiveness, seeking social stimulation. Low Score: Reserved nature, independence, lower need for social interaction.
• Agreeableness. High Score: Empathy, cooperation, trust in others. Low Score: Competitiveness, skepticism, tendency toward conflict.
• Neuroticism. High Score: Anxiety, emotional instability, tendency to stress. Low Score: Emotional stability, resilience, calm under pressure.

Now that we know what it means... the Dark Triad is another model, just like the Big Five, that instead focus on the inherently evil traits of humans.



Unlike the Big Five, which defines and evaluates traits in general, mix them and see what your personality is all around, the Dark Triad is a framework used to classify strong selfish and manipulative traits. It correlates with some traits of the Big Five (like Neuroticism score), but unlike the Big Five, the Dark Triad studies more about their Behavioral tendencies, rather than personalities. Specifically, if the Big Five uses the O.C.E.A.N. set of traits, the Dark Triad uses sub-clinical psychopathy, sub-clinical narcissism and machiavellianism.

Here, I won't classify them using the Big Five model, otherwise this shit would be 50k characters. I'll classify PRIMARY PSYCHOPATHY ONLY just to show how it works, but it's not actually a good way to measure it. If two people score low on Neuroticism, one can be a very calm individual, and one can be a sub-clinical psychopath. I should be using the specific SD3, Short Dark Triad test. Why I'm not using it? Because it's extremely easy to use and gives exactly the results as they are. I'll leave the link to the test at the end of the post. (Note that psychologists use different tests together to know your personality, not just one)

AN EXTREMELY IMPORTANT NOTE:​

we have to absolutely clarify a thing. What we are is NOT just what the society makes of us. The idea that "every child is born the same, and determined by where they grow" is true only partially, and it sounds almost as an insult. Today, we know that our mind is defined since we are born, with a series of biological-enviromental factors we call TEMPERAMENT. To put it simply: what we lean toward since we are infants is determined by genes (hereditary) and by our environment (if our mommies experiences trauma in their life, even before pregnancy, we will be affected because of the change in hormones and such. Example: more dopamine, more extrovert children). This Temperament is strong, but it has not any extra gene to be measured with. It just is as we are. I can't explain this here because otherwise this post would be infinitely longer than intended. Refer to Temperament page hereand Stella Chess page here




Temperament defines our main disposition toward several traits. For example, an experiment (I think it was by Thomas & Chess) showed how infants, with the same treatment in the same environment, grew up to have different personalities. Many experiments with monozygotic twins showed how they, even when grew in different contexts, maintained very similar temperament.

Another side note: even with deviant personalities, or even with atypical brain functions, they still are humans,on the sense that they are not made with the cookie stamp: every psychopath is different from one another, even just by personal life experiences.

1. Psychopathy​

1.1 - Sociopathy or Psychopathy?​

Psychopathy is the most misunderstood concept in psychology, to the point that even among experts in psychology the terms are used interchangeably. Finally, I'll hope to set things straight for you.

There are two types of psychopathy: primary psychopathy and secondary psychopathy. When people talk about psychopathy as "cold and emotionless", they are talking about the primary one.

Ever read that "psychopaths are calculating and pragmatic", only to read just after that "they are impulsive and lack self control"? This is misleading. Psychopaths are calculating and pragmatic. When you read that they are "impulsive" and such, they refer to the secondary psychopathy. Secondary psychopathy is the same as Sociopathy. Sociopathy is used by criminologists (talking about the social factors), while secondary psychopathy is used by psychologists for scientific accuracy.

Primary psychopathy is biological determined, the brain structure is different. Secondary psychopathy/Sociopathy occurs as a consequence of abuse, trauma and other environmental events.




Now... Psychopathy can be clinical and sub-clinical.When clinical, we refer to primary psychopathy, because we refer to a clear and notable biological factor, plain and simple. When sub-clinical, we DO NOT refer to the secondary psychopathy/sociopathy.

Sub-clinical psychopathy is a TEMPERAMENTALdisposition toward traits associated to primary psychopathy, without the extreme biological impairment.

Clinical Psychopathy can be found on the DSM-V, while neither sociopathy and sub-clinical psychopathy can be found there.

The main goal of a psychopath is always their self-satisfaction. it can come in many forms, but hardly it will be about ideologies. Ideologies, concepts and things like that are usually the thing they use to get their satisfaction, which usually is power, dominance and control.

1.2 - In society: The vibe checker​

Anecdote: ever heard the phrase "a lot of CEO and successful people are psychopaths"? This refers to sub-clinical psychopathy, and as such, to the Dark Triad.

Anyway, now that we know the three degree of psychopathy, let's analyze just the primary psychopathy, then let's try to apply them to people.

Primary Psychopathy​

• Origin: biological. The brain structure is atypical, with the mirror neurons (those used for feel the same emotions as other around us*) dysfunctional or lacking altogether, because of short brain's connections between the limbic system, the part regulating the emotions. They also have a smaller amygdala.
• Empathy: . Realistically, it depends by how compromised is the brain. Practically, none.
• Impulsivity: almost none. Impulsivity is given by the reaction to external stimuli. They lack strong reaction to stimuli altogether, so not really a surprise here. By extension, they almost completely lack fear as well: in fact, most of them seek the thrill of their life to feelsomething.
• Social adaptation: better than y'all. Lacking the complete remorse for their actions, given the 0 empathy and fear of anything really, they won't refrain from manipulating the hell out of you, for anyreason they feel like. They can't feel empathy, but they sure as hell can read it from you, and they willuse it against you!
• Relationships: use and discard. They get in relationships only for one reason: themselves. Why though? You have something that they want, that can be money, help, a follower (they usually value loyalty to them, as long as their aren't a hindrance), sex or intellectual stimulation. If you stop giving them what they need from you, the relationship is over.

On the Big Five scale, they score:

• Openness: average to high (can be very open minded to new experiences, but they lack the emotional insight and curiosity).
• Consciousness: high (they usually are very disciplined and plan ahead a lot, but the moral consciousness is non-existent).
• Extraversion: very high (they lack social fear and fear of consequences, resulting very charismatic. They are always dominant, because they need to control things around them, not risking to not get what they want)
• Agreeableness: very low (the distinctive trait: they lack empathy, guilt, fear and any social redeemable quality, manipulating others for their needs).
• Neuroticism: very low (they can't feel fear and anxiety, and they are disturbingly calm under any pressure, even life threatening).

Famous examples: Ted Bundy and Anton Chigurn. Ted Bundy is the primary psychopath by literal manual, you literally only need to read the point above to see Ted Bundy. Anton Chigurn, I mention him because he's probably the second most famous psychopath in pop culture, is not a psychopath by manual. Why? He's exactly one by all the points above except extraversion,he's not charismatic. Primary Psychopaths are charismatic just because they know it's useful in all social contexts, something Chigurn couldn't care less.

Secondary psychopathy​

Aka Sociopathy. Now, we have to specify another thing, to be precise and not create confusion: ASPD (anti-social personality disorder) and Sociopathy are not the same thing. Why? ASPD is slightly biologically shaped, but is otherwise made by the environment around the person. The real reason lies on the definition: it's a disorder.

The Dark Triad talk about personality traits that function in society, while ASPD impairs one's cognitive capabilities. All sociopaths are ASPD, not all ASPD have sociopathy. Sociopathy is a set of destructive, impulsive personality traits, ASPD is a cognitive impairment. ASPD can be found on the DSM-V, sociopathy is not there.

Then why sub-clinical psychopathy is in the Triad, while sociopathy isn't? Aren't they both caused by environmental (in large part) and personality traits? Like I said, the Dark Triad studies personality traits that function in society, and sociopathy not only does overlap with ASPD, but it doesn't work in society as well.

Let's see sociopathy:

• Origin: environmental. The brain structure is normal, if not for slightly different brain structure in some ASPD cases. Sociopathy is born by trauma and abuses.
• Empathy: reduced. They feel empathy, but they have a very destructive way to show it. They can love you, in the sense that they perceive love as control and possession. If you refuse to be own by them, you not only don't love them, but you also step on their feelings. They also change mood very fast and dangerously: they show you real love, then they spill their coffee and beat you up because of rage.
• Impulsivity: extremely high! They are walking bombs. Literally. For the same reason above: they get angry, and can't control themselves further, no matter the consequences.
• Social adaptation: zero. They not only absolutely despise social and state laws, but they'll do all they can to break them all. It's their way so assert control over anything. They can actually find small jobs and work, depending on their level of sociopathy. God forbids that they land on a authoritarian, high stress and dangerous job
• Relationships: dysfunctional. They can have friends and even partners, but just like their empathy, these relationships are more a "possessive" control than friendship. They can care for you, even love, but they do it in a very bad and violent way, just like the shitty novel on Wattpad. how romantic!

Famous examples: Richard Ramirez and Tommy DeVito. Unlike our pal Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez was plain chaos: go there, satisfy yourself with some poor random girl, leave a lot of shit as a proof all around the crime scene because you're an unorganized, pathetic animal, leave and pretend to be okay. Tommy DeVito... I mean, we all watched Goodfellas, right?

Sub-clinical psychopathy​

Now we get finally to the Dark Tried shit. You see, Clinical Psychopathy is estimated to be around 1% of total population, Sociopathy is around 50% of all criminals, while Sub-clinical psychopathy is 15% of all people! (note: numbers took with inference methods).

Now, it sounds scary, but like I said: the Dark Triad trails work in society, even if they are evil. Let's take a look:

• Origin: innate and environmental. They have a biological strong disposition toward it by born, but it's further shaped by the environment they grow up. If you notice it in your kid, you can change it with therapy, and the kid will simply grow to be pragmatic but normal.
• Empathy: reduced. They feel empathy and emotions, but they feel them in a shallow way. They can see someone cry and feel very well nothing, but they can also see a friend crying for... idk, something they also like (like dogs) and feel sadness, though not deeply. They can grow fond of people, rarely, but they also are very stern about it: if they feel crossed by them, it's instantly over. Other than specific cases, they act like clinical psychopaths regarding empathy.
• Impulsivity: low. They can rarely impulsive, but they heavily plan ahead. Like clinical psychopaths, they usually seek something thrilling to do, but given their existent feel of fear and empathy, they simply prefer extreme sports, like bungee jumping or boxe, since they have reduced fear.
• Social adaptation: very high. They are usually your leader guy/girl (ratio is 1 on 6), and they get to be very charismatic too. They WILL fuck you up if it's needed, much like clinical psychopaths.
• Relationships: kinda. They can have friends (extremely few and precisely picked) and a partner too, but they won't refrain from discard them. Unlike clinical psychopaths, they could act "irrationally" and cover them up if they do something they don't like, but it of course depends by the person itself more than anything.

Famous examples: lmao I can mention any world leader right now, but I'll keep this non-political. Adolf Hitlerand... i don't know, maybe Hans Landa? Hitler had few real people he loved/appreciated truly in his heart, most notably his mother and his family doctor, a jew. But even so, he wasn't really afraid, nor he probably felt guilty about exterminating 11 millions of people, nor he really felt bad about the Night of the Long Knifes. He also was a narcissist and became extremely paranoid around his last years. Hans Landa I'm not sure. He probably had friends, and if not, he still shitted himself at the end of the movie, so he surely felt fear at least, I can't think about a better fictional example.

2. Narcissism: the Ego and the sad.​

Alright things are going to get FINALLY easy. First thing first, as always, we have to distinguish NPD and Sub-clinical Narcissism. NPD is a disorder, it doesn't work in society and is diagnosed by the DSM-V, while Sub-clinical Narcissism works in society and has special personality tests to be "diagnosed".

All degree of narcissism, however, share the same goal: social status and approval.

NPD and Sc Narcissism share practically everything in common, except Sc Narcissists have a "milder" form of it. Let's analyze them.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)​

• Origin: strongly environmental. The brain structure is slightly altered on the limbic system, but the origin is utterly environmental, shaped by the family system-reward management: neglect, overly critical of the child or overly praised...
• Empathy: absent. The empathy is extremely flawed, to the point of being unusable. They do have empathy, but they see it as something to use to get praised. Example: they act smoochy to you, making you feel loved, only because they want you to give them the same love. Try to not love them, see what happens.
• Impulsivity: Explosive. The "what happens" part. Much like sociopaths, a NPD boiling point is instantly reached when they don't get recognition, or worse, when they feel humiliated. They explode in the same way as sociopaths as well, sometimes trying to gaslighting you into oblivion (crying desperately, accusing you and others), and other times they will have fit of rages, and they can be very dangerous.
• Social adaptation: low. They can work, but if they work with others, they will pretend recognition or will be douchebags against you to raise further in the hierarchy, and that's why employers don't usually take them.
• Relationships: dysfunctional. They have a distorted sense of relationships, seeing everyone as an object that have to praise him, and they will do anything they can to be praised, or they will resort to other coercive methods.

Famous examples: well, that's hard, both because NPD people almost never seek help, and because we don't really have a clue about how deeply some figures were NPD. Some examples could be Madonna or Kayne West or even Charles Manson, though the degree varies, and these are suppositions. Fictional characters, though?

Sub-clinical Narcissism​

• Origin: innate and environmental. Just like Sub-clinical psychopaths, they have a biological strong disposition toward it since the beginning of their lives, but it can be further shaped by environmental factors as those of NPD. The brain structure is normal, sometimes the Limbic system is slightly smaller. If treated with therapy, the child will grow to be extrovert and a bit arrogant, but not thatdysfunctional.
• Empathy: reduced. They feel shallow empathy, and it's mostly used with a "cognitive-active" approach, aka they see you crying, they'll pretend to care for you. They can feel sadness themselves, but it's selective and almost always still aimed toward their goal: be praised.
• Impulsivity: Low to moderate. Unlike NPD, if they don't feel praised they won't outright try to kill you. They can control themselves, even if you insult them in there face, and instead will either gaslight you subtly, or outburst you in a milder manner. Do you know the "my ex girlfriend" stereotype? That's a good representation.
• Social adaptation: high. Unlike NPD, they will work their ass off to get high in a career. NPD will try too, but they simply are too volatile to stay long. Sub-clinical Narcissist are still oriented toward socialsuccess, but they will hardly be swayed off by critics or humiliation. Actually: if they are in power, they'll probably bite your ass back. They are very vindicative.
• Relationships: exploitative. They can be verysubservient to higher status people, unlike NPD. They'll get friends not only to empower themselves through validation, but also to use them to further raise their rank. Once they get at the apex, however, they'll either abandon you (who want to associate themselves with low rank people anymore?) or use you for strategic interests (if you were loyal enough and useful). They can have real friends, like Sub-clinical psychopaths, but just like them, they put themselves above everything else.

Famous examples: the same real life examples can be done here, because we simply can't do any diagnosis over them. If we want to add someone, I could add Joseph Stalin and Steve Jobs, in some degree. If we talk about fictional characters, without any doubt The wolf of wall street.

3. Machiavellianism​

Yes that's a real personality cluster!

And so, who are they? Well, they are the most dangerous, manipulative people you can meet, but they also are the only ones in the Dark Triad that can, VERY MAYBE, honestly to God care about you in a degree outside their view of life.

Their goal, unlike psychopaths, is not to be thrilled and feel alive, but it's to archive the maximum amount of social/political/any kind of power they can. So, let's see them in details:

• Origin: environmental. Unlike the others in the triad, machiavellists (?) are perfectly normal when they are born, and learn to be extremely manipulative as part of their education. They are taught that, to get what they want, they have to be smart, play clever and dirty, do all things necessary to get their goal.
• Empathy: restrained. Their empathy is slightly impaired because of their environment (if you tell a child to never show emotions because they are weakness, they'll eventually learn that). But, even so, they can well feel it, they just coldly decide to repress them when needed, and they can repress them even better. Do you know the "cold evil guy" that shots his friends, you can see regret in his eyes, but he continues without further doubt his plans? That's machiavellianism.
• Impulsivity: zero. They are as calm as psychopaths actually, which is very cool. They are even less impulsive than psychopaths, because unlike them, they don't seek the thrill, they live for the power, and if they need to wait years to get it, they will.
• Social adaptation: monstrous. They are charismatic by nature, because they need all the weapons they can have to archive their goal, but they're also extremely good at manipulating. They show the right amount of good and bad things in a long time to appear the most down-on-heart good and affable guy to you, to everyone really. They can cry on command, they can even fucking fake body language.
• Relationships: Extremely manipulative. They will do anything they can to get to their goal, no matter what. They have empathy, and so, unlike the others, they can actually have real and genuine friendships, but they'll do that with either people that don't cross them and their plan, or people that actually help them get there and are loyal.

Famous examples: real life, abso-lutely Cardinal Richelieu, the Gray Eminence himself, the epitome of machiavellist. Also Henry Kissinger, if we want to get contemporary. Fictional people? Gustavo Fring, no doubt. Gustavo can actually be the perfect famous representation of machiavellanism: he was extremely patient in getting his goal, he had a genuine friend whom didn't last enough to see Gus get at the apex, he clearly felt emotions, like fear, in certain situations, but repressed them in favour of rationality.

Conclusion​

Well, I hope to have given you some further insight over the social bad guys in the world, and hopefully now you know what a psychopath really is by definition!

Sources​

Leonardo Benvenuti "Lessons of Sociotherapy" (Lezioni di Socioterapia);https://issuu.com/baskerville.it/docs/benvenuti_lezioni_baskerville (Once more, for his excellent explaination of what is empathy, what are the mirror neurons, and what is psychopathy)

E. Aronson, T. Wilson, R. Akert "Social Psychology" (Psicologia sociale); (extremely good book for social psychology).

M. Picozzi, A. Zappalà "Criminal Profiling"; (criminal profiling book, talks in depth about the Dark Tried as well).

SD3 Short Dark Tried test for the lil curious, but remember that this, official as it is, is one of the manytests psychologists must do to get a complete

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