Serial Killers and Politicians Share Traits

I thought this article/analysis was quite interesting!

Serial Killers and Politicians Share Traits

Psychopathy is a personality disorder manifested in people who use a mixture of charm, manipulation, intimidation, and occasionally violence to control others, in order to satisfy their own selfish needs. Although the concept of psychopathy has been known for centuries, the FBI leads the world in the research effort to develop a series of assessment tools, to evaluate the personality traits and behaviors attributable to psychopaths.

Interpersonal traits include glibness, superficial charm, a grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, and the manipulation of others. The affective traits include a lack of remorse and/or guilt, shallow affect, a lack of empathy, and failure to accept responsibility. The lifestyle behaviors include stimulation-seeking behavior, impulsivity, irresponsibility, parasitic orientation, and a lack of realistic life goals.
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What doesn't go unnoticed is the fact that some of the character traits exhibited by serial killers or criminals may be observed in many within the political arena. While not exhibiting physical violence, many political leaders display varying degrees of anger, feigned outrage and other behaviors. They also lack what most consider a "shame" mechanism. Quite simply, most serial killers and many professional politicians must mimic what they believe, are appropriate responses to situations they face such as sadness, empathy, sympathy, and other human responses to outside stimuli.

And here's a little tid-bit from Wikipedia , ...

Psychopathy - Wikipedia

Description

Lack of a conscience in conjunction with a weak ability to defer gratification and/or control aggressive desires, often leads to antisocial behaviors. Psychopathy does not necessarily lead itself to criminal and violent behavior. Instead, psychopaths high in social cognition may be able to redirect their antisocial desires in a different, non-criminal manner.
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All psychopaths differ in their impulse control abilities, and overall desires. Psychopaths high in the pathological narcissism scale are more equipped to succeed, but pathological narcissism does not in any way guarantee success.

Hare's Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R)
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Hare's items

The following findings are for research purposes only, and are not used in clinical diagnosis. These items cover the affective, interpersonal, and behavioral features. Each item is rated on a score from zero to two. The sum total determines the extent of a person's psychopathy.[6]

Factor1: Aggressive narcissism

1. Glibness/superficial charm
2. Grandiose sense of self-worth
3. Pathological lying
4. Cunning/manipulative
5. Lack of remorse or guilt
6. Emotionally shallow
7. Callous/lack of empathy
8. Failure to accept responsibility for own actions

Holy crap!

We've got a bunch of psychopaths, that we ACTUALLY elected, in Washington D.C.!

They got us to elect them by (1)being charming, and (3)lying to us, they (4)manipulated us into thinking (2)they would be great as our representative in DC!

Then, once they got elected, they (3)lied to us some more, told us that (2)what they were doing in DC was in OUR best interest, even though what they were actually doing was hurting the people who voted them in, but (5,6,7)they could care less, (8)it wasn't THEIR fault after all! A whole lot of other people voted for it too!

[edit on 6/16/2009 by Keyhole]

Well researched and nicely put together, but I'm sure this is something we all knew...

Kudos!

Hmmm...as an example, one comes to mind.

www.americanpolitics.com...

Glibness/superficial charm
Grandiose sense of self-worth
Emotionally shallow
Callous

Four out of eight and suspicions too.

Wow I just found this weird site called Arkancide, The Clinton Body Count

Oh without a doubt. Nobody with a conscience could live with the huge choices politicians make every day.

Originally posted by Keyhole
Holy crap!

We've got a bunch of psychopaths, that we ACTUALLY elected, in Washington D.C.!

You're just noticing this now?!

LOL! Although it is funny to see that someone's actually done the research, proved it, and posted it. Starred and Flagged!

awww shucks. If I fit these credentials, does that mean I'm not an alien?

I'm so confused right now.

WhoamI?

reply to post by Keyhole

We've got a bunch of psychopaths, that we ACTUALLY elected, in Washington D.C.!

Has to make you wonder about the voters who voted them in. Are we really that gullible to buy what they are selling hook, line, and sinker time and time again?

Or are we just plain crazy for taking people at their word?

I think Psychopathy is merely another term for the word "evil".

Because you could call most people a psychopath and make a winning case (should you know enough facts about a persons life). It is therefore one of the most dangerous labels, and needs to be abolished in medical circles.

Psychopaths are in control of their lives therefore they are not insane.
Psychopaths choose how they present themselves, therefore there is no disorder, just a personality order we may not like (if we're lucky enough to know why).

There are hundreds of other names for uncontrolled aggresion, and these should be used instead as they corrospond to real brain problems we can acturally see on a scanner.