Psychological Matters

At least one time in our lives each of us will make the mistake of trusting someone who doesn’t deserve it.  Especially when we consider the statistics that one out of every twenty-five people in the world are individuals with APD (sociopaths). In the best-case scenario, this betrayal only inconvenienced us, but more often we will have been conned, cheated, or abused. How do we recognize and avoid relationships with sociopaths? To protect ourselves, it is important to understand sociopaths’ motivation for developing relationships. Their reasons are not the same as ours! Lacking a conscience, they are unable to form emotional attachments and are disinterested in developing a bond with others.  Instead, they are thrill seekers, and use relationships to achieve this goal. In pursuit of their next big emotional charge, sociopaths tend to cast others into three main roles: “pawns, patrons, or police.” “Pawns” are individuals with little or no social or political ...

At the beginning of my professional career I came across a fascinating book called, The Stranger Beside Me (1989), by Ann Rule. It was a biographical work about Ted Bundy and his killing spree across the United States during the 1970’s. Ms. Rule personally knew Bundy. She briefly worked alongside him at a Hotline Crisis Center. He was a brilliant, attractive man who majored in psychology and went on to obtain a law degree. He would often feign physical injury, such as a injured arm, to lure women to a private location where he could physically overpower them. Before Bundy’s execution in 1989, he confessed to thirty homicides. Published estimates of the actual number of murders committed by Bundy, however, ran as high as 100 women. Ted Bundy is just one infamous serial killer. There have been many others who have grabbed the public’s attention as far back as Jack the Ripper. More recent examples include Kenneth Bianchi, John Wayne Gacy, and Jeffrey Dalmer.  How are such m...