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Re: Professions that attract psychopaths.
IF you work in a law firm, media company or police station take a look around. Slowly.
You could easily be working in the company of a psychopath, according to a new book, because psychopaths tend to gravitate towards and thrive in professions that offer power and require cutthroat decision making.
The book The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success has outlined the ten jobs psychopaths are most likely, and least likely, to be found in.
While most people think of psychopaths as serial killers and rapists - because most serial killers ARE psychopaths - not all psychopaths are murderous.
In the workplace, psychopaths are characterised by their attempts to try to undermine and “mentally destroy” their co-workers to feed their need for a sense of power and domination over other human beings.
A leading psychotherapist last month warned Australian bosses they need to implement strategies to manage workplace psychopaths because they exist in most large companies.
"They don't suffer any guilt or remorse, or in fact they enjoy the suffering of other people," Dr John Clarke told a conference in Tasmania.
The book said psychopaths are drawn to and thrive in roles where people need the ability to make “objective, clinical decisions divorced from feelings”, the Business Insider reported.
Top jobs for psychopaths:
1. CEO
2. Lawyer
3. Media (TV/radio)
4. Salesperson
5. Surgeon
6. Journalist
7. Police officer
8. Clergyperson
9. Chef
10. Civil servant
On the other hand, psychopaths are likely to steer clear of professions that require empathy, human interaction and feelings.
Least likely professions for psychopaths:
1. Care aide
2. Nurse
3. Therapist
4. Craftsperson
5. Beautician/Stylist
6. Charity worker
7. Teacher
8. Creative artist
9. Doctor
10. Accountant
Re: Professions that attract psychopaths.
1. CEO
2. Lawyer
3. Media (TV/radio)
4. Salesperson
5. Surgeon
6. Journalist
7. Police officer
8. Clergyperson
9. Chef
10. Civil servant
This makes me feel so warm inside. It's basically a who's who of the people in society who has the ability to fuck up your life.
Don't know what the hell Chef is doing on that list though.
Re: Professions that attract psychopaths.
I can personally attest that Clergy/Ministry/Pastoral work as well as Cops/Civil Servants attract a multitude of psychopaths.
And i'm not just saying that as someone who's ran afoul of anyone. I say that from many years of patient, qualitative observation, knowledge of the subject, and just letting them be... them, in their natural environment.
This is true. It's damn true. And it's scary as hell. I knew more guys who LOVED hurting people when they were young, that became cops. I've also seen emotionless cyborg-like people go into ministry thinking they'll find themselves somehow. They study the bible inside and out, devote their time to God, donate tons of hours to community service and with all of that... you still see the blackest eyes, the Devil's eyes.
Re: Professions that attract psychopaths.
You should check out Jon Ronsons The Psychopath Test.
He's the guy who did The Men Who Stare at Goats which was made into a film w/ewen mcgregor & clooney.
It's a great book by one of the funniest journalists in Britain. This article is p much a copy & paste job from it.
Re: Professions that attract psychopaths.
Thanks. If you haven't already I can recommend Political Ponerology (monumental work) and The Psychopath Next Door.
Think I'm pretty lucky actually to not have been in much contact with these people. Had one friend who I think was one, but luckily he had to flee the town years ago after putting his girlfriend in the hospital. Maybe a few other suspects, but that might just be variants of ASPD (I might have a small variant myself, relating to premature birth).
They aren't smarter than the rest of us, but those that are can be extremely difficult to spot. The experts say the best giveaway is the "pity play", appealing to your empathy.
Re: Professions that attract psychopaths.
Well there's a difference between Anti-Social and just flat Evil and/or Sociopaths. Anti-Socials typically wear it on their sleeve, and aren't that hard to spot.
Psychopaths/Sociopaths feel no empathy, yet can lie with such ease. Evil are the types that can "sell dick to a hooker" and convince good men to kill and commit multiple murders in their name, without any justification. Think Hitler. These are the hardest types to spot. They come with great sales pitches, seem INCREDIBLY likable, get along with people, "get" the world, and just enjoy watching it burn with no remorse or motive.
jmo
- A Private Eye
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Re: Professions that attract psychopaths.
Flipnosis by Kevin Dutton has a couple of interesting chapters on psychopaths if it's a line of reading you're in to.
The main thing I took from it was (and I'm sure it's far more complex than this clinically) that psychopaths just don't have the same physiological and physical reactions to pressure that the rest of us do. Monitor the brain of someone in a high pressure scenario and certain areas light up, responsible for adrenaline release etc, in a psychopath those areas stay dormant, being under high pressure has no effect on how they function seemingly. Which I guess explains how a lot of them rise to the top as CEO's/surgeons etc. The other thing was that it's worth remembering not all psychopaths are bad people, in fact the majority probably aren't, but a large proportion of bad people are psychopaths.
It wouldn't surprise me if a large number of elite sportsmen were shown to have psychopathic traits as well.
Re: Professions that attract psychopaths.
Yeah, I've read about that too. I think they can actually do a brain scan to determine it. Normal people will have emotional reactions to certain words like sex, murder etc. A psychopath will not react any differently than if you'd say "plank" or something mundane like that.
Another interesting fact is that the worldwide average is something like 4%. But in east Asia the ratio can be as low as 0,001% while the United States has the highest average in the world (don't remember, but maybe 6-7%+). Those numbers seem high so I suppose they might include all forms of ASPD, but still interesting to see the huge gap between a highly individualistic culture and a highly collectivist one.
