Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Interviewing tips from a sociopath

I had an interview today for something I want. Sociopath skills are never so useful as they are during an interview, but I imagine uber-empaths can be very good at them as well.

Interviews are interesting in general because the interviewee is clearly looking for the "right" answer. When they keep looking at you expectantly, you keep talking. If it is a double interview you keep talking until the two interviewers make that knowing eye contact with each other. Sometimes you'll get a real amateur who is checking things off his list. Most of the time, though, you have to do what sociopaths do best -- tell people what they want to hear.

Do they know I am pandering to them? Do they know that I am essentially recreating that scene from Being John Malkovich where you just say anything and everything until you get some sort of response:

CRAIG
How about this, if I can guess your
first name within three tries, you
have to come out for a drink with me
tonight.

MAXINE
Why not?

CRAIG
Great.
(watches her face as he guesses)
Buuuhhppaahhhhnnn. . . . .
Muhhhahhhhh. . . . . ahhhnnnaaa. .
nollltuuukkkaaaaralllll. . .
tashabararassssssuuuuusaaaaaaa. . .
nnnnnnnaaaaaannnnnnnnncccccceeeeeee
Mwaaaaaa. . . . .Mahhhhhkkkkk. . .
sssseeeeeen. Maxine?

MAXINE
Who told you?

CRAIG
I'm right?

MAXINE
Who told you?

CRAIG
That's incredible! Nobody told me!
I swear! It's kismet. Maxine!
It's a beautiful name. There's a
psychic connection. Don't you see?
It was meant to be! Maxine! Maxine!
Maxine! I will shout it from the
rooftops!

MAXINE
Somebody told you.

CRAIG
Oh, Maxine, nobody told me. Maxine,
Maxine. It just came out of me like
a song, Maxine. A beautiful crazy,
song, Maxine. Maxine. Maxine!

Harmless sociopaths

I don't know what it means, but I like the good publicity of Andrew Bird's song "Oh No":
in the salsify mains of what was thought but unsaid
all the calcified arhythmitists were doing the math
it would take a calculated blow to the head
to light the eyes of all the harmless sociopaths
oh arm and arm we are the harmless sociopaths
oh arm and arm with all the harmless sociopaths
calcium mines were buried deep in your chest
oh calcim mines you buried deep in your chest
oh no we're deep in a mine
oh no a calcium mine
so let's get out of here
past the atmosphere
squint your eyes and no one dies
or goes to jail
past the silver bridge, oh the silver bridge
wearing nothing but a one-sie and a veil
oh oh deep in a mine,
oh oh a calcium mine
arm and arm we are the harmless sociopaths
arm and arm with all the harmless sociopaths
in the calcium mines buried deep in your chest
oh the calcium mines buried deep in your chest
oh oh deep in a mine
oh no-- calcium mines oh no

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Why Sociopathworld?

Some have wondered where the title "SociopathWorld" comes from. It comes indirectly from a book by Dr. Robert Hare, recognized expert on psychopaths and psychopathy: Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us. Even though I doubt Dr. Hare added the subtitle, I thought it was an interesting visual image. What if there really was a world of the sociopaths, like some sort of planet of the apes. Would it be at all like a Disney theme park?

The reason I doubt Dr. Hare chose that subtitle (or possibly even the main title) is that he doesn't seem to make any normative judgments regarding sociopaths in his book. If anything, as I mentioned in another post, he seems to be pro sociopath:
I don't feel comfortable calling it a disease. Much of their behaviour, even the neurobiological patterns we observe, could be because they're using different strategies to get around the world. These strategies don't have to involve faulty wiring, just different wiring.
What do you all think? Is it a disease? Is it disturbing? Now that you have accessed a window into the soul of a sociopath, is your heart troubled? If not, what do you think would be a better or more accurate subtitle for Dr. Hare's book about the world of the psychopath?

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Israelis are sociopaths

Not all. But most. So says a blog citing the 52% israeli support of continuing the bombing in Gaza. Under the headline "52 percent of Israelis are sociopaths," the blog also cites a 2003 film, Gaza the killing zone, which asserts that "Gaza is an open air concentration camp where snipers take pot shots at children, aircraft shoot missiles into crowds, and bulldozers randomly destroy homes with impunity."

Now i haven't been following the current situation closely enough to opine on whether the current military operations betray the masterminding of a sociopath or not. All I can say is that I have been to Israel and it is a nation of sociopaths. Not all. But definitely more sociopaths than nonsociopaths. And not just Israelis. The numbers from the Palestinian population appear to have a similar proportion of sociopaths as the Israeli population.

Israeli sociopaths aren't nice either. Definitely not the nice, fun loving, efficiency obsessed sociopaths that inhabit the Netherlands. Instead they are the bullied "made-to-be sociopaths by a horrific history of blood and carnage" type. I don't want to say they're a nation of serial killers, but if there ever was a recipe for making a serial killer, the Israelis have cooked it up.

The holocaust was over 60 years ago, but Israelis are still feeling the effects. First of all, you have the poor, weak victims of the Holocaust who were subjected to untold horrors. That can mess anyone up. Then you have the fact that the Holocaust naturally selected sociopaths to survive in greater numbers than nonsociopaths. Who do you think did okay in concentration camps? Someone who was kind and shared food and other resources with strangers? If we have learned anything from shows like Survivor and Kid Nation, it is that sociopaths will not only survive, but thrive in situations that involve strategic, competitive positioning for very scarce resources by currying the favor of captors and turning on their own. Next you have a nation that from its infancy was led by people who were aggressive enough not to move to America or Argentina to blend in with the local population, but to invade someone else's country and forcibly take it over. Add to that the children of these people, children that that were not only genetically predisposed to be sociopaths from their parents, but were also subjected to near constant violence, including decades of terrorist violence and hatred, and have been trained to be icy cold killers and assassins. Voila, you have yourself a nation of serial killer-esque sociopaths.

Not like there is anything wrong with that. Unless you are Palestinian.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

More aspie feedback

More aspie feedback re this blog:
The really severe sociopaths have a creepy emptiness inside. The eerie emptiness of sociopaths is what people were referring when they say things like "looking into the eyes of a soulless killer". There's nothing there. Their lack of insight comes from this empty place inside, not disorientation with the outside world, like an Asperger's lack of insight.

He has a point, tho, about how badly sociopaths are viewed. In a sense, it is a natural disorder that is beyond their control, just as AS is beyond control. People just hate them more because AS people seem innocuous and naive. But on the other hand, some NTs tend to treat sociopaths better than autistics, respecting and fearing bullies whereas some NTs feel more comfortable dumping on AS people. So I don't think that sociopaths are as brutalized and marginalized as AS people are. So his whining rings pretty hollow.
and another:
On the Sociopath blog. Very interesting. Glad he's done it. However, given that one of the major symptoms (and a clear give away once you've known one long enough to see the full cycle of their operations) is the way they continually try and evoke pity in you. And that is the aim of that blog. See the way he says "he would join the Aspie party if he could because the Aspies get ALL the sympathy". What utter rubbish!!! We're the ones who are good people at heart, yet get treated like monsters. They're the ones who are destructive heartless manipulators, yet they manage to charm the pants of everyone the meet...for a while. And then they blame their victims for being 'weak'.

The thing we have in common is that we are both see weaknesses in NT behaviour. However, in general we suffer as a result of those weaknesses, the sociopaths benefit from them through their ability to exploit them.
And lastly:
Je le doute.

There is little to none of the glibness/superficial charm alternating with hostility and contempt that define the psychopath's relation to the world. Obviously I haven't read it all, but I don't even think psychopaths have the patience to write blogs. They're more likely to break a computer for not doing what they want it to do.
Ah really? Not charming enough. Sigh.
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