[rumcajz]

Glad you wrote this.

I was often wondering whether it is possible to communicate with a psychopath. Communication requires trust, i.e. that the person you are speaking with isn't lying. With non-psychopaths this is achieved by the complex play of empathy, guilt etc. However, given that psychopaths lack these feeling the mechanism just doesn't work. It's an epistemic and, actually, quite terrifying problem: You have this human being and no chance to ever know what they think of feel.

And if there's no chance to communicate, there's no way to truly solve problems.

And now I hear the problem is experienced even from the other side. And note that I believe you because the comment was posted from a throwaway account and thus you have very little to gain from it.

So maybe, in the end, there's a chance to communicate over the chasm, possibly using some techniques from game theory?

[Psychthowaway]

Yea that's a great point. I think you can communicate with high functioning sociopaths as long as your goals align. Note that your goals are by default subordinate to mine but that sometimes near term ones can be the same. It's generally the case that it's better to build a coalition of people who have shared goals than just manipulate people into doing what you want.

If your goals are misaligned, you'll likely come away thinking that you communicated but you might be being manipulated - which depending on how good they are at it, you might not realize.

It is a challenge though when the situations are forced. If I'm forced to be in a situation that doesn't align with my goals (and also stroke my ego in a certain way that might not be obvious) I will subtly sabotage whatever is going on or horse trade with someone else so that I can get out of the work.

I wouldn't try and play the game theory approach (I assume you mean the prisoners dilemma style cooperate/non-cooperate primarily) with most sociopaths because while a lot of high functioning ones are really logical - we'll change the rules to make the advantage ours.

[dennis_jeeves]

Psychthowaway>> It's generally the case that it's better to build a coalition of people who have shared goals than just manipulate people into doing what you want.

Wouldn't the goal of most "high functioning" sociopaths be near identical i.e: health, happiness and survival? (ofcourse one can debate on how that is to be achieved, but that's another debate)

Anyway, I can identify with a lot of what you put in your parent post. There appears to be a key difference in the way I'm a sociopath. I seem to have became one. For example for me death is an anticipated event that will happen to everyone. I have probably "greaved" over the death of most people who are close to me and are now alive so that when it actually happens it does not catch me off guard. So now I have to feign some grief when it actually happens, so that I do not come across as a sociopath.

And on the topic of death - I have done my own little bit, since I do not think it is entirely inevitable. Being a "sociopath" and having a high degree of objectivity go hand in hand.

[jacobush]

Very good observation of the problem. Interesting suggestion too