[stonethrowaway]

I think in the coming years we’ll agree that the notion of a psychopath as described/defined by pop science was completely off base and made up mostly to discredit opponents in one way or another. First, however, we have to find a valid substitution so we can swing to the next branch before the plebs catch on that we were making shit up.

Like most of pop psych.

[mjfl]

Some of it is probably real, like repeat offenders of predatory crime. If you've done multiple violent robberies there's probably something in your brain off that allows you to do all that.

There's a predatory ecological niche in every society. Very common in nature too. Altruism is less common than predation in nature, it seems.

Though in the workspace, you may be onto something.

[Teever]

Why wouldn't there be psychopaths in the workplace?

The way I see it there's a selection bias at play here. The kind of psychopaths who are repeat offenders are the ones who get caught, so of course we notice them.

We don't notice the ones who don't get caught.

That doesn't mean that they're any less ruthless and destructive to society -- they're just lucky / more functional.

In my mind I view white collar crime to be the greatest evil in society because it is the thing that enables all of the petty/violent crime that we abhor. Part of the reason that it's so evil to me is for that very reason, and that the perpetrators of it are able to pass themselves off as functional individuals who participate in society like you and I do, and are able to use the system against itself to perpetuate their crimes.

[svnt]

The mark of the actual master is that almost no one can identify them, and the people who can are so rare as to probabilistically not appear in smaller companies. They “run” the company without the appearance of doing so.

If someone does appear who can identify them, they are quickly exited from the company via various means depending on the individual: pair them with a particularly distasteful partner/manager, make their job impossible via passive means, or enable them to humiliate themselves.

The only real symptom is that there is no one around them that competes with them in their self-perceived core competency, and they never seem to put a foot wrong. Once the are in a high position, anyone who complains about their behavior is said to be attempting to climb.

[stonethrowaway]

Used to be fashionable to accuse people of lacking empathy, or better yet, to describe yourself as an “empath” - because clearly everyone else isn’t.

Hopefully that bullshit virtue signalling went away.

[theGnuMe]

"to accuse people of lacking empathy" is basic projection. If you actually had empathy you'd feel for someone lacking in empathy.

[farts_mckensy]

If you've ever met a psychopath and seen their true colors, you will undoubtedly be convinced it's a real phenomenon. I have had the unfortunate experience of dealing with one myself. He showed all the hallmark signs. He urinated the bed frequently. He harmed animals when he was young. Specifically, he swung his pet gerbil around by the tail until the tail was severed. He threw a baby rabbit against a stop sign and killed it while his poor younger brother watched. He has grown up to be incredibly sadistic to the point where everyone I know has completely cut him off. I hope you never run into one. When you are talking to someone you believe to be decent, and you eventually realize what they are, what you're dealing with, it is a truly chilling experience.

[theGnuMe]

What does urinating the bed have to do with it?

[hirvi74]

Not the GP, but it's debatably correlated, apparently.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macdonald_triad

[svnt]

> Although it remains an influential and widely taught hypothesis, subsequent research has generally not validated this line of thinking.[3][4]

[hirvi74]

Yes, that is why I wrote, "debatably."

[svnt]

This is not saying it is debatable, it is politely saying it is almost definitely wrong, but still popular.

[svnt]

It doesn’t.

[throwaway48476]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macdonald_triad

[svnt]

Yes, that is dated and hasn’t been supported by more recent science.

[throwaway48476]

Recent psychology has been suffering from the replication crisis.