Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us

by Robert D. Hare

He will choose you, disarm you with his words, and control you with this presence. He will delight you with his wit and his plans. He will show you a good time, but you will always get the bill. He will smile and deceive you, and he will scare you with his eyes. And when he is through with you, and he will be through with you, he will desert you and take with him your innocence and your pride. You will be left much sadder but not a lot wiser, and for a long time you will wonder what happened and what you did wrong. And if another of his kind comes knocking at your door, will you open it? —From an essay signed, “A psychopath in prison.”

Psychopaths are not disoriented or out of touch with reality, nor do they experience the delusions, hallucinations, or intense subjective distress that characterize most other mental disorders. Unlike psychotic individuals, psychopaths are rational and aware of what they are doing and why. Their behavior is the result of choice, freely exercised.

Do I care about other people? That’s a tough one. But, yeah, I guess I really do ... but I don’t let my feelings get in the way.... I mean, I’m as warm and caring as the next guy, but let’s face it, everyone’s trying to screw you.... You’ve got to look out for yourself, park your feelings. Say you need something, or someone messes with you ... maybe tries to rip you off... you take care of it ... do whatever needs to be done.... Do I feel bad if I have to hurt someone? Yeah, sometimes. But mostly it’s like ... uh ... [laughs] ... how did you feel the last time you squashed a bug? —A psychopath doing time for kidnapping, rape, and extortion

Psychopaths have a narcissistic and grossly inflated view of their self-worth and importance, a truly astounding egocentricity and sense of entitlement, and see themselves as the center of the universe, as superior beings who are justified in living according to their own rules.

Psychopaths often come across as arrogant, shameless braggarts—self-assured, opinionated, domineering, and cocky. They love to have power and control over others and seem unable to believe that other people have valid opinions different from theirs. They appear charismatic or “electrifying” to some people.

Psychopaths show a stunning lack of concern for the devastating effects their actions have on others. Often they are completely forthright about the matter, calmly stating that they have no sense of guilt, are not sorry for the pain and destruction they have caused, and that there is no reason for them to be concerned.

Psychopaths’ lack of remorse or guilt is associated with a remarkable ability to rationalize their behavior and to shrug off personal responsibility for actions that cause shock and disappointment to family, friends, associates, and others who have played by the rules. Usually they have handy excuses for their behavior, and in some cases they deny that it happened at all.

“The psychopath is like an infant, absorbed in his own needs, vehemently demanding satiation,” wrote psychologists William and Joan McCord.3

Concrete rewards are pitted against vague future consequences—with the rewards clearly the stronger contender. The mental image of the consequences for the victim are particularly fuzzy. So, Jeffrey saw in Elyse not a companion but rather a “connection”—a supplier of shelter, clothing, food, money, recreation, and sexual gratification. The consequences to her of his actions didn’t even enter his consciousness. When it became clear that he’d squeezed all he could out of his association with her, he simply moved on to another source of goodies.

forensic psychiatrist Ronald Markman, who (along with Dominick Bosco) wrote Alone with the Devil, a book about Markman’s professional work with murderers.

TERRENCE MALICK’S MOVIE Badlands, loosely based on the killing career of Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, is a chilling film fantasy with a coldly realistic core.

In the Playboy interview shortly before his execution, Gary Gilmore conveyed a sense of what it was like to be anchored so firmly in the present. When asked why, although he had a very high IQ, he had been caught at crime so often, Gilmore responded: I got away with a couple of things. I ain’t a great thief. I’m impulsive. Don’t plan, don’t think. You don’t have to be super intelligent to get away with that shit, you just have to think. But I don’t. I’m impatient. Not greedy enough. I could have gotten away with lots of things that I got caught for. I don’t, ah, really understand it. Maybe I quit caring a long time ago.6

psychopaths seem to know the dictionary meanings of words but fail to comprehend or appreciate their emotional value or significance.

A simple analogy here will help. The psychopath is like a color-blind person who sees the world in shades of gray but who has learned how to function in a colored world. He has learned that the light signal for “stop” is at the top of the traffic signal. When the color-blind person tells you he stopped at the red light, he really means he stopped at the top light. He has difficulty in discussing the color of things but may have learned all sorts of ways to compensate for this problem, and in some cases even those who know him well may not know that he cannot see colors. Like the color-blind person, the psychopath lacks an important element of experience—in this case, emotional experience—but may have learned the words that others use to describe or mimic experiences that he cannot really understand. As Cleckley put it, “He can learn to use ordinary words... [and] will also learn to reproduce appropriately all the pantomime of feeling... but the feeling itself does not come to pass.”9

In one case, described to me by forensic psychologist J. Reid Meloy,5 a white-collar psychopath assaulted his wife and seriously injured her. Later, she wrote in a journal she made available to Meloy, “He needs such special care. I haven’t been the wife I should have been. But I will, I will, and I’ll turn back this anger into something good and strong.” This woman’s fierce commitment to the man and to being a loyal, “proper” wife had distorted her sense of reality and drained her of all self-confidence. Needless to say, the reality is that she is doomed to a lifetime of disappointment and abuse. Unfortunately, much the same can be said for any woman—or man—who has low self-esteem, strong feelings of dependency, and a lack of personal identity who becomes intimately involved with a psychopath. Psychopaths have little difficulty in making use of people who feel physically or psychologically inadequate, or who feel compelled to hold on to a relationship no matter how much it hurts.6

The position I favor is that psychopathy emerges from a complex—and poorly understood—interplay between biological factors and social forces. It is based on evidence that genetic factors contribute to the biological bases of brain function and to basic personality structure, which in turn influence the way the individual responds to, and interacts with, life experiences and the social environment.17 In effect, the elements needed for the development of psychopathy—including a profound inability to experience empathy and the complete range of emotions, including fear—are provided in part by nature and possibly by some unknown biological influences on the developing fetus and neonate. As a result, the capacity for developing internal controls and conscience and for making emotional “connections” with others is greatly reduced.

For example, don’t pay too much attention to any unusually captivating characteristic of people you meet—dazzling looks, a powerful presence, mesmerizing mannerisms, a soothing voice, a rapidfire verbal pitch, and so forth. Any one of these characteristics can have enormous sleight-of-hand value, serving to distract you from the individual’s real message.

Some people respond to the emotionless stare of the psychopath with considerable discomfort, almost as if they feel like potential prey in the presence of a predator. Others may be completely overwhelmed and intimidated, perhaps even controlled, with little insight into what is happening to them. Whatever the psychological meaning of their gaze, it is clear that intense eye contact is an important factor in the ability of some psychopaths to manipulate and dominate others. The next time you find yourself dealing with an individual whose nonverbal mannerisms or gimmicks—riveting eye contact, dramatic hand movements, “stage scenery,” and so on—tend to overwhelm you, close your eyes or look away and carefully listen to what the person is saying.