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Your Challenge August 2017
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Sociopath Next Door sounds really interesting. I'm pretty sure I have been close to a few sociopaths in my life. No one extremely close, fortunately, but a college roommate and maybe two colleagues.Conrad I find one of the more difficult writers. "The Secret Agent" is perhaps one of his less difficult works to get into. (Maybe that's why he called it "a simple tale"?)
I just finished Willa Cather's The Song of the Lark which is far from her best, but has its merits. If you like novels with classical music themes, pick it up. It's kind of based on her own (Cather's) artistic awakening, but transposed from writing to opera singing. I found that her characters had a lot of very relevant thoughts about the artistic impulse. And she is completely convincing when she writes about music; she clearly knew much about the subject.
Also Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan & Bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001, which is good.
As usual I have no reading goals this month. My goal is "whatever."
I have had a two year prolonged conversation with a close friend of mine who still doesn`t completely understand the concept of sociopathy. What I found most interesting was that my 61 year old friend claims her first sociopath she met was at the age of 55! I was shocked as I can recall at least a half dozen sociopaths going back to high school. What did surprise me was that mutual friends were able to identify the ailment, in one case a 10 year old student of mine who accurately identified that in an 8 year old.And yes, one sociopath was a neighbor and recognized as such by the others in the apartment building.
Heather wrote: "So how are we doing? I actually started yet another book yesterday. Now I am reading psychology. I might get through this one faster, it really is fascinating! And I can actually (unfortunately) ..."
Mixing apples with oranges, yes, I have discovered some excellent novels this month-unfortunately not related to visual art. A RIPPLE INTHE STORM by Doris Lessing and SOUL by Andrey Platonov.
As for sociopathy, it comes in degrees and is not as if someone is completely one. There are several websites with questionnaires that will test your level of "sociopathy". Of course there`s a level at which one could not be considered a sociopath at all.
I took one such test and scored miserably. Shucks, I`ll never be a Jeffrey Dahmer.
Geoffrey wrote: "I have had a two year prolonged conversation with a close friend of mine who still doesn`t completely understand the concept of sociopathy. What I found most interesting was that my 61 year old fri..."It says 1 in every 25 people are sociopaths. Most people don't know how to destinguish them. My sociopath friend says there are many more than that, those are just the ones diagnosed.
Geoffrey wrote: "Heather wrote: "So how are we doing? I actually started yet another book yesterday. Now I am reading psychology. I might get through this one faster, it really is fascinating! And I can actually ..."
My friend also said he can choose what he will do. He said he used to be REALLY evil and told me some of the things he would do just for fun or just to ruin someone else. The things he said were spine-chilling. In his older pictures even his eyes were different. It was easy to see the devil in his stare. He looked scary. And the stare...cold stare. That is scary and a tell-tale sign of a sociopath.
He says he is 'learning' emotion and wants to use it for good. Even if he can't feel happiness, he wants others to be happy. He is usually pretty cool. One cool thing is he doesn't judge anyone because he doesn't form opinions. But he is still a compulsive liar. I don't ever know when he is telling the truth. And he can lie directly into your eyes.
Personally I don't know how he can 'learn' emotion, only how to express what he sees others feel in order to see how to act or how he is supposed to act.
But there have been more than a few times when he has shown absolutely no empathy for me or my situations. He does act like he doesn't care about anyone, or at least me, though he says I'm a good friend, he SAYS he cares about me. We hang out quite a bit, and it is actually intriguing how much I am learning about him. I will admit, he has hurt my feelings many times and we don't always get along.
"Geoffrey wrote: "I took one such test and scored miserably. Shucks I'll never be a Jeffry Dahmer"I would love to take one of those tests! How do you find them? I know I wouldn't be Hannibal the Cannibal, I have more than my fair share of emotion (unfortunately). Sometimes I envy my friend. How would it be to not feel hurt or sadness? But to not feel joy would be a bummer.
P.S. Geoffrey, you crack me up! Thank you for your humor.
Heather wrote: "Geoffrey wrote: "Heather wrote: "So how are we doing? I actually started yet another book yesterday. Now I am reading psychology. I might get through this one faster, it really is fascinating! An..."
Sorry, Heather. He may be fascinating, but sociopaths don`t change. They just say they do. The 4% figure is what I have read as well.
I hope that every time I crack you up, you are able to piece yourself together.
I will try to get the line on those tests.
Here´s one for you Heather. illnessquiz.com/sociopath-test/. I just took it and whew, failed it again. shucks. I´ll never be a comrade in arms to Sam Berkowitz.
As of last night he is not fascinating anymore, he's scary...and doesn't care about anything. He pulled a gun on me yesterday. Now I'm just afraid and wish I'd never met him. But now I know a lot more about sociopaths and hope to never cross one again.Sorry to go on about my current situation here in the group. It's of no concern to anyone else.
I will take that test. I'm sure I will fail, my emotions run too deep! But thank you for the link!
Heather, I hope you can avoid that ... "friend"! That's horrifying. I discovered the sociopath test after the man who was (when I first started working for him) my favorite boss ever committed murder and suicide... He could be the most amazingly charming and funny guy you'd ever met, and then a minute later be terrifyingly vicious. He'd go from being someone you'd follow into hell to creating a little pocket of hell on earth. Cold stare, indeed ... incredibly scary. I agree completely - it would sometimes be great not to worry about other people and not to feel pain... but those are the things that keep the world from going up in flames... Stay safe.I just started a memoir by a Toronto restauranteur, I Hear She's a Real Bitch. and it's surprisingly hard to put down. Very ... chummy, and more fun than I expected.
My goal for the month is ... the same as every other month lately: to clean up my Netgalley backlog as much as I can.
Four days left of August! I don't know about you, but among the several books I am reading concurrently, I have less than 50 pages to go on two of them and I am determined to finish both before the end of the month.Be ready to comment in the next September thread!
Took it too http://illnessquiz.com/sociopath-test/I am 30 %
this one https://drdeenz.com/sociopath-test-an...
You scored 54/102.
Your score indicates low likelihood of having ASPD.
Your score indicates a 53% chance of having Antisocial Personality Disorder.
Art Lovers
Books mentioned in this topic
I Hear She's a Real Bitch (other topics)The Song of the Lark (other topics)
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan & Bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (other topics)
The Sociopath Next Door (other topics)
I actually started yet another book yesterday. Now I am reading psychology. I might get through this one faster, it really is fascinating! And I can actually (unfortunately) relate it to my current group of friends. I'm learning a lot about people around me.
The Sociopath Next Door
Has anyone else picked up something new this month? What have you conquered in July? I have 'conquered' nothing, except finding yet another interesting topic!