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I’m Not a Psychopath, I Just Talk and Act Like One
187
They Just Don’t Get It
In 2005, John Rigas, eighty-year-old founder of Adelphia
Communications, and his forty-eight-year-old son, Timothy Rigas,
were convicted of securities fraud and conspiracy and for bilking
investors in what the judge described as one of the largest frauds
in corporate history. John Rigas was sentenced to fifteen years in
prison, and his son to twenty years. Referring to the former, the
judge said, “Long ago he set Adelphia on a track of lying, of
cheating, of defrauding.”
The responses of the Rigases were revealing. “I may be convicted
and sentenced,” said the elder Rigas, “but in my heart and
conscience I’ll go to the grave believing truly that I did nothing
but try to improve conditions” for the company and his family. His
son, Timothy Rigas, told the judge that, “Our intentions were
good. The results were not.”
Yet, despite all this, the manipulators can be surprisingly successful
in dealing with others, relying primarily on their excellent ability
to charm and weave a believable story to influence others. They are
adept at reading situations and people, and then modifying their approach
to best influence those around them. They can turn on the
charm when it suits them, and turn it off when they want. Because
of their chameleon-like ability to hide their dark side, they can
quickly and easily build trusting relationships with others, and then
take advantage of them or betray them in some way. Manipulators
seem to experience a gamelike fascination in fooling people, getting
into other people’s heads and getting them to do things for them.
This ability to win psychological games with people seems to give
them a sense of personal satisfaction.
While they may come across as ambitious—a trait they will play
up—they actually have few long-range goals of any consequence,
relying more on their innate ability to seize an opportunity that in-