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I’m Not a Psychopath, I Just Talk and Act Like One
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Kong and the family lived in Canada. He was able to insinuate
himself into their lives, and in several cases was able to convince
a woman that she should divorce her husband. In each case, he
demanded money to invest in his business schemes, and if a
woman resisted, he threatened or assaulted her and said that his
criminal contacts in Hong Kong would harm her husband.
The man was ultimately convicted of extortion and defrauding
one of the women and was sentenced to prison. The judge referred
to him as a “snake who slithered into her life and ruined
her life.”
This particular type of crime is played out in communities
around the world. In most cases, the victims are afraid and embarrassed
to come forward. Not all the victims are wealthy, but
all are targeted by snakes.
Bullies react aggressively in response to provocation or perceived
insults or slights. It is unclear whether their acts of bullying
give them pleasure or are just the most effective way they have
learned to get what they want from others. Similar to the manipulators,
however, psychopathic bullies do not feel remorse, guilt, or
empathy. They lack any insight into their own behavior, and seem
unwilling or unable to moderate it, even when it is to their own advantage.
Not being able to understand the harm they do to themselves
(let alone their victims), psychopathic bullies are particularly
dangerous.
Of course, not all bullies are psychopathic, though this may be
of little concern to the victims. Bullies come in many psychological
and physical sizes and shapes. In many cases, “garden variety” bullies
have deep-seated psychological problems, including feelings of inferiority
or inadequacy and difficulty in relating to others. Some may
simply have learned at an early age that their size, strength, or verbal
talent was the only effective tool they had for social behavior. Some
of these individuals may be context-specific bullies, behaving badly
at work but more or less normally in other contexts. But the psycho-