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Psychopathic Manipulation
73
lifestyle, and simultaneously was a constant source of excitement.
Caroline stated that walking through an airport with thousands
of dollars’ worth of smuggled diamonds was a tremendous
thrill, “an incomparable rush.” When she was first caught, by a
married customs agent, she was able to convince him not to turn
her in and ended up having a brief affair with him. She later
turned him in as part of a plea bargain when she was caught a
second time. Although he lost his family, his job, and his reputation,
she was unmoved: “He had a good time; now the party’s
over.”
Her only regret was that her days as a runner were probably
over now that Interpol knew about her. She had vague plans to
become a stockbroker or a real estate agent. Meanwhile, she
was working on a scheme to be deported, in hopes that it will
lead to a reduced sentence. In a letter to a British official about
this matter, Caroline suggested that his wife or girlfriend might
like a “little sparkling something on her finger,” and that she
could easily arrange this for him.
Your reputation may not coincide with the public self you are
trying to project, or the internal personality you personally experience.
In an ideal world, all three views of the personality would line
up. We would be happy with our private self, feel comfortable revealing
it through our persona, and feel safe in the knowledge that those
with whom we interact come to know us for who we truly are. But
the world is not such a perfect place and people are not perfect beings.
The best that we can hope for in most social situations is that
our persona reflects the things we want to share with others, and that
observers are open-minded enough that their attributions about us
and our resulting reputation are accurate.
Sales representatives, human resources staff, and other professionals
who spend much time interacting with people become good
at judging personality traits and characteristics. Psychologists and
psychiatrists, of course, are trained in doing personality assessments