
Got people for whom avarice, jealousy, and self-interest eclipse their care for your well-being? Sociopath, psychopath, narcissist, shark, snake; you say pota-toe, I say pata-ta? Seriously though, beyond the fact that I’m a wordsmith (about my books here), knowing who and what we’re dealing with can aid us in getting along with different types of people and, more importantly, to protect ourselves.
When holier-than-thou individuals boo-hoo, “It breaks my heart that so-and-so’s people never call or visit them,” I’m the cynic who retorts, “Did you stop to consider that maybe, behind doors, they’re so thoroughly hateful that they’re lucky they’re not treated worse?”
Forgiveness, to my mind, isn’t a cure-all. Not when acceptance is what’s truly called for.
It can take a shattering of dreams to accept the reality that some people are out-and-out poison. Some venoms, at low doses, are tolerable. Others necessitate a hazmat suit. Better yet, full avoidance. In a perfect world, toxic people would wear labels with dosage instructions, side effect warnings, and drawings of x-d out skulls.
In Sociopath: A Memoir, Ph.D. Patric Gagne lets us in on how we’re all born with varying degrees of emotional capacity. Those genetically unencumbered by empathy and guilt should be acknowledged. Social stigmatization, she reasons, only contorts sociopaths like her into relieving frustration by committing bad deeds. Her bonus note is that those who stress over hurting people would do well to let a little sociopath-ness rub off. Many of our culture’s favorite characters are narcissists who dashingly barrel through life without a care.
Source: Sociopath: a Memoir Review + Surviving Sue by Dr. Vicki Atkinson – Happiness Between Tails by da-AL
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