Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jajdude]

Someone posted not long ago about differences between sociopaths, psychopaths, etc.. which is mostly academic. A bit of reading up just on the internet will tell you that such people are not rare enough. Just from a few websites I gather sociopaths are between 1 and 4 % of the population. It's kind of scary. We probably have all met enough people in our lives to have met a few of these characters, the seemingly ok guys without a conscience. I'm pretty sure they are mostly male. They're clever and charming usually, and it isn't always obvious what they lack, that basic part of most of us that makes us think doing someone a serious wrong turn is really bad and worth feeling guilty about. There's no easy way to detect them at first. You pretty much need to be burned once or twice in their wrongful ways to realize how sick they are. Even then you might question, is this guy really so bad? How can he simply not care at all about anybody? Deceptive jerks born without a soul it seems.

I bring this up on the recent knowledge of yet another one I am aware of, I'd guess number 3 or 4 for me. Someone who proclaims to be human yet somehow shows an astonishing lack of decency toward friends or anybody else really. The detection is hard. You got to feel a burn first. Then you go, holy crap, what an asshole. Afterward avoidance is essential. Never go near that sociopath again.

Read some of this site if you find this stuff interesting:

http://www.lovefraud.com/

Easy enough to find info and websites, but keep aware of that 1 to 4%

[Tiger Beer]

[TECO]

Curious if it could be a narcissist that you're dealing with? Similar behavior - i.e., lack of empathy being one of the biggest warning signs.

I don't know enough about the person you're dealing with but one can never really establish true friendships with such people - they can't empathize, which is critical in forming friendships with other people.

Warning, though: Leave them alone if this is what ails them. There's no fixing such people and even if they know they're socio/psychopaths or narcissists - they just don't care!

[D.D.]

I hired one and he went about ruining my business. They are great at making it look like everything is the fault of the person that they are preying on.

He asked me to fire a member of staff and after I did I heard that he visited the staff member that night to tell them how wrong it was.

[Darashii]

[Underwaterbob]

EVERYBODY PANIC!!

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[samcheokguy]

pop psy at its worst. or best

[jajdude]

I wouldn't say 1% is too high an estimate, but 4% seems exaggerated. Considering 1% is also the figure often given for the number of adults (in the US at least) who experience schizophrenic episodes in a given year, is it hard to believe that around 1% may be sociopaths? The labels are confusing I suppose. It sounds like such an awful term. You'd also need to know the person a little better than just as a passing acquaintance, and be perceptive enough to see how that person operates. Basically it just comes down to being careful not to get taken advantage of by some asshole, and assholes certainly make up more than 1% of any population.

Maybe 'asshole' should be a clinical term. Most people can understand what that means. Guess it doesn't sound textbook enough.

[PeteJB]

Of the 3 or 4 people you've met whom you believe to be sociopaths, what is your reasoning for reaching that conclusion? I'm interested to hear it.

[GreenlightmeansGO]

I would say about 75% of the people I meet have some mental shortcoming (and I am not speaking about being stupid). To me, people often don't function the way I think is normal. When I look at their reactions to situations, their behaviour just bugs me. It's all in the details.

I am not saying these people are absolutely cuckoo, I'm just trying to articulate a very difficult concept (personally).

[Leslie Cheswyck]

[Underwaterbob]

[jajdude]

[Bigfeet]

What you're talking about is self-centeredness taken to the extreme. You know how the saying goes, "you need to take care of yourself before you can take care of others". Well, these people are never done with trying to take care of themselves first. This blends in very well with the belief in individualism and independence. The fact is, nobody is independent and nobody is free but we keep spouting these lies like it's true.