The wisdom of psychopaths : what saints,spies, and serial killers can teach us about succes

 The book ” Wisdom of psychopaths” has been written by Kevin Dutton who is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, , and a member of the Oxford Centre for Emotions and Affective Neuroscience (OCEAN) research group. He gained his Ph. D from the University of Essex in 2000 with the thesis title “Minorities as symbols of uniqueness” : a break from the norm.( source Wikipedia).

  I highly recommend you this book even though it has this shocking title . Its content is very interesting and practical . I’m sure that every time you think about psychopaths what comes to your mind is the image of Hannibal Lecter from the well known horror film masterpiece “Silence of the lamb”.

 However, the psychopaths are not scary characters invented by authors or by cinema, they live among us. Most of them are CEO’s at big companies, politicians, lawyers or surgeons. But what exactly is a psychopath ? Well, the most simple definition of such a dangerous person is that a psychopath has no empathy and no remorse. They can be very charming at first , when you don’t know them well, however they can be very manipulative .They can walk over dead bodies in order to achieve what they want to. So if you don’t pay enough attention they can use you for their selfish purposes without any trace of remorse.

  As I’ve already mentioned before , they can live among us. It can be your boss, your neighbour, one of your friends or even a family member.

  Now, you might think that the vast majority of psychopaths or sociopaths are in jails. Well ,the author states that :”Incorporating the latest advances in brain scanning and neuroscience, Dutton demonstrates that the brilliant neurosurgeon who lacks empathy has more in common with a Ted Bundy who kills for pleasure than we may wish to admit, and that a mugger in a dimly lit parking lot may well, in fact, have the same nerveless poise as a titan of industry.”

  Now, in order to really understand the nature of a psychopath and to be aware of why some of them are criminals and others very respectful members of our society we have to remember Sigmund Freud’s theory and the structural model of the psyche :the id, ego and superego ( in German -das Es, Ich and Über-Ich which literally translates as “the it”, “I” and “over-I”. In the ego psychology model of the psyche ,the id is the set of uncoordinated instinctual desires; the superego plays the critical and moralizing role; and the ego is organized realistic agent that mediates between the instinctual desire  of the id and the critical superego. Freud compared the ego (in its relation to the id) to a man on horseback : the rider must harness and direct the superior energy of his mount, and at times allow for a practicable satisfaction of its urges. 

  Ok, again let me explain you in a more understandable fashion . Some people are born with psychopathic traits but they get a great , superior education and they learn about morals and etiquette and about how not to break laws. However, by nature they don’t have empathy and remorse. And because they might have intellectual and financial means they attend the best universities and they become, surgeons, lawyers or CEO’s at great companies . So you wouldn’t expect them to harm you, to belittle you or even to manipulate you in order to get what they want.

  By contrast with those are the psychopaths that don’t attend great schools. Those become criminals and they often go to jails.

  As Dutton develops his theory that we all possess psychopathic tendencies he puts forward the argument that society as a whole is more psychopathic than ever: after all, psychopaths tend to be fearless, confident, charming, ruthless, and focused—qualities that are tailor-made for success in the twenty-first century. ( Source good reads).

 What has personally surprised me is the fact that Kevin Dutton has found psychopathic traits in saints ( but wait a minute , aren’t saints the most empathetic , gentle or kind human beings?) Dutton has used the example of Saint Paul. We know that Saint Paul has played a major role in spreading the Gospel , putting the basis of Christianity and the notion of the Holy Spirit. One important aspect that I ‘ve personally figured out ( and Kevin Dutton hasn’t mentioned about ) is that that Paul has been transformed by the Holy Spirit in a way that psychology can’t explain . We all know that he has participated at the act of killing Saint Stephan and afterward Paul has (metaphorically) met Jesus Christ in his way to Damascus .From that point on, he has abruptly changed and his epistles will remain for ever the quintessence of the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of a genuine Christian , explaining the phenomenon of “metanoia” the Greek term used to explain the surrealistic change of our principles in order to give us the strong desire to follow Jesus Christ.

   The thing is ,that in our modern society some psychopaths never change, so they can harm so many people. Just imagine a CEO that runs a big company and has no morals, and that only thinks about his own merits and gains , how much harm can such a person do to the employees ?

  A very important aspect of the sides of the psychopathic personality is that they are brave . Sometimes, that ”hero” that can save people from fire might be a psychopath. ( Interesting enough and quite shocking , don’t you think so ? )

  If you want to find more about psychopaths, narcissists and sociopaths you can also read “Snakes in suits”, a book written by Robert Hare Ph. D and by Paul Babiak also a Ph. D . Through reading this book you’ll find more about psychopaths that have a lot of talent when it comes to entrepreneurship.

  At the end of this article I want to ask you : “Have you ever been harmed by a psychopath ? ” Did you have any knowledge about them, while you went through a living ( psychological) hell?