PROFILE OF A PSYCHOPATH: 20 CHARACTERISTIC SYMPTOMS - GEOGRAFÍA - 2025

The psychological profile of a psychopath is characterized by a deficit in impulse control, absence of feelings of guilt or shame, and problems of adaptation to social and moral norms. Some of its observable symptoms are manipulation, lies, superficial affection, brief relationships, or early criminal behaviors.

Psychopathy is a commonly misunderstood personality disorder; it is often associated with serial killers. Although some of these people turn out to be perfect murderers, since they lack guilt for the crimes they commit, most are integrated into society.

Learning to identify psychopathic personality traits is important, since we could be interacting with a person with this disorder without knowing it. Psychopaths often manipulate other people to get what they want unscrupulously, and relationships with them are often very toxic and harmful.

What is meant by a psychopathic person?

A psychopathic person is someone with a lack of empathy. That is, they do not usually feel emotion for the people around them, nor do they have regrets if at some point they make someone suffer physically or psychologically.

That said, we can say that psychopathy is a divergent personality disorder that cannot be confused with antisocial personality disorder, in children called dissocial personality disorder, or with borderline personality disorder.

How many types of psychopathies are there?

Something that is unknown about this disorder is that there are different types:

Primary psychopath

They are people who are characterized by not responding to punishment, tension or disapproval. They are usually able to be social for a certain time to meet the needs they have at that time.

Neurotic or secondary psychopath

People who have this type of psychopathy can relate to those around them in an affective way, they can even feel feelings of guilt or remorse and anxiety.

Dissocial psychopath

Usually a person has feelings of guilt, loyalty and affection present. In this case, their antisocial behavior is due to their environment, since they are usually found in marginal environments that have their own subculture.

Robert Hare's studies

Robert Hare, a doctor of psychology and researcher in the field of criminal psychology, developed a list of traits called The Hare Psychopathy Checklist with the aim of identifying people with this disorder.

Robert Hare conducted investigations with criminals for more than four decades, dedicating most of his studies to psychopathy. Initially, he developed the list as a tool to determine how long a criminal should remain in prison.

The degree and number of psychopathic traits that an individual will present played a decisive role in determining how many years they would be in prison.

20 symptoms of a psychopath according to Hare

1- Talkative and superficial charm

Loquacity implies having verbal ease, being an entertaining conversationalist. These people have answers to everything, often witty and intelligent, and they are capable of telling very interesting stories that hook their listeners.

They are charming, courteous and polite, not at all shy and never afraid to say what they think or what they want to say. They seem very outgoing people who tend to like others.

They can also be attentive listeners; they pretend to have empathy with the other person so that he or she develops trust in them and makes them more vulnerable, so that later they can manipulate them at will.

This is all just a mask. Psychopaths present themselves very well, very convincingly. They make others believe that they have very deep knowledge in many areas, when a more detailed analysis of the information they provide shows that their knowledge is only superficial. They tend to impress people by offering technical terms that others do not know.

2- Feeling of having great self-worth

Psychopaths have a pretty inflated vision of themselves and their abilities and worth. They tend to be stubborn and arrogant and believe that they are superior to other people. They are very self-confident, boastful, never consider themselves socially unsuccessful, and don't care about their current situation.

They imply that if they have a problem, their current circumstances are the result of bad luck or events beyond their control, which they cannot control. They highlight a lot of skills that they supposedly have, although they cannot demonstrate them.

They seem unconcerned about the contacts they have had with the courts and do not seem to believe that this could negatively affect their future.

3- Need for constant stimulation and tendency to boredom

These people show an excessive and chronic need for novel and exciting stimulation, which leads them to take risky actions. People with this personality disorder tend to have low discipline when it comes to completing tasks, as they get bored easily.

They cannot last long in the same job, for example, or finish tasks that they consider routine. They find it difficult to keep their attention on activities that are monotonous or of no interest to them. When asked, they will describe academic and other ordinary activities as boring and tedious.

Psychopaths argue these customs by saying that they like to seize opportunities or accept challenges. Actually, it is much more than this; they really feel a need to take risks. This leads many of these individuals to use drugs, especially those that have a stimulating effect.

4- Pathological lie

Adolf Hitler had psychopathic features

The degree of pathological lying can range from moderate to high. In the moderate way, these individuals are simply cunning, witty with what they say; In the extreme, they are deceptive, deceitful, shady, manipulative, and unscrupulous.

Lying and cheating are an essential part of psychopaths' interactions with others. In addition to feigning knowledge in many areas, they make promises that they later fail to keep and statements that contradict their behavior. They have a great facility for lying and an absence of guilt about it.

They usually write stories showing great confidence when telling them, so that the receiver does not usually doubt their veracity. Furthermore, when a lie is discovered, they show no symptoms of shame; they simply reinvent the story or add elements to make it seem more believable.

5- Direction and handling

The use of deception to manipulate others is distinguished from the previous item on the list because it reaches excessive levels of ruthless cruelty. These people exploit others unscrupulously, with a lack of concern and empathy for the feelings and suffering of their victims.

Psychopaths manipulate the people around them for personal gain at all costs. Sometimes the manipulation strategies used are very elaborate; other times they are quite simple.

Individuals always act very brash and unconcerned. Sometimes they use aliases to maintain their anonymity and to be able to defraud others more easily. They have a vision of other people as if they were excessively credulous and this gives them a reason to deceive and manipulate them.

6- Lack of remorse or guilt

People with psychopathic personality disorder have no feelings or concerns about the loss, pain, or suffering of their victims.

They tend to be carefree, not passionate, cold, and not empathetic. They show total disregard for their victims, citing reasons such as "it would be foolish not to take advantage of the weaknesses of others."

Psychopaths do not seem concerned or interested in the consequences of their actions or the effects of their behavior on others. Sometimes they can verbalize feelings of guilt to try to be empathetic, but their actions do not match what they say.

If they do come into contact with the courts, they usually consider that the sentence they have been awarded is unjust or disproportionate, showing an unrealistic appreciation of the seriousness of the facts and an external attribution of their actions.

7- Little depth of emotions

Charles manson

People with psychopathy suffer from a poverty of emotions and a very limited variety of feelings. They may show warmth, but it's only skin deep; in their interpersonal relationships they are cold even though they show overt symptoms of sociability.

They show an inability to express intense emotions and, when they express some type of feeling or emotion, it is in a dramatic and superficial way.

On the emotional and sentimental scale of a psychopath we cannot find much else apart from resentment, anger, superficial emotional states of self-pity, conceited and grandiose attitudes, a moody resentment and indignation. On many occasions, these people have great difficulty in describing what they feel.

8- Insensitivity and lack of empathy

This item describes a general lack of feelings towards people and a cold, dismissive, inconsiderate and tactless attitude towards them. These individuals seem totally incapable of putting themselves in the shoes of others and of imagining the suffering they suffer with their manipulations and lies. If they ever manage to appreciate that others suffer because of them, it is never an affective appreciation, but purely logical, intellectual.

Psychopaths are selfish and dismissive. The contempt they feel towards other people leads them to describe themselves as "lonely", "selective with people".

9- Parasitic lifestyle

Psychopathy leads these people to depend on others in an intentional, manipulative, selfish and exploitative way. This dependency is caused by a lack of motivation, very low discipline, and the inability to take responsibility.

They may use threats to remain financially dependent on their family or acquaintances, or they may try to appear victims and worthy of support and help.

These people will use any excuse not to have to work and earn money for themselves. The use of others to sustain and survive constitutes a persistent pattern in your life, it is not the result of the circumstances that may be occurring at the time.

10- Deficit in emotional control

Psychopaths show many expressions of irritability, annoyance, impatience, aggression, and verbal abuse: they cannot adequately control anger and rage.

They get upset easily and over unimportant topics that are contextually inappropriate. Their outbursts of anger are often brief and are negatively affected by alcohol.

11- Promiscuous sexual behavior

The relationships of people with this disorder are characterized by being brief, numerous, simultaneous, casual, informal and indiscriminate. They often have a history of trying to force someone into relationships with them and are visibly proud of their sexual conquests.

12- Early behavior problems

Often times, psychopaths have already displayed a wide variety of dysfunctional behaviors before the age of thirteen, such as theft, lying, vandalism, bullying, precocious sexual activity, arson, alcohol abuse or running away from home. All these behaviors often lead to expulsion from the school or institute and can lead to problems with the police.

13- Lack of realistic long-term goals

The inability or persistent failure to develop and carry out long-term plans is another characteristic of these individuals. Their existence is usually nomadic, without a direction or a goal in their lives.

They do not worry about the future or seriously consider it; they live from day to day and, although they may express intention or desire to get to an important job, they do nothing to get it. All of your goals describe short-term objectives.

14- Impulsivity

The behavior of psychopaths is not usually premeditated, it is rather unplanned. They have serious difficulties resisting temptations, coping with their frustrations and the impulses of the moment.

They tend to act spontaneously, without weighing the advantages and disadvantages of what they want to do or the consequences it will bring for themselves or for others. Often, you will change your plans, break up with your partner, or quit your job suddenly and without explanation.

15- Irresponsibility

This item is characterized by a repeated failure to fulfill obligations and responsibilities, such as not paying bills, missing classes or work, or not keeping promises. Irresponsible behaviors by psychopaths can put others at risk (eg, driving under the influence of alcohol).

16- Inability to accept responsibility for their actions

These people usually always have an excuse to explain their behaviors. They deny their responsibilities and attribute the things that happen to them to external causes (society, their family, the legal system…).

17- Several brief relationships

Given their inability to maintain long-term goals, psychopaths often have uncommitted relationships, reflected in a considerable number of them. Their interpersonal and love relationships are inconsistent and short-lived (less than a year).

18- Juvenile delinquency

Psychopaths have often been in trouble with the law before the age of 18, almost always involving exploitative, manipulative, and cruel behavior.

19- Revocation of parole

Sometimes these people have their parole revoked by the authorities for having failed in the conditions to maintain it, such as committing illegalities or technical violations.

20- Criminal versatility

Finally, psychopaths can have a very varied criminal career, which includes accusations or convictions for different types of crimes, such as: theft, robbery with weapons, drug-related crimes, assaults, sexual crimes, criminal negligence and fraud. They are usually very proud of having committed crimes without being discovered.