A Fresh Thesis

With Donald Trump in the President’s office, use of the terms “narcissist” and “sociopathic narcissist” have become ubiquitous but with very little understanding. There are a great many definitions of the former and very little development of the latter. It is time to deepen our understanding of them even while Sociopaths As Villains remains a work in progress. Indeed, because of the importance of reference books, it is essential that we rectify these terms before formal publication.

The central defining feature of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (301.81) is lacking a capacity for empathy (LCE). Sociopaths As Villains explores that lacking as a full blown blindness. It is analogous to being blind to a certain color; 301.81s are blind to half of reality, the “feminine” half – as if the sun is real but not the earth – abstraction but not substance. It is a hole in who they are fundamentally which creates additional holes in their perceptive capabilities, consciousness, personality and maturity.

For an individual suffering with LCE, emotional intimacy and interpersonal relationships are impossible, therefore 301.81s can never quite know the people around them, or what is actually going on in the world. This leaves them utterly lost, but because they still have to function in society despite these intellectual and emotional challenges, it is in the nature of 301.81 minds to continually conjure fillers for what would otherwise be mental, emotional, and conversational voids. 301.81s tend to view the world and healthy others in flat, abstract renderings, limiting their perspective to two-dimensionality. They commonly insert as non sequiturs various status assertions as antidotes to the usually suppressed but always underlying shame-pain, and fabricate an array of usually make-believe (UMB) rules while harboring imaginary victimhood.

Sociopaths As Villains is not about interpersonal relationships (psychology) but rather power-based relationships (politics). It is not about diagnosing sociopaths so clinicians can apply remedies to cure them; there are none. Built from the data up rather than elaborating on preexisting theories, this book posits a fresh, comprehensive, and integrated model that organizes narcissistic and sociopathic elements into categories not before discovered and explored; it unveils the various holes and fillers typical of narcissists and sociopaths, taking their existence as a given to examine the effects they have on those immediately around them, and on society in general. This reverse profiling manual is made possible because the character traits of 301.81s are surprisingly the same, and their tells are many.

This preliminary online introduction is to welcome review, critique, and most importantly contribution from those who are familiar with sociopathy and Narcissistic Personality Disorder, for the benefit of the project. Please utilize the contact page, subscribe to receive updates, or become a member so you might provide input and express your valuable opinions.

Key

301.81: Narcissistic Personality Disorder is a genetically-based congenital disorder (birth defect). In the case of narcissists (301.81s per the DSM), bad genes create a brain abnormality lacking the organic mechanism for empathy (LCE).

DSM: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), published by the American Psychiatric Association; now in its fifth edition: DSM-5.

LCE: Lacking a Capacity for Empathy.

Non sequitur: A comment that doesn’t belong or is inserted out-of-place in a conversation, including clichés, double-talk, empty words, factoids, fallacies, pandering, quibbles, sophistries, UMB rules, etc.

Regular 301.81 or narcissist: A person who is LCE and as defined in detail by DSM-5 in 301.81 and generally having to do with that fundamental lack of empathy. Here, frequently named “John” or “Jane.”

Sociopathic 301.81 or narcissist: A 301.81 who engages in “aggressive antisocial behaviors” (“sociopath,” per Webster’s). Here, frequently named “Jack” or “Jackie.”

Status Quantum: Because they are LCE, 301.81s tend to see reality in abstract terms having to do with relative rankings, frequently in number values (e.g. dollars, number of bedrooms or square feet) rather than for their substantive values (e.g. love, beauty, practicality).

UMB: Usually Make-Believe.

Foundation

00 Writer's Guide

00 Writer's Guide (01) TRUTH

Sociopaths are every bit as horrific as literature has long reported them to be and from personal experience, readers know them to be. The more accurate the portrayal of a villain character to a reader’s actual life experience, the more powerful the fiction, and the more likely readers will be to care about and follow the story. The truth is powerful – particularly the many truths that resound in the daily lives of readers.

00 Writer's Guide (02) THRILLING

Especially in tragedy, the truth of a reader’s experiences with the bad people they actually encounter resonates because it is very personally painful and because it otherwise remains private, festering, unresolved, and alienating. In the normal course of life, we breeze by 301.81s uneventfully, largely unconsciously, but not unknowingly, maybe experiencing them only as the “creeps” – people to be avoided to the extent possible. However, in fiction, we are given opportunity to look into the abyss of their evility safely, giving a 301.81 antagonist the opportunity to grab readers by the throat to pull them in deeper. Indeed among villains, sociopaths are the most horrifying.

00 Writer's Guide (03) DIMENSIONALITY

In pursuit of giving fictional characters dimensionality, writers sometimes give sociopathic 301.81s a depth they simply don’t and can’t have – while the actual reality of these villains is far more powerful, and chilling. Readers are not much moved by faux sociopathic characters who deviate from experiential reality. Indeed, squishy, emotionally conflicted sociopathic narcissists (301.81s) of a liberal construct may seem politically correct, but they can never be as impressive nor as terrifying for readers as the real thing.

00 Writer's Guide (04) BRAINSTORMING

In contrast to Roget’s Thesaurus which helps writers pin point the exact-right word for an existing context, Villains’ thesaurus is expansive. As a brainstorming tool, it helps writers imagine a rich and genuine context offering a variety of word associations and descriptive forms to create unique resonance for writers to takeoff from.

00 Writer's Guide (05) HEROES VS. VILLAINS

It’s been said that fiction is only a s good as its villains because heroes and their gimmicks tend to be much the same. Villains, on the other hand, drive the plot and action. They must be larger-than-life, different from other villains, and use different techniques to accomplish their evil goals. The attributes of villain characters are often corollary to those of the hero, except with opposite values. Readers be forewarned: 301.81s are not the heroes they pretend to be, and indeed, sociopathic 301.81s are true villains.

00 Writer's Guide (06) THE COMMUNITY

Unfortunately for writers, 301.81s, including sociopathic 301.81s, are all very much the same but the impact they have on the healthy others around them can be highly varied and thus interesting. When it comes to sociopathic 301.81villains in literature, it’s in the circle around them that human depth and drama can best be found. Indeed, the full measure of the sociopath’s horror can be seen as reflection in the bodies of previously healthy others, not just in their wounds, but particularly in their eyes – effectively, in the reader’s eyes. As always, it’s what the reader brings to the piece that matters most.

00 Writer's Guide (07) HITCHCOCK

The spot-on, gold standard for sociopaths in at least cinematic fiction remains the Anthony Perkins’ character in Hitchcock’s 1960 Psycho. But the famous, Anthony Hopkins’ character in Silence Of The Lamb (Jonathan Demme, 1991) was not – indeed, he was just the opposite. Although Hitchcock chose not to demonstrate all 301.81 traits in Psycho, omitting those associated with ranking in that solitary place such as a sense of entitlement, a preoccupation with status symbols and grandiosity, Hitchcock knew even in 1960 to include the almost certainly (but not yet discovered) genetically-based, common, tripartite cluster of 301.81 traits: (1) a lack of empathy (impersonality/dour, no boundaries/trespasses – like the the peep hole); (2) enormous shame-pain (anger, defensiveness, victimhood) and (3) magical thinking (entitlement thwarted, manipulative, faux charming). The master of perspective and detail, Hitchcock also gave his villain a cold and tedious hobby, taxidermy. It seems that both the inspired Hitchcock and his 301.81 villain were meticulous fellows. And as central to probably all films of that genre, his sociopathic 301.81 engaged in “aggressive antisocial behavior,” serial murder.

00 Writer's Guide (08) LACKING A CAPACITY FOR EMPATHY (LCE)

The central defining feature of all narcissists (301.81s), including sociopathic narcissists, is not their excess of bravado – that varies between them in intensity and style - but rather that they are lacking a capacity for empathy (“LCE”). In Silence, the Hopkins’ character had almost super empathic powers making possible an Oscar-winning, interpersonal relationship with the Jody Foster character, but at the cost of building the terror that could have been created by an accurate sociopath. It was to good effect that for most of the film the horrific behaviors associated with him were mostly regulated to the back story. (In the sequel, Hannibal, director Ridley Scott, reversed those priorities and lost everything.) Absent extraordinary circumstances, such as war, it is almost impossible for people who feel connected to others through empathy to do shocking, sociopathic things to other human beings which, because of empathy, would be doing them to themselves.

00 Writer's Guide (09) TRAGEDY

A good index that an older character is a sociopathic 301.81 is their having led a life that ends in tragedy. 301.81 lives are the essence of tragedy. They regularly underestimate obstacles and overestimate their own powers to overcome them, while at the same time being blinded by shame-pain. Overreaching is when sociopathic 301.81s are at their most vulnerable. For purposes of constructing a “turning point” in fiction, it can be useful for a writer to appreciate that it is perhaps inevitable that at some point in life (or in a story line), sociopathic 301.81s will overreach their circumstances to their demise. The lives of sociopaths are the essence of drama.

01 Holes

01 Holes (01) HOLES

301.81 “tells” are many and obvious when one knows for what they should look. As a hole in who they are as people, their central and defining feature may simply be their lack of empathy, but the ramifications of LCE include its attendant lack of perceptive capabilities, maturity, personality, etc. It is difficult to demonstrate holes, which can seem like trying to prove a negative. When done well, however, it can be profoundly illuminating for the reader.

01 Holes (02) LCE BLINDNESS

LCE is analogous to being blind to a certain color. 301.81s are blind to half of reality, the “feminine” half – as if the sun is real but not the earth – abstraction and not substance. This blindness is characterized by holes in 301.81s’ perceptions, in their consciousness, and thus in who they fundamentally are as people. They can never quite know the people they are with or what is actually going on in the world around them. Like color blindness, empathy blindness is a congenital disorder, a birth defect. But, unlike color blindness, the consequences are not only difficult for the them but for everyone they interact with: lovers, family, neighbors, coworkers, etc. To the detriment of friends and other familiars (and surely themselves), 301.81 LCE makes emotional intimacy and thus interpersonal relationships impossible, leaving them utterly lost. Suffering from LCE and other shortsightedness, 301.81s have to function in society in spite of large intellectual and emotional holes. These holes in their consciousness tend to lead them into inappropriate positions and frequently antisocial postures. Probably as compensation, to their minds, if empathy were a real thing, then they of all people would certainly be the ones to see it and see it on a higher-status level than any others.

01 Holes (03) SIMPLICITY

For 301.81s, the world is a harsh but simple place. Because they are LCE and limited to their two-dimensional perceptions and understandings, they typically eschew the complexities of interpersonal relations, art, irony, etc., and are unable to learn from the experiences of healthy others around them and from history generally. Indeed, sociopathic 301.81s not only prefer simplicity, but, when they have the authority to do so, require it of others. From there, abuse ensues.

01 Holes (04) SUBSTANCE OMITTED

In their blindness, when eating an especially good meal, 301.81s may miss the authentic substance of taste, texture, and feeling. Likely, as a substitute, they may be preoccupied with the status quanta they imagine the meal to project to others who may be looking their way. A double blindness. As a result, 301.81s tend to focus on their shiny accomplishments (an abstraction – the end game result) rather than the processes and experiences that got them there.

01 Holes (05) EXISTENCE

Because they are LCE towards even themselves, all 301.81s live an endless, intractable existential crisis – alienated, empty, and profoundly alone – that generates and aggravates their underlying shame-pain. It may be counter-intuitive and ironic but the most important feature of a character lacking a capacity for empathy (LCE) is the loss of, or maybe more exactly, the denial of self. But when sociopathic 301.81s act out in antisocial ways (e.g. a mass shooting of schoolchildren), they are proving their existence – not only to others but also to themselves. Essentially, they hover among us, apart and alone. They have good reason to be angry, and dramatic.

01 Holes (06) SCOPE

Healthy others can look up into the night sky and see infinity in its full multidimensionality. However, because they are LCE and generally disconnected from the world, 301.81s are limited to what they can abstract into just two dimensions – a reductionist’s version of reality that can appear as a calculation in the mind. While healthy others see a myriad of stars and galaxies above, 301.81s’ views are localized. They are mesmerized with their own little “stars” in every context, like the commercially manufactured Roman candle they might hold in their hand with chemically active stars that reach maybe just five feet up. As far as most 301.81s can tell, that’s all there is – for them or for anyone.

01 Holes (07) INFINITY

As a species, homo sapiens (Latin for wise persons) have come a long way since we imagined ourselves to be the center of the universe with the planets and stars revolving around us – while 301.81s have essentially remained stuck in place. Astronomer and philosopher Carl Sagan directly challenged 301.81s in his Pale Blue Dot (earth as viewed from space): “…Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light…” As Sagan famously noted: “We’re made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.”

02 Fillers

02 Fillers (01) FILLERS

Just as nature abhors a vacuum, so does the natural phenomenon of a personality. 301.81s are typically not creative people. The many holes in their perceptions, understandings, and thus their consciousness have remarkably the same fillers. Maybe the most obvious filler is their preoccupation with relative social ranking and thus status symbols where an appreciation of substance would be for healthy others. It is in the nature of 301.81 minds to continually conjure fillers for what would otherwise be mental, emotional, and conversational voids. Some examples include the tendency to view the world and healthy others in flat, abstract renderings (limiting the 301.81 perspective to two-dimensionality), as well as inserting non sequiturs, various status assertions, an array of usually make-believe (UMB) rules, imaginary victimhood, etc.

02 Fillers (02) ABSTRACTIONS

Because they are LCE and cannot experience the world directly as material and social reality, abstractions serve 301.81s as a simpler, more manageable substitute for calculating their special notions of life. Functioning on both macro and micro levels, abstractions tailored by them are less likely to trigger a shame-pain eruption. Abstractions also serve 301.81s as being more functional for controlling others than the often confusing substance of nature and its people.

02 Fillers (03) MAGICAL THINKING

301.81s live in an abstracted universe, and being abstract, they can consciously and unconsciously make anything seem real to themselves. At center is their need to minimize the shame-pain healthy others cannot see or likely even imagine. To casual observers, they might seem to suffer from “garbled thinking” which is what occurs when 301.81s have a difficult time squaring their magical thinking with the thoughts of the healthy others around them.

02 Fillers (04) ENTITLEMENT

As filler, because they are LCE, 301.81 magical thinking extends to include their peculiar but entirely sincere notion, which they see as fact, that on a planet with literally billions of other human beings, they are born specially entitled to status over all others – except possibly other 301.81s.

02 Fillers (05) SHAME-PAIN

As filler, where the stabilizing forces of a mature personality would be for healthy others, 301.81s are typically wracked by usually suppressed but always excruciating shame-pain ripping around their insides, tearing up their consciousness, interfering with their probably already tenuous relations with healthy others. When we know what to look for, we can see this pain erupting from deep inside them, despite how carefully they present themselves. It is a pain frequently associated with panic that can, when suppression fails, erupt into a full-body seizure, a “narcissistic fit.” And therein lies the rub. Like anyone else in our social species, 301.81s have a fundamental need to connect with others, but they lack the organic mechanism for doing so. It can sometimes seem that their every effort only worsens matters. It’s no wonder they’re in pain. It’s a pain as real as any other.

02 Fillers (06) SHAME-DUMPING

Being blame-averse (shame-pain avoidance), 301.81s typically blame healthy others for any and all difficulties that arise, frequently going to the extreme of unloading their personal shame on others. Traditional psychology calls this process “projection,” but Hotchkiss improves upon that with the term “shame-dumping.” If a 301.81 is accused of being “entirely preoccupied with status symbols” and feels shame because of it, they will predictably accuse some other person (likely a preexisting target) of the same thing and likely with the exact same words.

02 Fillers (07) MANIPULATIVE

Because they are LCE and thus are unable to personally connect with healthy others, 301.81s have an uncanny ability to read people for the purposes of manipulating them through exercise of a powerful but superficial charm or with demonstrations of (faux) authority, such as by asserting a non sequitur as if it were an unchallengeable rule to shut off conversation. They can be the best salespeople for closing a deal and proficient litigators for reading a jury.

02 Fillers (08) UMB RULES

As abstractions, concocted by even regular 301.81s and sometimes rudely enforced by sociopathic 301.81s, their usually make-believe (UMB) rules are common fillers. These greatly simplify human relationships that they cannot otherwise understand. Each declaration of a UMB rule doubles as a status assertion over healthy others. Because they are LCE and generally disconnected from the world, the UMB rules of 301.81s tend toward the bizarre, making 301.81s easier to identify, but at the cost of healthy others having to suffer them.

02 Fillers (09) RANKING

Concern for the abstraction “rank” is one of 301.81s’ most obvious fillers. 301.81s desperately need to feel superior to others – it’s all about being born extremely shame-sensitive. While in contrast, healthy others with genuine high self-esteem have simple confidence in themselves without regard to ranking. Disrespecting and lacking substance themselves, 301.81s find safety in the hierarchies, real or imagined, they find or create, where they can readily observe their social status and ranking relative to others. Indeed, for probably the majority of 301.81s, life and purpose is all about the abstraction of ranking and maybe not at all about substance. Characters who in conversation reference rank (“My doctor went to Harvard”) rather than substance (“My doctor has successfully preformed this surgery one hundred times.”) – are 301.81 suspects.

02 Fillers (10) STATUS SYMBOLS

301.81s’ typically intense drive to collect and display status symbols is not to be dismissed lightly. It’s not just a matter of pride or egoism, as it might be with healthy others. For 301.81s, status symbols (in perceived status quanta) become the elements of an essentially arithmetic system that makes social interaction workable. When regularly without that system, they have to bear their intrinsic shame-pain, while lost in the incomprehensible complexities of personal relationships.

02 Fillers (11) STATUS SURGES

When 301.81s display status and its symbols as fillers, they can experience a rush, not unlike the similarly addictive fix experienced by addicts. Pain demands relief, and the occasional status surge best relieves 301.81s’ underlying shame-pain. Even regular 301.81s who are aware of their condition must have their status surges. (Vaknin). It’s never wise to get between a 301.81 and one of their status or “narcissistic sources.”

03 Narcissists & Sociopaths

03 Narcissists & Sociopaths (01) NARCISSISM

Descriptions: (1) a personality disorder characterized by self-preoccupation, need for admiration, lack of empathy, and unconscious deficits in self-esteem (2) excessive preoccupation with or admiration of oneself (3) undue dwelling on one’s own self or attainments : self love (4) self-love; excessive interest in one’s own appearance, comfort, importance, abilities, etc. (5) arrest at or regression to the first stage of libidinal development, in which the self is an object of erotic pleasure (6) erotic pleasure derived from contemplation or admiration of one’s own body or self, especially as a fixation on or a regression to an infantile stage of development.

Story: Jake (LCE) was a rather self-righteous 301.81 and thus generally regarded as selfish, self-centered, self-absorbed, self-loving, grandiose, haughty, etc., unduly needy for attention, and in more vernacular terms, simply “an asshole.” Outside interpersonal relations (e.g. intimate, family, etc.), in the world dominated by power processes (politics, business, etc.), use of the word “narcissist” is generally disregarded as merely a loose insult. Not recommended.

Supplemental Observations: 301.81s are often called “narcissists,” but that word has devolved into a nearly meaningless insult. In casting a character negatively, one might be tempted to use the words narcissist, sociopath, paranoid, or shameful. However, the dictum for fiction writers remains: “Show it; don’t say it!” There are many definitions of narcissist, from the original Greek myth of Narcissus to the post-Freudian descriptions in traditional psychology and literature. Perhaps the most productive one is the medical diagnostic criteria set by the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM under its 301.81 entry for Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Thes. (Roget’s): autoerotic 140.8, conceitedness 140.4, egotist 140.5, egotistic 140.10, perversion 75.11, proudling 136.3, self-absorbed 651.5, self-admiring 140.8, self-approbation 502.3, self-centered 140.10, self-seeker 651.3, selfish 651.5, selfishness 651.1, sexual pervert 75.15, unfeeling 94.9, vain 140.8, vanity 140.1.

03 Narcissists & Sociopaths (02) NARCISSISTIC PERSONALITY DISORDER (301.81)

Descriptions: lacking a capacity for empathy (LCE); per the American Psychiatric Association, The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-5 301.81 (per Wikipedia) including: (1) grandiosity with expectations of superior treatment from others (2) fixated on fantasies of power, success, intelligence, attractiveness, etc. (3) self-perception of being unique, superior and associated with high-status people and institutions (4) needing constant admiration from others (5) sense of entitlement to special treatment and to obedience from others (6) exploitative of others to achieve personal gain (7) unwilling to empathize with others' feelings, wishes, or needs (8) intensely envious of others and the belief that others are equally envious of them (9) pompous and arrogant demeanor.

Story:

Supplemental Observations: The central defining feature of all those who suffer from Narcissistic Personality Disorder (301.81) - perhaps inaccurately but generally accepted to be about 4% of the American population - is merely their lack of a capacity for empathy (LCE). Regular 301.81 aren’t so bad. They may be profoundly pained and fundamentally lost, but they’re not, at least purposefully, acting in ways that are antisocial. They’re doing the best they can. The problems that come up with them are usually workable. Indeed, they regularly make contributions to society, frequently in areas where empathy can get in the way, such as ones that others find too technical or meticulous (e.g. science, computers, accounting), too off-putting (e.g. prisons, the military, sewage), or too gruesome (e.g. animal slaughter, care of the dead). Indeed regular 301.81s are not necessarily bad/evil people. Plenty of 301.81 lead pro-social, productive, even progressive lives - usually pursuant to a well-integrated and prosocial rule structure probably trained into them by their families.

Thes. (Roget’s): affectless 94.9, apathetic 94.13, blind 25.6, callousness 94.3, heartless 144.25, heartless 94.9, heartlessness 144.10, impenitent 114.5, inanimate 1053.5, insensate 25.6, insensibility 25.1, insentient 25.6, lack of caring 94.4, lack of feeling 94.4, numb 1044.7, out of touch 94.9, personality disorder 92.15, unconcern 102.2, unemotional 94.9, unfeeling 1044.13, unfeeling 94.9, unsympathetic 94.9, vacuous 932.4.

03 Narcissists & Sociopaths (03) SOCIOPATH

Descriptions: (1) a person suffering from psychopathic personality, whose behavior is aggressively antisocial (2) an adult who has a personality disorder marked by antisocial behavior (3) of, relating to, or characterized by asocial or antisocial behavior.

Story: 301.81 Jennifer only rarely engaged in antisocial behaviors that were aggressive and so was not a sociopathic 301.81.

Supplemental Observations: As a special breed of 301.81s, the shame-pain of sociopathic 301.81s generates malice instead of simply isolation. It is unfortunate that the fillers they favor tend to be aggressively antisocial – starting with their make-believe entitlement and thus victimhood when thwarted, malice fuels both the passive and active aggressive targeting of healthy others. Motivated by the threat of a powerful shame-pain eruption and validated by an enlarged sense of victimhood (entitlement thwarted), sociopathic 301.81s put aggressive antisocial action (including domestic violence, bullying, rape, murder, and war) behind their convictions – the stuff of drama.

Supplemental Observations: Correctly “sociopath” is not listed in the APA’s DSM as a mental disorder – it’s about power relations and is thus political. It is defined here with particularity as “a 301.81 whose behavior (per Webster’s) is aggressively anti-social.” Not every narcissist is a sociopath but every sociopath is a 301.81 narcissist. Sociopathic 301.8s are – by definition – more aggressive than regular 301.81s. But they are also in considerably more shame-pain, than regular 301.81s, are more concerned about (UMB) rules/social contrivances, have a stronger sense of entitlement, are more self-righteous, and are probably from families with antisocial values in their relationships with individuals (although possibly have progressive politics). 301.81s have good reason to be angry. The plainest difference between regular 301.81s and sociopathic 301.81s is that sociopathic 301.81s “behavior is aggressively antisocial.” (Webster’s) The difference is striking - not one of degree but rather one of type. Situationally, however, regular 301.81s can sometimes demonstrate sociopathic tendencies (e.g. a regular 301.81gets temporary control over others; becomes a sworn and armed member of law enforcement, etc.).

Thes. (Roget’s): abnormal 926.5, antisocial 590.3, brain damage 925.1, brain disease 92.14, defense reaction 92.23, demented 925.26, mad 925.29, maniac 925.30, megalomania 925.12, mental 925.27, misanthropic 590.3, personality disorder 92.15, psycho 925.16, psychopath 925.17, psychopathological personality 92.13, psychotic 925.28, social maladjustment 92.14, sociopathy 92.15, unfitness 788.3.

03 Narcissists & Sociopaths (04) SOCIOPATHIC TENDENCIES

Descriptions: (1) a) a characteristic likelihood b) a predisposition to think, act, or proceed in a particular way c) a characteristic pattern or point of view (2) a) a direction or or approach toward a place, object, effect, or limit b) a proneness to a particular kind of thought or action : propensity (3) movement or prevailing movement in a given direction (4) a course or apparent course toward some purpose, object, or result; drift (5) the purposeful trend of something written or said : aim.

Story:

Supplemental Observations: Not even regular 301.81s are immune from demonstrations of sociopathic tendencies. Because they are LCE and generally disconnected from the world, and due to the burden of shame-pain, even regular 301.81s lack the context from which they might judge how assertive they can be without becoming antisocially aggressive. They essentially function unintentionally in the dark, like the proverbial bull in a china shop, in pain themselves, doing healthy others and society damage.

Thes. (Roget’s): aptitude 413.5, direction 161.1, disposed 977.8, disposition 977.3, inclination 100.3, inclination 895.1, liable 896.5, nature 766.4, penchant 100.3, predilection 100.3, predispose 893.7, predisposition 895.1, probability 967.1, proclivity 895.1, proneness 895.1, propensity 977.3.

03 Narcissists & Sociopaths (05) CHARACTERISTIC

Descriptions: (1) a feature that helps to identify, tell apart, or describe recognizably; a distinguishing mark or trait (2) being a feature that helps to distinguish a person or thing; distinctive (3) serving to mark the distinctive character of an individual, group, or class.

Story:

Supplemental Observations: The reason there can be as many as 1,000 characteristics of sociopaths is because they are a type of narcissist. In the lives of readers, they regularly experience what many call, “assholes” or the slightly less pejorative “jerks” – selfish, unfeeling, profoundly irritating, regularly offensive and even destructive individuals who ruin many of their days. And lives. Brash. Self-righteously rude. Hurtful.

Thes. (Roget’s): attitudinal 977.7, attribute 864.4, classificational 808.7, differentiative 779.9, distinctive feature 864.4, distinctiveness 864.1, habit 373.4, nature 766.4/864.4, peculiar 864.13, peculiarity 864.4, personality 864.1, quality 86.4, sign 517.1, specificality 864.2, trait 864.4, typical 349.15.

03 Narcissists & Sociopaths (06) ASSERTIVE PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR

Descriptions: (1) inclined to bold or confident assertion; aggressively self-assured (2) characterized by assertion; positive or confident in a persistent way (3) characterized by self-confidence and boldness in expressing opinions.

Story:

Supplemental Observations: In the normal course of a healthy society, its members are expected to assert themselves, particularly at work, as necessary to get their contributions into the social mix and thus promote progressive growth. Assertion is a healthy, positive, prosocial quality. Healthy others have a capacity for empathy and thus participate in society fully cognizant of the people and circumstances around them as well as the consequences of their acts. Unfortunately, traditional pre-science psychologists like to call these prosocial efforts of healthy others, somewhat pejoratively, “healthy narcissism.” In this book, they’re more simply called “healthy.”

Thes. (Roget’s): affirmativeness 334.2, assert oneself 348.6, assertative 334.8, assertional 334.8, assured 969.21, authoritative 417.15, commanding 420.13, confident 969.21, courageous 492.17, directing 573.12, dominant 612.18, influential 417.15, insistent 421.9, pertinacious 421.9, powerful 417.15, resolute 359.11.

03 Narcissists & Sociopaths (07) AGGRESSIVE ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR

Descriptions: (1) hostile to or disruptive of the established social order; marked by or engaging in behavior that violates accepted mores (2) contrary or hostile to the well-being of society; esp : being or marked by behavior deviating sharply from the social norm (3) against the basic principles of society; harmful to the welfare of the people generally (4) shunning the society of others; not sociable (5) avoiding association with others; unsociable (6) disliking or avoiding the company of others : unsociable (7) antagonistic toward or disrespectful of others; rude.

Story:

Supplemental Observations: Instead of prosocial asserting and contributing, sociopathic 301.81s aggressively work to block the contributions of healthy others. They start fights and pursue quarrels when healthy others demonstrate concern, compromise, and consensus. Militant, warlike, hostile, and destructive, these are the twisted villains among us who abuse women, children, employees, minorities, the elderly, the disabled, and the environment. They’re the dictators, rapists, internet trolls, cop killers, and cops who kill too easily. And yet, despite their bravado, it is in their perhaps historically inevitable overreach that sociopathic 301.81s are their most vulnerable.

Thes. (Roget’s): antagonistic 589.10, cold 583.6, dark 38.9, detached 583.6, deviant 926.5, eccentric 926.5, erratic 926.5, insociable 583.5, malcontent 108.3, misanthropic 590.3, oppositional 451.8, people hating 590.1, rebellious 327.11, removed 583.6, socially incompatible 583.5, sociopathy 92.15, unsociability 590.1, unsociable 583.5.

03 Narcissists & Sociopaths (08) PSYCHOTIC

Descriptions: (1) of, relating to, or affected by psychosis (2) of, relating to, marked by, or affected with psychosis (3) of, or having the nature of, a psychosis (4) having a psychosis (5) a person affected by psychosis (6) a person who has a psychosis (7) a major mental disorder in which the personality is very seriously disorganized and contact with reality is usually impaired : psychoses are of two sorts a. functional (characterized by lack of organic cause, and principally of the schizophrenic, paranoid, or manic-depressive type), and b. organic (characterized by a pathological organic condition such as brain damage or disease, metabolic disorders, etc.) (8) an acute or chronic mental state marked by loss of contact with reality, disorganized speech and behavior, and often by hallucinations or delusions, seen in certain mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, and other medical disorders (9) fundamental or severe personality disorder characterized by defective or lost contact with reality and often by delusions and hallucinations.

Story:

Supplemental Observations: All 301.81s are fundamentally delusional; while sociopathic 301.81s are effectively psychotic as well.

Thes. (Roget’s): berserk 925.30, crazy 925.27, delirious 925.31, deranged 925.26, disturbed 925.1, homicidal maniac 925.15, insane 925.17/925.26, lunatic 925.15, mental deficiency 921.9, mental disorder 92.14, mental sickness 925, moral insanity 925.3, psycho 925.16, psychological 92.36, psychopath 925.17, psychopathic 925.28, psychopathological personality 92.13, psychosis 925.3, raving 925.8.

03 Narcissists & Sociopaths (09) TRUE BELIEVERS

Descriptions: (1) to accept as true or real (2) to have trust or confidence (in) as being true, real, good etc. (3) to have confidence in the truth or value of something (4) to have faith, confidence, or trust (5) to have a firm conviction as to the reality or goodness of something (6) to have firm faith, especially religious faith (7) to credit with veracity (8) to hold as an opinion : think, suppose (9) to have confidence in a statement or promise of (another person).

Story:

Supplemental Observations: Because they are LCE and generally disconnected from the world, 301.81s’ greatest weakness is that they tend to believe their own narrative as true believers and act accordingly. Yet healthy others are nevertheless able see the enormous shame-pain they suffer. With 301.81s’ lack of empathy, most healthy others find it hard to relate to them, much less console them. True believers are by nature, dangerous. Dramatic.

Thes. (Roget’s): assured 952.21, confident 952.21, convinced 952.21, decided 969.20, devotee 101.4, dogmatic 969.22, have faith in 952.15, ideologist 952.9, positive 969.21, religionist 675.15, suppose 950.10, the assured 952.9, the way one thinks 952.29, trust in 952.17, truster 692.4/952.9, undoubting 952.21, unwavering 969.21, zealot 952.9.

03 Narcissists & Sociopaths (10) ANGER

Descriptions: (1) a feeling of displeasure resulting from injury, mistreatment, opposition, etc., and usually showing itself in a desire to fight back at the supposed cause of this feeling (2) an inflammation of a sore or wound (3) pain or trouble (4) to make angry; enrage or provoke (5) to make painfully inflamed.

Story:

Supplemental Observations: As true believers in The 301.81 Refrain (“I’m not like you. I am special above you.”), sociopathic 301.81s frequently require that healthy others also believe in their alien, artificial, and probably bizarre notion of “how the world really works.” 301.81s can become enraged (shame-pain) when they believe themselves to be limited or humiliated by the supposed nonsense (i.e. empathy) of others. Lost in magical thinking, they dismiss others’ objections to their antisocial behaviors by believing and even declaring that empathy and prosocial values are forms of mental illness – certainly, in the very least, nonsense. While regular 301.81s may or may not suffer in silence, sociopathic 301.81s regularly and unfairly reach out to make others suffer along with them.

Thes. (Roget’s): darkness 38.2, displeasure 152.1, fury 152.10, heat metaphor 1018.2, ill humor 110.1, indignation 152.4, infuriation 152.5, lose one’s temper 152.17, make angry 152.22, rage 152.8, rancor 152.3, resentment 152.1, sore 152.26, vexation 152.1, violence 671.1, wrath 152.5.

03 Narcissists & Sociopaths (11) MALICE

Descriptions: (1) a desire to harm others or to see others suffer; extreme ill will or spite (2) ill will; esp : the deliberate intention of doing unjustified harm for the satisfaction of doing it (3) evil intent; state of mind shown by intention to do, or intentional doing of, something unlawful (4) a) the intent to commit an unlawful act without justification or excuse b) an improper motive for an action, such as desire to cause injury to another.

Story:

Supplemental Observations: Sociopathic 301.81s are those especially angry 301.81s who suffer sometimes excruciating, even blinding shame-pain. They are a whole different thing entirely. The presence of malice in the sociopathic 301.81 is a difference of kind, not of degree, from regular 301.81s. Their enlarged sense of victimhood generates malice from their insides and compels these villains to aggressive antisocial actions, such as domestic violence, bullying, rape, murder, and war.

Thes. (Roget’s): animus 589.4, badness 999.1, bitterness 103.2, enmity 589.1, evil 999.3, harmfulness 999.5, hate 103.1, hatefulness 451.2, hostility 589.3, ill will 144.4, maleficent 144.20, maliciousness 144.5, spite 589.5, spitefulness 144.6.

03 Narcissists & Sociopaths (12) BELLIGERENCE

Descriptions: (1) belligerent or aggressively hostile attitude, nature, or quality (2) showing a readiness to fight or quarrel (3) seeking war; warlike (4) of, pertaining to, or engaged in warfare (5) at war; designating or of a state recognized under international law as being engaged in war (6) waging war; esp : belonging to or recognized as a power at war and protected by and subject to the laws of war.

Story:

Supplemental Observations: Sociopathic 301.81s are notable for spending their lives fighting to prevent healthy others from acquiring anything resembling a status symbol (which, to the benefit of writers, is most everything). It’s a belligerence they believe justified by the wrongfulness of un-entitled others daring to compete with them for status (basically, having a normal life), which threatens the sociopath with shame-pain eruption. Often, sociopathic 301.81s will passive aggressively manipulate bystanders in their social and political circles against the targeted individual. But they can also become aggressively antisocial and imbued with malice as trespassers, predators, and criminals, frequently being critical, rude, or even violent. Great drama regularly ensues.

Thes. (Roget’s): bellicose 110.26, aggressive 456.17, antagonistic 589.10, argumentative 110.26, combatant 461.1, confrontational 778.6, contentious 110.26, contrary 778.6, hostile 458.21/589.10, irascible 456.17, pugnacious 458.21, warlike 458.21.

03 Narcissists & Sociopaths (13) VICTIMIZING

Descriptions: (1) to make a victim of, especially : a. to injure or kill b. to cheat or defraud (2) to make a victim of; specif., a. to kill, destroy, etc. as or like a sacrificial victim b. to dupe or cheat.

Story:

Supplemental Observations: The victimization of others is problematic for sociopathic 301.81s. Their role is to take away lives in whole or in part, but, because they are LCE, 301.81s can never know or feel what life really is. Because they are LCE-blind, 301.81s generally do not have the mechanism that might otherwise inform them of the value of human life. Thus, it can appear that for them, “life is cheap.” For sociopathic 301.81s, to do damage to a healthy other is to do damage to nothing – or to nothing that matters much. This lacking and perspective can come up in most any context (e.g. crime, workplace health & safety, public safety, etc.). They can never understand the damage successfully done and so never get the satisfaction for a well-executed attack. They can only (and usually do) double-down their attacks on their targets ad nauseam, to reassure themselves.

Thes. (Roget’s): abuse 389.4, afflict 999.6, bully 127.20, cheat 356.18, deceive 356.14/415.11, exploit 632.7, harass 389.7, maltreat 389.5, mistreat 389.5, persecute 389.7, terrorize 127.20, torment 999.6, work evil 999.6.

04 Social Implications

04 Social Implications (01) SOCIAL FABRIC

Descriptions: (1) a complex underlying structure (2) a) anything constructed or made of parts put together; structure, building b) the framework or basic structure of anything (3) a) a method or style of construction b) a structural material, such as masonry or timber c) a physical structure; a building (4) the construction and upkeep of a church building (5) a) a material made from fibers or threads by weaving, knitting, felting, etc., as any cloth, felt, lace, or the like b) the texture of such material.

Story:

Supplemental Observations: As human beings, we are inextricably bound together in a social fabric that creates, nurtures, molds, protects, accepts contributions from, and eventually buries each of us. To make it all work, most of us are born with the essence of humanity inside each of us – our empathy – that very practically joins us together into that larger accumulation of ourselves that we also call humanity. Because they are LCE, 301.81s are deprived of the social source from which we develop our personalities, our maturity, our perceptions of others, our senses of right and wrong, our social respect, our creativity, and very importantly, our most basic intelligence. We tend to take our bond with our social fabric for granted. But for those who are born disconnected from it, life can be horrible.

Thes. (Roget’s): building blocks 196.5, components 196.1, constitution 266.1, edifice 228.5, elements 762.2, essential content 196.5, framework 266.4, material 4.1, matter 1050.2, outline 211.2, skeleton 211.2, structure 266.1, substance 196.5/762.2, system 977.2, weaving 740.1.

04 Social Implications (02) DISCONNECTION

Descriptions: (1) a lack of connection; a disparity (2) not connected; separate or detached (3) to break or undo the connection of; separate, detach, unplug, etc. (4) broken up into unrelated parts; incoherent (5) impossible to understand, incoherent.

Story:

Supplemental Observations: Like anyone else in our social species, 301.81s have a fundamental need to connect with others, but they lack the organic mechanism for doing so. It’s no wonder they’re in pain. Where healthy others have substance, existing naturally as part of the social fabric with developed maturity and nuanced personality, 301.81s typically do not.

Thes. (Roget’s): aloneness 871.2, detachment 801.1, difference 779.1, disconnect 801.8, discontinuous 812.4, disparity 786.1, dissimilarity 786.1, dissociated 775.6, estrangement 801.1, incoherence 803.1, separated 801.21, severance 801.2, unconnected 801.20, unjoined 801.20, unrelated 775.6.

04 Social Implications (03) SOCIAL RETARDANTS

Descriptions: (1) serving or tending to retard (2) something that retards; esp., a substance that delays a chemical reaction (3) a substance that retards a process, as a flame retardant (4) to slow up especially by preventing progress : hinder (5) to cause to move or proceed slowly; delay or impede (6) a slackening of tempo.

Story:

Supplemental Observations: Sociopathic 301.81s do not only drag down our character or spirit, they hit us in our personal, institutional, and national pocketbooks as well. Taken together, they are probably the force in our society that most destroys our national production and progress and are thus our security enemy. While their individual intent is to avoid shame-pain, they imagine that others are causing it – as if it were possible to hurl pain through space. Their collective function is to deny society the benefits of what supposedly un-entitled and threatening others have and want to offer. They are the supervisors who get talented, energetic subordinates fired. They are the racists, misogynists, and homophobes who, with great self-righteous indignation, fight to cut huge swathes of national contributors away from our collective well-being and strength. Their intended function is to dumb down society to levels less threatening to them. As policymakers and administrators, they are expensive. We rightly don’t care much about faults associated with who sociopathic 301.81s are as people when there is so much fault in what they choose to do.

Thes. (Roget’s): arrestation 1011.2, barrier 293.3, constraint 428.1, delay 845.8/175.4, determent 1011.2, hindrance 1011.1, impediment 293.3, limitation 428.3, repellent 453.5, restraint 428.1, restriction 428.3, setback 175.4, slowing 175.4.

04 Social Implications (04) NATURAL SELECTION

Descriptions: (1) the process in nature by which , according to Darwin’s theory of evolution, organisms that are better adapted to their environment tend to survive longer and transmit more of their genetic characteristics to succeeding generations than do those that are less well adapted (2) a natural process that results in the survival and reproductive success of individuals or groups best adapted to the conditions under which they live and that leads to the perpetuation of adaptive genetic traits and the elimination of those that are not adaptive.

Story:

Supplemental Observations: Pending further advances in genetic science that might correct the 301.81 disability with gene splicing, retro viruses, etc., old-fashioned natural selection will have to suffice. As healthy others learn to better distinguish between those with and without the infirmity, they can better choose strong, healthy mates to produce strong healthy babies. In the natural order of things, for most all animal species, it falls to the female to make genetic selections. But humans don’t have the benefit of witnessing a pair of males compete in combat to see which will be the stronger, better mate. Our world is much more complex than that. The fellow with the Porsche, dressed in Armani and whose vacation home is in Bermuda may be sexually attractive to young women because he appears to be a strong, healthy, rich alpha male – whether he is or is maybe a faux alpha instead.

Supplemental Observations: When the evolutionary/Darwinian purpose of 301.81s in society (LCE) becomes clearer, it might turn out that the simplicity and brashness of 301.81s once served useful purposes in our pre- industrial and industrial phases of development. It could be that their “bad messages” from their brains, now regarded negatively, were then (at least functionally) good. And that now they’ve largely outlived their usefulness. Given that the 301.81 disability is genetically based to begin with and that the difference (levels of aggression) between regular and sociopathic 301.81s is so striking – that difference may also turn out to be genetically based as well. 301.81s can’t be fixed. For them, LCE, it’s a system failure.

Thes. (Roget’s): adaptation 787.4, adjustment 787.4, biological evolution 860.3, conformity 866.1, evolution 860.1, evolutionism 860.4, fitness 787.5, modification 851.1, phylogenesis 860.3, redesign 78.1, reproduction 78.1, suitability 787.5, theory of evolution 860.4.

04 Social Implications (05) BUSINESS SELECTION

Descriptions: (1) the act or process of selecting : the state of being selected (2) one that is selected, such as a literary or musical text chosen for reading or performance (3) a) a carefully chosen or representative collection of people or things b) a range of things from which one can make a choice (4) any process, natural or artificial, by which certain organisms or characters are favored or perpetuated in, or as if in, preference to others.

Story:

Supplemental Observations: Business and government executives routinely make personnel decisions. Status-conscious, 301.81s will put themselves forward for a promotion with more enthusiasm than healthy others. Because they tend to be very good at manipulating healthy others, they can be extraordinarily charming and charismatic. But they are team breakers, faux alphas – not leadership material. No one wants to hire a 301.81 bully as a supervisor to abuse an employer’s human resources – not when they could hire a professional who is trustworthy, on point, and leading their employees to productive ends instead. Making a 301.81-conscious hiring decision can be the difference between hiring a team leader and becoming known for having initiated an internal war.

Thes. (Roget’s): allocation 864.6, appointment 615.2, assignment 615.2, choice 371.1, designation 517.3, excerpt 557.3, grouping 807.3, indication 517.3, installation 615.3, preference 371.1, range 709.6, specification 864.6.

07 Social Implications (06) LOVING 301.81s. Descriptions: (1) feeling love; affectionate (2) indicative of or exhibiting love (3) expressing love.

04 Social Implications (06) LOVING 301.81s

Descriptions: (1) feeling love; affectionate (2) indicative of or exhibiting love (3) expressing love.

Story:

Supplemental Observations: To be sure, regular 301.81s are ubiquitous and generally harmless. They do their best, but, distanced from the inner lives of others, they tend to be lost in the world and focus on superficialities they can readily observe, such as a dedication to the accumulation of status and its symbols. There is no need to contest with sociopathic 301.81s. They revel in the action. When there is no action, they experience only dead air – facing the dark specter of The Void. While keeping your guard up, earnestly loving them is the only productive and indeed the only protective approach to take. It helps soothe them in their shame-pain to have their existence acknowledged – as they are. Further, it helps to declare them to be “right” about most everything. Love is a simple thing. We know these people. We may love these people even if they can’t love in return, or be them. The true harm comes from a particular kind of narcissist – a difference of kind, not of degree – the sociopathic 301.81s. Regular 301.81s have as much right to walk this earth as any other person. Sociopathic 301.81s do not.

Thes. (Roget’s): adoring 104.27, affectionate 104.27, careful 339.10, considerate 143.16, dedicated 587.21, demonstrative 517.23, devoted 587.21, expressive 517.23, faithful 644.20, friendly 587.15, kind 143.13, solicitous 143.16, sympathetic 143.13.

05 The 301.81 Refrain

Characters:

05 The 301.81 Refrain (01) REFRAIN