Everybody seem to agree about this: Psychopaths lie… a lot! Sometimes we lie pathologically, which means something like ‘we don’t have any objectively logical reason to lie, but we do so anyway, and for reasons that are very personal and seemingly almost unfounded.
The term ‘Unfounded’ doesn’t hold any real Meaning to psychopaths. That is, we know pretty much what it means to others, but to us that meaning is false, because in our view, and according to how our minds work, everything can be, be made, or otherwise become – reason enough for lying… or for being verbally or physically abusive, deceitful or hurtful, etc..
We do not have the social normatives to regulate our views of what is more or less reasonable according to how it affects others. We only have one normer: Does it affect ourselves in a way we want it to. If yes, that is all the reason we need or find necessary.
It isn’t even necessarily cynicism, as cynicism suggests some original experience, or line of experiences, which led to somebody changing their original perspective. Cynicism is a viewpoint that has an inner perspective component in it’s opposite. To be truly cynical, there must be at least some emotional understanding of the implications of the opposite of cynicism.
Now I’m not claiming psychopaths cannot be cynical, or that we can’t have had experiences that leads us to decide for cynicism and against sentimentalism. Obviously this is very common for most psychopaths, myself included. And the reason is, of course, that whereas we don’t have the ability to feel empathy and remorse, or love (if I understand the concept correctly), we can and do feel a good many other things – and most likely many aspects of emotions and feelings are available to us, which aren’t available to others. But that’s another discussion.
Since we cannot empathize on the emotional level, we can also not truly feel and see sensibility in taking consequences of our actions towards other people into honest consideration. For us, there are only each of us, individually, and I always have my reasons for lying which make their own internal kind of sense between The Psychopath, Zhawq, and Zhawq, The Psychopath. My lies do truly not necessarily have their Motivation in some prospective monetary gain, or in avoiding negative consequences from speaking truthfully.
It will probably seem very strange, and at first unlikely, that I might choose to lie if doing so can harm someone else, even though I apparently gain nothing else but the possible satisfaction of seeing the results of something I was causing (and indeed, control and power are the most strongly motivating factors to a majority of psychopathic individuals).
But what I’m about to describe is a model for reasoning that is fundamentally different from how the socially, empathically integrated individual reasons. I’ve explained why we don’t use societal normatives for our reasonings, and that it follows as a result that our reasoning follows different logical qualities and objectives. These are based on what can satisfy MY need at the moment, and in that particular situation at that time.
Yet, there are reasons that are not directly linked to power or control – or at least not as an obvious, focused objective that would cause me to lie under corresponding circumstances and from situation to situation, in relation thereto.
First I will mention that it is true that many psychopaths tend to lie as an almost constant, partial, or complete, presence in their interactive social behavior, including in situations when there’s really no need to – at least as it will seem from a logical bystander’s point of view.
This has something to do with the second sentence I wrote: Our normatives for when a reason for lying is well founded are very different from those of ordinary people.
I described how, to us, there are only one main vector the reasonable momentum of which we measure a reason’s weight: Does it help us, or directly lead us, to our objective, which some call the psychopath’s immediate ‘Gratification’. If yes, then the requirements for ‘A Good Reason’ are fulfilled, and we can proceed, no matter how minor the gain is in a larger perspective, or how vast the negative impact upon those who get affected by our lies’ consequences.
We already know this is connected to our inability to feel empathy (which is different from unwillingness).
But I have just stated that I am fully capable of understanding intellectually exactly what a small, and for myself insignificant, lie under certain circumstances can lead to devastating consequences for others. And yet I do not attempt to not act on such an urge to lie, and I tell you this while adding, that I am STILL not evil or particularly callous as a person.
I will tell you more about how and why – in my understanding – that is, in this article’s Part 2.
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