I looked a bit into the topic of Internet Behavior Psychology and became interested in finding out how people on the Internet would react to me if I told them that I’m a diagnosed psychopath, so I set out to get the answer. And I found that there are certain kinds of reactions that are repeated.
I grouped them in 4 categories, one of which consists of the ‘normal’ majority of people including minorities that are not Antisocial, and the remaining three groups which consist of the main 3 Minorities of Antisocial Personality Types or Disorders, according to the general consensus among professionals in the fields of neuro-psychology science and research, as it corresponds with my personal understanding and knowledge. I have chosen to alter some of the official phrasing of terms only for as far as it does not obscure or mislead the meaning thereof.
The 4 groups are:
- Neurotypical (normal) people.
- Psychopaths ie. Other psychopaths.
- Sociopaths.
- AsPD’ers (Antisocial Personality “Disordered”).
There are a number of other minorities (Schizoid Personality, BPD/Borderline Personality, ASP/Asperger’s Syndrome or HFA/High Functioning Autism) which can at times overlap with all 4 personality types as co-morbid conditions. My knowledge about the three conditions mentioned in paranthesis at present – though I can give advice on a personal basis – is not extensive enough for me to give statements or comments where these are concerned in this article series.
People from the four groups tend to have different – sometimes very obviously very different – kinds of reactions toward me when they and I interact on Internet forums or message boards. I will describe them as I’ve experienced them, and why don’t I begin with the largest group, the one everybody are sure to know better than any other – and sometimes even better than oneself. The…
Neurotypical (normal) people.
Neurotypical people usually in the beginning assume that I am a neurotypical person too, but they quickly sense I’m somehow unusual and different from others. This is normal, of course; to expect me to be neurotypical (normal) at first, even at a forum about, and for, antisocials, is quite understandable. After all, the vast majority of people we meet anywhere, on the Internet or elsewhere, are normal, neurotypical people.
On a side note: The number of those we consider ‘normal’, but who really linger at the border between ‘normal’ and slightly disordered or ‘neurotic’, is probably much higher than anyone imagines. My personal experience as someone who has a natural and well developed skill at spotting subtle differences in the behaviors of people – in the virtual sense and otherwise – has lead me to this conclusion (It’s a skill that I share with most other psychopathic people, so I’m not special as such in that regard). Of the official antisocial disorders AsPD is the only category that I consider an actual disorder (I’ll get more into that in an upcoming article).
Neurotypical people very often quickly notice that I have a different style and approach in my debating than other participants. And I’m virtually always the only active psychopathic individual in the debates (with one exception. More on that in a coming article.). They notice that I have a more ‘objective’ view on the topics being debated and that I tend to express myself with authority – something I do only when I know the subject well, or when I have an opinion I can back up if challenged – and that I keep a polite approach toward topics and other debaters that I haven’t formed an opinion of yet. Because of this they will generally have a lot of respect for me, at least when they don’t know about my diagnosis, but often also after they learn about it. Som neurotypicals, when they find out that I’m supposedly a psychopath, find it hard to believe that this is really true. They usually soon realize I’ve told them the truth, though, and that I am indeed a diagnosed psychopath – or a person who has been diagnosed as one.
Of all the groups the neurotypicals seem to be the one who is most likely to…
- Become surprised when they learn that I have the psychopathy diagnosis. Not because they question whether I may be lying (which would be a strange thing to do about something like this anyway), but because they find the psychopath label to be in opposition with their impression of me.
- Have a good ability to distinguish between truth/honesty and lie/untruthfulness. Therefore they’re the ones (other than the psychopaths) who believe me, once they’ve had time and opportunity to observe my style and behavior as a debate participant on the forum.
- Be critical toward the validity of me having been diagnosed. There’s great difference in how they view it, some believe I can’t possibly be a psychopath – the diagnosis must be wrong, the assessment procedure faulty, or something else must’ve gone wrong; others don’t know what to think about me; and yet others believe I fit the definition to a T, they see all the traits in me and can be hard to persuade that I may not be as bad as they see me.
In upcoming articles I will describe my experience with the other 3 groups.
