Definition of a Psychopath, the True Apex Predator

Psychopaths come in very different forms and levels of intelligence. Common to them is that they have an inherent need inside them to hurt others through physical or psychological violence. This need is unhindered because of their other trademark, a complete lack of empathy. Empathy is naturally an emotion as well, but I believe one of the more cognitive ones. Empathy gives you the ability to put yourself in someone else’s place and create a sense of what they are experiencing. This way you feel sorry for someone who is being hurt, usually making you unable to hurt others. But because empathy is a semi-cognitive emotion, it is possible to override it in cases of severe stress, such as self-defense. This is why anyone, under extreme circumstances (him or me!) could potentially cause harm to someone else if their own survival was threatened. In return, most of us would probably feel a great deal of remorse after this act of violence, since at the absence of the stressful circumstances that forced us into action, our rationale again switches on the empathy and we suddenly feel sorry in retrospect for the pain we caused during our time of stress. 

The psychopath experiences neither empathy nor remorse. Or rather, his rationale is eschewed in a way to switch off these semi-cognitive emotions and rather justify even the most abhorrent actions inside his own moral framework, construed in his mind. He might be fully aware of the legal real-world consequences of his actions but inside his personal moral framework, his conduct is completely justified. Like Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment, these people can think about the pros and cons of taking a life, but they will always find a way to justify it to themselves. Their victims (could be anyone) deserve no empathy from them, because their desire to hurt overrides everything else. Less intelligent psychopaths can potentially hurt anyone they come across, but they are usually easy to catch as they act mainly on impulse. An example of these is Henry in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, inspired by the real serial killer Henry Lee Lucas who killed numerous people while drifting across the USA. Charles Whitman or Ronald DeFeo are other examples. These psychopaths committed horrific crimes as an impulse out in the open with no sense of empathy or remorse, but thankfully at least also without any other predilections of continuing beyond those singular events.

The most dangerous breed is the sociopathic psychopath. These are experts of camouflage and know how to feign emotions that they do not in fact possess to ensure no one suspects their true nature. These are the real apex predators of our planet. They know that their impulses would cause them to be excluded from society and that this would mean the end to their ability to nurture their dark sides. As such, they possess vast quantities of rationale except they turn it towards not being caught and fulfilling their dark desires away from the spotlight without anyone noticing. Fictional examples include Dexter Morgan and Hannibal Lecter, both featured in books, TV-shows and movies named after their characters, but they have very real inspirations such as the BTK Killer; Dennis Rader, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy and many others. These characters and real life killers have always held great fascination with me and now I think I finally know why.