Summary: Contrary to popular belief, those suffering from psychopathy are able to experience emotions, but they do have a blunted emotional response if their attention is directed toward something else.
Of course, they can also get angry, especially in response to provocation, or get frustrated when their goals are thwarted. So Villanelle is right, to some extent. You can hurt a psychopath's feelings, but probably different feelings and for different reasons.
The core personality features associated with psychopathy are callous and unemotional personality traits, which include a lack of empathy or remorse, weak social bonds, an uncaring nature, and shallow emotional responding (Cooke et al., 2005; Frick and White, 2008; Viding and McCrory, 2012).
They might not have any empathy or think about how their actions will affect others. They often have difficulty forming normal relationships with others and can be quite destructive. Because of their inability to feel true emotions, most experts believe that psychopaths cannot fall in love.
“In other words, psychopaths, Machiavellians, and narcissists in the common population (i.e. non-clinical) don't care much about other people's feelings, but still have the ability to empathize.”
Psychopathic criminals can switch empathy off and on, research suggests. Psychopaths do not lack empathy, rather they can switch it on and off at will, according to new research aimed at identifying why such criminals are callous and charming.
Individuals who fit the criteria of psychopathy—whether or not they also engage in criminal behavior—exhibit behaviors associated with an avoidant attachment style, being unable to form close intimate relationships.
The lower on the scale a psychopath is, the more likely they are to develop some sort of love for people such as family members. Psychopaths are much less likely to develop deep bonds with others, however. Interestingly, psychopaths may still want to be loved even if they are almost incapable of truly loving another.
While popular accounts of attraction to psychopaths have focused on women, there was no evidence for a gender difference in attraction to psychopathic characteristics. Both males and females on average were about equally unimpressed with psychopathic characteristics in a potential romantic partner.
Summary: Contrary to popular belief, those suffering from psychopathy are able to experience emotions, but they do have a blunted emotional response if their attention is directed toward something else.
To sum up, given the above reviewed literature, we may conclude that individuals with psychopathic traits are found to have a deficit in dispositional empathy, particularly related to the processing of distress and negative arousal cues (i.e., affective empathy and affective ToM).
Psychopathy traits have been associated with low empathy, and psychopathic individuals often repeat the damage done to their victims on several occasions, proving that they are not capable of generating empathy in response to others (27).
No Shame or Guilt – Psychopaths see no shame or guilt even when the person's behavior was obviously hurtful. Normal people feel significant levels of guilt, remorse, even shame when they manipulate others, steal, cheat or lie. The psychopath is aware their behavior hurt the other person—they simply don't care.
Compared to non-psychopaths, studies suggest that psychopaths make significantly less eye contact. This applies to both eye contact frequency and duration. Eye contact avoidance doesn't only occur while listening during in-person interaction.
Social isolation, loneliness, and associated emotional pain in psychopaths may precede violent criminal acts. They believe that the whole world is against them and eventually become convinced that they deserve special privileges or rights to satisfy their desires.
Because jealousy induction involves manipulating and controlling one's partner, which is typical of psychopaths, these individuals might be more likely to induce jealousy for these reasons rather than to strengthen their relationship.
"Most people have sexual fantasies, and that's quite healthy and normal. People with higher levels of psychopathic traits, however, are more likely to report having actually engaged in those fantasized behaviors, especially when the behaviors weren't within the context of established romantic relationships," said Dr.
Ramani Durvasula, a licensed clinical psychologist and professor of psychology, says to take a peek at their relationships. “Psychopaths don't have any really close friends or family members that they have good relationships with,” she says, “but they have lots of acquaintances and 'connections.
Because psychopaths don't have mutually dependent and respectful romantic relationships, they can't have a healthy sex life, either. The psychopath is often a pro at seducing and getting someone into bed, but the process is more of a calculated game than an organic emotional—and then sexual—experience.
While loving a psychopath may seem like a potentially risky prospect for the partner in question, it's certainly easy to be seduced by one. Studies have shown that men who exhibit mild narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy—the “dark triad” of personality traits—are deemed more attractive by women.
That means they may want to have your friends, resources and even your financial status back as their own. That said, psychopaths do appreciate their relationships in their own way. They do suffer pain, feel loneliness, have desires and feel sadness if they do not receive affection.
They convey (overtly or covertly) that they think little of their mate (“You're stupid,” “too emotional,” “clingy,” “worthless,” “insecure,” “always holding on to the past,” “paranoid,” “crazy.”) There is a tendency toward short-term intimate relationships. Individuals with psychopathy are very easily bored.
Third Phase: This is called 'the discarding phase', it is when the psychopath is bored and done with the victim. But as psycopaths are addicted to a constant feed of self-worth and grandiousity, they make sure that they can always go back to their victims so they use a technique called 'trauma-bond'.
A psychopath has an inflated view of themselves. They see themselves as important and entitled. Psychopaths often feel justified to live according to their own rules, and they think that the laws don't apply to them.