While psychopaths show a specific lack in emotions, such as anxiety, fear and sadness, they can feel other emotions, such as happiness, joy, surprise and disgust, in a similar way as most of us would.
There are some areas where psychopaths may experience normal emotions and grief is one such area. In response to death of a person with whom there is a bond, some psychopaths can experience sadness and this may even bring about feelings of guilt which are otherwise impossible to feel. Crying may be a part of this.
For decades, researchers studying psychopathy have characterized the disorder as a profound inability to process emotions such as empathy, remorse, or regret.
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.
Psychopaths seem to have shallow emotional experiences, they appear indifferent towards the feelings of others, and remorseless with respect to their harmful actions against others [7].
Like healthy people, many psychopaths love their parents, spouse, children, and pets in their own way, but they have difficulty in loving and trusting the rest of the world.
Unlike sadists, psychopaths don't harm the harmless simply because they get pleasure from it (though they may). Psychopaths want things. If harming others helps them get what they want, so be it. They can act this way because they are less likely to feel pity or remorse or fear.
The authors concluded that persons with psychopathy do not have a total absence or incapacity to empathize with another person, but that brain mechanisms involved are not automatically activated in these individuals (see also Keysers and Gazzola, 2014 on the ability vs. propensity for empathy).
They can turn emotions on and off.
"The results of the study indicate that the vicarious activation of... emotional brain regions was much lower in the patients with psychopathy than in the normal subjects," explains Keysers.
Psychopaths are not only able to make decisions without regard for other people, they are also driven by a desire to hurt their peers. “Some corporate psychopaths thrive on thrill seeking, bore easily, seek stimulation, and play mind games with a strong desire to win,” say Babiak and O'Toole.
Instead, high-functioning psychopaths are driven individuals whose success is often at the expense of others and who display the following types of behaviors: Consistent and persistent manipulation of others, especially those who get in their way. Masterful deception (exaggerating or outright lying) to get their way.
Psychopaths are incredibly rewards-focused
But according to this research, a psychopath's brain is actually wired to seek rewards at almost any cost. That's because a psychopath's brain can release up to four times as much dopamine in response to a reward as a non-psychopath's.
No one is more than a stranger to a psychopath. Without the ability to bond with others, they remain permanently and significantly disconnected. They are true loners. Psychopaths are also strangers to everyone else.
Relationships with psychopaths are never smooth sailing. If they are particularly narcissistic, they're not happy unless they're the center of attention all the time, meaning they can be obsessive and controlling.
Yes, research shows there are “good” psychopaths. Many people in positively heroic professions have strong psychopathic traits.
A psychopath can have a very high form of cognitive empathy, too. In fact, they are very good at reading other people. They seem like they can read minds sometimes. But even though they can understand people's emotions, it doesn't register emotionally with them—they have no emotional empathy.
A dark empath is a term that describes someone who exploits their ability to understand how other people think and feel. They can recognize another person's perspective while also showing signs of psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism.
The psychopaths exhibited significantly higher Guilt scores than the normal subjects and had very poor self-image which was reflected in a constant feeling of guilt, regardless of whether or not they were rating transgression.
Elevated anger responding is intrinsic to many descriptions of psychopathy. Both Cleckley and Hare's case studies include numerous descriptions of psychopaths whose misbehavior included frequent temper tantrums and rage-induced aggression.
Although severe psychopathy affects just about 1% of people, some research suggests that close to 30% of us have some level of psychopathic traits.
Hatred is a specific and complex emotion whose script is quite elaborate in psychopathic individuals. It may be assumed that such traits as ruthlessness, tendency to manipulate, narcissism, and excessive self-esteem constitute a mechanism of controlling tension in a situation of hatred.
Psychopaths are likely to repeatedly attempt to deceive their partners and will lie about anything under any circumstances in order to conceal their behaviour and achieve their goals – whatever they may be.
According to Perpetua Neo, a psychologist and therapist who specializes in people with DTP traits, the answer is no. "Narcissists, psychopaths, and sociopaths do not have a sense of empathy," she told Business Insider. "They do not and will not develop a sense of empathy, so they can never really love anyone."
“You misunderstood me.”
So if you hear phrases such as “You misunderstood me”, “You mush have heard me wrong” or “I never said that. You misheard me” then this could be an indicator that the person is using tactics to make you question yourself which could indicate psychopathic behaviour.