LA PSICOPATA Y EL XITO PROFESIONAL

1 de cada 25 jefes es psicopata

One in 25 bosses may be psychopaths a rate thats four times greater than in the general population according to research by psychologist and executive coach Paul Babiak. Babiak studied 203 American corporate professionals who had been chosen by their companies to participate in a management training program. He evaluated their psychopathic traits using a version of the standard psychopathy checklist developed by Robert Hare, an expert in psychopathy at the University of British Columbia in Canada. Psychopaths, who are characterized by being completely amoral and concerned only with their own power and selfish pleasures, may be overrepresented in the business environment because it plays to their strengths. Where greed is considered good and profitmaking is the most important value, psychopaths can thrive. They also tend to be charming and manipulative and in corporate America, that easily passes for leadership. But, as the U.K.s Guardian reported: The survey suggests psychopaths are actually poor managerial performers but are adept at climbing the corporate ladder because they can cover up their weaknesses by subtly charming superiors and subordinates. This makes it almost impossible to distinguish between a genuinely talented team leader and a psychopath, Babiak said. In fact, it can be hard spot the psychopath in any crowd (according to Hare, psychopaths make up 1% of the general population). Theyre not all ruthless serial killers; rather, psychopaths who grow up in happy, loving homes might end up channeling their energies in a less violent way say, by becoming a CEO. Psychopaths really arent the kind of person you think they are, Babiak said.

Psicopatas y sadicos
Psychopathic serial killers are a source of infinite public fascination. If best-selling novels, hit TV series and popular films are any indication, youd think real -life Hannibal Lecters were constantly running amok in the U.S. Thankfully, such offenders are far less prevalent in reality than they are in entertainment but the disproportionate damage done by violent and even nonviolent psychopaths not surprisingly attracts intense scientific interest as well. On May 11, in fact, the New York Times explored whether psychopaths can be diagnosed as young as age 9.

Another way to figure out what makes the psychopath tick is to contrast him and they are overwhelmingly male with other abnormal personalities. In a recent study led by Jean Decety, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Chicago, researchers looked at a personality trait often confused with psychopathy: sexual sadism. The Psychopath vs. the Sadist The typical Hollywood serial killer combines psychopathic traits cold calculation, lack of empathy, delight in manipulation with the sadists joy and erotic pleasure gleaned from the pain of others. But in reality, these traits may be quite distinct. If you look at movies, there are people that are both like Hannibal Lecter, says Decety. Im not sure thats what we have in the real world. Decety and his colleagues recently published a brain-scan study of 15 violent sexual offenders, eight of whom were classified as sexual sadists. The research deliberately excluded psychopaths in order to find brain differences unique to sadism. Participants were shown images that involved either pain or no pain for example, a picture of a person stabbing a table or another persons hand with scissors, or an image of someone slamming a car door and either hitting or not hitting another person. When viewing the pictures of pain, the sadists showed greater activation in their amygdala a brain area associated with strong emotion compared with the other sexual offenders. Moreover, the sadists rated the pain experienced by the victim as more intense than the nonsadists did. And the more intense the sadists thought the pain was, the greater their activation in another brain region called the insula, which is involved with monitoring ones own feelings and body states. When you feel something like disgust, pain, pleasure, even orgasm, the insula plays a critical role to bring those bodily emotions to awareness, Decety says. Decetys study suggests that sadists seem to be especially tuned in to what their victims are feeling in fact, they experience it vicariously and are aroused by it. Psychopaths, on the other hand, tend to be indifferent to the emotions of others. If you live with a psychopath and you cry because that person was unpleasant to you, that probably doesnt matter to him. He is not moved and doesnt care, because he doesnt feel anything about what you feel, says Decety. The sadists do feel. They understand that the victim is in pain. Psychopathy vs. Antisocial Personality Disorder In another new study aimed at elucidating the workings of the psychopathic brain, researchers at Kings College London explored the differences between people with psychopathy and those with another dangerous personality type: antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), psychiatrys diagnostic manual, views psychopathy as basically the most extreme type of ASPD, but increasingly, research suggests that they are

separate. Nobody had ever done [a brain-imaging] study contrasting people with ASPD and psychopathy, says lead author Nigel Blackwood. Blackwood describes people with ASPD this way: Theyre impulsive, irritable and hotheaded. They use reactive aggression like the classic pub-brawl scenario when they see a threat where it may not exist and use violence to solve the situation. Once thats done, they might experience some degree of regret or remorse. They might feel guilty. They have lot of anxiety [disorders] and depression and substance misuse, he says. Psychopaths, in contrast, may be equally violent and aggressive and are also likely to frequently take drugs but they are remorseless and coldly plan their attacks. Another difference: both those with ASPD and psychopathy tend to have experienced maltreatment during childhood, but unlike people with ASPD, psychopaths dont have symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder as a result. Quite the opposite: psychopaths tend to have little anxiety and virtually no fear. Compared with people with ASPD only, the brain-scan study found that psychopaths had reduced volume in a region called the anterior rostral prefrontal cortex (arPFC) and another area known as the temporal pole. These regions are important for understanding ones own thoughts and feelings as well as the minds of others. Both areas are involved in the process of thinking about yourself and other people at the same time to work out their intentions, emotional state and desires, Blackwood says. While psychopaths clearly require some sense of what others are thinking and feeling to allow them to manipulate people, damage here could explain their own lack of emotion and indifference to that of their victims. Decetys work and that of others had previously shown differences between psychopaths and normal people in a nearby prefrontal area, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, or vmPFC. That region is [used] to combine emotion and cognition to make decisions, says Decety, noting that people with brain damage there may become pathological gamblers or make other repeatedly bad choices. Without the vmPFC, negative consequences dont seem to affect behavior. Psychopaths, of course, are well-known for their resistance to punishment. Their lack of fear means they dont worry about physical pain or harm, and their lack of concern for the feelings of others means social punishment doesnt work either. If you dont care if you hurt or disappoint people and arent bothered by rejection you wont feel ashamed or guilty or embarrassed, and consequently wont be motivated to avoid those feelings. When Does Psychopathy Begin? The roots of all types of antisocial behavior appear to be laid down in early childhood, with genetic predispositions interacting with nurture or typically, in these cases, a lack thereof to shape development.

Some children seem to be born with slight antisocial tendencies: they are difficult to discipline and have impaired self-control. Indeed, to warrant a diagnosis of adult ASPD, antisocial behavior must begin early in life, in what is labeled childhood conduct disorder (CD) and characterized by persistent defiant and sometimes cruel behavior. Most children with CD will not grow up to become psychopaths, however, and at least one-third outgrow the diagnosis entirely; they dont even develop ASPD. But a smaller group show an early lack of fear and indifference toward others that is much more troubling. These children, who are characterized as having callous/unemotional traits, are at greatest risk for becoming psychopaths. Sexual sadism also seems to have early developmental roots. What I would predict is that this kind of behavior has its origins very early in infancy. The way babies are treated or abused may have long-term consequences for the development of the pathways for pleasure and pain, Decety says. When young children, who are dependent on their caregivers, are abused, they have little choice but to love the people who are hurting them. If the caregiver is inflicting pain and you also love that person, a weird relationship can develop where pain becomes pleasurable, says Decety. What is important to realize is that the pathways in the brain that are involved in pain processing and the pathways involved in pleasure are linked. They have to overlap to some extent. Thats why if in development something goes wrong and you mix the two, you [may] seek pleasure from pain. Can Psychopathy Be Cured? Adult psychopaths dont fear the pain of punishment, and similarly, they arent bothered by social pain. Children with callous/unemotional traits are the same and, as a result, are extraordinarily difficult to manage. While simple conduct disorder can result from having antisocial tendencies and being raised in a violent or chaotic home and can therefore often be helped by remedying that situation CD with callous/unemotional traits seems to have a stronger genetic basis and is more intractable. Treatment programs for conduct disorder are very good, but the callous/unemotional group doesnt respond to things like punishment, the naughty step, or time out, says Blackwood. In the same way, psychopaths are much harder to reform than adults with ASPD. Because they dont respond to punishment, reward-based treatments work best for callous/unemotional children, even as they seem counterintuitive for the most badly behaved kids. We have to open our eyes about what the neuroscience tells us, says Decety. We have intuitions [about what will work], but they are often wrong and not accurate. As a result, Blackwood and most other experts support separate diagnoses to emphasize the differences between the hotheaded adult antisocial personality and

the cold-blooded psychopath, or in children, those with ordinary conduct disorder and those with CD plus callous/unemotional traits. In the DSM-5 [the pending update of the DSM], it looks reasonably clear that there will be specifications for CD with or without callous/unemotional traits, but there is no equivalent for adults. Its still lumped together as ASPD, and I think its important to tease out these groups, says Blackwood. That will be especially important given that labeling a child as a potential psychopath could itself have severely negative effects on his future. Of course, these classifications say nothing about why one person becomes a psychopath while another becomes antisocial, or why some sadists develop a taste for masochism too. Decetys research didnt include sadists who werent sex offenders but he would like to study the differences between people who engage in consensual and nonconsensual behavior. Researchers are also studying the life course of children identified with CD and callous/unemotional traits. Finding out what differentiates the group that becomes psychopathic from those who manage to master or outgrow these traits might help prevent some of the worst criminal behavior. Then, perhaps, the most gruesome fiction will no longer involve real-world inspiration.

Lo que podemos aprender de los psicopatas

Its too simplistic to think of psychopaths as being murderers or law-breakers, says Oxford psychologist Kevin Dutton. In his new book, The Wisdom of Psychopaths, Dutton examines what we can learn from those who lack conscience but are also bold and highly resilient to stress. What exactly is a psychopath? No sooner is the word out of someones mouth than images of [serial killers] like Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer come to mind. It doesnt automatically mean that youre a criminal or serial killer. When psychologists talk about psychopaths, what we refer to are people with a distinct set of personality characteristics including ruthlessness, fearlessness, mental toughness, a charismatic personality and lack of conscience and empathy. You write that you think your father was a psychopath It sounds like a crazy thing to say, but theres no doubt at all about it. He was a nailed down psychopath. He wasnt violent. He was a market trader [in the U.K., a person who sells things at an open-air street market]. One of the central

messages of the book is that you dont need to be violent to be a psychopath. My dad was ruthless, fearless and also extremely charming. He could have sold shaving cream to the Taliban. So what would be an example of his psychopathic behavior? When I was a kid, probably about 9 or 10 [years old], we went to an Indian restaurant for dinner. Just as my dad was about to pay, he suddenly tinked his spoon against his glass and stood up. The whole restaurant went silent. My dad said, Id just like to thank you all for coming; some from just round the corner, some from much further afield. Youre all most welcome to join us for a little drinks reception across the road. And so an entire restaurant of strangers who had never seen us before were all applauding wildly because they didnt want to be seen as gatecrashers. We just took off. He [told me] were not going to the pub really and [explained that his] old friend Malcolm had [just opened a new pub across the street]. If you think about the front you need to do that: its a whole different kind of personality. On a personal level, I guess I wrote the book to figure out my old man. Were you afraid you might have gotten some of those genes? I have some psychopathic characteristics. Im not so ruthless. Im pretty fearless. Not much phases me. Ive got mental toughness; people say Im quite persistent. But what lets me down in the psychopath stakes is that I do have a heck of a conscience and am rather empathetic. Im high on some characteristics and low on others. Psychopaths dont have the caring part of empathy, but they are better than average at the mind reading part where they can predict other peoples behavior in order to manipulate it. Its a real paradox. Some years ago, I interviewed a psychopath and I cant work out for the life of me whether he being manipulative or telling the truth it was probably a bit of both, but he said, If you had a deaf guy standing watchi ng a building burn down and had a child in the building screaming in pain and the deaf guy didnt go in, you wouldnt hold him to blame. Imagine if youre emotionally deaf. You can hear the sound, but it doesnt do anything for you. You dont feel that emotional kick in the backside to go in and do something. That means psychopaths must miss out on some of lifes greatest pleasures, too. If the happiest moments of our lives tend to involve sharing joy with othersfalling in love, having fun with people we care about they dont have any of that. In a sense, they never had that so theyre not going to miss it. We think, because we have empathy, Gosh how terrible it must be to not have it. But if you never

had it to start with, you dont miss it. I agree as an empathetic person, I find it horrendous to imagine [living a life] where you couldnt take pleasure from others and didnt feel love and compassion. What do you think makes one psychopath a serial killer while the other winds up on Wall Street? Lets say you are a psychopath and you get a poor start in life. Youre low in intelligence and also dispositionally violent. Just due to natural biology, some people are more aggressive than others from the word go. Your prospects, to be perfectly honest, are not great. Youre going to end up as a low level thug or enforcer in a criminal gang and either way, you will wind up in prison. Now, remove violence from the equation. You are a psychopath who is nonviolent but you dont get a good start. Your prospects are a little better, you end up as a small time con artist or drug dealer. Youre also going to wind up in prison very quickly. Then [consider] a psychopath who is not dispositionally violent. You get a good start in life and are intelligent. Now, its a different story. Now, youre more likely to kill in the market than anywhere else. If youre an intelligent psychopath and violent [and get a good start], there are any number of exciting occupations, anything from special forces operative to head of a criminal syndicate. What other factors are important? One difference tends to emerge between functional and criminal psychopaths. The successful functioning ones are able to delay gratification a bit more. They are less impulsive than the criminal ones. Recently, a study looked at the difference between criminal psychopaths in a maximum security prison and business executives. There was a range of psychopathic traits that were more common among business executives. The charming personality, fearlessness and lack of empathy and conscience were more common in executives. The difference was when it came to more overtly antisocial behavior. Here, the criminals were higher on criminal behavior and physical aggression and lower on discipline and self control. What makes the difference between functioning successfully [or not] isnt just the level of traits, its how they interact with [tendencies towards] violence and intelligence and also with other characteristics like sexual stuff that may be going on. You may get a kick out of inflicting pain on women if youve been humiliated by a woman early on. Theres a myriad of different triggers that can tip the balance one way or another. Child abuse must surely be one of them

Here we come onto how genes and environment interact. Theres a very famous case involving a guy called Bradley Waldroup in Utah. He committed a terrible murder in which he shot and beat to death one of his wifes best friends whom he suspected of having an affair with her. [At that time, researchers] had uncovered what the media described as a warrior gene. If you got the short version of the gene you are very likely to become a violent criminal or killer but only if you are abused as a child. Thats the trigger that sets off that gene. If you get the long version of the gene and are abused or have a violent childhood, you will not stand that much risk of become violent criminal When Waldroup was brought to trial, his defense attorney got on [an expert on] the stand and asked whether [the defendant] had the short variant, the warrior gene and it turned out that he did. The next question was, Was he abused as a child? and the answer was yes, he was. Basically, the attorney made the case that could we not argue that Waldroups free will was in some way compromised? Maybe, if our behavior is a byproduct of the interplay between genetics and the environment and we are not free to choose either, to what extent are we free to choose at all? Bradley Waldrops sentence was commuted from death to life in prison. My feeling is that this is the start of a raft of similar cases. But should psychopaths get longer or shorter sentences when we arent talking about death vs. life in prison? You could argue they should be in prison longer because they are clearly dangerous or you could make the reverse argument for shorter sentences because its not really their fault? If they are wired differently, then maybe we should rethink it: its not their fault that they are wired like that. But we cannot allow people to murder and rape so there is an argument for locking them up for longer. Would you agree that without psychopathic traits, we might lose a lot of leaders and heroes? Theres always been a need for risk-takers in society and a need for ruthlessness, charm, charisma and a need for mental toughness and emotional detachment. All of these traits are on a spectrum, just as there exists no official division between someone who plays the piano well and a concert pianist. One individual might be ruthless and fearless, but not have a lack of conscience. If youve got loads of these traits all turned up to max, youre going to overload the circuits [and be a dangerous psychopath].

But you wouldnt be anywhere near dangerous if some were high and some low. Depending on context, youre talking different proportions that might be quite functionally adapted to whatever professional field of endeavor you might be working in. [At extremely high levels], you might have problems but if turn those down, you might find people who are better than normal in certain aspects.

Maia Szalavitz is a neuroscience journalist for TIME.com and co-author of Born for Love: Why Empathy Is Essential and Endangered. Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/19/learning-from-psychopaths-qa-withpsychologist-kevin-dutton/#ixzz2Ct3Htnba

Psicopatas que lideran el mundo

Ocupan las mesas de los mejores despachos, visten con traje y corbata, y en sus rostros, una sempiterna sonrisa se debate entre loencantador y lo maquiavlico. No han matado a nadie ni mucho menos y su currculum est limpio de todo delito (al menos conocido), pero su personalidad fra, egocntrica y narcisista les convierte en verdaderos psicpatas. O, para ser ms exactos, en psicpatas de cuello blanco como les llaman los expertos, sujetos que utilizan su elevado coeficiente intelectual y su encanto superficial para trepar hacia lo ms alto sin importarles a quienes dejan debajo.Son jefes cautivadores, maridos abusivos, policas corruptos, poderosos magnates de la Bolsa y hasta lderes mundiales. Un nuevo trabajo estudia la personalidad psicoptica de estas personas que, aunque aparentemente sean normales, pueden llegar a ser tremendamente despiadadas. El periodista y escritor britnico Jon Ronson acaba de publicar El test del psicpata, en el que varias entrevistas y anlisis a criminales, gobernantes y grandes empresarios evidencian que los psicpatas encuentran en el mundo de la poltica y las finanzas un filn para ejecutar sus planes. Hay varios psicpatas que viven felices entre nosotros. De hecho, son bastante exitosos y destilan una malevolencia casi invisible, especialmente si son lderes empresariales. Es extraordinario que los psicpatas puedan tener tanto poder, sostiene Ronson. Este escritor no es el nico que se ha sumergido en el desconocido mundo de la psicopata en la lite corporativa. Psiquiatras y psiclogos de todo el mundo ya dieron la voz de alarma hace aos. De hecho, el reputado doctor canadiense Robert Hare, experto en psicologa, lleg a asegurar que los psicpatas corporativos,

polticos y religiosos pueden ser igual o ms peligrosos que los criminales. Ellos arruinan economas y sociedades, sostuvo.

No son criminales
La palabra psicpata provoca el escalofro, y es inevitable, al escucharla, recordar los ojos desorbitados de Anthony Hopkins en El silencio de los corderos o la alusin de criminales reales tan sangrientos como el asesino de la baraja o la viuda negra. Pero, nada ms lejos de la realidad. Se trata de psicpatas normalizados, no son criminales. Buscan profesiones que oculten sus actuaciones, corrompiendo y burlndose de la justicia. Se esconden en la poltica, en los sindicatos y las grandes ONG, informa el psiclogo Iaqui Piuel, autor de Mi jefe es un psicpata. Ellos fueron los delegados de clase en sus colegios, los ligones de su pandilla y los enchufados en el trabajo. Son personas que de primeras son encantadoras, expertas en caer bien. Sin embargo, son tremendamente fras y manipuladoras, afirma este experto. Su falta de empata y de sufrimiento por los dems (seal propia de los psicpatas criminales) les permite, por ejemplo, despedir sin escrpulos a toda una plantilla o corromper hasta la ms inocente ONG sin el ms mnimo remordimiento. El psiquiatra cataln Adolf Tobea, autor de Cerebro y poder, se atreve incluso a dar nombres: desde el primer ministro italiano Silvio Berlusconi al polmico ex director del Fondo Monetario Internacional, Dominique Strauss-Kahn. El escritor Jon Ronson cita en su libro tambin otros ejemplos, como losBenies Madoffs o los Benjamins Netanyahus. Responden a la imagen de sinvergenzas atractivos y tramposos, destaca Tobea. Aunque las teoras de este psiquiatra indican que la testosterona est detrs de muchos de sus comportamientos, tambin hay mujeres que responden a estos patrones. Son todas esas mujeres fatales que permanecen en los ambientes empresariales, sostiene. Fueron Hitler, Stalin o Mussolini psicpatas de cuello blanco? Nada de eso, explican los expertos. Hay que diferenciar a las personas con temperamentos psicopticos de los tiranos polticos que tenan la ambicin de los dioses y que llegaron a cometer crmenes, destacan. Segn los estudios, entre el 10 y el 12% de la poblacin tiene personalidad psicoptica. No son psicpatas de libro, pero tienen rasgos, destaca Iaqui Pi uel. Este porcentaje indica aumenta considerablemente entre los polticos y gobernantes.

http://www.intereconomia.com/noticias-gaceta/motor/motor/los%E2%80%98psicopatas%E2%80%99-que-lideran-mundo-20110730

Robert Hare: "La mayora de los psicpatas no son asesinos. Estn en la poltica o en los negocios"
Robert Hare, Psiclogo canadiense, profesor emrito de la Universidad British Columbia, en Canad, cuyos estudios sobre psicpatas lo llevaron a desarrollar el famoso test de diagnstico llamado La Escala Hare. La personalidad del psicpata afirma Hare se desarrolla muy pronto entre los 3 y los 5 aos y sus rasgos tienen poco que ver con la procedencia social y familiar. Un psicpata en un puesto alto de la jerarqua social puede causar estragos. Los investigadores han descubierto que el cerebro del psicpata funciona de forma diferente al de los dems y que los tradicionales programas de rehabilitacin ayudan muy poco a los delincuentes psicpatas.

Sonre Robert Hare. A menudo y como mirando hacia otra parte, con la sonrisa levemente amarga de quien ha visto mucho, quiz demasiado, pero a pesar de ello no ha conseguido que su mensaje termine de calar. Los psicpatas no son solo los fros asesinos de las pelculas. Estn en todas partes, viven entre nosotros y tienen formas mucho ms sutiles de hacer dao que las meramente fsicas. Los peores, dice, llevan ropa de marca y ocupan suntuosos despachos, en la poltica y las finanzas. La sociedad no les ve, o no quiere verles, y consiente. -Por qu parece que en ciertos pases hay ms psicpatas que en otros? -No es cierto. Es un problema universal, igual en todas partes, solo que en algunos pases se tolera ms. Por ejemplo, en Sudn, matar se considera un comportamiento aceptable. Incluso en Estados Unidos, comportamientos que hace 15 aos no se aceptaban, ahora s. Comportamientos claramente psicopticos y que aparecen continuamente en el cine y la televisin. Violencia, maldad, premeditacin, sangre fra, falta de remordimientos... -Es la falta de empata el elemento clave de la psicopata? -S. La empata es una caracterstica humana y se puede representar en

una curva. La mayora estamos en el centro. Y ambos extremos son malos. Tampoco es buena demasiada empata. La naturaleza nos ha dado la capacidad de conectar. Pero los psicpatas no tienen esa capacidad. -Es cierto que son ms inteligentes que el resto? -Si hablan de medicina, parece que saben ms que un mdico, aunque el interlocutor sepa que no saben nada. Si van detrs de un poltico y le hacen una foto, ya dicen que son amigos. Parecen inteligentes, pero en realidad no son especialmente brillantes. Algunos s, claro. Y cuando son inteligentes son ms peligrosos. -Estn mezclados con nosotros, en el mundo real? -Por supuesto. Y la mayora de los psicpatas no son asesinos. Estn en la poltica o en los negocios. Y si cometen un asesinato es, a lo mejor, porque te has puesto en su camino o porque sencillamente no les has cado bien. Estn en todas partes. Son personas que saben controlar a los dems pero parecen muy buenos. Tienen carisma y son lderes. Carisma sin conciencia. -Qu proporcin de psicpatas hay entre la poblacin? -Cerca del 1%, segn una estimacin que hice hace diez aos. Pero nuevos estudios demuestran que depende mucho de cmo se mida y de los criterios que se usen. -Usted cre los test de psicopata ms utilizados... -S. En dos versiones. La primera (PCLR) consta de veinte criterios y la segunda (PCL) mide doce. Es esta segunda herramienta, ms sencilla, la que se ms se utiliza. Los resultados se colocan en un diagrama con dos ejes. Uno de puntuacin, entre 0 y 24, y otro de poblacin. La mayora de las personas tienen puntuaciones muy bajas, pero a partir de 18 puntos son psicpatas. Y, efectivamente, existe cerca de un 1% de la poblacin con ms de 18 puntos.

-Se puede ser amigo de un psicpata? -S, pero no mucho. Hay personas a quienes les encantan los psicpatas. Porque son divertidos. Te van a engaar y a chupar la esencia, pero resultan atractivos, an a costa de ese precio tan alto. Al final, cuando ya no les sirves, te dejan. Los psicpatas son esponjas emocionales y absorben todo lo que tengamos. Pero si exprimes una esponja, suelta todo lo que cogi. Ellos no. Si los aprietas, slo saldr polvo. -Cmo influye ese 1% de psicpatas en el resto de la sociedad? -Ese 1% puede tener impacto sobre millones de personas. Fjese, por ejemplo, en los grandes escndalos financieros, con prdidas para miles de personas. Detrs hay una mente psicpata. En los grandes negocios la psicopata no es una excepcin. Qu tipo de persona cree usted que es capaz de robar a miles de inversores, de arruinarles aunque despus se suiciden? Dirn que lo sienten, pero nunca devolvern el dinero. Es incluso peor que lo que hacen muchos asesinos. -Y los polticos? -La poltica y el pker son dos ocupaciones cuyas reglas obligan a mentir y engaar. Si los polticos fueran sinceros no seran elegidos. Muchos son mentirosos a secas. No tienen forzosamente que ser psicpatas. Pero la poltica es un medio fantstico para que se desarrollen, el mejor ambiente, el ideal. Igual que los negocios, que cambian con mucha rapidez. Ah los psicpatas se desenvuelven como pez en el agua. -Quiere decir que en crculos polticos y financieros hay ms psicpatas que entre la poblacin normal? -Por supuesto que s. Docenas de polticos de alto nivel deberan claramente estar en la crcel. Son psicpatas, pero no puedo decir nombres. Tengo impresiones, y muchas. Pero debera aplicarles mi test. Me gustara estudiar a algunos ms a fondo. Y eso complicara mucho la vida de los polticos honrados.

-Cmo puede la sociedad defenderse? -Es prcticamente imposible para la sociedad defenderse de eso. Porque son ellos los que, adems, hacen las reglas, dictan los principios y gastan millones para explicar al mundo que lo que hacen es fantstico. No s lo que podramos hacer. Para esto las elecciones no sirven. La gran mayora de las personas no funcionaran bien en estos puestos. Lo dejaran, no serviran. No quiero decir que todo el mundo en esas posiciones sea psicpata, pero s digo que el porcentaje entre ellos es muy superior al 1% general. Y que con diez ejecutivos, o polticos psicpatas entre mil, ya sera suficiente. Un pequeo ejrcito de soldados puede ocupar un pas entero. -Qu hacer entonces? -Lo mejor y lo nico que se puede hacer es intentar comprender. Y la sociedad no lo entiende porque la psicopata es diferente. No hay patrones, como pasa, por ejemplo, con la esquizofrenia. Pasan aos antes de identificar a un psicpata. -Se puede curar? -No. No tenemos procedimiento alguno para curar porque no hay nada que curar. Es un comportamiento con anomalas neurolgicas. Pero no hay pacientes que pidan ayuda, que sufran. El problema lo tienen los dems. Ellos estn perfectos, y se sienten perfectos. Nunca podrn sentir empata, ponerse en el lugar de otra persona, tener sentimientos hacia alguien. Ni siquiera por los seres ms prximos, padres, hermanos, pareja, hijos... Los psicpatas no tienen emociones, y no es posible enserselas.
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