{"id":13889,"date":"2014-05-08T07:59:07","date_gmt":"2014-05-08T07:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=13889"},"modified":"2014-05-08T07:59:07","modified_gmt":"2014-05-08T07:59:07","slug":"britons-urged-to-behave-like-psycopaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=13889","title":{"rendered":"Britons urged to behave like psycopaths"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"psyco\"<\/a>Behaving like a psychopath could help you in your career and love life say two influential British authors.<\/p>\n

The Good Psychopath\u2019s Guide to Success, part popular science book, part self-help guide from Andy McNab and Oxford psychology professor Kevin Dutton.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to debunk the myth that all psychopaths are bad,\u201d says Dutton, who has explored this subject before. \u201cI\u2019d done research with the special forces, with surgeons, with top hedge fund managers and barristers. Almost all of them had psychopathic traits, but they\u2019d harnessed them in ways to make them better at what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was through this research that he met retired SAS sergeant and bestselling author McNab, who in tests exhibited many of these psychopathic traits, including ruthlessness, fearlessness, impulsivity, reduced empathy, developed self-confidence and lack of remorse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no one thing that makes a psychopath,\u201d Dutton explains. \u201cYou want to think of those traits being like the dials on a studio mixing desk, that you can turn up and down in different situations \u2013 if they\u2019re all turned up to maximum, then you\u2019re a dysfunctional psychopath.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a psychopath isn\u2019t black and white; it\u2019s a spectrum, like height and weight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m in a hostage situation I\u2019d rather have a psychopath coming through the door than anyone else because I know he\u2019s going to be completely focussed on the job in hand,\u201d says McNab.<\/p>\n

The ability psychopaths have to turn down their empathy and block out other concerns make them the best operators in high-pressure environments, he says. \u201cIf I was on trial, I\u2019d want a psychopath [to represent me] too. I want someone who\u2019d be able to rip people apart in the witness box, go back to their family and not think anything more about it, because it\u2019s just a job for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lack of fear which characterises psychopaths could also help people in the work place, says Dutton, who asks of the book\u2019s readers: \u201cWhat would I do in this situation if I wasn\u2019t afraid?\u201d (It matches, almost word for word, a sign which greets visitors to Facebook\u2019s California HQ, \u201cWhat Would You Do If You Weren’t Afraid?\u201d though Dutton insists this is coincidental.)<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s asking for a raise or picking up the phone to call someone you wouldn\u2019t otherwise, functioning psychopaths have a natural advantage in that they can turn this fear down.\u201d<\/p>\n

One dysfunctional psychopath Dutton worked with used to have a competition when out with his friends: not to see who could get the most phone numbers from women but see who could get the most rejections. \u201cIt\u2019s something anyone could learn from,\u201d Dutton says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you get used to being rejected it doesn\u2019t hurt, you realise it doesn\u2019t matter. Then your confidence gets up and you start approaching everyone \u2013 you\u2019re coming across as less confident, less worried and your hit rate starts going up. It\u2019s a great example of how you can turn this fear down if you work on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the problems in relationships come from the fact that people stick in them when they\u2019d be better off out,\u201d says McNab, who had been married five times \u2013 though has been with his current wife for 14 years. \u201cYou have to know when to cut loose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Psychopaths never mind striking out on their own \u2013 and this is a good example to follow, Dutton says, if you start feeling constrained by your friends. \u201cYour friends might be smoking and drinking all the time while you\u2019ve decided to get fit. You have to be prepared to stand apart sometimes. It doesn\u2019t mean ditching them, it\u2019s just healthy to be your own person once in a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: The Telegraph<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Behaving like a psychopath could help you in your career and love life say two influential British authors. The Good Psychopath\u2019s Guide to Success, part popular science book, part self-help guide from Andy McNab and Oxford psychology professor Kevin Dutton. \u201cI wanted to debunk the myth that all psychopaths are bad,\u201d says Dutton, who has … Continue reading “Britons urged to behave like psycopaths”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8915,8917,8916],"class_list":["post-13889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-andy-mcnab","tag-lack-of-remorse","tag-psycopath"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/psyco.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13889"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13891,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13889\/revisions\/13891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}