Psychic Vampires: Hiding in Plain Sight

Have you ever known a psychic vampire?  Someone who seems to pull the oxygen out of a room?  Someone who you inherently fear or distrust without really knowing why?  Or someone who raises the hair on your neck by just being in their presence?  While many folks would consider this a rhetorical question, as psychic vampires heretofore have been essentially mythical characters, modern psychology has taken a more insightful look at people who could very well be considered as such.  If a psychic vampire can be defined as someone who can suck the chi, the life force, from someone else, then they certainly exist - and you probably know several.   

Of course, in modern times people exhibiting these traits are called sociopaths, or psychopaths.  Psychopathy is among the most difficult personality, or mental, disorders to spot because psychopaths can appear normal, successful, even charming. Yet underneath, psychopaths lack conscience and empathy, making them manipulative, volatile, given to homicidal fantasies and often, but not always, criminal. Further, they are an object of clinical anguish: while psychopathy can be readily diagnosed, it is largely impervious to treatment. It is a behavioral disorder, which is a mental illness.  But what's worse is that psychopaths may know they're different, but are very often in deep denial about the extent to which they are disordered.

Just last year a law professor and attorney has written a new book about what it's like to be a diagnosed sociopath who's never killed anybody and excels at her job.  "Confessions of A Sociopath" by M.E. Thomas, a pseudonym, reveals its author is a Mormon Sunday school teacher who's well liked by her law school students. She also has a cold stare and fantasizes about killing people.  A professional diagnosis of her condition reveals that although she is aware that she is different from most people she knows, she really doesn't view herself as being disordered in terms of suffering from a form of mental illness.  In fact, to the contrary, she is content with her life and her success and is completely indifferent to the affect - and harm - she has imposed on others.  This attitude in of itself is emblematic of highly psychotic individuals.  The fact that she has had experienced relatively little negative fallout resulting from her manipulation and abuse of others indicates that she's a "socialized" or "successful" psychopath.

But there's a far darker side to this story.  While Ms. Thomas' "outing" has shed some public light on the condition, there are probably millions of other people who have this disorder who are not socialized, and are far from as candid.  And unfortunately, the friends, co-workers, family and lovers of these psychopaths suffer daily in their attempts to deal with a mental illness not their own, and their lives are diminished because of it.  All the while the undiagnosed - and untreated - psychopathic psychic vampire goes blithely along, feeding on its diet of physical and psychological abuse, evil and destruction.