When A Spy Goes Rogue, Pt. 1
Introduction: Psychopaths and "Heroes" (provides context to Part 2)
Disclaimer: Please note the following:
I’m not a clinical psychologist. This post (and the entire blog) consists of my personal opinions on this and other topics based on my personal experiences and related research. The purpose of this and the previous post are to provide context for Part 2 and on.
This is a Canadian story. I have never, to my current knowledge, been subjected to persecution or harassment by any American or other foreign Intelligence Agency or foreign policing force like the FBI. That said, there have been occasions when false information was passed on to various agencies and they reacted according.
INTRODUCTION
Most stories have heroes. Am I the hero of my story?
No. I don’t believe in heroes.
I believe in the basic goodness of the average person. None of us is perfect and weighing the good and bad in each of us defines who we are. We all have the capability of doing spectacularly good things or spectacularly bad things when the circumstances arise. Most of us settle somewhere in the middle.
Few are pure evil: Only 1% of the population is psychopaths, 4% is sociopaths, and 5% are narcissists.
The rest of us are just good people trying to live our lives. We occasionally do bad things when driven to do them because of hardships or difficult circumstances as well as ordinary selfishness and greed.
Many of us won’t do bad things even as a result of those same circumstances and we keep those negative emotions reigned in because we don’t want to harm others.
Living our lives is what matters and we determine what that might entail.
Unless… we’re targets of psychopaths, sociopaths and/or narcissists. They are predators and they need to be in control of everything, including the lives of those they target.
I’ve read books and articles as well as watched videos on this topic. Numerous ones over the years: academic, personal experience stories, and fictional. I still don’t understand these particular pathological conditions and what drives those who suffer from them.
I’ve done this because I’m the target of people who I believe suffer from them, but even my direct personal experience hasn’t enlightened me to any great degree.
While I don’t understand them, I can recognize and describe their behaviour as well as deduce at least some of their thought processes.
The concept of the “hero” seems to be a central theme in the narrative of the psychopath.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not claiming that everyone who believes in heroes is a psychopath. The concept is cultural and spans many cultures around the world. I’m saying that it’s a cultural concept exploited by predators to rationalize their abuse.
Psychopaths, sociopaths and narcissists promote themselves as the “heroes” of their stories and they have convinced themselves of their own lies, that they are: “acting on behalf of the “greater good” or at the very least “trying to do something good” based on their own self-serving definitions of what that is. This indicates they understand the difference between good and evil and somewhere in their consciousness they appear to understand that their abuse is evil. They just don’t care that it is.
They are predatory by nature and that nature will be expressed in all aspects of their lives irrespective of the mask they wear to hide who and what they are.
While they usually operate alone, they can and do, also operate in hierarchical cult-style packs, with other psychopaths, sociopaths and narcissists when their interests align or where there’s some direct personal benefit to the alliance.
Psychopaths, Sociopaths and Narcissists
The general population tends to use these terms interchangeably but, in reality, they are different and the roots of the mental illnesses are different.
Psychopathy is the result of nature. Studies on psychopaths indicate that their brains have “differences in structure and function” impacting their ability to empathize. Empathy is the source of our ability to reason, to think critically using logic.
Psychopaths' brains show differences in structure and function (wisc.edu)
“The study showed that psychopaths have reduced connections between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), the part of the brain responsible for sentiments such as empathy and guilt, and the amygdala, which mediates fear and anxiety.”
“One study in the paper showed the most crucial aspect in correctly assessing someone's emotional state was systematic and deliberate thinking”
Empathy Can Lead to Profound Insights | Psychology Today
“Empathy gleaned through perspective taking is essential to critical thinking.”
How extreme the psychopath is (serial killers vs politicians, corporate executives) could presumably be impacted by nurture but many serial killers claim they were always like this and parenting or their environment had nothing to do with it. Ted Bundy, for example. In addition, do we really know if the politicians and corporate executives aren’t also serial killers but simply haven’t been caught because of a two-tiered justice system or because they hire others to do their dirty work?
Sociopaths are the result of nurture and possibly some nature. My personal hypothesis is that they are likely the children of psychopaths, sociopaths and/or narcissists. That is, their behaviour is learned and may be the result of abuse. They are taught that empathy is a weakness and that lack of it is a strength.
Of course, in reality, it’s the opposite that’s true. The strong empath stands up in the face of adversity and demonstrates moral courage because they care.
The weak psychopath runs for cover while targeting those who can’t fight back. For example, the victims of the serial killer psychopath are almost always amongst the vulnerable and/or those society doesn’t care about.
Sociopaths can also be serial killers but they require a reason to kill and it’s usually because they don’t want to be held accountable for their crimes. So they kill the perceived threat (whether it’s real or not) to prevent exposure.
Sociopathic Children: How Do They Become That Way? | HealthyPlace
“While there isn't yet a definitive answer to this complex puzzle, experts have uncovered significant evidence that the origins of conduct disorder are both biological and environmental. That is, both nature and nurture contribute to the development of conduct disorder, just as they do with sociopathy”
Sociopath Causes: the Making of a Sociopath | HealthyPlace
“It takes triggers from the environment in childhood for the full-blown symptoms of a sociopath to develop, but the brain is primed for it from birth. It's the dance between nature and nurture that are the sociopath causes underlying the making of a sociopath.”
Narcissism is also the result of both nature and nurture. Narcissists see themselves as the centre of the universe and everything in their environment exists to service their wants and needs.
All Psychopaths and Sociopaths are also narcissists but not all Narcissists are Psychopaths or Sociopaths.
Are Narcissists Born or Made? 3 Causes Behind Narcissism (substack.com)
“Are narcissists born or made? It is necessary to know because it helps us deal with a Narcissist.
Narcissism is a learned behavior in some cases.
Narcissism can be transferred in generations, so sometimes, it can be an inherited behavior.
Child abuse can also create Narcissists. Abuse can convert an average child into a Covert Narcissist.”
A Psychopath, In His Own Words
According to one of the psychopaths involved in orchestrating the hate campaign against me, he is the epitome of objectivity. However, his concept of “objectivity” was basically “anything goes” and it’s only the weak who care about a harmful outcome or collateral damage.
This is a person who knows he’s a psychopath and appears to consider it a good thing.
Psychopath: “We have the ability to be completely objective. Emotions don’t hold us back from doing what is necessary.”
While at the same time he admits: “I’ve done some really terrible things in my life.”
So, he knows what he’s done is terrible, he simply doesn’t care because he’s rationalized in his own mind that the irrational abuse that he was inflicting was “necessary”.
However, he’s also self-aware enough to know the reasons he provides for this “necessary abuse” were fabricated by himself and that’s the part he won’t tell the person he’s trying to convince that his actions are “rational, objective and done for good reason”.
He’s convinced himself and now he needs to convince you that he’s the “hero” of the narrative he invented.
This apparent contradiction: his self-awareness that the reasons which gave rise to the “necessity” to do “terrible things” were fabricated by him vs his knowledge that he’s “done really terrible things” out of “necessity” demonstrates the fundamental irrationality of the world and psyche of the psychopath.
In reality, he is simply doing this because he wants to and because he can. He derives pleasure from abusing innocent, vulnerable people.
If this wasn’t the real reason, then he wouldn’t have to fabricate reasons to target people.
Psychopaths and Pedophiles
In my opinion, the key players in targeting campaigns appear to be mostly psychopaths, sociopaths and/or narcissists. Those who specifically target children and/or teenagers seem to come mostly from pedophile circles which consist of pedophiles, pedophile enablers, pedophile supporters as well as the adult groomed victims of the pedophiles.
A 2009 article in the Psychiatric Times indicates that all pedophiles have psychopathic traits:
“In sum, research shows highly consistent evidence for cognitive distortions and sexual abuse histories, fairly consistent evidence for psychopathic traits, and mixed evidence for avoidant personality traits, impulsivity, and neurobiological or neuropsychological impairment.” Psychopathology and Personality Traits of Pedophiles (psychiatrictimes.com)
While all pedophiles have psychopathic traits, not all Psychopaths are pedophiles.
The nine-part documentary, A Friend of the Family (TV Mini Series 2022) - IMDb, based on a true story, gives a remarkably good depiction of the personality of the individual pedophile Psychopath who operates alone, is relatively unconnected and the extreme strategies, tactics, and methods they use to achieve their goals.
Psychopaths and the Family
Based on my personal observations, once you have a psychopath in the family, and unless the family has chosen to isolate the psychopath, the impact of this evil infects the entire extended family and multiple generations. The mental damage permeates down through the new generations until someone breaks the cycle.
I believe the cycle can be broken with the intervention of a strong, deep empath. Someone who can’t be controlled by psychopaths, and has the interest, influence, resources and ability to bring the broken familial pieces together. Someone who cares enough to intervene, heal the family, and re-introduce the norm of unconditional love, while also establishing a high standard of compassionate ethics.
This is what is necessary, in my opinion, to break down the fortified judgmental walls positioned to isolate the psychopaths’ targets, insulate against the psychological poison injected into the family, and undermine the psychopathic predilections imposed on the family.
The psychopath requires blind loyalty and trust, while establishing conditional “love” as the rule. You can only be part of the family if you go along with the psychopath. If you don’t, you are shunned. Anyone who doesn’t shun you is being disloyal to the family (or group) and is considered untrustworthy.
They misrepresent this as family or group “unity” in order to manipulate people into adhering to their demands. They have a driving need to control their environment and everyone in it.
One should never make the mistake of underestimating their ability to go to extreme lengths to fulfill this driving need.
To be continued in When A Spy Goes Rogue, Part 2: Who are these people?