Recognize anyone?

[monarch]

"How Does A Serial Murderer Live Undetected Among `Normal People'? By Being A Sociopath - A Person Without A Conscience, Without The Ability To Love

"By KATHLEEN MEGAN, Courant Staff Writer If Dennis L. Rader is the BTK killer, the most nightmarish fact for his Kansas neighbors probably will be that he lived among them without anyone's ever suspecting....

"Martha Stout, a psychologist and Harvard Medical School clinical instructor and author of the newly released "The Sociopath Next Door: The Ruthless vs. the Rest of Us" (Broadway Books, $24.95), said it's not so unusual to find that people who appear to be "unassailable" are actually sociopaths - people with no conscience, incapable of remorse....

"Stout concentrates in her book on sociopaths who are not violent but have ruined lives around them...In her book, Stout draws sketches of sociopaths based on actual cases. There is "Skip," the successful businessman who tortured frogs as a child - blowing them up with firecrackers - and later used his brilliance and charm to work his way to the top of a corporation...So why do people become sociopathic? Is it nature or nurture? Trestman said it's almost certainly a combination. There may be some "genetic predisposition" combined with environmental factors.

So how do you recognize a sociopath if you happen to meet one in your daily life? Stout urges readers to practice what she calls "the rule of threes... One lie or broken promise or neglected responsibility may simply be a misunderstanding. Two may involve a serious mistake, but "three lies says you're dealing with a liar, and deceit is the linchpin of conscienceless behavior," Stout writes.

"Do not give your money, your work, your secrets or your affection to a three-timer...Stout also says to pay attention to your instincts, even if the person advising you is supposed to be an authority; to be suspicious of extreme flattery; and to watch out if someone insists you "owe" him or her something. `You owe me' has been the standard line of sociopaths for thousands of years," Stout writes."

http://www.courant.com/features/lifestyle/hc-sociopath.artmar10,0,3642894.story?coll=hc-headlines-life

Edited to add link

[Spider Jerusalem]

1. That's our boy George.

Right down to the frogs.

[Mnemosyne]

2. Let's see... could it be...

the Liar in Thief??!!

Tell her what she's won Don.

If the Lunatic isn't a sociopath, I don't know who is.
Charlie Manson was responsible for less deaths.
Ted Bundy was responsible for fewer deaths.

Wait, I'm describing psychopaths. Hmm..
Well, if the presidential seal fits..

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Everybody beat me to it, but could the initials be G.W.B?