Dealing with Sociopaths

The Sociopath In The Office Next Door
Davia Temin
https://www.forbes.com/2010/11/19/sociopath-boss-work-forbes-woman-leade...

"Evil in the office. If you think about it, you'll probably realize you've seen it play out at least once in your career.

"All of a sudden a well-running, friendly, effective group or company begins to disintegrate for no apparent reason. People start to become demoralized and dysfunctional, efficiency plummets, client service and sales suffer and convoluted mistakes are made, up to and including illegal behavior such as fraud and larceny. Employees begin to develop psychosomatic illnesses, sick time rises and the best talent starts to leave.

"What used to be a great work situation turns into a nightmare. "

Donald Trump: Sociopath?

Taking his biographer’s claim seriously
James Hamblin
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/07/trump-and-sociopathy/...

"The closest thing to psychopathy or sociopathy in The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)—the book that defines every mental illness and outlines how mental-health professionals should make the diagnosis—is either Narcissistic Personality Disorder or Antisocial Personality Disorder."

I'm honestly wrestling with the notion that 1 out of 25 people has NPD or APD. When I was in grade school, 25 people was probably typical for class size. We had two class rooms for each grade, so--by this standard--I went to school with 16 budding sociopaths. On the other hand, sociopaths are certainly out there, and they have the power to wreck havoc on our best-laid plans. How to recognize them and control damage.

David Trammel's picture

I think its something people tend to forget, that what they believe is logical helpful behavior that every "Good" person should be engaged in, isn't always that fact. Most people will do things that protect and further their own interests and welfare and I think its important a Green Wizard realize this.

Best case, is you learn how to identify what actions benefit the other people in the room too, and work to get those actions done, while minimizing actions that only benefit a few at the expense of the many.

One thing, the phrase "being a sociopath" has changed to mean something bad like they have a mental illness. Its only in the most extreme cases that this focus on their own benefit lapses into mental illness. Being a sociopath means you focus on what benefits YOU and often you take actions that the group might frown on or disapprove of. In some chases those actions are illegal. Sociopaths as I've read, tend to have a more well defined set of morals than most people. That set of morals though can often allow for some questionable actions.

But you also have to recognize when you are in a situation where that "sociopath" has the power and plans on doing what ever it takes to maximize their benefit.

And also as Greer has written about so many times, the different economic class, like the Salaried Class and the Wage Class, may have completely different concepts of what a beneficiary outcomes. Being in the Wage Class myself, the actions of someone above me in the Corporation I work for who is in upper management and in the economic Salaried Class may seem sociopathic and even wrong, but that action makes perfect sense and benefits them.

I tell co-workers to never forget that US, the warehouse workers are to our Corporate Masters, just another piece of disposable asset. They will pay us as little as they can get away with while working us as hard as they can, and then get rid of us if we don't perform or can't work anymore.