“Holmes is obviously guilty of many more serious crimes, but faking one’s voice is just weird, and embarrassing.”— Katie Heaney, thecut.com
“At first I thought I wanted to help the victims, but it turns out I just like talking to sociopaths. They fascinate me.”— Ron Nyswaner, Kate, Vinessa Shaw, imdb.com
“Toxic and abusive people overstate their ability to be kind and compassionate. They often tell you that you should “trust” them without first building a solid foundation of trust. They may “perform” a high level of sympathy and empathy at the beginning of your relationship to dupe you, only to unvei…”— Shahida Arabi, thoughtcatalog.com
“Bringing in the opinion, perspective or suggested threat of another person into the dynamic of an interaction is known as “triangulation.” Often used to validate the toxic person’s abuse while invalidating the victim’s reactions to abuse, triangulation can also work to manufacture love triangles tha…”— Shahida Arabi, thoughtcatalog.com
“The difference between constructive criticism and destructive criticism is the presence of a personal attack and impossible standards. These so-called critics often don’t want to help you improve, they just want to nitpick, pull you down and scapegoat you in any way they can. Abusive narcissists and…”— Shahida Arabi, thoughtcatalog.com
“In the hands of a malignant narcissist or sociopath, your differing opinions, legitimate emotions and lived experiences get translated into character flaws and evidence of your irrationality.”— Shahida Arabi, thoughtcatalog.com
“When a narcissist, sociopath or psychopath gaslights you, you may be prone to gaslighting yourself as a way to reconcile the cognitive dissonance that might arise. Two conflicting beliefs battle it out: is this person right or can I trust what I experienced? A manipulative person will convince you t…”— Shahida Arabi, thoughtcatalog.com
“In any type of relationship with a narcissist or sociopath, remember: their abusive, toxic and manipulative behavior is the problem – not you. Normal, healthy people do not go around deliberately harming others or manipulating them. In order to stay sane, you must seek outside support and validation…”— Shahida Arabi, thoughtcatalog.com
“The ultimate manipulation is to kill someone, and sociopathy is murderous in a psychological sense—there’s a kind of soul-murder going on.”— Martha Stout, interviewmagazine.com
“Most of us have some kind of positive goal in mind when we think of winning. A sociopath thinks in terms of successfully manipulating someone into doing something that he or she would not have done otherwise. That can be a small thing or a tremendous thing, but the point for the sociopath is to win,…”— Martha Stout, interviewmagazine.com
“Well, the perfect victim, from the sociopath’s point of view, is the person who is smart enough and capable enough to do him some good in the world and who is also fun to manipulate. How much fun is it to manipulate someone who is stupid and incompetent? Another good person to manipulate is someone…”— Martha Stout, interviewmagazine.com
“Another lynchpin is dishonesty. Lying for the sake of lying. Lying just to see whether you can trick people. And sometimes telling larger lies to get larger effects. The other thing that needs to be stressed is that sociopaths are often extremely charming. They are people who are better than you and…”— Martha Stout, interviewmagazine.com
“A typical sociopath never kills anybody and doesn’t look like Charles Manson—they look like you and me and everybody else. You’re not looking for someone who’s recognizably evil or scary-looking, but rather someone who looks normal.”— Martha Stout, interviewmagazine.com
“Sociopaths are just like everybody else in that some of them are really brilliant, some of them are really stupid, and most of them are somewhere in between.”— Martha Stout, interviewmagazine.com
“So if you don’t have a conscience, what is your behavior like? Apparently, if you don’t have a conscience, if you don’t really . . . love, then the only thing that’s left for you is the game—it’s about controlling things.”— Martha Stout, interviewmagazine.com
“Okay, the central trait of sociopathy is a complete lack of conscience, which is very difficult for most people to get their heads around, because those of us who do have a conscience can’t really imagine what it would be like if we didn’t. Most people think that deep down everybody has a conscience…”— Martha Stout, interviewmagazine.com
“You could not look at his record and say: “See, it was inevitable that he would turn out like this.” In fact, it was incomprehensible.”— Ann Rule, amazon.com
“I had always prided myself on my ability to detect aberrance in other humans, both because I had that innate skill and through experience and training. And I have berated myself silently for a long time because I saw nothing threatening or disturbing in Ted’s façade. He was very kind to me, solicito…”— Ann Rule, amazon.com
“One who suffers from a personality disorder knows the difference between right and wrong—but it doesn’t matter because he is special and he deserves to have and do what he wants.”— Ann Rule, amazon.com