Borderline psychopath

So what the hell is it exactly? The webs tell me it´s a person who ticks most of the boxes of the Hare type test but are still essentially not completely callous. As I understand the born-ASPD brain is completely alien to the neurotypical one as opposed to someone who has gone through what some dub the sociopathic process, so actually hasving the makings of a neurotypical but most all emotions have just been shut down. How I understand it is that there´s a capability to reach those underlying sheathed feelings but there is a strong unwillingness because they are essentially not constructive in any real sense.

With NPD being my core disorder, I can´t say that I actually have had that many to begin with (other than shame and such) but my warmth toward others really has dwindled over the last years (there was a situation where I went trough The Process and it essentially felt like my shadow side taking over. (After a very tumultous period where I left behind my job and life in some sense plus quit long-term therapy all in the same, I woke up from a crazy dream where I or the Self that I concurrently experienced as myself yet The Other looked intensely [predatory stare] into the eyes of a young boy (am assuming a symbol of my younger self, although it wasn´t necessarily me) and an involuntary smirk came onto my face. And it actually stuck on after awaking, like it was difficult to shake. The defition of possession I suppose.

The silly thing now is that the ASPD side of me is actually almost more socially harmonious because it´s at least rational somewhat. When my narcissism (read: need for attention, delusional, golden child self) kicks in am like a starved child that will lick a lollipop on the group. It sucks and makes me seem like a madman (hey, I´ve almost embraced that image of myself)

[just to keep in mind that] the borderline part does not at all refer to BPD.I have the schizoidish/BPD-ish sense of a split (all-good/all-bad) but in this definiton it does not refer to that, but more the split between being somewhat in a constant twist of neurotypical vs psycho-minded

Anyhow, some thoughts on this, what do you make of it?

SelfSerf wrote:So what the hell is it exactly? The webs tell me it´s a person who ticks most of the boxes of the Hare type test but are still essentially not completely callous. As I understand the born-ASPD brain is completely alien to the neurotypical one as opposed to someone who has gone through what some dub the sociopathic process, so actually hasving the makings of a neurotypical but most all emotions have just been shut down. How I understand it is that there´s a capability to reach those underlying sheathed feelings but there is a strong unwillingness because they are essentially not constructive in any real sense.

Emotions aren't shut down, they're just not seen because most people reference emotions based on how they're shared with others. Psychopathy leads to a callous disregard for others, and so those "others" won't see emotions or any real emotional motivation. It doesn't mean that they aren't there.

People who are "driven" to AsPD by personal experience do have the neurological capability to express emotion, but the mechanism of their condition means that they probably lack the ability to demonstrate them because the events that put them there in the first place haven't allowed them to develop the emotional skills needed.

There's a lot of conditions that put a limit on emotions, psychopathy and AsPD being only two. I've never heard of borderline psychopathy and I'm struggling to work out what that might be.

As most conditions are based on an increased or decreased level of normal behaviours to the point of abnormality, I'm not sure what you'd get with someone who's a "bit of a psychopath" - probably just a selfish arsehole.

I can understand why someone with a mental condition would want to turn down the emotional responsibility to others; it's the psychological version of putting your fingers in your ears and going "la la la." It stops the conflict, but it's a response to a condition, not the condition itself.

it is the interweb's name for a secondary psychopath

I’d guess someone who has higher than average psychopathic traits but short of a clinical diagnosis? If you go by Cleckly these are the types who can go on to have a successful career and maintain relationships like a marriage but many times lead double lives.

Read a recent article from Harvard Department of psychiatry and they believe psychopaths lack the ability to predict or plan for future events almost completely, not that they completely lack remorse or emotions just that they simply can’t understand how what they do will effect others or their own outcomes so they tend to repeat the same mistakes that would make no sense at all to a normal person only later on to regret their actions after they experience a negative outcome

It's just that reality is different from theoretical systems.

It isn't schematic, even if you consider physical factor only. I guess that psychopaths' brains differ a little from one person to another; if someone's brain is less "altered" than most psychopaths, he would have a “crossed” brain, and you would have a borderline-psychopath person. There are infinite shades and combinations in a neurological asset: nature doesn't create clones.

Moreover, psychopathy is assumed to be inborn, but what does it mean?

A child, whose brain changes while he isn't still able to interact (fetal and neonatal life), will become a different adult. We can't know if the variation from usual development was caused by a genetic disposition or by a psychological factor. We can't know for sure the destiny of a brain that develops, and the fetus and the new-born baby can't interact, so their emotional life is a mystery.

Genetic could predict one's development, but we still haven't an extended knowledge of our genetic map and, in my limited knowledge, a genetic difference isn't proofed for psychopathy definitively. Different researches gave contradictory results. An epigenetic factor would be possible for psychopathy, but psychological traumas and environmental difficulties can produce epigenetic alterations - and that it's proofed.

Then, problem NOT solved. My two cents: these are assumptions only. They should discover something, and then formulate a theory, and not the opposite.

My own personal opinion on the matter is there are too much that still isn’t known about it and I think in the past that if you had a significant amount of psychopathic markers you were just jammed into this pre conceived box that they created for the disorder. If you say you don’t feel anything for anyone else they all nod their heads in approval because it validates their “box” if you say you do care about people or some people then you are manipulative and glib and superficial because you can’t possibly understand what it means to care about someone so you are just saying that.

Anyhow, some thoughts on this, what do you make of it?

If the question is if you can get more access to your emotions, I'd answer that when you cant even deal with whats on the table right now, youre certainly not going to be able to deal with even more.

Esmoke wrote:If you say you don’t feel anything for anyone else they all nod their heads in approval because it validates their “box” if you say you do care about people or some people then you are manipulative and glib and superficial because you can’t possibly understand what it means to care about someone so you are just saying that.

It's a fair comment; it's like he Salem witch trials and the mechanism hasn't changed towards this condition for three decades. Even on this site, it's the only condition where the forum has been closed, without concern for those who used to use it for their own benefit. I wonder if that would happen for any other condition.

This is where therapy requires an almost super-human ability to switch off your own psychological needs and focus on someone else. I do "suffer" from this condition. The traits that people like to throw around as qualifying criteria also limit a person's effectiveness, but people don't like to help unless they feel they're getting something back. Also, it makes people nervous.

I would like to know if it's locked definitively, or if they are still discussing about it; obviously I hope the second one, even if it's a long discussion.

Paraphilias got shut down under similar circumstances didn't it?

In response to the OP:
''Borderline psychopath" sounds like a bit of nonsense off the internet to me.
It reminds me of three things:

1) The Vulnerable dark triad, a common combination of borderline, vulnerable narcissistic and factor 2 psychopathic traits, often found in drug addicts and child abusers.
2) Neurotic Psychopathy, an old term for BPD from a time when psychopath (literally pathological psychological inferiority) was used as a catch all for severe personality disorders.
3) The is also a line of research into BPD which regards it as primarily an impulse control disorder similar to a female form of AsPD.