Hello, I'm a High Functioning / Successful Psychopath

Hello all,

I’m a high functioning / successful psychopath and my intention here is to share some insights, get some insights, and as such, make better sense of my experiences. Bottom line, as long as I’m getting something out that helps me better understand me, I’m happy to contribute.

For the uninitiated, high functioning / successful psychopaths are those who have the discipline and capabilities to get what they want without causing unacceptable damage (and incurring all the negativity that ensues). Quite simply, high functioning / successful psychopaths factor into their risks / benefits equations the possible impact to future rewards given a particular course of action. Where risk is too high, discipline prevents folly while more favourable circumstances are engineered.

For example, if killing was my thing, then I’d work for the military or specialist law enforcement where there’d be targets a-plenty and a pat on the back for confirmed kills; if savaging others verbally and reducing them to nothing fed a hunger, then I’d work as a trial lawyer; if holding life in my hands and outsmarting death appealed, you’d find me in an ER; or if solving complex business challenges and being the deliverer of the “impossible” thrilled, you’d find me in the boardroom. In essence, anything that offers high rewards in terms of material goods, power, influence, and status where pressure is high and cool detachment is the key to success, such situations are where you’ll find me and people like me. The irony is that we “monstrous” psychopaths are often the heroes of the story and our traits are often envied. Charming, empathic, intuitive, enthusiastic, charismatic, fearless, detached, killer instinct, tough, persuasive, focused, in the moment… we have it all.

Even as killers, Churchill knew our worth when he made his famous quote about rough men willing to visit violence on others and Wall Street reportedly scans for our traits when hiring. But, when things go wrong; we can be an incredibly destructive force. In sharing my insights, I hope to explain how I was made into a psychopath; how I was nudged onto the path of discipline; and how I’ve experienced psychopathy from the inside. I also want to dispel a few silly ideas that have been bandied about by overly emotional researchers who have jumped to conclusions where other explanations are more plausible.

The more people engage with me and provide interesting insight, the more I’ll write. I welcome genuine questions and comments from psychopaths and non-psychopaths alike because the first group helps me to understand myself better whereas the second helps me to understand better how I’m perceived. My first post is in the ASPD forum and is entitled: “A Psychopath Answers an FAQ”.

-HFSP

Hi,

I grew up watching horror films, so this will be a cool read, a very educational read for me. To finally see the other side of the coin. In society, psychopaths are the murderous madmen in horror films. We never get to learn about high functioning psychopaths. The closet horror villain may be the killer from American Psycho, but even if he is, it'll be nice to hear from a REAL high functioning psychopath.

Thank you for the cordial response, I look forward to engaging with you. Please note that as I'm new, my posts take some time to be moderated and thus appear. Feel free to ask me whatever you wish.

Welcome.

You are right about being envied, I am no exception. I often think about how different things would be if I was the total opposite of who I am, that being someone with a relentless drive to get what is best for him instead of being overly affected by others and worrying about people around me. I asked myself that question a lot.

Let's hope you find what you're looking for here and maybe get some entertainment out of it too.

HFSPsychopath wrote: The irony is that we “monstrous” psychopaths are often the heroes of the story and our traits are often envied. Charming, empathic, intuitive, enthusiastic, charismatic, fearless, detached, killer instinct, tough, persuasive, focused, in the moment… we have it all.

I, too (at least right now) can attest to this envy, as I feel I should be heroic much as in the ways you describe, but I get so frustrated that things don't come to me easily. As a result, I end up being destructive and especially self-destructive; I'm a borderline with some vulnerable-narcissistic traits (as far as the psychiatrists are mostly concerned, at least).

Nevertheless, I'll be curious to pick your brain as it's clear that you're ambitious, deeply motivated and I can guess fairly successful.