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Quote by Martha Stout

“Most of us fill up our lives and end our boredom with our involvement with other people - people we love, people we hate, people we're afraid of, people we're interested in - and that's what keeps our minds going. So if you're sociopathic and you really have no caring for anybody, there's not much left, only boredom, and the way to relieve that, apparently, is to play a game and make sure that you win.”

Quote by Martha Stout

Author

Martha Stout is an American psychologist known for her research on psychological manipulation and antisocial personality disorder. Born in 1953, she graduated from Harvard University with a Ph.D. in psychology. Dr. Stout's work delves into the complexities of human psychology, particularly the behavior patterns and psychological mechanisms of individuals who excel in psychological manipulation and deception. more

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“Being sociopath is not what most people would consider to be winning. 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, to make sure that this person does what they're trying to coerce him or her into doing. It can be as disgusting and as simple as making a child cry. Or it can be as complex as making your wife feel bad about herself.”

People Thinking Trying Mind Kind Children Done Winning Goal Term Simple Wife Cry Disgusting Small Things Sociopath

Author:Martha Stout

“In Western culture, particularly North America, a lot of rules are descriptors for sociopathy: a general acceptance of lying as long as you win, an attitude of "me first," an attitude that what it looks like is more important than what it is. This makes it much easier for a sociopath to be camouflaged in our culture.”

Long Important Lying Culture Winning Attitude Acceptance Western Sociopath

Author:Martha Stout

“Someone, or some group in George W. Bush administration, took 300 million people to war against their will, based on a very giant lie. Combined with the notion of winning, that is, to me, a horrendously scary situation.”

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Author:Martha Stout

“I am not allowed by my profession to diagnose somebody from a distance, but one can observe certain symptoms of sociopathy in George W. Bush.”

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Author:Martha Stout

“I would hesitate to tell people to stop being kind or sympathetic to sociopath. But just like loyalty, some things that can be taken advantage of are empathy, sympathy, and our tendency to pity somebody when something has gone wrong in their life.”

People Kind Taken Empathy Loyalty Pity Be Kind Sympathetic Sociopath

Author:Martha Stout

“If you see somebody really pulling for your sympathy while at the same time hurting you intermittently, you should start to wonder. If somebody plays to your pity and really tries to draw that out of you, that's not normal.”

Trying Hurt Wonder Pity

Author:Martha Stout

“Do noble things, not dream them all day long.”

Long Dream Noble

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“An intelligent sociopath can learn the rules about what's good and what's bad, what people see as good and bad. But they don't get that intervening sense of guilt, that pang of conscience, on account of it. So they tend to know what's wrong or right, they just don't care. That's another thing that they can use against us: that we do care. We're predictable in that.”

People Care Conscience Intelligent Guilt Good And Bad Predictable Sociopath

Author:Martha Stout

“Most of who we are is our deepest emotions, and someone who cannot feel those emotions in a positive way is never going to understand much about his fellow human beings.”

Author:Martha Stout

“When I speak of divisions greater than gender or race, I say that because it is so unimaginable. I can imagine what it would be like to be another race. Or to be a man - I could draw that up in my mind and experience it. Schizophrenia? We're all schizophrenic in our dreams. Depression? Most of us have been at least a little depressed and can imagine it. But not having a conscience? Conscience is so profound and so basic in most of us.”

Men Mind Dream Speak Imagine Conscience Profound Gender Schizophrenia Schizophrenic

Author:Martha Stout