PSYCHOPATHS, PERVERSE INDIVIDUALS AND SLAVES

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We have an unbalanced concentration of perverse and psychopathic people with responsibilities in our workplaces and governments, creating a state of polarization where aggression and fear undermine our coexistence, mistrust of others leads to isolation, and relationships deteriorate toward fraternal confrontation.

It is necessary to understand in order to act, and to remember that the evolution of our species is based on collective intelligence.

Understanding those who disrupt

Living with social disruption means understanding those who disrupt. According to the criteria of the DSM-5¹, the traits of psychopathy are associated with Antisocial Personality Disorder and those of the perverse narcissist with Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

The psychopath is cold and calculating, and their actions are directed at satisfying their own desires, regardless of the consequences for others. Others are simply objects or instruments to achieve what they want. They break laws and social norms and lie pathologically to hide their intentions or manipulate situations to their advantage. Their account of events is always biased to benefit them, being indifferent to having harmed or mistreated others.

The narcissistic pervert needs others to feed their own idealized image and requires constant admiration and validation. Their goal is to maintain a relationship of codependency and control, in a cycle of idealization and devaluation, seeking a state of confusion and submission, humiliating and devaluing, creating an atmosphere of fear and insecurity of rejection or devaluation. They never take responsibility for their mistakes.

The narcissistic pervert enslaves by weakening the self-esteem of the other, while the psychopath does so through fear of destruction. Both processes lead to a situation of survival; paradoxically, those who are subjugated often seek the approval or “love” of their abuser in order to feel safe.

We can identify leaders, politicians, groups, communities, and peoples who fit these characteristics. The origin of their pathology can be found in their own personal, organizational, or community history. Many were humiliated in their childhood as individuals or in their origins as a people, and they repeat the humiliation, abuse, and extermination they suffered as if it were an act of reparation for the damage they received, perpetuating the pain in a destructive and eternal spiral of confrontation, condemning generations to personal, family, and collective discord.

Learned helplessness as a control mechanism

Humans need certainties that give us security and a future; when we feel that we are losing this security, we react in two main ways:

Attack: we do this through active and confrontational polarization, placing ourselves between victims and warriors, seeking the source of the unrest in others and incorporating as a solution perverse and psychopathic leaders who promise a future where we will be and others will not.

Flight and blockage: we manifest this through intimate disconnection, connecting with everyone in order to disconnect from ourselves, anesthetized by doing and always seeking to be full, perpetuating a state of being always self-absorbed and, at the same time, outside of ourselves.

Both reactions can generate what is known in psychology as learned helplessness, defined by Seligman (1983). Helplessness takes root in our behavior when we stop trying to change situations that cause us deprivation and pain, even when opportunities to do so arise. We narrate reality from a negative perspective and lose sight of the opportunity we have to regenerate ourselves, experiencing hopelessness, depression, and anxiety, which become a normalized response to the constant aggressions we see and suffer in our daily lives.

Learned helplessness is the psychological mechanism that explains “slavery”: the mind reconfigures itself to accept that there is no way out, that all that remains is disconnection or the surrender of our human potential for evolution and coexistence to the vision and action of the perverse and psychopathic domination of the “saviors.”

How to escape helplessness

Escaping helplessness is an act of courage. It involves leaving “slavery” behind and walking toward the dignity we deserve as human beings.

We must recognize perverse and psychopathic leaders when they propose that the “solution” is based on the exclusion, humiliation, or extermination of others. We know from evolutionary experience that human strength lies in cooperation, not confrontation.

We must recognize narratives that describe reality in an incoherent way, based on falsehoods and manipulation, and contrast them with others, so that together we can understand the deception and our capacity for action.

Learned helplessness is broken when we realize that we are not alone, when we recognize that we are a community. Isolation and disconnection are the main allies of perversion and social psychopathy; the antidote is reconnection with others, sharing spaces, projects, building healthy relationships based on mutual trust.

Collective action, cooperation, and the recognition of the legitimacy of others to exist are the tools to build shared futures and prevent pain from perpetuating in an endless cycle.

By JOAN QUINTANA, Director of the Instituto Relacional.

¹ American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Manual Diagnóstico y Estadístico de los Trastornos Mentales (5a ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.