The Virtual Pub
Come Inside... => Saloon Bar => Topic started by: Grumpmeister on June 22, 2007, 11:38:34 AM
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Note to self: do not nark off any of me colleagues from now on scared2:
The word psychopath strikes fear into the hearts of most ordinary individuals conjuring up images of axe-wielding mass murderers or sexual predators stalking the wards of prison isolation wings.
But that is far from the whole truth and one of the world's experts on psychopaths arrived in Cardiff on Tuesday with some disturbing news.
In a talk entitled Snakes in suits: when psychopaths go to work, Professor Robert Hare from Canada argued that psychopaths may not be what we think they are.
And as BBC News Online found out, they can exist successfully in every walk of live.
"I'm not worried about security - if they were going to get me they would have got me by now."
These were the words of the world's leading authority on psychopathy before he gave a talk in front of a packed out lecture theatre at Cardiff University.
Robert Hare, who is a Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia in Canada, has spent most of his working life studying psychopaths - a dangerous occupation, it seems.
"The first one I met at a maximum security prison in Canada stared at me so hard I felt like I was being pushed up against the wall," he said.
"Then he got a knife out and was moving it around in front of me.
"I didn't know what I was getting myself into."
And he has been "into it" for the past 25 years. You can spot them quite easily in the workplace - so you may want to think about people you know
But you would never guess this diminutive, unassuming man has been in contact with real life Hannibal Lecters.
"They get interested in me - and blame me that they're in prison," he said.
"I've had death threats as a result but I keep going - what can you do?"
So was Professor Hare in Cardiff to warn us about the proliferation of psychopaths in Welsh prisons? No, but they could be in your office right now.
Psychopaths are defined as a person with an antisocial personality disorder, manifested in aggressive, perverted, criminal, or amoral behaviour without empathy or remorse.
Is your boss a psychopath? Here are just some of the tell tale signs
They are manipulative
They lack specific goals
They have superficial relations with people
They are impulsive
They are irresponsible
They crave power and prestige
They lack empathy
They lack remorse
They lie easily
They have predatory instincts
They are cool under pressure
They seek excitement and thrills
They take credit for the work of others
They fly into rages
And Professor Hare, along with colleague Dr Paul Babiak, has developed a new 107-point questionnaire - the B-Scan - which can enable people like you and me to identify which desks those smooth-talking, manipulative colleagues might be hiding behind.
"We normally associate psychopaths with death but they're not always in prison," he said.
"We think of them as crazy people but Ian Brady described himself in his book as a businessman.
"You can spot them quite easily in the workplace - so you may want to think about people you know."
Former Daily Mirror tycoon Robert Maxwell, who stole ?400m from pension funds to help his ailing companies, was named as a classic example of a man in a powerful position who might very well have displayed psychopathic traits.
So what should we be looking out for?
Professor Robert Hare has received death threats
According to Professor Hare psychopaths are impulsive - they lack empathy and remorse.
They crave power and prestige, and are extremely controlling.
He described them as "knowing the words but not the music."
"They can learn to use ordinary words and to reproduce the pantomime of feeling but the feeling itself does not come to pass."
So is he describing your boss?
They interview well, they get into organisations by using people as pawns, sweet talking patrons and creating conflict.
"I don't see any difference between the people I meet in prison and those in business," he added.
So should we be running for the hills?
You have been warned.
Just out of interest Nick, and not wishing to worry you at all whistle: but how many of those traits does Miss Whiplash possess...
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That list just about covers every "boss" I ever had. eeek:
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Didnt realise it at the time but going from that list I think I fired one in a previous job scared2:
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Is your boss a psychopath? Here are just some of the tell tale signs
They are manipulative
They lack specific goals
They have superficial relations with people
They are impulsive
They are irresponsible
They crave power and prestige
They lack empathy
They lack remorse
They lie easily
They have predatory instincts
They are cool under pressure
They seek excitement and thrills
They take credit for the work of others
They fly into rages
I know a lot of people like that. Mrs Nick for a start
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Is your boss a psychopath? Here are just some of the tell tale signs
They are manipulative
They lack specific goals
They have superficial relations with people
They are impulsive
They are irresponsible
They crave power and prestige
They lack empathy
They lack remorse
They lie easily
They have predatory instincts
They are cool under pressure
They seek excitement and thrills
They take credit for the work of others
They fly into rages
I know a lot of people like that. Mrs Nick for a start
Well now you have a name for it as well! whistle:
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Donations for Nick's headstone are now being taken as its an odds on certainty that when the boy cracks his passwords this time round Mrs Nick will see Nick's post... eeek:
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I have my effing sister to deal with first. At this rate I will need a bigger patio
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I have my effing sister to deal with first. At this rate I will need a bigger patio
It's as well that my appointment for today, at the dental hospital in Liverpool, was cancelled then ~ I had planned to call in for lunch on my way back. ;)
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I am up to my neck in every sort of mess here so,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, maybe you should have called in. Blimey are your teeth falling out now?
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I am up to my neck in every sort of mess here so,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, maybe you should have called in. Blimey are your teeth falling out now?
No ~ No problems at the moment ~ But the heart medication I've been on for years does cause some problems with teeth and gums. Also having an implanted defibrillator means that 99.9% of dentists won't look at me so I have to go to the Dental Hosp for regular check-ups etc (just in case the machine "fires").
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Maybe you should just hire a Nurse?
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Maybe you should just hire a Nurse?
Don't tell me ~ you just happen to know someone ............... eyes:
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(https://www.virtual-pub.com/SMF/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.drgadget.co.uk%2Fshopimages%2Fproducts%2Fnormal%2Fnurse%2520400.jpg&hash=abda75c75b71333dfef6b8617ac1edb6af6fd793)
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"She" is that tranny I saw in Ulverston. Don't even think about it!
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"She" is that tranny I saw in Ulverston. Don't even think about it!
eyes:
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And our water supply has just failed!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAagh
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I was offered a job yesterday 500 pound a week working for the brittle bone society so I snapped his hand off whistle:
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And our water supply has just failed!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAagh
Nick step away from anything even remotely flammable and dont even think of trying to use the microwave scared2:
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I was offered a job yesterday 500 pound a week working for the brittle bone society so I snapped his hand off whistle:
drumroll: drumroll:
Is that for the Manning Memorial trust?
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I was offered a job yesterday 500 pound a week working for the brittle bone society so I snapped his hand off whistle:
drumroll: drumroll:
Is that for the Manning Memorial trust?
Chubby Brown whistle:
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And our water supply has just failed!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAagh
Nick step away from anything even remotely flammable and dont even think of trying to use the microwave scared2:
And don't even think about going for a p*ss! shocked003
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We all thought Boris was talking about Liverpool when he said what he did.
I am beginning to suspect the entire area is a permanent disaster zone around a previously unknown hot spot. whistle:
Might even stretch as far as Barrow... eeek: