Girlfriend - Possible Psychopath?????

[Ashley]

so i've been seeing this girl. we've known each other for years, but recently got together and started dating. everythings good, i think i'm really falling for her. yay!

anyway, tonight i got in a long conversation about psycho's and serial killers (not as weird as it sounds) and decided to google "female serial killers" to see what come up. ya know, as they're less likely to get caught etc we were curious to find out why. so, ended up on wikipedia and this list came up:

Serial killers tend to share the following general characteristics:

1. The majority are single, white males.
2. They are often very intelligent, with IQs in the "bright normal" range.
3. Despite their high IQs, they do poorly in school, have trouble holding down jobs, and often work menial jobs.
4. They tend to come from unstable families.
5. As children, they are typically abandoned by their fathers and raised by domineering mothers.
6. Their families often have criminal, psychiatric and alcoholic histories.
7. They often are mistrustful of their parents.
8. It is common to find that as children, they were abused—psychologically, physically and/or sexually—by a family member.
9. Many spend time in institutions as children and have records of early psychiatric problems.
10. They have high rates of suicide attempts.
11. From an early age, many are intensely interested in voyeurism, fetishism, and sadomasochistic pornography.
12. More than 60 percent wet their beds beyond the age of 12.
13. Many are fascinated with fire starting.
14. They are involved in sadistic activity or tormenting small creatures

the girl i'm seeing has 9 of these traits (that i know of). if number 14 includes sadomasochistic sex, then it makes 10.

i supposed it doesn't help that i get extremely paranoid sometimes. but it's starting to play on my mind. most of the stuff she's told me, it's things she's not told anyone before. and i really like her. i don't wanna break up with her, but i can't exactly ask her if she's possibly a serial killer.

any feedback would be great.

 

[Apotheosis]

Serial killers tend to share the following general characteristics:

1. The majority are single, white males.
2. They are often very intelligent, with IQs in the "bright normal" range.
3. Despite their high IQs, they do poorly in school, have trouble holding down jobs, and often work menial jobs.
4. They tend to come from unstable families.
5. As children, they are typically abandoned by their fathers and raised by domineering mothers.
6. Their families often have criminal, psychiatric and alcoholic histories.
7. They often are mistrustful of their parents.
8. It is common to find that as children, they were abused—psychologically, physically and/or sexually—by a family member.
9. Many spend time in institutions as children and have records of early psychiatric problems.
10. They have high rates of suicide attempts.
11. From an early age, many are intensely interested in voyeurism, fetishism, and sadomasochistic pornography.
12. More than 60 percent wet their beds beyond the age of 12.
13. Many are fascinated with fire starting.
14. They are involved in sadistic activity or tormenting small creatures

Are you serious? It is utterly ridiculous to base some kind of diagnosis on a 14 point questionnaire you found on the internet. A massive amount of people could answer yes to most of those questions - serial killers & genuine psychopaths are rare. I'd lean towards answering yes to around 11 of those questions as well; most of the questions are very open ended & ambiguous - it is not specific & misses out a huge amount of relevant material. Believe me - you would now about it if you came across a true psychopath.

 

[Ashley]

Are you serious? It is utterly ridiculous to base some kind of diagnosis on a 14 point questionnaire you found on the internet. A massive amount of people could answer yes to most of those questions - serial killers & genuine psychopaths are rare. I'd lean towards answering yes to around 11 of those questions as well; most of the questions are very open ended & ambiguous - it is not specific & misses out a huge amount of relevant material. Believe me - you would now about it if you came across a true psychopath.

well putting that together with some other of her fantasies we've talked about, it may make more sense.

how would i know? there are women that have been married to killers and not had a clue. right?

i guess you're right, it's prob just me being extremely paranoid. i'll probably wake up tomorrow and laugh at myself for making this stupid thread. sorry for wasting your time.

 

[Apotheosis]

how would i know? there are women that have been married to killers and not had a clue. right?

In which specific cases?

i guess you're right, it's prob just me being extremely paranoid. i'll probably wake up tomorrow and laugh at myself for making this stupid thread. sorry for wasting your time.

I'm not saying I'm right about anything - I simply said it was silly to try & base a severe psychiatric diagnosis from 14 ambiguous questions.

A lot of women I know would fit a yes answer to most of those questions! They aren't psychopathic in a clinical/pathological way.

 

[Dollit]

That's just so generalised and if sado masochistic sex is indicative of psychopathy then there's an awful lot of psychopaths out there.

What is important to remember is that people with psychopatic tendencies aren't guaranteed to be serial killers or sadists - there a degrees of psychopathy as there are degrees of other personality types. And it is a personality type, not an illness.

Look at any very successful man or woman (none of whom I'm going to mention by name) and you will almost certainly find that they have psychopathic traits, they are traits that are needed to succeed in some careers. And I doubt that any of them have thought seriously about killing someone.

I can't believe that you jumped to such a conclusion on so little evidence - are you sure this girl needs you in her life?

 

[jamesdean]

I'm glad you said that dollit because I wanted to say was it not perhaps your own perverse pleasure, that perhaps the excitement was that secretly you hoped this girl was a serial killer. Was it actually turning you on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Excuse me if I'm wrong

 

[saffron]

You have known this girl for a long time and of course you are going to find out new things about each other, if you are paranoid then speak to your doctor about it, please don't base anything on these questionnaires you get on the net as they are rarely ever based on actual scientific research or psychological profiling, these type of tests would only be available to actual professionals who have the ability to conclude them properly, the ones on the net are just amature.
based on what that list says we are all serial killers, and I bet most of us have at one point of time thought of the perfect crime, but we never carry them out, that is the difference between a true psychopath, which statistically are very rare, thank god.

if she trust you enough to tell you things bout herself that is a true comliment, now you have to trust her.
it easy to become irrational when you are paranoid, I am the queen of that, but looking from outside in to what you are saying I think you are letting your imagination run a little wild, I maybe think you should talk about something less intense next time.

take care
S