Many people, especially modern teenagers, are interested in how to become a psycho. In fact, this question cannot be called correct. The point is that you cannot intentionally become psychotic only if you consciously expose the nervous system to some special influences. It is better to understand for what reasons people can become crazy, for the purposes of personal safety and prevention. Some, for unknown reasons, want to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital. It’s hard to believe, but you don’t have to become mentally ill to do this. It is enough to simply contact these institutions for help in certain cases. More on them a little later. First you need to understand how to become a psycho and why people generally go crazy.
Heredity
The human psyche is a huge mystery that doctors still cannot fully understand. The thing is that the nerve endings in the brain are influenced by everything that happens around people. And the answer to the question of how to become a mentally unhealthy person (or present yourself as a psychopath) is purely individual.
Many doctors point out that the process being studied depends on heredity. If someone in the family had mental illnesses or people with diseases of the nervous system, it is possible that the disease will be transmitted. Sometimes it goes from generation to generation, in some cases - every other time. Therefore, you should carefully study heredity. Maybe you won't have to think about how to become a psycho. The disease of the nervous system itself will take over the mind when the time comes.
Psycho- or socio-?
People with similar diagnoses are very similar. In fact, the clinical manifestations of their diseases are similar to each other. However, a sociopath, says clinical psychologist John Grohol, is a product of negative environmental influences. While psychopaths are born. At the same time, it is much more difficult to recognize a psychopath than a sociopath, which is associated with behavioral characteristics. The latter behave eccentrically and unpredictably. Most often, people become sociopaths as a result of a difficult childhood or psychological trauma.
Great shock
The nervous system is the main component of human behavior. The more stable she is, the less likely she is to go crazy. This fact is confirmed by doctors. How do people become crazy? Fears, panic attacks and even severe emotional shock can be to blame. Usually it should have a negative connotation.
Most often, people who went to war went crazy. Participation in hostilities is a sure step towards madness. The body is constantly under stress and tension, all this leaves its mark on behavior.
If a person says: “I want to become a psycho,” you can advise him to be exposed for some time to negative and stressful situations that are not only unpleasant, but also to some extent dangerous. Torture, war, just eternal tension - all this will help you go crazy over time. No positive emotions, no peace of mind!
How to recognize a psychopath?
It should be noted that this is quite difficult to do. Galina Kozlovskaya argues that there are several types of psychopaths: hypocritical, deceitful and cruel, as well as insecure, pedantic and shy. The first ones are most common.
These are individuals who are incapable of sympathy and empathy. They are cunning, vengeful, vindictive. Psychopaths don't feel anything, but they strive to make people adore them. And they often succeed.
Injuries
Why do they become crazy? Doctors associate madness with changes in brain function. It has already been said that severe emotional shock or constant stress, as well as heredity, are what make the head work differently than usual. We can say that in these situations, brain chemistry changes.
This can happen not only due to the reasons already listed. Head problems can be caused by injuries. A strong blow, concussion and other injuries - all this has an extremely negative impact on human health. And if the chemical processes in the brain are disrupted, you can become a psychopath. Or simply remain mentally retarded for life.
If a person is seriously thinking about becoming a psycho, you can advise him to hurt his head. The stronger the better. The advice is far from the most reliable and adequate, but it has its place.
Emotional pain and abuse
Social isolation, loneliness, and associated emotional pain may precede serious criminal behavior in psychopaths (Martens, 2000, 1999, 1997; Palermo and Martens, in press). They believe that the whole world is against them and ultimately come to the conclusion that they deserve special privileges or rights to satisfy their desires. As psychopathic serial killers Jeffrey Dahmer and Dennis Nielsen have stated, severe psychopaths eventually reach a point where they feel they have severed their last tenuous connection with the normal world. Subsequently, their sadness and suffering increase, and their crimes become more and more sophisticated (Palermo and Martens, in press).
Dahmer and Nielsen stated that they killed “just to have company” (Palermo and Martens, in press). Both men had no friends, and their only social contacts were casual encounters in gay bars. Nielsen watched television and talked for hours with the corpses of the people he killed; Dahmer ate parts of the victims' bodies in order to become one with them: he believed that in this way his victims continued to live in his body.
For other people, it is unimaginable that these men were so lonely - although they describe their loneliness and social failures as unbearably painful. Each of them created their own sadistic universe to take revenge because the world rejected them, raped them, abused them, neglected them and made them suffer emotionally.
Dahmer and Nielsen claimed that they did not enjoy the killing act themselves. Dahmer attempted to create zombies out of his victims by injecting acid into their brains after stunning them with sleeping pills. He wanted complete control over his victims, but when he failed in this, he killed them. Nielsen felt much more comfortable with corpses than with living people - the dead could not abandon him. He wrote poems and spoke tender words to the corpses, using them for company as long as possible. In other severe psychopaths, a relationship has been found between the intensity of sadness and loneliness and the degree of violence, recklessness, and impulsivity (Martens, 1999, 1997; Palermo and Martens, in press).
Raising a psycho
The question of how to become a psycho is often of interest to modern schoolchildren and teenagers. Only occasionally do adults think about it. Disturbances in brain function can arise as a result of upbringing. To some extent, the tendency to diseases of the nervous system depends on the atmosphere in the house in which the child was.
Therefore, you can simply raise a psycho. The main thing is to constantly expose a person to stress, intimidate, offend. No compassion! More assault, cruelty. This is a sure way to not only make an embittered creature out of a person, but also drive him crazy. By the way, you can put pressure not only physically, but also psychologically. For example, parental authority.
Are psychopaths born or made?
Scientists from the universities of Chicago and New Mexico decided to find out whether psychopathy is a congenital disorder. Why people become psychopaths is of interest to many, but this study has become one of the largest.
For the study, 80 violent criminals were selected, many of whom were sentenced to life imprisonment. They underwent magnetic resonance imaging of the brain and at the same time were shown videos of brutal torture and photographs of people with faces distorted by pain. It turned out that those parts of the brain that are responsible for pity, empathy and sympathy for others in healthy people are inactive in them. They literally remain indifferent to the pain and suffering of other people. They are also incapable of empathy.
Later, the subjects, who watched videos of torture while already sitting in their cells, figured out how the injuries shown to them were committed and what punishment would await the criminal if he was caught.
In the end, the researchers said that not only does observing someone else's pain not make a psychopath want to look away, but it also makes them want to do more damage.
It is noteworthy that the study cost $1.6 million, and as a result, modern psychologists and psychiatrists have new information about the diagnosis and treatment methods of people with psychopathic disorders.
So how do you become a psychopath? Only individuals with a certain mental structure can do this. A normal person cannot become a “full-fledged” psychopath.
Obsession
The next piece of advice on how to become a psycho is to find something to do that makes you wildly excited. Not just a hobby, but true love. Something that causes a real obsession.
Usually it is not possible to behave this way on purpose. Many scientists (especially physicists and mathematicians) went crazy. All this is due to the constant load on the brain. Therefore, it is recommended to find a hobby that will force a person to constantly think and think. If passion takes precedence over reason, it is possible that the enthusiast will begin to go crazy. In any case, his passion for some activity will seem abnormal to others. This means that the person will be considered crazy.
Phase 3: Complicity in the Psychopath's Game
Once the psychopathic connection is established, you will find that your partner uses your vulnerabilities to gain your submission and strengthen the relationship. Surprisingly, this kind of “tug of war” often strengthens, rather than weakens, such a connection. This is especially true when you, against your will and against your own interests, do what is asked of you in order to maintain a strong connection.
A healthy relationship is harmonious: each participant gives something and receives something. A psychopathic relationship is usually one-sided: you give, and he only receives (money, housing, sex, power, control).
Often friends, relatives and colleagues, seeing what is happening, try to warn you, but you refuse to listen to them. You choose to ignore phrases like “He’s not right for you,” “It’s better to end this relationship,” or “I wouldn’t trust him,” and you may even lash out at your family and friends. Such alienation is only to the advantage of a psychopath, because, having lost support, you will be completely in his power.
If you find yourself in the network of a boss, co-worker or emotional tyrant, try to find external confirmation of your feelings. If you see that your relationship with this person is causing you harm, it's time to end it.
In many cases, family members, friends and co-workers can help you and provide psychological support during the transition. Additionally, if you have been assaulted, you will need the advice and assistance of law enforcement and qualified professionals.
So different
What other opinions are expressed about the topic being studied? Is it possible to become psycho on purpose? To be honest, it’s almost impossible to do this on purpose. Unless you deliberately expose yourself to constant stress and other negative emotions. And nothing more.
When thinking about how to become a psycho, people most often have a slightly different question in mind. It will be correct: how to behave so that others will mistake you for a sick person? It is in this interpretation that schoolchildren and teenagers are interested in the topic being studied.
In fact, psychos act in different ways. It all depends on the nature and extent of the disease. Some people go crazy without anyone noticing, they do no harm. And someone is very dangerous. Therefore, it should be understood that psychopaths are capable of expressing themselves in different ways.
What is psychopathy?
This is not a disease, says psychologist Galina Kozlovskaya, but a special structure of the psyche. Sometimes it is difficult to determine: in front of you is really a psychopath or a healthy person in a state of passion. A psychopath is unable to control his behavior. The structural features of his psyche dictate his actions and views.
“In psychopaths we see a kind of grotesqueness of human qualities,” says Galina. She says that, in fact, there are no qualities in the behavior of psychopaths that are unusual for a normal person. However, they are deformed, so they cannot be called normal.
Galina believes that psychopaths are rarely smart people, since they cannot devote much time to anything, including study. At the same time, they masterfully lie and deceive, which is a sign of sophistication, not intelligence.
Psychopathy is a borderline mental state between normality and deviation. At the same time, psychopaths differ from schizophrenics in the absence of hallucinations and delusions.
Intentional actions
Don’t know how to become a psycho and how to get into a mental hospital? It is not necessary to ensure real changes in the brain. You can only adjust everything, present your person as inadequate, suffering from mental disorders. True, all the lies are usually revealed already in the psychiatric hospital during the first examination by specialists.
First, you need to choose a tactic of behavior. Psychos, as already mentioned, can be both dangerous and harmless. Most often, an aggressive position of behavior is chosen.
Secondly, it is recommended to think through behavior. It is best to pretend that you are either just a person who is “on his own wavelength”, or some kind of obsessed maniac. Only thoughtful behavior will help you end up in a mental hospital. Or a split personality is playing out.
Third, you need to come up with a true story about what happened. This technique works especially well with acting out a split personality. If a person decides to pretend to be a crazy fool, then you can simply speak in incoherent sentences.
This is all. Once an action plan has been developed, decisive action can be taken. For example, attacking someone close to you with cries of “Get away, Satan!”, after 2 minutes you walk around and wonder why everyone is looking askance, as if nothing happened. Any inappropriate behavior that is repeated several times will sooner or later lead to a psychiatric hospital.
Phase 7: Overcoming Shame
Shame is a natural reaction to abuse and is the reason why many cases of abuse go unreported. However, it is extremely important to discuss it if you have experienced this feeling with family members, friends or professionals. It is necessary to seek help, firstly, because you do not deserve shame, just as you did not deserve violence.
It's not your fault: the psychopath is a social predator, and you became his victim.
Secondly, the very feeling of shame makes you an easy target for further manipulation. Think of abused wives who, despite beatings and verbal abuse, beg abusive spouses to return to the family or find new abusive partners. Moreover, a psychopath will be able to turn your sense of shame against you just as easily as he played on your shortcomings, needs and fears from the very beginning.
Don't let the shame of being fooled stop you from seeking help and advice; Don't put this weapon in the hands of a psychopath.
Depression
How to become a psycho at home? You don't always have to play or expose yourself to real head injuries. Modern psychologists point out that depression can make even a healthy person crazy.
Therefore, we can advise you to “drive” yourself into depression. Staying in this state for a long time will negatively affect the nervous system. And in this situation, you can go to a psychiatric hospital.
Teenagers are most often sent to such institutions when they have suicidal tendencies. By the way, this is one of the options for presenting your personality as mentally unhealthy. Many people advise writing suicide notes, declaring a desire to die, and cutting your hands with a blade (even shallow cuts will produce results). And very soon others will begin to consider the person crazy.
Several main signs of psychopathy
A psychopath is always a victim. He will blame everyone around him, but he himself will remain white and fluffy. Demonstration of innocence often misleads others. At the same time, he loves to point out other people's mistakes. Hypocrisy and a penchant for judgment coexist perfectly in him.
Another marker: a psychopath makes others feel guilty. For example, he was waiting for you in the cold and was very cold. And he will remind you of this several more times, so that you definitely feel guilty. However, he does it so skillfully that you are unlikely to feel the catch initially.
It is important for women to remember: psychopathic men know how to seek attention. They do it so impulsively and with such aplomb that it is difficult to resist them. But once the victim is hooked, they can reveal their true selves. Many women live with psychopaths for years, considering them simply unbalanced but loving men.
Psychopaths are very arrogant. Their self-esteem whispers: “You are the best always and in everything.” Therefore, they treat people with a fair amount of contempt.
Childbirth
It’s hard to imagine, but childbirth can also deal a blow to the human psyche. There is such a thing as postpartum depression. It occurs in both men and women. Without treatment for this disease, in some cases you can go crazy and then end up in a mental hospital.
Therefore, you should take into account: childbirth and hormonal imbalance contribute to the development of neurological problems that lead to inappropriate behavior. This process is a strong emotional tension and stress for the body. No one knows how childbirth will affect a woman’s behavior.
Now it’s clear how people become mentally ill. Most often, you can't go crazy on purpose. Just act out the madness. All changes in the brain occur uncontrollably. In case of any emotional upheaval, it is better to consult a doctor - they will help you not to drive yourself to depression and madness.
Why is it easy to get into a relationship with a psychopath?
Unlike normal people, psychopaths are extremely pleasing to others. This is their special ability. And they use it when they strive to have a close relationship with someone.
Photo from the site korysno.pro
By the way, as a rule, psychopaths have increased sexuality. They are more sexual than normal, attractive and more tireless in sexual matters than normal people. This is explained by the fact that their animal essence dominates over their spiritual human essence.
Psychopaths literally charm people with their understanding and attractiveness. This mechanism is similar to the behavior of killer flowers. A psychopath is capable of seducing you into any relationship with him - from family and love-sexual to friendly. And then slowly and persistently it will begin to “devour” you. And then he will simply forget about you, taking from you everything he needed.
Become a psycho, or How to deal with irrational people
We all sometimes have to communicate with completely unbearable people. How to build a dialogue with them correctly? Why don't calls to act wisely in these cases work? Psychiatrist and consultant Mark Goulston answers these and other questions in his book “How to Talk to Assholes: What to Do with Inadequate and Insufferable People in Your Life.” We publish several interesting fragments from it.
This book is about principles for dealing with people who behave irrationally. But when planning a conversation with such a person, do not forget to ask yourself: why are you even interacting with him?
Do you have a good enough reason? And wouldn't it be better for you to stay away from him? Often the answer is obvious: because you love this person. Either you depend on him financially, or are connected by some other circumstances. But sometimes things are not so simple. A relationship with such a person may not be very important to you, and then it turns out that you are just wasting your time. In this case, your behavior should also be considered insane...
Having worked as a psychiatrist for decades, I can say that I understand crazy people, including deeply ill people. What I mean? For example, one of my patients chased Britney Spears, and another jumped from the fifth floor because he believed he could fly. Another one once called me from a prison in the Dominican Republic and told me that he had been there intending to start a revolution. In addition, I have worked with anorexics who weighed less than 40 kilograms, heroin addicts, and schizophrenic patients who experienced hallucinations. I taught negotiators how to get murder-obsessed terrorist hostage-takers to surrender. Now I show directors and top managers of companies how to deal with people who threaten the business. Simply put, the abnormal people and I have long since switched to being on first-name terms.
But recently an interesting thought came to me: I expect to meet a psycho every day, because this is my job. However, I suddenly realized how often you have to deal with crazy people
— not those jumping from balconies or intimidating Britney Spears, but those whom I call
household psychos.
The epiphany struck me when I went to a meeting of developers and their lawyers who needed advice on helping families in crisis. I expected a boring meeting, but their stories fascinated me. I discovered that these people "talk to crazy people" on a daily basis.
- just like me!
Almost every situation discussed involved clients who behaved completely crazy. These lawyers had no problem drafting a will or setting up a trust. But they didn't know what to do if a client turned into a psycho
- and they desperately wanted to find out...
By the way, about the word “psycho”:
I understand that it sounds provocative and politically incorrect.
But when I use it, I don't mean mentally ill people... All of us are capable of acting crazy at some point. When I say “crazy” or “crazy,” I mean that the person is behaving irrationally. There are four signs
that the people you deal with are irrational:
- they do not have a clear picture of the world;
- they say or do things that don't make sense;
- they make decisions or take actions that are not in their own best interests;
- when you try to bring them back to the path of prudence, they become completely unbearable...
The tools I will discuss require courage to use.
Because you won't just ignore the psychos and wait for them to go away. You will not argue with them or try to convince them. Instead, you will have to feel the madness and start behaving the same way.
Many years ago, someone explained to me what to do when a dog grabs your arm.
. If you trust your instincts and pull your hand away, the dog will sink its teeth even deeper. But if you use a non-obvious solution and push your hand deeper into the throat, the dog will loosen its grip. Why? Because the dog will want to swallow, for which he needs to relax his jaw. This is where you pull your hand out.
You can interact with irrational people in a similar way. If you treat them as if they are crazy and you are not, they will only fall deeper into crazy thoughts. But if you start acting like a crazy person yourself, it will change the situation dramatically. Here's an example.
After one of the most disgusting days of my life, on the way home, I concentrated on the troubles that had befallen me and drove the car on autopilot. Unfortunately for me, this all happened during California's extremely dangerous rush hour. At some point, I accidentally cut off a pickup truck in which a big guy and his wife were sitting. He beeped angrily and I waved my hand to show that I was sorry. But then - just a couple of kilometers later - I cut him off again.
Then the man caught up with me and abruptly stopped the truck in front of my car, forcing me to pull over to the side of the road. As I slowed down, I saw his wife frantically gesticulating, asking him not to get out of the car. Of course, he didn’t pay attention to her and a few moments later he already found himself on the road - two meters tall and weighing 140 kilograms. He sharply approached me and began knocking on the glass, shouting curses.
I was so stunned that I even rolled down the window so I could hear him. Then I waited for him to pause so he could pour more bile on me. And when he paused to catch his breath, I said to him, “Have you ever had such a terrible day that you just hoped that someone would pull out a gun and shoot you and end all the suffering? Is that someone you?”
His jaw dropped. "What?" - he asked. Up to this point I had been very stupid. But suddenly I did something brilliant. In some incredible way, despite my foggy mind, I said exactly what was needed. I did not try to negotiate with this intimidating man - most likely, instead of answering, he would have pulled me out of the car and hit me in the face with his huge fist. I didn't try to resist. I just became just as crazy and hit him with his own weapon.
He stared at me and I spoke again: “Yes, I'm serious. I don't usually cut people off and I've never cut someone off twice before. It's just that today is the day when it doesn't matter what I do or who I meet - including you! - everything goes wrong. Will you be the person who will mercifully end my existence?” He immediately changed, calmed down and started encouraging me: “Hey. “What are you doing, guy,” he said. - Everything will be OK. Honestly! Relax, everyone has bad days."
I continued my tirade: “Easy for you to say! You didn't ruin everything you touched today, unlike me. I don't think anything will ever get better for me. Will you help me?" He continued enthusiastically: “No, really. I am not kidding! Everything will be alright. Have a rest". We talked for a few more minutes. Then he returned to the truck, said something to his wife and waved to me in the mirror, as if to say: “Remember. Calm down. Everything will be fine". And he left.
Now I'm not proud of this story. To be fair, the guy in the pickup wasn't the only irrational person on the road that day. But here's what I'm getting at. That big guy could have taken my lungs off. And, perhaps, he would have done this if I had tried to reason with him or argue with him. But I met him in his reality, where I was a bad person and he had every reason to hit me. Instinctively using a technique I call aggressive submission
, I turned him from enemy to ally in less than a minute. Luckily, my reaction was natural, even on that really bad day. This happened because over many years of working as a psychiatrist, I put myself in the place of crazy people. I've done this thousands of times, in different ways, and I know it works. Moreover, I know it will work for you too. The Psycho Mask is a strategy you can use with any irrational person. For example, to talk:
- with a partner who yells at you or refuses to talk to you;
- with a child screaming "I hate you!" or “I hate myself!”;
- with an aging parent who thinks you don't care about them;
- with an employee who is constantly slacking off at work;
- with a manager who is always trying to hurt you.
No matter what type of crazy person you're dealing with, learning to become a crazy person yourself will allow you to get rid of failed communication strategies and reach people. As a result, you will be able to engage in almost any emotional situation and feel confident and in control.
1.
Understand that the person you are confronted with is not capable of thinking rationally in this situation. Realize that the deep roots of his irrationality lie more in the distant (or not very distant) past, rather than in the current moment, so now you are unlikely to be able to argue or convince him.
2.
Identify the other person's modus operandi - the unique set of actions they resort to when they are not themselves. His strategy is to throw you off balance, make you angry, afraid, frustrated or guilty. Once you understand the course of action, you will feel calmer, more focused and in control of the situation, and will be able to choose an appropriate counter-strategy.
3.
Realize that crazy behavior is not about you. But it says a lot about the person you are dealing with. By ceasing to take his words personally, you will deprive the enemy of an important weapon. At the same time, use the necessary psychological tools during the conversation; they will keep you from falling into madness. These tools will help you avoid “amygdala hijack”—an intense emotional reaction to a sudden threat. This term, coined by psychologist Daniel Goleman, describes a condition where the amygdala, the part of your brain responsible for generating fear, blocks rational thinking.
4.
Talk to an irrational person, plunging into the world of his madness, calmly and objectively. First, accept the person's innocence as a given. This means that you must believe that the person is actually good and there is a reason for his behavior. Try not to judge, but to understand what caused this. Secondly, imagine that you are experiencing the same emotions: aggression, misunderstanding, threat.
5.
Show that you are an ally, not an enemy: listen calmly and carefully to the person while he is blowing off steam. Instead of interrupting, let him speak. this way you will surprise the person who is waiting for a retaliatory attack and get closer to him. You can even apologize. And the more carefully and sensitively you reflect your opponent’s emotions, the sooner he himself will begin to listen to you.
6.
When the person calms down, help him move on to more reasonable actions. These steps are the basis for most of the psychological techniques I teach you (although there may be variations, such as when dealing with bullies, manipulators, or psychopaths). However, keep in mind that going through the cycle of prudence with an irrational person is not always easy or fun, and this technique does not always work instantly. And, as with everything in our lives, there is a risk that it will not work at all (and there is even a possibility that the situation will get worse). But if you are desperately trying to reach someone who is difficult or impossible to control, this method is probably the best choice.
Mark Goulston
HBR
