Spiritual Element at the Core of Psychopathy

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Here in this post are 3 perspectives on malignant narcissism:  

  1. non-Christian  (Paula D'Arcy, life-counselor, new age philosophy)
  2. heterodox Christian  (M. Scott Peck, psychiatrist, devout Roman Catholic)
  3. Orthodox Church  (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov)

1.)  VIDEO  Demonic Energy of Narcissists
     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_BbD1MFRCc
     20 minutes
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     New-Agers do not recognize demons are creatures.  They consider a "demon" as merely a personification of what they call "negative energy" which, they say, is created by bad human thoughts.  They do not consider demons to be actual living entities with a will or as having any creative ability of their own.  One new-age definition of a demon is that it is a "congealed thought."  Still, this therapist, despite the new age philosophy, recognizes well the evil element in the covert narcissist (aka malignant narcissist).  And, her basic advice for victims, towards the end of her talk, is not contrary to Christianity.


2.)  BOOK  People of the Lie
     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5DGckpV3K8
     14 minutes
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     An earlier pioneer in this realm of mental health, a Christian psychiatrist, M. Scott Peck, published a book, PEOPLE OF THE LIE, calling for a new branch of psychology: the "Psychology of Evil."  In the book he describes actual cases of patients he had encountered, but could not explain nor could he help them.  Today these people are known as narcissists.  Actually, it is more accurate to say "malignant narcissist" because it is not the usual human narcissism, but rather a form of psychopathy.  The term psychopath is rarely used in public because it is associated with only the few psychopaths who are serial killers, cannibals and such.  Both types of psychopaths, malignant narcissists and serial killers, have the same basic characteristics -- both are demonic.

     As could be expected, there was never founded any such branch of psychology to study evil. Science, alas, continues to study DNA and brain scans of diagnosed psychopaths.  Some progress has been made, however: the majority of mental health professionals now agree that psychopathy is incurable and treatment is either useless or it backfires.  When it backfires the psychopath only learns how to get better at being a psychopath.  They learn how they got detected, how to hide better, how to hone their act.  They never come any closer to being a normal human — they only get better at faking it so that people think hey are a normal human.


3.)  HOMILY

     In the past all I ever found in the Church about psychopathy is in End Times teachings and the study of the Antichrist spirit.  I can see that Antichrist himself will be the ultimate psychopath.  Our Church teaches that the man Antichrist will contain the maximum evil that is possible for a human.  He is a lover of lies, same as all malignant narcissists.  I have known several psychopaths in my life, one of them intimately.  With rare exception, they get recognized by accident only, if you happen to catch a glimpse behind their mask.

     Recently, now I have found a Holy Father teaching that refers to psychopathy  -- not just Antichrist, but also the potential "psychopath" that is in all of us.

     St. Ignatius Brianchaninov warns us never to accept a vision, or else we could fall into delusion:

     .... for the inexperienced and the beginners, the only means to escape the delusion and the damage it brings is found in a firm rejection of any vision, due to our inability to discern visions properly.  What is the reason for the hypocrisy of the spirits, a hypocrisy terrible both in its beginnings and its ends?  The reason is obvious.  We can see it most vividly in ourselves, because man takes part in the fall of the rejected angels, and if we listen to the evil suggestions that they offer or that arise in our own fallen nature, then we become like demons.  Among the qualities of our fallenness, we especially underline the desire to hide our sins, a desire that accompanies all human iniquity, and to justify ourselves.  This is what Adam and Eve did after they transgressed the command of God (see Genesis chapter 3); this is what their firstborn Cain did after he killed his brother Abel (see Genesis chapter 4).  The further man goes from correction and virtue, the more strongly and subtly he desires to hide himself with hypocrisy.  The most hardened criminals are often at the same time unscrupulous hypocrites.  Shut behind the mask of hypocrisy, hiding behind the mask of virtue and holiness, they prepare and perpetrate the worst evils.  And the more well-crafted the mask, the better they are able to accomplish their crimes..  Even the fallen angels hide behind the mask of hypocrisy.  They are hardened, constant, incorrigible villains, but they perpetrate their evil doings most often while hiding under the guise of the holy angels, prophets, martyrs, apostles, and even Christ Himself.  They try to fit themselves into the circumstances, the mindset, the inclinations, the impressions of a human being....  

St. Ignatius Brianchaninov
"Homily on the Physical and Spiritual Vision of Spirits"
The Threshold: Trials at the Crossroads of Eternity
The Collected Works of St. Ignatius — Volume 3 p. 40
Jordanville, 2023

     I have to wonder if M. Scott Peck read these writings of St. Ignatius.  It is possible because they were first published in English in 1982, a year before PEOPLE OF THE LIE was published in 1983.  Peck considers evil the same way as our saint, — as something which is of our fallen human nature on earth and not just of the demons in hell.   What St. Ignatius says hits home with me, since I have observed that the psychopath/malignant narcissist does become, grows into, a "human demon" — his human nature is changed, digresses, to a demonic nature.   I believe it either can or does start with a single lie, in early childhood.

So here I have presented 3 perspectives that peek into the subject of psychopathy:  new-age,  heterodox Christian. Orthodox Church.  Each perspective has valuable information helpful to us.  But notice the immense difference in the conclusions, with the Orthodox guidance being whole and incomparably superior.  I wish we had more information from the Church perspective, because I have found psychopaths in our Church.  One, who was capable of murder, was considered by all who knew him as somebody who "would never hurt a fly."  Others, in a positions of authority, caused great distress to some families and caused more than a few individuals to leave the Church.  Another one, today lays low, but still has the power and potential to wreak havoc on a soul.  

"It is all about control."
     A psychopath's lies are for different reasons, but the reasons all overlap.  One reason for their lies is to create and maintain their mask.  This by itself does not hurt anyone.  We all try to put our best foot forward around other people, and we say polite words like please & thank-you even if we don't really mean it.  Our motives are not to deceive, but it's rather that we don't want to hurt the other person.   So what is different about the psychopath mask?  The motive of the psychopath's mask is not the same -- the purpose of their mask is to CONTROL you.  And that's where it crosses the line over to the beginnings of evil.  The mask is there to help them control you with their control tactics such as "gaslighting" — gaslighting is their trying to make the victim doubt themselves, to make the victim believe they did not see/hear what they saw/heard.  Eventually the psychopath just gets pleasure from fooling people, a secret pleasure, passive-aggressive — they lie just for fun.  No logical purpose.  They get pleasure from watching people "in the dark" and stumbling around not knowing the truth.  Demons also get pleasure from this.

     The narcissist I mentioned above who lays low today actually unnecessarily makes up stories and presents them as truth to manipulate people who are not adequately under her control to her comfort and liking.  For example: she will tell you privately that so&so said such&such about you, when so&so said no such thing.   This is to cause you to trust only her, to be suspicious of others, to prevent you from having honest relationships with others, to make herself your only "protector" from the ill-will and shortcomings of others.  She is especially afraid you might take one of the people that she has under her control — one of her "flying monkeys" who buy into her false persona.  She feels she owns them, and in a sense, she does.  But they do not deliberately or consciously submit to her.   So she lies out of fear, — fear of not having control.  She is very practiced at not getting caught in a lie, but if she is caught, and can't wiggle out of it, then she feigns dementia.


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Fantastic true story HBO movie about the first serial killer of Soviet Russia.  CITIZEN X, with Donald Sutherland.  Worth renting.