Good Evening Friends,

We are still talking about the sociopath, as distinct from the pragmatic career criminal and the "psychopathic" serial killer. Unlike the latter two criminal types, the former pursues crime, by and large, as a means to an end, not an end in and of itself. There is another characteristic that I want to emphasize.

As we have said before, the sociopath, unlike the serial killer or proud career criminal, is not personally comfortable committing violence but does so to achieve a specific long-term goal. Let me repeat that, they are not personally comfortable committing violence - which is why they always try to split their Selves into at least two parts in order to escape from the guilt. They try to split themselves into the good half who would never do such a thing and the bad half who can do whatever is required without hesitation.

And then, they believe that they can slough off the dark half once their purposes are achieved. This is why the short novel by Robert Louis Stevenson continues to be so valuable and instructive in projecting a precise extreme analogy of this psychological dynamic on the part of the sociopath.

More next time.

wingedcentaur