Psychopaths, also known as sociopaths, are usually epic, pathological liars. They are often imperturbable liars. Most of us, when busted for an outright lie, will feel awkward, embarrassed, ashamed, maybe humbled, maybe genuinely bad.
Not psychopaths—their shamelessness inoculates them from the normal, uncomfortable feelings associated with the “outing” of their lies.
When I call psychopaths “epic” liars, I mean that they’ll often lie outlandishly and audaciously. They’ll often lie heedless of the improbability of being taken seriously—meaning they’ll know they’re spinning something improbable, impossible and non-credible, but they won’t care.
Most of us, when caught up in lies, start to sweat a bit. Not psychopaths. They’ll dig themselves deeper and deeper into their “lying holes” with no compunction, and with a missing sense of alarm. Their grandiosity leaves them feeling they can “get over” over on anyone—psychopaths can carry around a sense of pathological invulnerability. Consequently, even when cornered inescapably with indisputable evidence of their deception, they may still deny culpability, still prevaricate, with spectacular audacity.
Psychopaths may lie for normal reasons, meaning the same reasons non-psychopaths lie. Maybe they’re just trying to get away with something, or shirk accountability to avert some sort of fallout. But they also lie differently from normal people—they often lie from a deep-seated contempt for the truth in general, and a deep-seated contempt for others. This is why they can lie so blithely, so recreationally; and it’s also why their psychopathic composure can sometimes seem so impenetrable even, as noted, when they’ve been flat-out busted—for psychopaths, the “truth” is often dismissible, inconvenient, and a joke; and so, in the final analysis, are you.
It’s as if psychopaths, when busted for their lies and scams, are thinking to themselves, if not expressing something like, “Big deal, so you got me. You caught me lying. You busted my scam. Congratulations. Ha ha. Who cares? Hey, by the way, can I get some water? You got some water around here?”
Great article Steve. These days we can watch the news and witness psychopathic lying. Trumps lying and gaslighting is so blatant (and highly triggering) to those who know about or have experienced psychopathic gaslighting but most people are not aware of what gaslighting is or looks like in real life. Trump is a master manipulator and with his malignantly narcissistic grandiosity he has manged to get a good chunk of the population under his control much like a cult….a psychopathic cult with the nuclear codes.
Thanks so much for the feedback. You yourself make excellent observations about gas-lighting and, of course, how frightening it is when someone, anyone with a psychopathic type of charisma, can provocatively rouse up a restive public starved for rousing.