Daily Archives: August 13, 2012
The Sociopath Next Door – by Martha Stout
This is a must read book. When I was doing jury duty a few weeks ago I met a wonderful woman…this woman suggested I read this book, and then one week later lent the audio book to me. After reading this book I completely believe Morgan’s stalker was definitely a sociopath, and can not be changed. He will never have feelings like normal people have, and I believe he will go on to do this again, and again. There is no cure for sociopathy. This type of stalker fits right in to society, we don’t really see him do we?
Martha Stout writes: We are accustomed to think of sociopaths as violent criminals, but in The Sociopath Next Door, Harvard psychologist Martha Stout reveals that a shocking 4 percent of ordinary people—one in twenty-five—has an often undetected mental disorder, the chief symptom of which is that that person possesses no conscience. He or she has no ability whatsoever to feel shame, guilt, or remorse. One in twenty-five everyday Americans, therefore, is secretly a sociopath. They could be your colleague, your neighbor, even family. And they can do literally anything at all and feel absolutely no guilt.
How do we recognize the remorseless? One of their chief characteristics is a kind of glow or charisma that makes sociopaths more charming or interesting than the other people around them. They’re more spontaneous, more intense, more complex, or even sexier than everyone else, making them tricky to identify and leaving us easily seduced. Fundamentally, sociopaths are different because they cannot love. Sociopaths learn early on to show sham emotion, but underneath they are indifferent to others’ suffering. They live to dominate and thrill to win.
The fact is, we all almost certainly know at least one or more sociopaths already. Part of the urgency in reading The Sociopath Next Door is the moment when we suddenly recognize that someone we know—someone we worked for, or were involved with, or voted for—is a sociopath. But what do we do with that knowledge? To arm us against the sociopath, Dr. Stout teaches us to question authority, suspect flattery, and beware the pity play. Above all, she writes, when a sociopath is beckoning, do not join the game.
It is the ruthless versus the rest of us, and The Sociopath Next Door will show you how to recognize and defeat the devil you know.
What we do will only come from love
Saturday, August 13, 2011 – the 12th day of Morgan’s stalking
Morgan’s dad puts motion lights up all around the house. He leaves to go up to the hardware store and right after he drove away, a person named Matt (that I have never seen in our neighborhood before) shows up at our front door, and asks to borrow an extension cord. My suspicions about anyone or everyone in this neighborhood is now in full swing. The officers that have come over to the house to investigate believe the stalker is someone in our neighborhood, or very close by. The officers have asked us to keep it to ourselves for a little while, so they will have some time to investigate and close in on a suspect. They believe this because no one can figure out how that stalker could be tapping or banging on windows within 10 – 15 minutes of Morgan arriving home, even when she switches cars. I think this person showing up on my doorstep is strange, so I get Matt to write down his phone number, so Steve can call him when he returns home. I am just suspicious, because this person tells me he just moved in. And now this person shows up at our front door, right after it was obvious Steve is installing more motion lights around the house, and in one case had to use an extension cord. This Matt person said he had moved in on the corner recently, and is renting a room. He seems to be the same height as the person in the picture, but his build is much larger.
Later on, Elliott (our neighbor across the street) tells me the name of the roommate that moved into that house, at the beginning of August. The name Elliott shared with me was Eric, so Elliott states this Matt person is presumably the older brother of the other male living in that house. I don’t think this is the person we are looking for. So we scratch him off the list.
Steve and I are keeping track in a book and on a calendar when we see cars in driveways right after an incident. We want to see who is always there or who is not there when an incident occurs.
Click here to read about the 13th day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=564