The psychopath’s narcissism and self-centeredness are legendary.  We pull everyone into our vortex and few leave unscathed.  Even if the intention is not to harm, our narcissistic proclivities can leave those around us drained and depleted.  That is, simply by maintaining the focus on our grandiose sense of selves and our own wants and desires, we leech others dry.  Combine this with our grandiose (if existent) goals, and we are often stuck spinning our wheels: demanding self-evident respect and worship but only attaining such through force.

Psychopathy is much more than narcissistic tendencies, or else diagnoses of Narcissistic Personality Disorder would be in order (and are usually in order in combination with Antisocial Personality Disorder by most governing bodies).  However, it is often the narcissistic ways that neurotypicals notice first when interacting with a psychopath.  Psychopaths tend to ignore conventions of speech, interrupting conversations and ignoring the turn-taking that dominates most conversations, and tend to ignore the needs of others.  Sprinkle in a callous nature that not only results in ignoring others needs, but sabotaging others to better meet the psychopath’s needs, and others can often see through the mask before we know it.

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