People with psychopathy still feel, just differently from everyone around them.
Dr. Patric Gagne, a diagnosed sociopath who went on to earn a doctorate and work as a therapist, sat down with Lewis and told the story she tells in Sociopath: A Memoir. As a kid she learned that saying “I don’t care” out loud got her in trouble, so she lied, and lying made her feel safe.
She talks about the pressure she called a vice, which she relieved by breaking into homes just to sit in the quiet, and the first grade day she stabbed a classmate with a pencil. Then she explains why secondary psychopathy, which may touch 5% of people, is treatable when kids get caught early.
You will hear why a therapist who doesn’t absorb your pain can be the best container for it, and why stopping someone from crying can stop the brain from healing. She also gets into the shame under people pleasing and narcissism, and the question she asks her own kids: how does it feel when you feel?
You may come away a little gentler with the people you never understood, and with the kid you used to be.
