Psychopaths are social predators, and like all predators, they are looking for feeding grounds. Wherever you get power, prestige and money, you will find them.
Robert D. HareRead
Language and words for psychopaths are only word deep; there is no emotional colouring behind it. A psychopath can use a word like, ‘I love you’ but it means nothing more to him than if he said, ‘I’ll have a cup of coffee.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote illustrates that psychopaths can manipulate language without genuine emotional understanding or sincerity.
Robert D. Hare's quote highlights the emotional detachment prevalent in psychopathy, where individuals can articulate sentiments like love without any true emotional depth. This suggests a stark contrast between the superficial use of language by psychopaths and its deeper, more meaningful application in normal emotional contexts, underscoring the profound difference in emotional processing within these individuals.
Themes
PsychopathLanguageEmotionLoveCommunication
In practice
Example use cases
In a psychology class discussing emotional intelligence, this quote could be used to illustrate the concept of emotional detachment.
More from Robert D. Hare
All quotes →Many psychopaths describe the traditional treatment programmes as finishing schools where they hone their skills. Where they find out that there are lots of techniques they had not thought about before.
Robert D. HareRead
Measurement and categorization are, of course, fundamental to any scientific endeavor, but the implications of being able to identify psychopaths are as much practical as academic. To put it simply, if we can't spot them, we are doomed to be their victims, both as individuals and as a society.
Robert D. HareRead
Not all psychopaths are in prison - some are in the boardroom.
Robert D. HareRead
A psychopath can tell what you're thinking but what they don't do is feel what you feel. These are people without a conscience.
Robert D. HareRead
Similar quotes
Addiction, obesity, starvation (anorexia nervosa) are political problems, not psychiatric: each condense and expresses a contest between the individual and some other person or persons in his environment over the control of the individual's body.
Thomas SzaszRead
Psychoanalysis is a terribly efficient instrument, and because it is more and more a prestigious instrument, we run the risk of using it with a purpose for which it was not made for, and in this way we may degrade it.
Jacques LacanRead
Everybody, to some extent, manipulates. Even children learn to cry when they want something. There are all kinds of subtle things we do to get others to follow our lead, not bother us, and so on.
Robert GreeneRead
Psychology should be just as concerned with building strength as with repairing damage
Martin SeligmanRead
I think the relationship between social-dominance orientation in people and the extent to which they're made uncomfortable by ambiguity and novelty is really important. Better a stable world that's familiar, in which I'm doing pretty poorly, than dealing with all the ambiguity of a changing world.
Robert SapolskyRead
Cognitive therapy is based on the idea that when you change the way you think, you can change the way you feel and behave. In other words, if we can learn to think about other people in a more positive and realistic way, it will be far easier to resolve conflicts and develop rewarding personal and professional relationships.
David D. BurnsRead