They infiltrate our friendship groups, manipulate social dynamics, and leave a trail of emotional damage that’s hard to explain, because from the outside, they look completely normal.
“When I first started my research, there was the overwhelming idea that psychopaths are all criminals,” Dr Boddy said.
“The reality is much more complicated than that. There are many psychopaths who exist under the radar because they look perfectly normal and are charming and sociable people.”
And for female psychopaths especially, the dynamics can be especially subtle and deeply damaging.
What is a psychopath, really?
Psychopathy is a clinical personality disorder characterised by a lack of empathy, remorse, and conscience, Boddy explained.
These individuals view others not as people but as tools; objects to be used, manipulated, and discarded.
It’s different from narcissism, although the two can overlap.
“A narcissist is basically someone who loves themselves too much for their own good and the reason they neglect other people is because they don’t think about other people,” Boddy said.
“A psychopath doesn’t care about other people because they have no empathy, no conscience, no emotion. So for them, other people simply don’t exist as real people.”
Boddy explained that psychopathy manifests in two broad ways: