Back in 2014 I held a dark triad Q&A and answered a selection of questions posed to me on the subject matter.

Last night I finished remastering this piece (with new and additional insight) to bring it up to par with my current standard of writing. I think you'll find section 3 on "Macro Dark Triad" particularly interesting. I'll leave an excerpt for you here, and as always, you can read the entirety of the article by clicking the link at the end of the post.

“Are there any videos (movies, documentaries or anything of the sort) that you would recommend to give a more clear-cut example of Dark Triad behaviour?”

To my knowledge, few good documentaries exist on dark triad behaviour. I recommend watching prison-based documentaries, as roughly 1-in-5 prisoners is a psychopath. Naturally being a prison setting, it is likelier you will observe low IQ blue-collar psychopaths rather than white-collar high IQ psychopaths, however despite this bias in sample, you will see the occasional high IQ.

Differentiating the lower from the higher IQ is easy as higher IQ prisoners will engage in creative pursuits and use violence instrumentally, whereas lower IQ prisoners will lack creative pursuits and thus seek conflict for stimulation. It is my contention that because lower IQ prisoners lack the intellect necessary to creatively abstract, acts of violence comprise the totality of their interest.

Nailing down a higher IQ white-collar psychopath is incredibly hard as their greater impulse control means they’re better able to conceal themselves, however Vice was able to base a short documentary on one.

There is an English documentary called “Psychopath Night“, which contrasted an FBI profiler’s analysis with the behaviour of an imprisoned high IQ psychopath. There was likewise input from Oxford University’s Kevin Dutton, a professor known for his friendship with an ex-SAS psychopath that has partnered with him on numerous psychopathy texts. These texts are useful, but not well written.

Dutton constantly attempts to normalise psychopathy as something that’s “cool but slightly quirky” with an overbearing chummy tone, and it is this which detracts from the authority of his writing. It’s hard to take somebody seriously who discusses the ruthlessness of negative empathy with the salivation of a hyperactive teenager, and oh boy does Dutton salivate.

Nonetheless, Dutton rewards those with the constitution to endure his blabbering should you prove either masochistic or curious enough. If one can exercise a little patience, one will find Dutton has many valuable insights. Dutton’s books are not literary masterpieces to be absorbed and pleasurably savoured, but rather, verbose drudgery to be dissected for occasional nuggets of gold.

As for media examples of Psychopathic characters, there are countless, but to name a few:

– Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street is a narcopath (an ego dominant psychopath)

– Marlo from The Wire is a psychopath. If autists were psychopaths, they’d be like Marlo.

– Omar from The Wire is a sociopath (like a psychopath, but has sympathy for his in-group.)

– Snoop from The Wire is your typical butch dyke psychopath

– Katherine from The Vampire Diaries is a more accurate portrayal of typical female psychopathy/BPD behaviour.

– Lord Varys & Petyr Baelish from Game of Thrones are Machiavellians.

– Frank Underwood from House of Cards is a depiction of the highest form of psychopath, a “General.” Unlike others on the negative empathy spectrum who blunder out of a need to indulge shortcomings (eg: violent tendencies, excess depravity, historicism etc) “Generals” have evolved beyond such indulgences. A “General” puts the requirements of the game above desire by strategising before fulfilling his urges, whereas his lower-tier counterparts prioritise their urges before the game and thus become unstuck.

A General is instrumental rather than reactive; to react to provocation or give in to pettiness is not characteristic of the General, for the General recognises the tactical pitfalls these things represent and possesses the iron will necessary to resist them. The General realises only a correct sequence of steps will get him what he wants, thus he is future-orientated where his lesser counterparts are present-orientated. If you want to learn more about the General archetype, read this article.

As the list above alludes, dark triad characters comes in many shades and varieties. Whether they are criminal, corporate, violent, cold or charismatic, one thing is universal among them: they’re cut-throat and cunning. The media is rife with different variations upon the same theme, although there is something one should be aware of when scouring the media for dark triad personalities – the characters are plausible, but their schemes aren’t.

In TV shows timing is too perfect, and so the elaborate schemes in play are so utterly contrived they’re inimitable. As such, only analyse a fictional character’s psychology, not their schemes. The schemes by merit of their fiction are ridiculous, and therefore unviable for real world emulation. When a show’s writers ensure a character always wins and can perfectly execute his plans to the nanosecond, cunning is deified to a realm of fantasy through the misrepresentation of what is humanly possible.

FULL ARTICLE: http://illimitablemen.com/2014/09/10/understanding-the-dark-triad-qa-part-1/