I’m actually a neurotypical with high empathy; and by the time I was 27 observed that psychopaths always were willing to take risks when bullying you. I learned to do several things to combat them. The first was to recognize when the psychopath had crawled out too far on the limb in terms of aggressive behavior and challenge them directly, in front of a group at this moment. The psychopath had two choices at this moment, the first was to escalate his aggression to the point that all the witnesses to the outburst would recognize that this person was f’n nuts (lose face), or to retreat. In this situation the intelligent psychopath would usually retreat. For instance, there was a very aggressive nurse at my junior college, that would ‘insult’ you if she didn’t think she had you beaten into submission. I would state affirmatively that I didn’t hear the insult and ask her if she could ‘repeat’ it. I made sure to speak loud enough so that everyone in the room could hear the interaction. In response, she stated that ‘no’ she could NOT repeat it, and I had won the day.
Eventually, I learned to recognize and anticipate the moment that the attack would come and then completely internally and externally become emotionally flat (feel and display a flat affect). I’ve had one psychopathic women comment, “wow, you have thick skin.” BTW, that comment was proof positive of her intention to ‘hurt’ me emotionally. I don’t know who the psychopaths will be in advance, so I don’t believe anything anyone says to me and just pay attention to their behavior. If their behavior and their words don’t match I assume ‘malicious intent;’ and declare that I’ve discovered a psychopath. The last thing I learned how to do is display opposite emotions, when accosted by a psychopath. I learned what devastating emotional response the psychopath was expecting and then display exactly the opposite with maximum intensity. They would just go ‘slack jawed.’ It was so much fun after that.
Unfortunately, neurotypicals are at a disadvantage in the workplace, because bosses often deliberately hire psychopaths as supervisors; and when the psychopath that the boss hired to manage the neurotypicals feels he simply can’t control you, you’ll be looking for a new job.
It’s not just the psychopaths you have to deal with; it’s also the rigged politics of the workplace.
