Psychopathy and Narcissism

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It boils down to a lack of inhibition, not malice. Psychopaths and Narcissists are aware of what they are doing, but Psychopaths are less likely to give it in-depth examination. The "I am special" or "more important" worldview is the rule of thumb justification for people with NPD. Also, Psychopathy is a personality trait with a spectrum, surgeons tend to be more psychopathic than the population at large, perhaps because you have to be numb to the fact that you're elbow deep in another human being's chest cavity if you are to replace a heart valve for instance.

One way psychopaths flourish is that they sometimes have orbiters. People who think the psychopath is admirable, or is on their side. I've seen it on psych forms where non-psychopaths like the idea that they can "handle" the psychopath. Kind of like something out of a sword-and-sorcery book, where a magician summons a demon, thinking he's the rare human who can handle it. The demon strokes his ego, the magician thinks he's special, then he gets destroyed worst of all by the demon he admired and arrogantly thought he could control.

Or like that fable about a woman who finds an injured venomous snake. She takes it in, cares for it, loves it. They seem to bond. The snake slowly gets better. The woman thinks she's the only one who can understand the snake. Then, one day, when the snake is all better, it suddenly bites her. As she lays dying, she asks the snake WHY??

The snake replies, "You stupid bïtch, you knew I was a snake. What did you think I would do? I couldn't do it earlier because I was too weak. Now that I'm better, I'm doing what I do. The fact that you cared for me and healed me is irrelevant. You're just another victim."

RandoNLD, for your own safety, examine yourself. There seems to be some of this said masochism in you. Don't be an orbiter for psychopaths, they are NOT your friends.

Remorse and regret are two separate concepts.

Having remorse requires a conscious. Regretting something simply means wishing you had done something differently, for whatever reason.

Suppose you're drunk, and you crash a car and kill a mother and child. Remorse is the guilt of killing two innocent people, "They're dead because of me and my horrible actions. My god, I was out of control. I both REGRET drunk driving and am REMORSEFUL for the taking of the innocent lives I needlessly ended."

A psychopath may feel, "I don't give a damn about the people I killed. I have no REMORSE, don't care two people are dead. I wasn't trying to kill them, but I feel no guilt over their deaths. But I do REGRET drunk driving that night, because I ended up wrecking my car. I had to bum rides until I could afford a new one. That sucked for me. I liked that car. It was a great status symbol and made me feel important. I really regret getting drunk that night and wrecking it, because now I don't have it anymore. The two innocent lives I took? Meh, who cares? I have no remorse."

That's the difference between REGRET and REMORSE.

Yes, a psychopath can have regrets, especially if something didn't end up going the way they anticipated, they may regret their strategy if it didn't pay off, or if it cost them something. They don't have remose.

It's funny, most of us would understand that some rando lecturing about what autistic people feel is almost certainly misinformed and oversimplifying things; yet when someone drones on about what narcissists and psychopaths feel no one challenges them on their similarly 'informed' views.

It's all just repeating what people who don't have the condition claim about it, rather than what people who actually have the condition describe.

Likewise, it's irrelevant what anyone's personal definition of the word is. If your personal definition doesn't match proper usage, you're incorrect.