ALL ABOUT PSYCHOPATHS a lecture by Don Garb. 40 St. George St, Bahen Centre, room #1220. Wednesday, November 9, 2011. $12 at the door. 416-726-2823. See listing.
“I’m not going to shake your hand because I’d hate to get you sick,” I said to Don Garb, as he sat down in front of me. “Well thanks, how empathetic of you,” he said in return.
Garb knows how to recognize anti-social personalities. It all starts with empathy, or, how much of it a person has.
In a two-hour lecture called All About Psychopaths, Garb will share the findings of his eight years of research by leading the audience through a workshop on how to identify, verify, evade, befriend and control five different types of anti-social personalities.
He calls it “social self-defense.”
“Most people’s strategy for dealing with psychopaths is to pretend that they don’t exist and that doesn’t work too well or they have all these misconceptions that they’re [psychopaths] these violent people and that’s wrong also,” he said.
Garb hopes to spell out the misconceptions and give people a better understanding of how to relate to the following five types of anti-social personalities. Here’s how he defines them:
1. Psychopath: Born without empathy, like being born colourblind.
2. Sociopaths: Born with empathy but damaged along the way by social or physical trauma.
3. Narcissans: Born very strong in some dimension of wealth and never have a need for empathy, or, their sense of empathy never grows.
4. Selfish Jerks: They learn to turn on their sense of empathy and attack it.
5. Con Men: A template where you only have empathy for certain people.
These personalities are everywhere, he tells me. Crossing the street, at the grocery store checkout counter, behind you standing in line at the bank. I catch myself looking over to the table next to us.
“A lot of them aren’t all that bad they’re well-meaning psychopaths who try and do good,” he said.
But a lot of them aren’t that good either.
He believes it’s important for people to know what they’re dealing with because “the weird guy sharing the cubicle next to you isn’t going anywhere.”
The purpose of this lecture is to help people learn how to spot red flags, conduct experiments to verify those indicators, and provide the knowledge required for encounters with these personality types.
“We’re entering a world where it’s becoming more cut throat,” he said. “There’s nasty people out there who want to do you harm it makes them feel good.”
