Title: Understanding the Female Psychopath
Headings: Understanding the Female Psychopath
Understanding the Female Psychopath
The Seeds of Female Psychopathy
Blinded by Bias
Psychopathy with a Feminine Touch
Sisters in Crime
The Take-Away

Content: While female and male psychopaths share similar histories and personality traits, they may differ in how these traits are expressed. For example, both male and female psychopaths are sexually coercive in their interpersonal relationships. Unlike the more physically aggressive male psychopath, however, female psychopaths rely on emotional manipulation and use sex as a weapon - to end conflict, to gain psychological power, to poach another’s mate. Female psychopaths, over and above their male counterparts, appear to have a knack for reading emotional cues that allow them to identify areas of emotional vulnerability; depression, insecurity, loneliness. It’s not that female psychopaths can’t be as physically violent as men; they can. Psychopathy, in both men and women, is correlated with premeditated aggression and, to a lesser extent, impulsive violence in response to anger or frustration. But what female psychopaths tend to specialize in is their ability to seduce, lull, calm, comfort, provide security and convincingly portray gender stereotypical illusions as long as it’s useful to them. When it’s not, all hell can break loose.