Can You Guess Which Profession Has the Most Psychopaths?

iVillage ^ | October 31, 2013 | Kiki Van Son

[wbill]

This list makes a lot of sense, when using the definition (from dictionary.com) of "psychopath":

psychopath: person with a psychopathic personality, which manifests as amoral and antisocial behavior, lack of ability to love or establish meaningful personal relationships, extreme egocentricity, failure to learn from experience, etc.

For CEOs, etc, psychopathy would be an asset - imagine needing the ability to lay off 1000 people, some of whom you know pretty well. I couldn't do it, but then I'm not a psychopath. :-)

As far as politicians are concerned....I think that they're more along the lines of sociopaths ... which (again, according to dictionary.com) are psychopaths on steroids:

sociopath: a person with a psychopathic personality whose behavior is antisocial, often criminal, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience.

[Rodamala]

My gut sense before reading this says those in healthcare or law enforcement. Any profession where the nature of the interaction is someone who has power or influence over another human being that may have a compromised sense of security... think cancer patients that are anxious about being sick and in pain, ultimately, dying... or inmates in prison with no ability to fight for themselves... or mentally handicapped people.... or children. Now let's see how far off I am. I do know that studies reveal that a full 4% of the population are technically sociopaths, which is quite different from psychopaths... hmmm.

[henkster]

You are spot on. In my profession I deal with psychiatrists and most of them are nuttier than the people the treat. I think they knew they were nuts when they were young, so they went into psychiatry hoping to find out what is wrong with them. You wind up with a collection of really weird people trying to define “normal” for the rest of us normal people. Of course they are going to de-classify homosexuality and pedophilia as psychiatric disorders. They don’t want to label themselves, now do they?

[KC Burke]

This writer has never employed Nurses.

[MrB]

I’ve always heard the highest suicide rate for M.D.s is among psychiatrists.

I heard it was dentists. You know, they're always looking down in the mouth...

[chesley]

Without reading the article, I am going to guess “lawyers”.

Now to see.

[rightwingintelligentsia]

[chesley]

Almost. They were second.

On the other hand, a lot of CEOs are lawyers, so there.

I once knew a president of a steel company who had been a sniper in Vietnam. I allways thought that was perfect training for an executive.

[knarf]

My first one, too

[Oratam]

Politics
Finance
Sales

[showme_the_Glory]

As suspected. No on Mechanics, truck drivers, warehouse, blue collar workers.

[elcid1970]

Oooooo.....that’s corny!

I guess then you’ve heard of Alexander Graham Kowalski, the world’s first telephone Pole?

;^)

[MayflowerMadam]

I didn’t read the whole article, but I’d have to say that Human Resources professionals are real close to #1. Sadistic, cold, and heartless.

[trisham]

I’m guessing the medical profession. Although it does attract some caring and compassionate people, it also attracts sadists and psychopaths.

[BenLurkin]

Exhibit "A" and Exhibit "B"

[Help!]

When I worked in a hospital it was common knowledge that the doctors who went into surgery did so because they didn’t like patients. They only wanted to deal with patients who were asleep.

Of course, there are exceptions to every “rule.”

[Bigg Red]

In which movie did John Wayne say that?

[pgkdan]

Politics.

[newheart]

It is a little alarming to me that neither chefs nor surgeons can be trusted with the knives.

[SkyDancer]

Congress and used car salesmen.