[piytar]

He never would and continued a very long term 'friendship' with this man all along exposing his charismatic BS to his children.

Your friend suffers from cognitive dissonance. The pain of knowing he was wrong hurts more to his ego than saving his family. He's not evil, just weak. But he's doing (or did?) untold damage to his children, which he will never face, but he will answer for.

re obastard? It's not a question of narcissist versus sociopath. They're compatible.

[GOP Poet]

yes. Great and very accurate assessment. Ironically I often felt it was the perceived strength of the sociopath that drew my weak friend to him and ultimately kept the s. in his life.

I like your use of the word face. For the first time I got the image of face truly meaning to face ones' own face--in essence to look oneself in the eye.