Psychopath and Narcissist Survivors Support Group

Can a psychiatrist tell if someone is a psychopath, even if he hides it extremely well and is very good at lying??? I have shared custody with my ex, and am pushing for him to get a mental eval but I am scared he will charm and lie his way out of it just like he did our divorce and custody battle

Hello Orchidgal

Welcome to the forum!

Have moved your post to the Psychopath General Board as you have posted in the resource section

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orchidgal wrote:Can a psychiatrist tell if someone is a psychopath, even if he hides it extremely well and is very good at lying??? I have shared custody with my ex, and am pushing for him to get a mental eval but I am scared he will charm and lie his way out of it just like he did our divorce and custody battle

Good question. Sometimes, yes, especially if they have experience in court-ordered evaluations and/or the prison system. Younger ones, idealistic ones, ones that are N themselves, I don't think your luck would be as good. Then again, you never know who has already had experience with N/S/P people and know them on sight, and you could luck into one of those.

Instead of pushing him, can you get the court to order it? Might work better for you...

Good luck!!!

hmm, yes it could go either way for sure. I presume that you wont get a word in first, so he/she wont know what to be on the look out for and will base his/her findings purely on what he presents of himself.

Also, a psychiatrist is unlikely to diagnose someone with a disorder like psychopathy or sociopathy unless they request the evaluation themselves, or are court ordered due to repeat criminal activities or a heinous crime. Its dangerous ground, since aspds are such serious disorders, and I think that a psychiatrist will be relunctant to venture there, regardless of if they think he has the disorder. There is a chance however that he/she will report on "narcissistic tendencies", which would work in your favour for sure.

If I were you, I would find out if you can have the kid/s evaluated as well. If you can show the courts that the kids are suffering due to the current shared custody arrangement and that the causes are mainly due to their relationship/interactions with their father, I think you'll have a winner. The P won't be there to interfere and provided you do not forewarn him so that he "coaches" the kids, the psychiatrist should get a clear picture.

I'm holding thumbs for you, let us know how it goes.

Hugs

None of the ones the xp saw seemed to see it.....they saw bipolar disorder but once I did the educating here on what is a p I knew it immediatly.Plus theres nothing they can do for personality disorders medically and experience tells us that the pd patient only learn how to lie better....learns how to be a better con....learns what to do to con their victim until they have them in their hands....I myself believe psychiatrists stay FAR AWAY from these kinds of diagnoses.....

My psychopath charmed my therapist, and now he thinks I'm the crazy one--and has sided against me.

Please be careful.

Good luck and god bless.

Maybe this is paranoid, but has anyone else noticed that this thread has 200+ readers but only a couple of replies. Are the people reading this psychos looking to improve their schemes? Just a thought.

I think psychos do read forums like these, but there are probably lots of benign lurkers too. To tie this in with the topic. If, and that is a big if, a P/N could see how working on his empathy issues would be to his benefit, no way he would seek to get diagnosed as ASPD/NPD. It is not like there is a cure or therapy right now, and they get a big, big scarlet letter. Psychopaths and narcissists aren't going to seek therapy and be honest until they can benefit from it, it is in their nature to put themselves miles before others. Still, empathy enriches your life and makes everything more meaningful, so I do think if helpul therapy would be advertised correctly, some of them would seek it. It is not fun to be that way. I think N/P's go on the internet a lot, to find out about themselves, to avoid getting caught, to understand their own twisted childhoods and maybe to live more healthy. It is anonymous, there is no risk of being labeled, it does not cost money. I'm of the opinion that anything that is broken can be fixed and a lot is being discovered about preventing PD's in kids and teens. I do think there is a huge risk in being used by the N/P if you try to help them, so it would have to be something they can do on themselves.

A quick learner you r.....paying attention pays off...

Thanks. I have to pay attention to everything right now and try to learn quick--someone appears to be trying to kill me.

Lots of adrenaline flowing here.

And thanks for the insight Butterfly--yes, I have been wondering whether I should try to help my PM. It's so clear she's sick. It seems that everyone would "win" if only she could be cured of this terrible disease, and stop doing these these destructive things. Although it's hard to imagine her accepting help as she appears to be "happy." Dont' exactly know what that word means in her case, as it is a whole different world I am not familiar with--but she seems to be enjoying herself as far as I can tell. Like a kid pulling the wings off flies, and going "Ooh, look what it's doing now." If she's secretly miserable inside, it's WAY inside.

My x P, Had a domestic violence case with another woman... (imagine that) and he had to have an eval done because he broke her nose and tore up her face with his forehead. Never laid a single finger on her. He cleared the eval with a slight antisocial behavior, yet it took me 20 years for him to eat in a restaurant...


They probably can if and only if, the P let's them. At least it's that way for my x P

'If the p lets them' This is so true.....I was only asked once by the xp's psych doc to come along...it didnt take long for me to figure out the p had told him he could never talk around me(the truth was he never would talk around me and I wished he would have.)This doc gave us homework...I was to talk less and p was to talk more.....Had company over that weekend along with our kids.....I did as I was told by the doc.....problem was xp did thwe same as I did which was not unusual at all but we had some very uncomfortable moments because he just had nothing to say...When I told him later we were supposed to do what the Dr said to he called me a liar....said the Dr never said such a thing......I was never asked to go again.(He was being treated for bipolar disorder at the time not pd)