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The Reason Psychopaths Wear Masks
It is an unavoidable consequence of being psychopathic if they want to have any success with basic human interaction. The mask allows for many things, and restricts many others. Psychopaths have to wear the mask for all sorts of purposes. If they drop the mask, it unveils a totally different person underneath. There is not a psychopath out of prison, and within, that don’t use their mask for day to day life.
I have often imagined a cartoon in my mind, that I would draw if I could, no talent for it unfortunately, of a psychopath having a conversation with a person. The person is grieving because someone they loved died suddenly, and in a thought bubble you see the psychopath searching through a trunk of different masks, other masks with various emotions scrawled on them scattered at their feet, searching for the one labeled compassion.
The mask is a necessary component of their life. If you are psychopathic, you are outfitted with your mask when you are very young. You learn how to adapt, to blend, to laugh and cry when you are supposed to, to mimic. You have no ability or concrete sense of awareness that you’re presently wearing the mask because no matter how long you live and how well you imitate, you will never truly FEEL those things. You will just be great at appearing as though you do.
What their masks are is a completely different person. There can be no trace of how they think or react while wearing the mask. It must stay fluidly static.
Further on the static point. Psychopaths cannot let it slip. It’s about appearing to be a person that they aren’t. They have to be clear that for the moment, this is who they are. They must wear it as if it’s their own skin. Flesh and all. At all cost, it must be preserved and kept safe. After all, it is their closest ally.
Another, the fluid state. It cannot be so concrete in its presentation that they have no ability to change based on circumstances. They’ve crafted it as the base mask with all its fundamentals. Now we have to worry about the details, and this is where our observation of human interaction comes into play. Based on what they see and experience they have to be able to adapt, and it must be seamless. Absolutely…
