Sadistic Personality | Personality Couch

Ep 27: What's Worse Than a Narcissist? | The Baddest of Them All

Tue, 06 May 2025 02:00:01 +0000

In this episode of The Personality Couch Podcast, we (licensed clinical psychologists Doc Bok and Doc Fish) unveil the darkest aspects of personality, focusing on narcissism at its most severe forms. We explore the spectrum of personality types that range from mildly unpleasant to dangerously malignant, discussing examples and case studies that illustrate their risk in relationships. We specifically unpack narcissistic and paranoid personality disorders, malignant narcissism, antisocial personality disorder, psychopathy and sociopathy, and sadistic personalities. While further exploring the characteristics, overlaps, and distinctions among these disorders, we end with a discussion about terrorism and extreme manifestations of sadism.

50 Shades of Personality Darkness

Tue, 06 May 2025 02:00:00 +0000

The Dangerous Personality Types

I found something exciting when doing research on narcissism! Michael Stone - a forensic psychiatrist came up with an entire spectrum that helps us understand how narcissism and its associated traits can devolve into psychopathy and destruction.¹ This spectrum has 6 main components, each one getting progressively worse.

Negative Personalities

Negative Traits

First is just all the negative personality traits that people can have, like being abrasive, argumentative, deceitful, discourteous, tactless, and unsympathetic.¹ These are the annoying people who might be jerks, but aren’t necessarily dangerous or criminal. Think of the meddlesome teacher who is up in everyone’s business or the quarrelsome guy at the store who argues with the manager over an out-of-stock product.

Severely Negative Traits

The negative traits can be more severe though, like people who are aggressive, hostile, cruel, predatory, or malicious.¹ It’s the people we really don’t like, or maybe even hate - they’re worse than just annoying. This might be the slanderous, vengeful ex-partner who threatens a smear campaign to end your career, or the grudge-holding boss who is still punishing the employee after a mistake that happened 2 years ago.

This is just the outer layer of the dark personality onion though. Peeling back another layer is when the negative personality traits worsen into actual personality disorders.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

Severe Personality Disorders

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

In our podcast, Doc Bok and I have discussed narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder at length (blog/podcast), so I’ll briefly cover it, then provide murderous examples² of those with narcissistic personality disorder to understand the different layers of darkness. Not everyone with narcissistic personality disorder is going to be violent, but their tendency to be self-important, entitled, exploitative, envious, and arrogant, with a need for admiration, belief they’re special, and fantasies of unlimited success do set them up for risky, yucky behaviors. If you add decreased or a lack of empathy in that mix, they are capable of violence.

One example motivated by narcissistic greed is a guy who put pipe bombs under his mother’s car and killed her after he found out she was going to financially cut him off, AND he was hoping for a $10 million inheritance payout.²

Paranoid Personality Disorder

Not all individuals with paranoid personality disorder are going to be dangerous, but those who ARE paranoid AND commit violent crimes have the more severe criteria like pathological jealousy, grudge-holding, and vindictiveness.² (See our blogs here and here for a better understanding of PPD). Interestingly, violent paranoids are more likely to commit mass murders (3+ kills in one outburst),² likely because they desire to take their pain out on the world (see Personalities That Kill).

One example was the guy who stalked then threatened to kill a coworker who would not date him, leading to him being fired. Two years later, he went back to his old workplace and killed seven people and wounded four (including the girl).² This event was actually made into a movie in 1993 called I Can Make You Love Me.

Photo by Fran

Malignant Narcissism

Malignant narcissism is the next dark layer when personality disorders become “worse.” Malignant narcissism is narcissism with antisocial behavior (lawbreaking and against social norms), sadism/aggression (hurting others), and paranoid (attack first because everyone is out to get them) flavors.³ Check out our podcast or blog for a deeper understanding of malignant narcissism. Stone² states, “If there is, from the standpoint of personality, one red thread running through the majority of violent crimes, this would be narcissism.” Those who choose to exploit or destroy others are obviously putting their own desires first with no consideration of others.

An example of a violent malignant narcissist is the doctor who murdered his wife and children and unsuccessfully attempted suicide when he felt he was going to be caught…because he wasn’t actually a doctor and was faking his social status.⁴

Photo by Sebastiaan Stam

Antisocial Personality Disorder

Even “worse” in the dark personalities is antisocial personality disorder. According to the DSM, antisocial personality disorder is a pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others; criminality; impulsivity; and a failure to learn from experience. It’s helpful to understand that malignant narcissists can engage in antisocial behavior, but ALL antisocial personalities include narcissism.⁵

An example of someone with an antisocial personality without psychopathy is the guy who had a long childhood history of criminality, then after getting out of juvey at age 19, he became the leader of a prominent gang with a goal to protect locals from other gangs and police brutality…and during this time he was also a youth counselor. The problem was he became addicted to angel dust and killed people when stealing money to buy the drugs. He was imprisoned and sentenced to death, but later in prison, he ended up writing books discouraging black youths to engage in gangs. He was actually nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but was executed in 2005.⁶

Note here that there’s a difference between antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy. One of the biggest differences is that antisocial children don’t usually become antisocial adults, and young adults with antisocial personality disorder will “burn out” around their 40s. This aging out dynamic does not happen in psychopathy. Psychopathy is consistent and stays lifelong.⁶

Still curious about APD? Here are links to our blogs where you can learn more about this dangerous condition! Personalities as Ice Cream blog, Psychodynamic Personalities blog, and Personalities That Kill blog.

Photo by Elti Meshau

Psychopathy

Peeling back the next layer brings us out of personality disorders that match up with the DSM and lands us in the dark forensic psychology territory. So, what is psychopathy? Robert Hare (expert forensic psychologist) notes psychopaths are “intra-species predators who use charm, manipulation, intimidation, and violence to control others and to satisfy their own selfish needs.⁶” It’s also notable that psychopathy is marked by a complete absence of empathy - not just impaired empathy or blocked empathy.³ There’s actually brain imaging and studies that support this.³ Psychopaths just don’t experience emotions the same way others do.

Sociopathy/Non-Violent Psychopathy

Non-violent psychopathy is definitely a thing.

An example of a non-violent psychopath or a sociopath is the guy who engaged in the biggest known Ponzi-scheme manipulation and swindled people out of billions of dollars. While he was non-violent with no assaults, he did not have empathy and preyed on clients.⁶

Violent Psychopathy

We usually think of psychopathy as involving violence. There’s a ton of examples out there, but Stone² used this one:

One guy was convicted of 11 murders. He has the sexually violent crime “triad” of childhood bed-wetting, animal torture, and fire-setting. Fast forward, and he ended up raping and strangling 11 prostitutes until his arrest. Stone actually interviewed him in prison and noted lack of remorse, “jollity,” pathological lying, and grandiosity. He even embellished his crimes to impress others.²

Photo by cottonbro studio

Sadism

Sadistic Personality

Peeling back the last layer of darkness in terms of personality, we find sadism. Sadistic personalities are common in those who commit violent crimes,² and it’s notable that I’m not talking about sexual sadism here, but an actual personality style.¹ Sadistic personalities achieve dominance through cruelty, humiliate others, are unusually harsh to those under them, take pleasure in others’ suffering, lie to harm others, intimidate others to get them to obey, are excessively controlling, and are fascinated by violence, weapons, martial arts, injury, or torture.¹

A watered down (It’s very sick - so look at your own risk) example of a sadistic personality is the guy who created a torture chamber and killed at least 40 women. They also found 100 videotapes of torture.²

Sadism with Terrorism

The “worst” it can get is sadism with terrorism. It’s only “worse” because it involves a very high number of hurts and deaths with the terrorism aspect, but it’s the same concept as above. An example of large scale terrorism involving sadism is Sadam Hussain, who “probably reached diagnostic threshold for the sadistic (T score M = 81.0), paranoid (T score M = 79.3), antisocial (T score M = 77.4), and narcissistic (T score M = 74.2) personality disorders⁷.” It’s also notable that Hussein had more sadistic features than Hitler.⁷

Photo by Mitja Juraja

So as we funnel down the spectrum of darkness, we take all the personality stuff that precedes it. Thus, a sadistic personality is going to have it all - negative traits, narcissistic personality disorder/paranoid personality disorder, malignant narcissism, antisocial personality disorder, psychopathy, and of course, sadism. Additionally, as we funnel down the darkness spectrum, there are less and less examples of darkness, which is hopeful. On the other hand, Stone states, “There is no “worst case” of sadism, just as there is no bottom to human depravity¹.” Thus, our work and understanding of humanity will never be complete.

Photo by Ralph W. lambrecht

References

Itzkowitz, S., & Howell, E. F. (Eds.). (2019). Psychoanalysts, psychologists and psychiatrists discuss psychopathy and human evil. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429262425 ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Stone, M. H. (2007). Violent crimes and their relationship to personality disorders. Personality and Mental Health, 1(2), 138–153. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmh.18 ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Wood, R. (2022). Literature review of malignant narcissism and related constructs. In R. Wood, A study of malignant narcissism: Personal and professional insights (pp. 7–41). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003246923 ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Lazaro, Y., Mesian, I., Perez, A., Madrazo, I., & Baena, R. (2016). Malignant narcissism: The notorious case of Jean-Claude Romand. European Psychiatry, 33, S630–S631. ↩︎
Kernberg, O. F. (1984). Severe personality disorders: Psychotherapeutic strategies. Yale University Press. ↩︎
Stone, M. H. (2018). The place of psychopathy along the spectrum of negative personality types. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 54(1), 161–182. https://doi.org/10.1080/00107530.2017.1420376 ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Coolidge, F. L., & Segal, D. L. (2007). Was Saddam Hussein like Adolf Hitler? A personality disorder investigation. Military Psychology, 19(4), 289–299. https://doi.org/10.1080/08995600701548221 ↩︎ ↩︎

Ep 07: Personalities That Kill

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 02:00:01 +0000

In this episode of the Personality Couch Podcast, we discuss personality darkness and specifically focus on personalities that are prone to violence and extreme behavior. We also discuss two important research studies, the Milgram study and the Stanford prison experiment, that shed light on the capacity for humans to engage in harmful acts. We then delve into the different personality types within Cluster A (schizoid, schizotypal, and paranoid); Cluster B (borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic); and Cluster C (avoidant, dependent, obsessive-compulsive) and discuss their risk levels for violence and murder. In this conversation, we also explore sadistic personalities, a category not included in the DSM, but included in multiple other personality theories. We highlight the characteristics and behaviors associated with each type and discuss the potential for violence and destructive behavior. The conversation emphasizes the importance of understanding these personalities and their potential risks in order to promote awareness and better understanding of human behavior.

Personalities That Kill

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 02:00:00 +0000

One of my favorite topics to dive into is the darkness of humanity and thus the darkness of personalities. Harm to others surrounds us in a ridiculous amount of ways, which makes many people think about not only what others around them are capable of, but of what they, themselves are capable of. The popularity of true crime, dark genres, horror media, etc., provides evidence that people are interested in this topic. And of course, there’s always some recent event that can remind us of the darkness people have in them. There is SO much I could say about this topic (Listen to podcast episode 07 for much more information), but for now, I’m just going to address the question:

🚩What personalities are at the most risk to kill? 🚩

In my opinion, there are three main personality types that fall into the high risk category. I’m going to start with the “least” risky and end with the “most” risky, though please remember that all still are at high risk.

Narcissistic Personalities

Medium Risk to High Risk

Photo by Lance Reis on Unsplash

The thing to remember about narcissism is that those who kill are quite likely to at least have high narcissistic traits, but not necessarily a narcissistic personality structure/disorder. Narcissistic personalities are all about image, ego, and the self, needing admiration and presenting with superiority, grandiosity, and charm (see Episode 04 podcast/blog for more info on narcissistic personalities). They value image so much that they can harm others in their pursuit and maintenance of it. However, there are some types of narcissistic personalities that are at higher risk for actually killing. While some narcissistic personalities are “more pure,” their focus on image is mostly about climbing the social ladder (e.g. Elitist subtype from Millon, p. 397). Now, they’ll react with anger, hostility, and even emotional/verbal abuse, but they’re not apt to physically kill. In contrast, there are some types who connect power with image, resulting in destruction. Millon’s “Unprincipled” subtype of narcissistic personality (Millon, p. 402) is at high risk for killing due to lack of remorse, lack of social conscience, vengefulness, and maliciousness. This subtype includes antisocial features, seen in their desire to humiliate and dominate others. Millon’s “Unprincipled” narcissist seems to be similar to the PDM-2’s mention of the “Malignant” narcissist (PDM-2, p. 46), whose narcissism is combined with sadistic aggression… 🚩Yikes!!

Photo by Tech Nick on Unsplash

Paranoid Personalities

High Risk

Paranoid personalities are tricky. You never really fully know a paranoid personality since they show different faces to different people, which they do because they are suspicious, distrustful, and fearful of others and the world (see Episode 04 podcast/blog for more info on paranoid personalities). They view the world as threatening and against them, and in their defense against this, they tend to attack before being attacked. They can’t handle their own pain and so they transfer it onto others, often in a dramatic manner. They are at a very high risk for destroying others and then themselves, while projecting their own pain onto the masses - such as in a murder-suicide event. It wouldn’t surprise me if many mass murderers have paranoid personality structures. However, while unhealthy paranoid personalities are dangerous in general, some might be most dangerous to themselves (Millon’s “Insular” subtype, p. 975) or in other ways outside of murder (Millon’s “Fanatic” subtype, p. 983). In contrast, Millon’s “Querulously” subtype (Millon, p. 974) tend to be hostile and have delusions, often erotic ones that can result in behaviors like stalking, killing for their object of infatuation, or even killing their actual object of affection. More concerning is Millon’s “Malignant” subtype (Millon, p. 987) who tend to be previous sadistic types who have “fallen apart.” …🚩🚩No bueno!

Antisocial Personalities

High Risk

Photo by Sander Sammy on Unsplash

Antisocial personalities are boundary-crossing, as they tend to disregard and violate the rights of others, social norms, and the law. They are often deceptive, sneaky, and charming on the outside, but can also be impulsive, aggressive, and/or reckless (see Episode 04 podcast/blog for more info on antisocial personalities). In my opinion, antisocial personalities can be somewhat less dangerous than sadistic personalities, because there are some types who are more at risk for harm to themselves (Millon’s “Risk-Taking” subtype, p. 451) or just withdrawal from society (Millon’s “Nomadic” subtype, p. 455). In contrast, Millon’s “Reputation-Defending” subtype (Millon, p. 453) is high in narcissism as well, with a focus on looking tough and powerful with high status. They might have positions of power and rule with aggressive leadership, likely finding a place in extremist groups/cultures. They are very likely to engage in violent acts to “confirm” their own strength, viewing their victims/enemies as the wrongdoers, which they feel condones their violence.

Millon’s “Malevolent” subtype (Millon, p. 458) is perhaps one of the most dangerous personality types, especially as they are paired with paranoid or sadistic features. They tend to be revenge-driven, vindictive, hateful, and destructive. Millon’s bone-chilling description of them on p. 458 includes the statement, “Distrustful of others and anticipating betrayal and punishment, they have acquired a cold-blooded ruthlessness, an intense desire to gain revenge for the real or imagined mistreatment to which they were subjected in childhood.” …Even more scary, they can usually grasp the concept of remorse/guilt in their minds and even experience it emotionally, but they disregard it🚩🚩🚩. This type seems to be the one that comes to mind when we hear the word “psychopath,” and interestingly, it seems to correlate with the PDM-2’s “Aggressive” subtype of antisocial personality (PDM-2, p. 50).

Sadistic Personalities

High Risk 🚩🚩🚩🚩

Photo by Kurt Cotoaga on Unsplash

This category of personality is a bit confusing. The DSM-5-TR does not include sadistic personality disorder, but Millon and the PDM-2 separate sadistic and antisocial personalities. The overall core of sadistic personalities is their enjoyment of inflicting pain on others (see Episode 05 podcast/blog on Millon’s types or Episode 06 podcast/blog on Psychodynamic types for more info on sadistic personalities). Some sadistic personalities feel like they are entitled to control or punish others, often taking positions of power in militaries, schools, or legal systems, as they also have some compulsive traits. Their power leads to feelings of arrogance and superiority, resulting in a tendency to view their “victims” as inferior and maybe not even human - but all this is wrapped up in their “righteous” exterior that they portray as moral (Millon’s “Enforcing” subtype, p. 637). Some sadists are actually very fearful and use violence to disguise their fear, moving against it through counterphobic action. They can be quite cruel and often find themselves in groups with a shared victim, like a hate group - somewhere to put their anger about their own weakness (Millon’s “Spineless” subtype, p. 637). Some might possibly kill those closest to them in an uncontrollable and unpredictable rage that tends to not be premeditated but impulsive. (Millon’s “Explosive” subtype, p. 641).

The one I find the most severely brutal and horrifying is Millon’s “Tyrannical” subtype (Millon, p. 642), which can have paranoid and/or negativistic features. They enjoy destroying, abusing, assaulting, and terrorizing. They are the devious, composed predators who seek out weak prey, and when they attack, they do so with no remorse, unable to stop until their rage is exhausted. Millon states, “What is also especially distinctive is the desire and willingness of these sadists to go out of their way to be unmerciful and inhumane in their violence” (Millon, p. 645), adequately describing them as being “distressingly ‘evil’” (Millon, p. 642).

Hopefully, this helps you better understand your true crime shows and villains in the media you consume. I wouldn’t wish a relationship with these risky types on anyone! It gives a bit of a new meaning to the concept of red flag 🚩. Beware and be well!