Psychopathic atmospheres

Jul 16, 2025

Psychopaths distort the atmosphere around them. If you are close to a psychopath, you may find yourself thinking — possibly acting — in ways a part of you recognizes as off, wrong, not “you,” etc.
This does not mean we are all potential psychopaths. But most of us have the capacity for psychopathic behavior under certain circumstances.
Why is that? While some understanding of the existence of others may come early in life, it takes a while to fully grasp external reality. The more we live, the more we understand that other people feel deeply and that our actions impact them.
In a psychopathic atmosphere, it can feel as if we are inhabiting an earlier stage in which people are not fully real yet and right and wrong have yet to emerge. To be close to a psychopath can feel as if we exist in a childhood world of magical powers and uncertain boundaries. This can be disturbing but intoxicating.

Do psychopaths always get away with doing whatever they want? No. Many lack discipline and sooner or later run into problems because of this.
But many psychopaths are successful and wield power in their fields. In such an atmosphere, it can seem as if “the real world” is the world of the psychopath and that succeeding means submitting to these dynamics — as if we have no choice.

The rationalization is, “This is just how it is.” To object is to reveal resentment, an inability to marshal the aggression needed to succeed. All ethical concern is really envy, so no criticism or opposition is valid.
When psychopathy dominates a social setting — or a society — it may be hard to maintain a non-psychopathic sense of reality.
In such situations, one must try their best to resist submitting to psychopathic logic. But there is a danger in this: in psychopathic atmospheres, non-psychopaths may be scapegoated — especially by other non-psychopaths who have submitted and cannot tolerate any reminder that there are other ways to be.

From the Volcano