Jobs for Psychopaths

Here at Mysterious Matters, I like to write my own content, but every so often I come across something that has to be shared.

A couple of years ago I read a book titled The Sociopath Next Door, which makes the argument that 1 in 4 Americans is a sociopath. And what's the next step after sociopathy?  Psychopathy, of course; and now we have a list of Top Jobs that have the highest rate of psychopaths. Here they are:

1. CEO

2. Lawyer

3. Media (TV/Radio)

4. Salesperson

5. Surgeon

6. Journalist

7. Police officer

8. Clergy person

9. Chef

10. Civil servant

Interesting, eh? And now for the the jobs with the lowest rate of psychosis:

1. Care aide

2. Nurse

3. Therapist

4. Craftsperson

5. Beautician or hair stylist

6. Charity worker

7. Teacher

8. Creative artist

9. Doctor

10. Accountant

Apparently, this list comes from a book by psychologist Kevin Dutton, The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success. You can read the full article here.

The article outlines the "positives" of being a psychopath: psychos don't procrastinate; they focus on the positive; they're cool under pressure. I actually find this somewhat reassuring, in that these are often the personality traits of the fictional serial killers I so often encounter in manuscripts and printed books.

What else do many of the Top 10 have in common? Well, it seems to me that people in these jobs are all about power. They want to wield it, to use it, to have it, to use it to manipulate. That seems to be more of a common thread in the Top 10 than even money. If you ask a psycho whether s/he'd prefer money or power, I wouldn't be surprised if s/he answered "power."

Comments

[Pepper Smith]

It's a good thing that I have absolutely no interest in any of the jobs in the first list, right?

I suppose it makes sense that they'd be attracted to jobs where they could wield power.

[Marilynn Larew]

I'd put surgeon and lawyer higher on the list.

Writers are not on the list, unless we count as creative artists. Me? I think I would rate at the top of the psychopaths after I've just been ignored by the 75th agent but seriously on the other list if the 76th asked for a full.