The Psychopathic Mother

“Good luck. Do a good job.” Many of us have heard these encouraging words from our loving mothers, perhaps on our first day of kindergarten or before our first job interview.” Kenny Kimes heard them from his mother, Sante Kimes, after she instructed him to kill David Kazdin, a colleague who had threatened to expose the mother/son duo for mortgage fraud after discovering that the pair had illegally obtained a $280,000 loan in the victim’s name. After completing the job, Kenny stopped to buy his mother flowers, believing that he had “completed a great duty for my mom.” As it turns out, this was the third person they’d killed.

While the above story is extreme, there are many adult children who grew up under the influence of a toxic parent. For a minority, the toxicity of the parenting was a result of a parent’s psychopathy, a personality disorder that, by its diagnostic criteria, makes it impossible to establish a normal parent-child bond. When the mother is the diagnosed psychopath, the child may grow up in a world like the rabbit hole Alice fell into. Nothing is what it seems.

The Female Psychopath

Research suggests that male and female psychopaths are a lot alike in terms of their core personalities. They are self-centered, deceptive, shallow emotionally, and lack of empathy. They exploit others for self-serving reasons, lack remorse for their actions, and blame others for the consequences of their actions. Both also use their charm and physical appearance to manipulate others; although women may use sex more often…