Conflict in the workplace: Introduction to Psychopaths, Sociopaths and Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Psychopath. Sociopath. Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD). Whatever you want to call it, in the workplace, these individuals are poison and prey upon their coworkers as means to get an end... whatever that end might be. It is my contention that these people will prey upon ASD folk first as the ASD weaknesses align with the main symptoms of ASPD:

• Deception as means of getting ahead? Meet the ASD difficulty with abstraction.
• Impulsiveness? Meet the ASD difficulty in adapting to rapid change.
• Aggression? Meet the ASD difficulty in standing up for ourselves

This is an introduction to a series of articles for this week dealing with the difficulties of dealing with psychopathic/sociopathic behavior in the workplace as well as their cousin Narcissistic personality disorder. I have fallen victim to each of these types in business and I wager I am not the only one on the Spectrum to have encountered the same problems.