Dr Karen Mitchell’s groundbreaking research on Dark Personalities

Posted on by Barbara Roberts

Dr Karen Mitchell is the first person in the world to collect data:

  • from international, expert practitioners working with people of Dark Personality and/or their targets/victims outside prison;
  • from experts in many fields including corporates, medicine, child sex abuse in the Catholic Church, coercive domestic violence, cults and so on;
  • and from experts working in both forensic and non-forensic contexts.
Dr Karen Mitchell

From Karen’s website, Kalmor Institute: Narcissists, psychopaths and destablisers:

Psychopaths, Machiavellians, and narcissists, collectively the Dark Triad or people of Dark Personality (DP), actively violate social norms and harm and disadvantage others by conscious choice.

While people of Dark Personality may have positive characteristics, their own needs and goals are always foremost. Research shows they universally compromise and disadvantage organisations, communities and/or individuals.

Their characteristics include manipulation, intimidation, a drive for control or dominance, lying, bullying, self-preservation at the cost of all else and an enjoyment in seeing others harmed or devalued, yet they often appear to be compelling, ‘normal’ people and their actions may lack transparency. Even those who believe they are ‘great with people’ are often fooled by their facades. …

Dr Karen Mitchell, the Kalmor Institute’s CEO, is the first person in the world to collect data:

  • from international, expert practitioners working with people of Dark Personality and/or their targets/victims outside prison;
  • from experts in many fields including corporates, medicine, child sex abuse in the Catholic Church, coercive domestic violence, cults and so on;
  • and from experts working in both forensic and non-forensic contexts.

The data indicates higher functioning psychopaths and narcissists are as dangerous and malevolently intentioned and share the same attributes as those in prison for serious, overt crimes.

They can create a highly convincing persona of a good-natured, kind, even heroic figure however and they use intimidation against those who try to expose them.

Karen has identified a nuanced, comprehensive set of attributes common to all people of Dark Personality as well as metaphorical weaponry, or set of tactics, that they commonly engage.

She has also established how the attributes of high functioning psychopaths and narcissists manifest behaviourally in different contexts.

Problems in the Family Court

Karen’s research shows that many family court professionals do not ‘see through’ people of Dark Personality. From Kalmor Institute: Family court:

Family court decisions made by professionals who do not ‘see through’ people of Dark Personality result in the following impact on children and adolescents: prolonged abuse, child suicide, suicidal ideation, severe forms of mental illness, PTSD, self-harming behaviours, addictions, social anxiety, decline in school performance, difficulty in social relationships, eating disorders, and life-long mental health issues.

Unfortunately, this is commonplace.

Millions of people who are psychopaths, narcissists, and coercive controllers weaponise the justice system to further control and harm their ex-partner and children. Their key driver is control and dominance.

Long-term family court proceedings and those which go to trial, almost always involve a ‘protective parent’ and a narcissist, psychopath, coercive controller.

These cases are incorrectly described as ‘high conflict’ cases. They are not.

Help for Lawyers

Karen’s institute offers expert help for lawyers and people who work in the justice system. From Kalmor Institute: Bullying, toxic, predatory, and coercively controlling behaviours in the justice system:

For solicitors seeking to understand how high functioning Dark Personalities are motivated, the tactics they use and how they can be exposed, so they can best represent targets/victims, the Kalmor Institute have programs which are deeply nuanced, and data informed.

Here at the Kalmor Institute we have created a unique, world first interviewing/interrogation process designed to expose people of Dark Personality in the courts. This process is based on best practice interviewing/interrogation FBI work and other research.

Why people are often targeted by more than one Dark Personality

Karen explains why people targeted by Dark Personalities are often targeted by more than one:

Tragically, people targeted by dark personalities/predators are often targeted by more than one.

This may have the effect of making the target seem somehow at fault or ‘weird’ because who has several dark personalities after them?

Multiple targeting occurs because predators look for the same features in their prey. They look for people who are kind, well-intentioned, truthful, & often hard-working, people who can be manipulated or controlled more easily.
They also must have a vulnerability of some type, such as the recent death of a loved one or an abusive upbringing.
Predators also enjoy taking on those that try and expose them who are usually people committed to fairness and they also often target people who have resources that can be exploited.

So if you are well-intentioned, kind, truthful, hard-working, have fairness as a value, have resources and have some sort of vulnerability, I’d read up on red flags for dark personalities as a matter of urgency!

How do I avoid being targeted?

Karen’s tips for how to avoid being targeted:

How do I avoid being targeted by a narcissist, psychopath, predator/dark personality?

Tough question because predators DO target very specific types. If you are kind, well-meaning, honest and have some kind of vulnerability you are much more likely to get targeted.

A few protective recommendations include:

1. If you have low sense of self worth, invest in support with increasing it. Predators smell it.

2. Do not over-share about yourself. This is recognised by predators as a sign of ‘niceness’ which means greater susceptibility to manipulation and control.

3. Practise saying ‘no’. Predators test in the early days to see if boundaries can be pushed. If you are practised at declining as well as accepting proposals, suggestions, ideas, offers, requests for help, you are not such an obvious target.

4. Know the red flags, know the attributes, know the tactics. There are many, many subtle signs that are predator give-aways. I include them in my posts. They are also in my PhD. The book will be out soon. Make sure you are totally conversant with them. When you see a few, start researching.

5. Do research! So important. If you have concerns about someone, ask around about them, search the internet, research their businesses, see who they are connected with. Eventually the data paints a picture.

6. Posture, walking gait, should be confident. One study showed that predators could identify an easy target from gait!

7. Do not openly discuss that you are estranged from, geographically distant from or have no family. Predators target those who are isolated or can be isolated.

Is there a difference between sociopaths and psychopaths?

Karen says her research indicates that sociopaths can be differentiated from psychopaths. Go here to read her thoughts on this.

(I’m pondering how Karen’s proposal can be aligned with what the Bible tells us about sin and evil, but I’ve not yet come to any conclusion.)

Four kinds of mental health professionals

When it comes to understanding Dark Personalities, mental health professionals fall into four groups. Go here to interact with Karen’s tweet about this. Here is what Karen said:

There are four kinds of psychologists and psychiatrists re their understanding of narcissists, psychopaths, coercive controllers- i.e. predators/dark personality.

  1. The mental health professional is themselves a predator/dark personality.  Predators gravitate to vulnerable populations and those seeking support for mental health issues are vulnerable.
  2. The mental health professional believes they are experienced in all things ‘mental health’ and they are indeed seasoned professionals but they do not ‘get’ predators and the complex fabric of darkness they engage in. These mental health professionals can be outspoken and dangerous in their ignorance.
  3. The mental health professional may not fully understand predators and all their behavioural patterns but they are open to learning. Great! We need as many of these as possible.
  4. They get it fully! Either through their own experience with predators or through several client experiences they have seen it all, more importantly they have felt it! They are also trauma trained. Category four is the kind of mental health professional best for those who are victims of dark personalities primarily because the victim does not have to explain and justify the bizarre and extreme nature of the behaviours of the dark personalities.

We [at the Kalmor Institute] are establishing a database of mental health professionals who are category 4. If you have experienced a mental health professional who fits category 4 can you email us their details on the http://Kalmor.com.au website please. If you have experienced mental health professionals in the other three categories email us with their details too. In particular, it would be good to keep track of category 1 so we know to avoid them.

Some interviews of Dr Karen Mitchell

Predators in High Places — MindMatters, YouTube.

Introducing the Persistent Predatory Personality: Delving into Dr. Karen Mitchell’s recent PhD thesis — by Harrison Koehli. (This is not strictly speaking an interview, but it’s a good introduction to Karen’s PhD thesis.)

Key Attributes of Predators, Dark Personalities, and Manipulators —  “Hart2Heart” podcast, Dr Mike Hart.

Tactics used by Dark Personalities

Karen Mitchell lists a few of the tactics used by Dark Personalities in this tweet:

A narcissist/psychopath will push a person to the edge. They’ll intimidate, demean, provoke, manipulate, lie, cross sexual boundaries, control decisions, alternate between building the victim up & undermining them, misrepresent them to others. Then they will say the victim is crazy.

However, Dark Personalities have many more tactics and attributes than Karen was able to list in that tweet. The full list of attributes and tactics used by Dark Personalities can be found in Karen’s PhD thesis. Below is Karen’s Persistent Predatory Personality (PPP) Short Version Model, copied from page 455 of her thesis.

Persistent Predatory Personality: Attributes, Weaponry and Tactics

ATTRIBUTES (20)

Group 1 – They drive the agenda.
1. A drive for control, power, dominance.
2. Self-view of superior and special, entitled.
3. A pathological, explosive inner response to being compromised or challenged.
4. Vengeful.
5. Uncompromising.

Group 2 – They are motivated and operate differently and darkly.
6. Predatory (including calculated).
7. Sadistic (including cruel).
8. Has a low regard for laws, regulations, and agreements, as well as social and moral codes.
9. Sexual boundarylessness.
10. Unreasonable expectations of others.

Group 3 – They are hard to identify, and the truth is not easy to distinguish.
11. Actively cultivates facade of ‘normal’.
12. Chameleon-like.
13. Dishonest.
14. Devious and manipulative, including consciously exploiting and misleading others to be inadvertently complicit (The dark personality superpower).
15. Unwillingness to accept responsibility for negative impacts they cause.

Group 4 – They don’t experience feelings in the same way as others.
16. Without authentic emotion, emotional responses are acted.
17. Callous.
18. Unremorseful.
19. Self-interested.
20. Brazen.

WEAPONRY OR TACTICS (25)

  1. Intimidates with an intent to create fear.
  2. Isolates.
  3. Weaponises the justice system.
  4. Accuses the victim of their own nefarious deeds (‘reverse attribution’), blames others.
  5. Creates a contrived sense of deep connection.
  6. Pretends to be the victim.
  7. Capitalises on data.
  8. Blocks, evades, and deflects.
  9. Focuses on evidence reduction and avoidance of transparency.
  10. Diminishes, degrades, disempowers, and discredits.
  11. Engages in a complex set of behaviours which are difficult to ‘see through’ and understand collectively.
  12. Uses convoluted discussion.
  13. Confuses and creates chaos.
  14. Publicly and privately provokes.
  15. Moves in and out of supportive and non-supportive approaches.
  16. Attacks process and the qualifications, experience and integrity of professionals who challenge them.
  17. Ingratiates themselves to people in power.
  18. Dismisses, denies, and minimises.
  19. Justifies and excuses.
  20. Blackmails and bribes.
  21. Delays and postpones.
  22. Obligates.
  23. Forces, coerces, and bullies.
  24. Creates and capitalises on divisiveness, divides, and conquers.
  25. Mirrors and copies.

DIFFERENTIATORS [qualities that vary across the PPP sector of humanity; hence, not all PPPs are ‘successful’ at things like keeping out of jail, getting rich, having a high social status, etc.]

Capabilities

  1. Planning and goal setting.
  2. Emotion emulation and persona creation.
  3. Presentation of competence.
  4. Focus and purpose.
  5. Funding of lifestyle.
  6. Self-protection.
  7. Retention of freedom.

Values

  1. Wealth.
  2. Attention from others.
  3. Status.
  4. Viewed as reliable.
  5. Legacy.

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9 thoughts on “Dr Karen Mitchell’s groundbreaking research on Dark Personalities”

  1. Barb,

    I’m intentionally going to keep my comment “short”. 😊

    I really enjoyed reading your well-put together post 😊, and, rather than copy-and-paste your entire post and then write “That.” after it 😊, I’ll limit myself to copying-and-pasting the information from one of Dr. Karen Mitchell’s tweets that you linked to that contained something I’d never heard of before that has some information to back it up that makes sense (I’m still thinking about it….I’m still undecided….).

    From Dr. Karen Mitchell’s tweet (the entire tweet 😊):

    People continue to ask about the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath.

    This is an important distinction so I repost this regularly….

    My PhD data indicates that narcissists, psychopaths and Machiavellians are all subsets of one overarching dark personality type – which I refer to as Persistent Predatory Personality (PPP).

    This personality type (including psychopaths) is supremely self-focused, manipulative, sadistic, cruel, and profoundly dishonest, although they often seem upstanding and normal.

    MRI imaging work shows PPP, subsuming psychopathy, Machiavellianism and narcissism, have prefrontal cortex, and amygdala brain anomalies. They are wired to be like this.

    Some people engage in the same behaviours as Persistent Predatory Personalities however, their motivation is not the same.

    Their behaviours are a consequence of abuse, childhood trauma, etc. These people are often referred to as sociopaths.

    They are different to PPP in key ways.

    Over time several terms have been developed to distinguish between the 2 groups of people exhibiting similar behaviours with a different motivation….
    Psychopath v sociopath, malignant narcissist v vulnerable narcissist, type A psychopath v type B psychopath and so on.

    My data indicates there is just one over-arching dark personality type which is deeply malevolently motivated – PPP (including psychopaths), and another kind of person who exhibits the same behaviours but do not have the same brain anomalies.

    The second group of people experience shame and with work may become more effective in their functioning.

    (The bold was done by me.)

    That. (I’m still thinking about the rest….I’m still undecided….).

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi Finding Answers, thank you for posting that entire tweet by Karen.

      The brain anomalies that show up in the MRI’s, as described in Karen’s tweet, are interesting. But, like you, I’m still thinking about that. Thinking about what it might mean. Questions to ponder…

      To what extent are those brain anomalies caused by the individual repeatedly making evil choices, so that bit by bit they hand themselves over to the Evil?

      To what extent might those brain anomalies be inherited? And I’m thinking about both genetic and spiritual inheritance:

      (Exodus 20:4-5) You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me.

      To what extent might ‘nature’ and ‘nurture’ both be playing a part in the creation and generation of brain anomalies?

      And where is God in all this?

      I am certain that an individual’s choices play a large part in how they end up. People can heed their conscience, or ignore their conscience and end up with a seared conscience. The Bible calls those with a seared conscience reprobates. I am pretty sure that the brain anomalies which show up in MRIs are a biological marker of a seared conscience.

      I have been thinking about this particularly in relation to one of my abusers. In fact, I’ve spent weeks documenting everything I can remember about this person’s conduct, gathering information about them from the internet, and compiling all that into a ‘dossier of attributes and tactics’. And then comparing what I’ve compiled with what Karen Mitchell’s PhD thesis says the attributes and tactics of PPPs.

      With this dossier I’ve compiled, there are few ‘mitigating’ pieces of evidence which go against the idea that this individual is a PPP. So I haven’t made up my mind fully that this individual is a PPP. And I may never be able to make up my mind — which I’m okay with.

      But I can tell you that compiling the dossier has been a helpful exercise for me. I have known this individual for many years, so there have been many pieces of the jigsaw puzzle to put together. Looking at it all in one long chronological list has been helpful for me in getting perspective. It has also helped me to not dissociatively “forget” and / or “minimise” some of the things this individual has done to me over the years.

      Like

      1. Barb,

        In your comment of 25th November 2024, you posed some very thoughtful questions, as well as some very thoughtful answers. 😊

        You wrote:

        To what extent might ‘nature’ and ‘nurture’ both be playing a part in the creation and generation of brain anomalies?….I am certain that an individual’s choices play a large part in how they end up. People can heed their conscience, or ignore their conscience and end up with a seared conscience. The Bible calls those with a seared conscience reprobates. I am pretty sure that the brain anomalies which show up in MRIs are a biological marker of a seared conscience.

        When I read this, I was reminded of your Blindness Series Digest 😊

        And no offence to you or Dr. Karen Mitchell intended 😊….I’m not sure about how “reliable” MRIs and some kinds of brain imaging are….people’s brains are constantly changing, and an MRI and other kinds of brain imaging are — for the most part — an “in the moment” kind of thing. They only capture a moment in time.

        Think of what might happen in the brain of someone who’s been triggered. Now imagine what an MRI or a different kind of brain scan might show before, during, and after the trigger.

        You wrote:

        I have been thinking about this particularly in relation to one of my abusers. In fact, I’ve spent weeks documenting everything I can remember about this person’s conduct, gathering information about them from the internet, and compiling all that into a ‘dossier of attributes and tactics’. And then comparing what I’ve compiled with what Karen Mitchell’s PhD thesis says the attributes and tactics of PPPs….But I can tell you that compiling the dossier has been a helpful exercise for me….Looking at it all in one long chronological list has been helpful for me in getting perspective. It has also helped me to not dissociatively “forget” and / or “minimise” some of the things this individual has done to me over the years.

        😊 And might I suggest you keep the list — not to review and stew over 😊 — but as a reminder about the person, what they did (or didn’t do), etc. 😊 And as a reminder about how far you’ve come. 😊 😊 😊

        Liked by 1 person

  3. [Note: This comment was heavily edited by Barbara Roberts before it went live. Barb did this editing for the sake of the readers of this blog. However, Barb did not remove all things that might offend readers. Barb will reply to Scott, addressing the things he wrote which might offend readers of this blog.
    Because it is standard policy at this blog not to publish links which Barb thinks are inaccurate or unhelpful to her readers, Barb removed one link that Scott had given.
    Any text enclosed by square brackets within what Scott had written are Barb’s words which summarise a point which Scott had made. – Eds.]

    @ Finding Answers 23rd November 2024

    RE: “Dr. Karen Mitchell’s tweet (the entire tweet 😊): People continue to ask about the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath. This is an important distinction…”

    It is NOT an important distinction in the overall picture. It is in fact a DISTRACTION or MISDIRECTION from it!!

    What IS most important and vital and urgent to understanding is that everyone needs to gain a deep understanding that a mafia network of manipulating PSYCHOPATHS are, and always have been, governing big businesses (eg official medicine, big tech, big banks, big religions), nations and the world — the evidence is very solid in front of everyone’s “awake” nose.

    When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker, a raving lunatic.
    — Dresden James

    And psychopaths are typically NOT how Hollywood propaganda movies (or the Wikipedia / WebMD propaganda outlets) have showcased them. And therefore one better RE-learn what a psychopath REALLY is. You’ll then know why they exploit / harm everyone, why they want to control everyone and have been creating a new world order / global dictatorship, and many other formerly puzzling things will become very clear.

    The official narrative is… “trust official science” and “trust the authorities” but as with these and all other “official narratives” they want you to trust and believe …

    We’ll know our Disinformation Program is complete when everything the American public [and global public] believes is false.
    — William Casey, former CIA director

    But global rulership by psychopaths is only ONE part of the equation that makes up the destructive human condition … [the other part of the equation is all the people who believe the lies spread by the psychopathic global rulers].

    Without a proper understanding, and full acknowledgment, of the true WHOLE problem and reality, no real constructive LASTING change is possible for humanity.

    And if anyone does NOT acknowledge, recognize, and face (either wittingly or unwittingly) the WHOLE truth THEY are helping to prevent this from happening. And so they are “part of the problem” and not part of the solution.

    If you have been injected with Covid jabs / bioweapons and are concerned, then verify what batch number you were injected with at How Bad is My Batch.

    Like

    1. Thank you for commenting, Scott. If you read your comment as published, you will see I have edited it, and I explained why I did so.

      I do not agree with your view that Karen Mitchell is creating a distraction when she says there is distinction between a psychopath and a sociopath. I get the impression you have not read Karen’s work deeply, and I encourage you to do so. I think if you study all her tweets and read her PhD thesis you will see that her primary goal is to help the non-predatory human beings become much more aware of the psychopaths among us, more awake to their tactics, their attributes and their goals. I think you and Karen share a lot in common in that respect.

      As I understand it, Karen’s distinguishing between sociopaths and psychopaths is:
      (i) a proposal to consider, based on the available data she gathered when doing her research,
      (ii) a conceptual distinction which, as more data emerges, we may refine, or nuance, or even discard,
      (iii) not a distraction from the vastly more important task of becoming more shrewd in responding to the psychopaths and their networks of power,
      (iv) a topic which many people ask about, in order to understand and process their own experiences of having been targeted by psychopaths / Dark Personalities (DPs).

      Many readers of this blog have been targeted by DPs. Many of us, including myself, have spent years trying to figure out whether the people who abused us are really and truly DPs or whether they are what Karen would call ‘sociopaths’ — deeply traumatised individuals who potentially may become capable of — and willing to — change into more compassionate humans.

      While you, Scott, are focused on the big-picture of the network of global power-mongers who control the institutions of this world, please bear in mind that it is not helpful to broad-brush denigrate all the humans who have been brainwashed by those psychopaths. Furthermore, it is not helpful to hector other non-psychopathic humans by telling them what they “NEED” to do. If you issue harsh orders like that, you risk adopting the tone used by the psychopaths.

      I know that you and I both have some awareness (‘awakeness’) in regards to the network of psychopaths who control this world behind the scenes. But please do not dump every ‘un-awake’ person into the naughty-basket by telling them “You are part of the problem, not part of the solution!” That kind of tone, that black-and-white thinking, will not help people wake up. Rather, it will deter people from listening to you.

      PS. I gather you are not a Christian and you do not know Jesus as your Saviour. I admire you for holding the institutional churches under suspicion, but I encourage you to read the Bible for yourself and seek Jesus. He really does exist, and He is not like the mainstream churches have portrayed Him.

      Like

  4. A person who wishes to remain anonymous has given me permission to post their thoughts on psychopaths here:

    Their primary aim / drive is destruction. Control is always basic to destruction. Almost always you need to control someone first to destroy them. Control starts with them putting false ideas, fake concepts, into your head. That’s why I think it’s so important not to talk to them once you’ve identified them. No contact!

    I don’t think Robert Hare “gets it” at all.

    The ones who run the system don’t all need to be full-on psychopaths (congenital primary psychopaths), many of them are adoptees (those that “adopt” the lifestyle for gain — secondary psychopaths).

    Like

    1. Barb,

      Thank you for posting the comment — under your gravatar 😊 — by the person who wishes to remain anonymous. 😊

      The person who wishes to remain anonymous commented (25th November 2024):

      The ones who run the system don’t all need to be full-on psychopaths (congenital primary psychopaths), many of them are adoptees (those that “adopt” the lifestyle for gain — secondary psychopaths).

      That.

      Liked by 1 person

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