Psychopaths, Sociopaths, Narcissists, Dark Empaths - Who's More Mentally harmful?

When it comes to personality disorders, it isn't a pissing contest. The one who is most dangerous is the one who hurts you the most.

i think “dark empathy” comes from living with emotionally unstable/manipulative caregivers during childhood. You are forced to interpret the mood of the unstable parent daily, and can never truly unwind and feel safe. Your emotions get used against you by those parents and so you lock them up inside. You understand people fine but you dont allow yourself to feel.

Dark empathy is being self-aware of personal malice and choosing when to use it for personal gain or entertainment, and when to "dial-down" when it is more beneficial or convenient. Psychopaths, sociopaths, and narcissists are either really bad at hiding their nature or they simply don't bother to, but these disorders will stick out like sore thumbs. Meanwhile, dark empathy has an "on/off" switch and does a good job recognizing and calculating risks and consequences of antisocial behavior.

narcissist is the worst but a dark empath can destroy a narcissist

The dark empath is the most dangerous, as they know what you are feeling, so easier for them to manipulate you

Fun fact: Psycopaths can also have a very high cognitive empathy, feel like a psychopath crossed with a dark empath is quite the sleep paralysis demon.

I know a person who is a dark empath, both of his/her parents are Narcissist and on top of that his/her elder sibling is a narcissist too.

I dated a dark empath, she was a very broken person, and would rather drag me down with her, into her hole of despair, than see me happy. Extremely controlling, and energy draining, its hands down the saddest and most depressed I've been my entire life. Ive experienced many hardships in life, but dating this person was by far the worst experience of my life.

“There is simply no winning with a narcissist. He will treat you so horribly that you will become withdrawn and depressed and then he will turn around and say, ‘You’re no fun anymore, you’re always so depressed. I need to be with someone more positive.’” — Susan Williams

Narcissism is actually fueled by deep shame, a shame that the narcissist feels but can't acknowledge. Their entire personality is built up as a defense against this shame, which, since they can't acknowledge it, they can't deal with it or process it either. This is why the narcissist's whole personality revolves around a) defending themselves against feelings of shame, by self-aggrandizement, and b) shaming others, weaponizing that which has caused them so much damage. Ironically, both of these behaviors are shameful, resulting in a downward spiral of repression, defense and shame which it is nearly impossible for the narcissist to break free from. Narcissists are people who have been deeply damaged by their own actions. Although they can never acknowledge it, they feel their shame deeply, and all of the narcissistic traits are comitted to ensuring that the narcissist never has to confront it, instead weaponizing it as bullying and gaslighting.

As someone else said on another comparison video I saw, “the worst one is whichever one you’re having to deal with at the moment”.

Best to stay single and not have any close friends. Keep people distant, the world is full of darkness and I want no part of it.

For anyone wondering, dark empath is not a disorder nor a symptom. It’s a set of traits featuring Psychopathic, Machiavellian and narcissistic traits.

As a person with ASD, cognitive empathy is something I've had to learn. It's sad to see it portrayed negatively.

I think I've encountered at least one psychopath before in a work environment. She was extremely manipulative and used me to play games and only tolerated me as long as I/others complimented her. She used compliments too (probably heard somewhere and noticed the reactions) and then used them to manipulate others into liking her. Then, when people realized she'd been saying the same thing to everyone (literally) (things like... you are the [x] most [positive trait] person I have ever met) and she was confronted with it, she just became angry. Then lost all social interest in everyone except those she saw she could still manipulate. She would also say one thing to one person and a completely different thing to another person, like there was no connection or reason behind it. Obviously in retrospect it was ONLY to suit her own needs or goals or standing. She was addicted to praise and the only way to explain it is like a child given ice cream for doing one thing, and then instead of doing something else to help (i.e. the reason for getting a reward) they would only do that EXACT same thing like 5 days in a row to expect an ice cream again because they want an ice cream (except in this case a psychopath would want that ice cream even if it was from a dying corpse). She probably isn't the most destructive psychopath out there but definitely on the scale. 100%. Also outwardly she would seem normal, just a bit weird sometimes. Also sometimes blurted out certain things and apparently had little instinct towards non-violence and sadism. She can't have been a (pure) narcissist because she "blended in" and even though heavily egocentric and lacking of empathy, didn't display that outwardly or refused to (as stated) i.e. compliment others. Edit: Play games = basically messing / trying to mess with someone's head, apparently for fun. Control other people, be in charge of their destiny etc. Also I know how this story has certain similar traits outwardly to more normal situation but this was kinda extreme. So I know what some people may think upon first read but I've had those "normal" versions when younger and this was not it.

It's nice to finally get a good breakdown of these words we hear every day.

Being raised by a Narcissist is a hassle at the best of times, and outright cruel at the worst. And each and every one of the dark traits is extremely dangerous in their own way, in my opinion, there is no winner. But thank you guys for the channel, I learned a lot about myself!

As the child of what my mother likes to call a “garden variety narcissist”, I can say that the narcissist segment was pretty accurate (at least in my experience, bc I know these disorders can appear in different forms). I see a lot of people see narcissism as just extreme entitlement or an inflated amount of self-confidence, what really depicts a narcissist is manipulation and viewing others as tools. And not all narcissists appear overly confident or self-obsessed.

When you were Talking about the dark empath, it felt like you were describing me in great detail. Well done.....

It is important to know that people of these categories arent necessarily bad people because of their characteristics. Its more on the lines of if they think they will benefit they will do it not caring about other peoples losses. What opportunity one deems positive is purely reliant on the rest of their personality and their intelligence. For example one might be a dark empath but still not do immoral things because they fear repercussion. Only if the benefits outweigh the negatives one their own scale (the fulcrum might be far on either side) they will act.