5 things everyone gets wrong about psychopaths - and why you might be one

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jack nicholson the shining

Movie still via jack-nicholson.info

Heeere's another pop-culture depiction of a psychopath.

"Psychopath" in pop culture has become a kind of catch-all slang term for pure evil.

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It's not just serial killers any more: Politicians, athletes, your boss, maybe even your friends - all of them are being labeled psychos.

But while it's possible your control-freak boss or that girl you knew in college is a psychopath, the term is mostly used in a way that's completely wrong.

Pop-culture references aren't helping the situation. Sorry guys, but Norman Bates isn't a psycho, and Sherlock Holmes might not be, either. Disappointingly, not even Patrick Bateman of "American Psycho" may be a true psychopath.

These are the five ways we're all getting psychopathy wrong in almost every instance.

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