5 Signs Of A Dark Empath, Not Psychopath

While the term psychopath is not an official mental health diagnosis, it is used in clinical setting to mean someone who show signs of antisocial personality disorder. Antisocial personality disorder is the official clinical term for someone who has a pattern of using, manipulating and violating the rights of others. One thing that was highlighted in an abnormal psychology class is that psychopath actually have empathy, but they use it for their own gains. They manipulate others by using their ability to validate others for their own agenda. In a previous video, we covered dark empaths. Dark empath is a relatively new term referring to someone who also knows how to use empathy for their personal gains. However, there are differences between a psychopath and dark empath. Watch this video learn these interesting differences, and protect yourself from life difficult situations.

Dark empaths are people who have a high level of cognitive empathy only, not emotional empathy or compassionate empathy. They don’t possess the ability to provide wholehearted concern the way full empaths do. This is because, despite the fact that they are high in empathy, they are also high in the dark traits of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. One might mistake them as psychopaths because of their similarities. But here are a few ways dark empaths are actually quite different from psychopaths.

Disclaimer: If you suspect you or someone you know possess some of these signs, we recommend further research and also seeking help from a professional.

Writer: Chamae
Script Editor: Vanessa Tao
Script Manager: Kelly Soong
Animator: Mara Licardo
YouTube Manager: Cindy Cheong

REFERENCES

mindbodygreen. (2021, June 25). Dark Empaths: The Personality Type That Uses

[brosephbroheim]

I suggest that "dark" personality types are on the rise in response to the conditions of society. The traits are adaptive when it comes to self preservation but are likely to cause harm to others.

[thecatsbackyard]

Full disclaimer: none of Psych2Go's videos have been, are or will ever be an excuse to go on some witch hunt for people who seem display any of these traits. Be nice to each other

[roxiethecockapoo]

1. Dark Empaths show emotions while psychopaths lack them 0:44
2. They're empathetic while psychopaths just don't care 1:16
3. They're patient while psychopaths are impulsive 2:08
4. Dark Empaths are careful while Psychopaths are reckless 3:00
5. They're extroverted while Psychopaths show anti-social disorder. 3:55

[Psychgo]

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. This was a highly requested topic.

[Odinfang]

I feel this is why an empath’s darkness is literally the greatest mental self defense weapon of all time. Read’s the enemy down to a T and immediately formulates strategies to defeat them on data collected they were so kind to provide with no thought for their actions whatsoever. Sure, I’m seeing the bad, but I’m also seeing the good in it too. This just feels like a matter of correcting imbalance and taming what you have.

[stephaniemacdonald]

I am a Dark Empath but I dont hurt my friends because I know what it's like to be hurt. I am actually going to see a doctor soon to study me and see how my brain works and why I think very differently than other people do. So wish me luck to better understand myself.

[vyliad]

I relate a lot to most of these and sometimes I worry I might be a dark empath and/or unintentionally manipulating people, cause I know what it's like to be manipulated, used, and thrown away.
But then I realize, even if I *am* a dark empath, I never use my traits to hurt people just for my own gain (at least never on purpose), that's illogical and inefficient.

[ashleygrenstone]

Ugh, let's not demonize people - I feel like we forget that people are often overlapping these different labels (with exception to clinical diagnosis ... maybe...) at any given moment and perhaps what is reflected are the most noticeable traits to us, rather than our diagnosing a label like 'dark empath'. What about the person who originated as an empath, went through a period of life that molded them to be toxic towards others and then in time they grew out of it?

[teknerd]

Until now I didn't know there was a such thing as Dark Empath. The scary thing is I know two people (Mother and Son) like this for a long time. Thanks for bringing this up. I like to know more about these Dark Empaths.

[HallieEva]

Everything is a spectrum. There are also people who have the capacity for this and choose not to use it in a detrimental way because of how they were raised. Some one who had high intellectual empathy
Low emotional empathy but with out tendency for manipulation or malice might not be problematic and instead could actually help people in various fields that require a level of detachment.

[casemcdonald]

Thank you for the disclaimer at the end. Everyone fits some description of abnormal psychology. If they don't, that's a sign of another type of deviance. Displaying markers of diagnostic criteria doesn't make one crazy. It's normal. The diagnostic criteria exist only to get insurance to pay for mental healthcare.

I want everyone to understand that.

[SleepyBoiKian]

I really love how the amount of references used in the video fit some of the characters about the topic

[emanuelstith]

The fact that I recently decided to catch up on Adventure Time after all these years & you guys create an animation around the recent episodes I’ve seen 😭😭🙏🏾

[toast]

I like how they use Fern as an example, just being the fact that he fits all the traits of a Dark Empath. Coming from a fan of adventure time Fern has always been a questionable character (In my opinion) Like in one clip, he’s hanging out Finn being nice and empathetic than few minutes later he gets jealous and grumpy. Than he become violent.

[aliceDarts]

I am a dark empath... it is something that I was born with. Not a trait that can "easily" be changed. IMO being a dark empath and an introvert has saved me from many toxic relationships and it also saved me from building too much of an attachment to too many people. I don't mind it nor do I see anything wrong with it... but I know that many people will have a problem with it. TBH, I don't really care. Nor do I think that I should care. Dark empaths are normal people... just darker people.

[mr.scream]

never expected the animations from avatar and adventure time in here

[UpasanaBTS]

I relate to most of these except I think, being manipulative and being an extrovert. I've always thought I was fake because I say things I don't really believe myself because I know that's what the person wants to hear. I can understand someone's emotions, I can understand where they're coming from to act in a certain way, I can somewhat empathise with them but I can never truly care. I used to be able to but not anymore and nothing really happened in my life to bring that change. A lot of times I find myself thinking the exact opposite of the things I am saying, like, outside I am telling someone that it's okay to feel that way towards a situation but inside I am thinking that the person is exaggerating and dramatizing things unnecessarily. I believe a lot of the times they truly are and if a rational person were to listen to it, they'd think that too. But those who I think are truly suffering, I can empathise with whole heartedly most of the times. Other times, I really want to feel sad but I simply can't. I know how bad it sounds that I somewhat "minimalize" or "quantify" someone's suffering but I simply can't care if I truly deem a situation not worthy of their reaction. (A recent example of something that happened is that my roommate was telling me how she's stressed and depressed and literally can't even study or focus and has seen her parents literally "shed tears of blood" just cause her older sister wants to marry a guy she loves (who my roomie doesn't approve btw), I mean, all I see is two conservative parents who've taught one of their daughters that wanting to marry a guy of her choice is bringing shame to the family and a sin and all their love and care to their older daughter was to make sure she wouldn't "betray" them like that but she did. Oh my what could be worse than that? I know how insensitive that sounds but literally crying about your sister marrying a guy and claiming you have the worst life because of that when I'm telling her about a girl who lost her dad last year to cancer and they had to struggle to even make ends meet even comparable??? She likes to cry and complain a lot which really seems childish for her as a grown 22 year old woman and people like her kinda contributed to me not caring even when I should.)



Anyway other than that, I truly want to be of service to others, I love helping people without ever expecting anything in return as long as helping them isn't harming/bothering me.

[adrianfernandez]

I'm most likely a Dark Empath and I must say something... The morality you develop thanks to your parents/environment might be key to avoid questionable behavior.

I seem to find manipulating others a bit easy thanks to reading their emotions, and I could have caused a disaster if it weren't for my morals.
Long story short: even if someone might be a Dark Empath, there is a chance he has good intentions if he was raised properly. He/she might also dump his morals if some emergency (danger to someone they love) is happening and WILL manipulate you if that avoids danger.

[masonlusk]

Yall should do a "how to be a good Dark Empath" video. As in how to rehabilitate yourself if you have these traits but don't necessarily want to be like that.

[Ennello]

So many doctors are dark empaths, but it helps. You know what your patient thinks, feels, what they will do and how they will react. If you then call your patient out on their emotions they will open up, let everything out, and they will feel better in the end. Dark empath doctors, however, don’t feel or care about everything their patient says, but in the end using empathy as a tool helps the patient.
I’m a dark empath myself, and although narcissistic traits and manipulative behavior are one of my downsides, the empathy and self-centeredness have helped me land jobs, internships and even positions in pretty exclusive extracurricular programs. I know what people want and then morph into that.
I want to get one thing out there: being a dark empath says nothing about your intent. I do love my friends and want the best for them. It’s not like I have no affection at all. It’s just that when I need to, I can flip a switch that allows me to use empathy to get ahead. That’s all. And since my intent is good, I would never do such a thing to inconvenience others.