Although it may sound strange to some, many psychopaths want to get married. Despite their inability to truly love, marriage is something that helps them appear normal. Likewise, it can even help them to further their own personal interests at the cost of their spouse. Because of that, many psychopaths end up manipulating and forming long-term relationships with regular people.
Sometimes, this kind of relationship can become even stranger when both people are both suffering from psychopathy. Here’s what happens when a psychopath marries another psychopath.
Studying the Relationship
A longitudinal study was carried out at the University of Georgia which followed 172 couples throughout the first 10 years of their marriage. In it, the researchers surveyed the participants on how similar they were to their spouse and measured them in regard to psychopathy. Along with that, they were also questioned about conflict in their relationship. At the end of the 10 years, the researchers then found out how happy they all were together and whether they had divorced.
From their findings, we can see that people generally tend to date people that they’re similar to, but they don’t usually marry them. However, there were still several married couples who both had psychopathy. According to the study, these couples were more likely to have problems very early on. Likewise, they were more likely to use negative behaviors in conflict rather than solving them positively.
A Real Marriage Needs Love
The fact that psychopaths are incapable of feeling regular emotions in the same way that the average person can has become common knowledge at this point. It may make no sense whatsoever then how two people who are unable to really love one another could end up in a relationship. However, it does happen.
A relationship between a psychopath and a non-psychopath does make much more sense. When one person is capable of establishing a basis for intimacy, the marriage has some hope. This is especially true when the non-psychopath is willing to make sacrifices, compromise constantly, and give into their spouse’s wishes.
Along with all of that, a non-psychopath may be able to look past their partner’s behavior. More often than not, they even end up making excuses for them. For example, since many psychopaths had difficult upbringings, their partners may blame their behavior on their parents. Because of that, they’re often willing to look past every red flag.
A Relationship Based on Lies
The relationship between two psychopaths is understandably much different from one involving a regular person. Mainly, there is no baseline of intimacy and there is no emotional support from either side. Because of that, it can be a marriage with absolutely no warm feelings towards one another.
Both people will have no problem with lying to one another on a regular basis. Likewise, they’ll take advantage of each other for their own personal gain without feeling any remorse. Their individual goals become far more important to them than their goals as a couple. In the end, each of them will end up putting the other at risk of emotional, financial, or material loss as a result.
In addition to this, the couple is also far more inclined to betray one another. They’re likely to cheat on each other which can result in a much lower quality of intimacy within the relationship. Naturally, these kinds of relationships will often end in complete disaster.
The dynamic in a marriage between two psychopaths is completely unsustainable. In this kind of relationship, they’re far more likely to manipulate and take advantage of one another than they otherwise may be. Along with that, these kinds of marriages usually end up in divorce too. Truly, this is not a match made in heaven.
What do you think that the marriage between two psychopaths would be like? Share this article with your friends and family to find out what they think too.
