By Seamus Parfrey

Dr Kevin Dutton the Oxford based research psychologist in 2012 authored "The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success" where he looked at both the positive and negative sides of the personality characteristics that result in people being somewhere on the psychopath spectrum.

You are probably now thinking of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs or Michael Myers in Halloween or The Joker in The Dark Knight? Charles Manson, Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer?

Or maybe closer to home you are now thinking of some friends or business associates.

The characteristics of a psychopath include: glib and superficial charm, grandiose sense of self worth, need for stimulation, pathological lying, lack of remorse or guilt, cunning/manipulativeness, callousness/lack of empathy, shallow emotions, parasitic lifestyle, poor behavioural controls, sexual promiscuity, early behavioural problems, lack of realistic long-term goals, impulsivity, irresponsibility, failure to accept responsibility for own actions, many short-term relationships, juvenile delinquency, revocation of conditional release, and criminal versatility.

The following are the professions which apparently have the most psychopaths and the least.

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 By Seamus Parfrey  

I recently agreed with a client to introduce him to contacts of mine who are extremely busy and highly experienced businessmen.

The purpose of the introduction was for my client to meet with them with a view to him getting advice and picking their brains about an exciting project he is currently developing.

Luckily I was able to set up the meetings as my contacts were keen to pass on their knowledge and accumulated wisdom.

In fact from my experience most people are open to these type of meetings.

But is there a better way?

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By Noel Murphy

Joke 1.