Samira wrote:
I think it's just that they have no fear, and exude confidence, which can be quite charming.
True. A psychopath knows that what he's doing is wrong, but his sense of the world has no real morality. It's viewed in terms of his/her base wants and desires. In other words, the part of that person that gives a damn simply doesn't exist. It's either missing entirely, or, due to a some early childhood trauma or abuse (usually) has been relegated so far back into their psyche that they don't recognize it even when it appears. There's a difference between killing someone because the voices told you to, or because you felt it was the most efficient thing to do.
There's a test that illustrates this pretty well. Here goes: A woman's mother has passed away, and she is at the funeral with the rest of her family and other mourners. At the funeral, she meets a handsome man. Wealthy, funny, everything she wants, but when she leaves to get some drinks, he has left and she doesn't even know his name, much less how to get a hold of him, so she gets home and kills her sister.
Why?