1/08/2019

Is R. Kelly a Psychopath? Seems like it

Did you watch the R. Kelly documentary? My timeline has been flooded with opinions on the docu-series so I streamed it to check it out. I watched with mixed emotions thinking about the parents of those girls and then I came to the conclusion that the series missed outright diagnosing him as a psychopath. After watching there is no doubt in my mind that R. Kelly is a predator but he clearly lacks empathy and is great at preying on the vulnerabilities of people.

The world is beautiful place however it can show you extremely horrible things. Nature in itself display example of prey and predator in all species. There will always be people with intentions on harming others so it’s in our best interest to build awareness on how to pinpoint their tactics. A trait that 99% of us have is our ability to be empathetic. Our empathy is a mechanism that guides our conscience and prohibits most of us from going too far into a negative experience. The reason I go into detail regarding this is because there is one component that was not well delivered in the documentary and it’s based on psychology and emotions. There is no doubt that R. Kelly is a predator and like all predators they have an uncanny ability to pick up on subtle social cues that appeal to them or better yet their social deviance. Predators have fine tuned their ability to find suitable prey and when you throw in R. Kelly's celebrity status he definitely didn't have to look far for victims. Ordinary people experience similar situations but when we meet someone and think we have an “instant connection” most often its a decoy.  There is no such a thing as instant connections with random people. It’s our own thought process that determines we have instantly connected with someone when in fact it's typically a ploy to reduce your natural skepticism. The person tends to let you naturally talk about yourself and you lead the conversation and they fill in the gaps with what you want to hear. It's this mechanism that predators use to be appealing to their prey. 

Predators understand that we’re creatures of habit and tend to easily sense when someone will be susceptible to their advances quite easily. Our habits and personality aren’t as unique as we like to think and the average person is quite predictable. Predators perfect their senses early in life by constantly pushing limits within their social circles and in time perfect their craft. Young people are more prone to act on their sense of wonderment without restraint which allowed R. Kelly to find easy prey who stuck around. It’s the same principle used by marketers and advertisers when they try to appeal to young people to develop habits that are hard to kick. Prime example of this would be cigarettes or hookah. Hookah lounges are flooded with people who have fallen for propaganda that it’s cool to smoke flavored tobacco in appealing bongs so that they can post pictures for social media. To summarize we all have desires and there are triggers that would entice every one of us if situation allows. However for R. Kelly he used his celebrity status and the idea that association would bring on assimilation to manipulate young girls to fulfill his proclivities. Then brainwashed these young girls into being subservient to him over time.

So how do you know when you're being manipulated or when a predator is at hand? Below are a few warning signs that you're in the mist of a psychopath and predator.

  1. They engage your curiosity and capture your attention. They are incredibly skilled in the art of peacocking. They know how to draw your attention and curiosity but subconsciously you may not detect that curiosity as a threat. 
  2. They maintain a calm demeanor which allows them to present themselves as calm until you've lowered your guard and then they show their true intent. 
  3. They play you close! Literally! They invade your personal space to see how much of you'll allow.
  4. They will display some form of contempt as they are naturally contemptuous.  
  5. Their emotions can switch instantly going from complete calm, to rage and back to calm all in a matter of seconds. 
  6. They exude an air of superiority and confidence. 
  7. They are contradictory between what they say and do. If they describe one thing and you experience the complete opposite. It's a behavioral nuance that is unavoidable for psychopaths because they cannot often keep up the facade they are verbally telling you. They tell you things they know you want to hear but often cannot fulfill their promises or stories. They will try to shift that blame or make you believe you misunderstood their intent. 
  8. there will be aspects of their demeanor or life that is impenetrable. They will not allow you to see behind their curtain fully and will keep you in the dark about things that most are willing to share.