Owf, I've been on the receiving end of such a person. Has anyone else? Would love to hear experiences, if its not too triggering?

I'm still not sure whether she was a psychopath or a sociopath but she certainly turned out to be cunning, manipulative, superficial with her charm, unempathetic, power driven, cruel and spiteful with her words...

The person who I thought I knew for years turned out to be very different toward the end of our friendship. She was my landlady, but also a close friend of my Dad and stepmother since I was 5. Her daughter was my best friend.

She was so good at manipulation that I thought I was going crazy. Her 'logic' was so unusual and confusing. She rationalized her cruel comments and said they were 'concerns'. She bullied her daughter and said those were 'concerns' too. Now I understand why my friend suffers from major depression, motivation issues etc.

Safe to say that I will never speak to this woman again.

I've had to read up on all this to protect myself but they do say that it is so easy to fall for a psychopath. They'll cater to your needs and wants and compliment you, 'love' you etc and then when your knee deep in all your feelings, they'll find ways to hit at you. That scares me.

I confided in my landlady quite a lot and by the end of the relationship she would attack at my vulnerabilities very slyly.

What was even more scary was that she was a trained counsellor within a charity. But she was only charitable to fulfil her own selfish grandiosity. She needed victims of life to help her feel better about herself. Unfortunately this has pervaded on my therapy sessions. I'm extremely cautious of T incase she is a likewise person. So far, so good..

I think the best we can do with people like this is to learn to love and respect ourselves which will hopefully reduce the chances of getting involved with such people. :/...