{"id":1117,"date":"2026-02-01T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/truechili\/?p=1117"},"modified":"2026-01-23T15:54:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T22:54:28","slug":"how-to-tell-a-sociopath-by-james-b-nicola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/truechili\/2026\/02\/01\/how-to-tell-a-sociopath-by-james-b-nicola\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;How to Tell a Sociopath&#8221; by James B. Nicola"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"\"><br>I&#8217;ve learned that one will never say &#8216;I&#8217;m sorry,&#8217;<br>And rarely &#8216;please&#8217; or &#8216;thank-you.&#8217; Who knows why?<br>If you know someone like that then learn to do the math:<br>No doubt that someone is in fact a sociopath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">If you love someone like that, I have learned,<br>There&#8217;s not a lot to recommend you do<br>But learn to be aware, apply the rules of math,<br>And pray for those who know and love a sociopath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">I&#8217;ve lately learned that there are other terms<br>For sociopath, and other ways one acts.<br>For one, he&#8217;s always right. If you should prove one wrong,<br>Then be prepared to duck. You seem to know that song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">A sociopath butts in for your own good<br>Then tells you he is good for doing so!<br>Bullies are likewise blind to the havoc they wreak,<br>Like the narcissist and the so-called control freak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">A sociopath, I&#8217;m learning, can be trained,<br>However (best to start before age seven):<br>If he has parents, aunts, or (later in life) you<br>Who have patience and love enough to see me through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><br><em>James B. Nicola is a returning contributor to True Chili and the author of eight collections of poetry, the latest being Fires of Heaven (2021), Turns &amp; Twists (2022), and Natural Tendencies (2023). His nonfiction book Playing the Audience won a Choice magazine award.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve learned that one will never say &#8216;I&#8217;m sorry,&#8217;And rarely &#8216;please&#8217; or &#8216;thank-you.&#8217; Who knows why?If you know someone like that then learn to do the math:No doubt that someone is in fact a sociopath. If you love someone like that, I have learned,There&#8217;s not a lot to recommend you doBut learn to be aware, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/truechili\/2026\/02\/01\/how-to-tell-a-sociopath-by-james-b-nicola\/\" class=\"excerpt-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/underwoodpress.com\/truechili\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ahmed-zid-oxrwxsl39X0-unsplash.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/truechili\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/truechili\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/truechili\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/truechili\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/truechili\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1117"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/truechili\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1118,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/truechili\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117\/revisions\/1118"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/truechili\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/truechili\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/truechili\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/truechili\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}