Letter from the President 2021 Annual Report

As I write this letter in 2022, it is hard to ignore that 2021 was another challenging year for many of us. We know now that, as the pandemic raged across the world in 2021 (and is still around in 2022), crime increased in many parts of the United States and in many parts of the world. Mass shootings have also increased in frequency. Domestic violence has gotten worse. It seems safe to assume that the kinds of abuse people suffer through psychopathy have not gotten better. To the extent that people are more likely to mistreat others when they are feeling stressed, when they are desperate, this principle may well apply to people with psychopathy.

There is no way to sugar coat the harm some people do to others and themselves because of an inability or unwillingness to consider the impact of their actions. Most of us are not taught to watch out for people who do not tell the truth or do not care how their actions affect us. But knowledge is power!  We hope the information we provide about psychopathy helps you to live more safely and, for those who are still in abusive, hurtful relationships, we hope the information aids you in getting the help you need. 

During 2021, our North American and our European Research Committees were very busy. Their efforts resulted in us adding a great deal of new information about the behavior of people with psychopathic traits, which you can see summarized here [link].  Much of this information is on our main website, and some of it is on our Members Page. (We try to put some cool things up on the Members page to encourage people to join us as members. And if anyone wants to join but cannot afford our regular membership fee of $25, they should contact me!)

Two things about recent research that give me hope are: 1) as we have mentioned before, there are now several treatment programs that appear to make a difference for both children and adults with psychopathic traits [link]; and 2) research studies point increasingly to the importance of the environment [link]. That is, how parents and other family members behave really matters. It is harder and harder to argue that psychopathy is simply genetic. Of course, it is partly genetic – like almost everything. But now we see study after study suggesting that the environment is also often important. This does not mean the problem is solved, but it helps us to start thinking about how to open the door to help parents help their children more effectively – so that someday there can be fewer people with psychopathy who are hurting the rest of us (and themselves).

During 2021, the online course committee continued to make progress going through the online course content. In fact, during 2021, we finished developing the material for the second course. (However, I must admit we ended up spending the rest of 2021 and the first half of 2022 polishing the material to make it even clearer and more focused.) I understand some people may be getting impatient for this online course. Don’t worry! We are almost done with our polishing, and we expect to be recording the lecture material and working with an online course designer to put together the final touches early in 2023. We are excited to finish these courses and share them!

Another big initiative of 2021 was the decision to develop an online support group for survivors of psychopathy. Three dedicated Aftermath volunteers (Drs. Alicia Spidel, Jill Ricke, and Carolyn Abramowitz) began meeting regularly and designed a place where survivors can discuss issues and receive support in real time. Our Board of Directors has approved the idea, and we plan to launch this online support group sometime early in 2023.

Finally, in 2021, the Aftermath Foundation ventured into social media. We are now on Twitter (aftermathfdn8 [link]) and on LinkedIn [link]. At the time of this writing, we now have 108 people following us on Twitter. We are new to this, and we welcome your suggestions. If you like the work the Aftermath Foundation is doing, and, if you are on social media, we encourage you to spread the word. Retweet some of our social media posts! Add links to some of the information we provide! Send us your ideas! Help us translate this information into other languages! Let’s keep making the world a little safer by helping people to protect themselves. And thank you again for your support.

Dave Kosson

President, Aftermath: Surviving Psychopathy Foundation