Understanding The Dark Triad – A General Overview

illimitablemen.com/2013/11/17/understanding-the-dark-triad

November 17, 2013

by IM

Introduction:

The Dark Triad is an immoral

trifecta of personality traits that
result in immense personal power.
It grants high social status, tight
control over interpersonal social
dynamics and elicits intense sexual
attraction. It’s for these reasons that
many men interested in red pill
philosophy likewise have an interest
in the dark triad and idealise
ascertaining the psychological state
of “being dark triad” or at least a
simulacrum of such a state.

These men see power embodied

within specific personality traits and they want to know “how can I be like that?” “How
can I be the successful asshole?!” The truth of the matter is that if you did not
neurologically develop a dark triad personality as a child, you will never be completely
dark triad in the truest sense of the classification. The dark triad is essentially not
something one can be trained to become, however it can be reverse engineered and
emulated. I’ll elaborate on this later on in the article however first I’ll outline what the
dark triad actually is.

Not too far back I mentioned the dark triad is a trifecta of personality traits. To be more
specific, it is composed of three “anti-social” mental schemas which work in tandem to
form “the dark triad.” Those comprising psychosocial mental schemas are as follows:

– Understanding Narcissism

Excessive self-love as well as ridiculously high, bordering on, or far exceeding, obnoxious
self-confidence. Dark triad individuals are egotist incarnate, this component of the triad
forms the superficial glazing which masks and distracts one from the murkier depths of
the dark triad persona. It is this device that achieves a dark triad individual baseline social
acceptance in most social situations, for people are innately drawn to those who exhibit
vast self-confidence.

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The narcissism is clinical, deep-rooted and intensely internalised. The individual truly
believes they are superior to everybody else simply because they are who they are and they
exist. This is something akin to a god complex. Naturally, this has the effect of rubbing off
on other people despite being completely unsubstantiated. People assume subconsciously
that someone who loves themselves that much must have a basis for their self-image and
therefore wrongfully assumes such an individual is high value. Narcissists, in the absence
of significant worldly success are huge proponents of the “fake it ’till you make it” mantra.
Except unlike your average Joe who exhausts himself with the pretence, it takes a
narcissist almost no effort to maintain it, because despite the objective invalidity of their
assertions they believe in their own delusions.

The strength of such concentrated narcissism in tandem with the fearlessness of

psychopathy (more on that later) is that such extremely high confidence generates an
abundance of courage. This facilitates rampant opportunism that manifests as a keen risk-
taking eye as well as concise, solid decision-making. So it follows that by extension of this
the narcissist has a high rate of success when engaging in personal aspirations, presuming
that, they can rationalise away failure rather than let it consume them. This is oft
dependant on the individual and the type of narcissism that they exude, for there are two
different types of narcissism I consider to exist: functional narcissism and dysfunctional
narcissism.

The average person is insecure and low in confidence. Regardless of that, even other
confident people will naturally gravitate towards someone who is highly confident. This
then has the knock-on effect of raising the social status and popularity of the narcissist
and circularly fuels their narcissistic supply by giving it logical and tangible reasons for
existing in the first place. How this manifests is via all the positive feedback that the
narcissist receives in their theatricism of audacious assholery. This is what is known as a
“positive feedback loop.” The contrast: “nice guys finish last.”

Narcissism is very infectious and has a tendency to make people addicted to the individual
displaying it. Especially by those who are low in self-esteem and strive to be like the
person they admire. People of low self-confidence can vicariously ascertain confidence
through the narcissists own confidence and have it “rub off on them” via prolonged
exposure and mimicking the narcissist’s mannerisms.

The weakness/negative aspect of the narcissistic element of the triad is that normally it is
so pronounced that the individual in question’s ability to reason can become impaired as
they value their ego over truth. If they do not avoid or completely ignore an attack on their
ego (which is common – they often feel above random remarks) they will deny
reality/logic outright to preserve their ego. On occasion they may even go so far as to
maliciously shut you down in order to make you pay for your insubordinate
behaviour/threatening posture. They will do this by framing themselves as superior to you
in a very aggressive manner, and highlighting a flaw (or two, or three) of yours to
rebalance the frame of the interaction in their favour.

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When a dark triad man exhibits his narcissism in his game with a girl, he essentially negs
the fuck out of her, guilt trips her, makes her qualify herself (jump through a hoop) then
rewards her for being complicit. This is a form of operant conditioning and ties greatly
into the next element of the triad (as each part of the triad is inherently linked with the
others)

With training and self-improvement borderline narcissism (far healthier than clinical
narcissism) can be acquired and utilised to improve one’s self-confidence, which as
previously briefly touched upon is essentially all about forming and sustaining positive
feedback loops.

For those who wish to emulate narcissism, it can be learned and is considered

academically to be a “social maladaptive trait.” Basically, narcissism is nurtured, you can
become a narcissist, or something akin to a narcissist in your chosen level of severity,
should you desire it. It’s not something restricted to the realm of genetics.

–Understanding Machiavellianism

Machiavellianism is the tendency to see all social paradigms and scenarios as games of
strategy that require meticulous manoeuvring. Machiavellians are emotionally and
socially manipulative; they have a tendency to dehumanise and objectify humans down to
their skills and utilitarianism rather than perceive them as entities with personalities to be
admired. In a nutshell, Machiavellians have a tendency to view things purely in terms of
value exchange “what does this person bring to the table?” and care little, if at all, for
anything else.

Highly skilled Machiavellians manipulate themselves via stoicism to attain the outcomes
they seek (something of a perverse form of delayed gratification) however dark triad
individuals have no need for stoicism because they possess an underlying psychopathic
element. Machiavellians quite simply are very tactical individuals who execute the vast
majority of their social interactions like a metaphorical hybrid game of chess and poker.

The narcissism is their poker face for appearances and is the physical representative for
all their manipulations. Their Machiavellianism is their core, their chess-like mind. They
think 10 moves ahead of those around them, use smoke and mirrors (misdirection), leave
bait for you and then switch the outcome from the expected outcome (a nuance on
misdirection.) They pretend to be busy when they’re not to convey a false image/sense of
importance, making their target feel disposable when they in fact, value them. They
outright lie to achieve ends. They indulge in jealousy plotlines, making a person jealous
via the deliberate inclusion and flaunting of another – creating competition anxiety. They
ignore you because they want to attract you. Then there is dread game: making someone
who values the dark triad individual doubt the stability of their relationship with them,
causing the target to supplicate and be more malleable. The dark triad individual does not
limit this scarcity mentality/competition anxiety to romantic endeavours. The list of
manoeuvres goes on and on, Machiavellianism is the art of duplicity which forms the core
intellectual component of the dark triad.

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If you had to think of an animal that is inherently manipulative, it’d be a domestic cat.
Most women adore cats, so go figure that one out, projection much? Women at a baseline
level tend to be more Machiavellian in nature than men. The presiding theory in red pill
philosophy is that men evolved to have a genetic advantage physically, making them more
violent and physically dominant, whereas women evolved to be non-violent due to inferior
musculature and small stature. Instead it is thought they evolved to use their adeptness in
Machiavellianism to have men fight for them on their behalf, giving them a far more
intricate and diverse psychological skill set primed for co-option and manipulation.

If she’s a beautiful Machiavellian she can use her beauty to captivate a man and exploit
him by controlling his desires, further facilitating her desires and devices. Think of the
guy as a bear who loves honey, the queen bee leads the bear to a seemingly empty bee hive
full of honey, the bear puts his paws in to eat the honey and then the bear is caught by
surprise as an army of bees come out to collectively sting him. Now the queen bee can
dictate to the bear how he must behave because he tasted her honey and she has an army
of bees to punish him if he does not comply. Women are controlling, they will always fight
for control of the relationship, but once they get it they are dissatisfied and will move onto
another man. It’s an unending test you are not allowed to fail should you desire continued
association with the woman in question.

“Gold diggers” as a stereotype are a societal acknowledgement of women’s inherent

tendency to perceive men as little more than useful idiots, resource providers. Gold
diggers are essentially people with the ability to “use others for what they’re good for”
rather than value them for “who they are as personalities.” It is Briffault’s Law on
steroids: they prioritise what a person can do for them over forming emotional bonds.
They don’t identify who a person is and what they can do for the manipulator in question
as separate components, to a Machiavellian these things are both one and the same.

For example a Machiavellian wouldn’t think along the lines of: “John is great, I like John
because he’s a decent guy” and form any sort of emotional bond. Their thinking would be
something more akin to “John is a great negotiator, if I win his favour he can negotiate on
behalf of me in hypothetical situation X, if I can’t win John over then I have no need for
John and I should cut my losses.” Thus any emotional bond that appears to be forming is
the product of superficial charm, glibness which is used to win John over so his utility can
be put to use at a later time. No relation is formed out of legitimate admiration or desire
for John; merely it is but a manipulation to commodify John into a redeemable asset.

Machiavellianism when concentrated towards a single person for an extended period of

time is a form of mental abuse. It robs one of their agency (ability to freely make choice)
for Machiavellianism as covertly as it can be deployed is inherently coercive in nature. It
creates an invisible prison of sorts, a person thinks they’re free but they’re so trained to
behave in ways specific to the desires of another that they’re actually enslaved. That’s
Machiavellianism at its least destructive, non-violent, and passive. However it is
important not to characterise Machiavellianism as purely a source of evil, as that is an
inaccurate generalisation. How Machiavellianism is deployed is contingent on the agenda
of the person deploying it and their relationship with the person they wish to influence.

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Machiavellianism can for example be used benevolently by people like parents and such;
to protect, to preserve, to foster and to nourish. In dark triad individuals however it tends
to be utilised for destructively selfish purposes, eg: hedonism and profit. Dark triad
individuals are on their best days, amoral, at their worst, their capacity for immorality will
fully manifest.

Machiavellianism can be present in either gender, however as a baseline women tend to

have a much more pronounced proficiency in the skill set and utilise it far more
auspiciously. Man’s physical advantage is outlawed by the legal system, woman’s mental
advantage is not. Combine this with their innate sexual appeal to men and it is fair to say
that womankind has the edge in modern developed western societies. A woman’s logic
being inherently contingent upon her emotional state only helps to facilitate and foster
her Machiavellianism because her lack of consistency makes her seem more complex than
she actually is. Not even she understands half the bullshit she pulls, and she is
constrained neither by logical arguments nor an introspective need to understand her
own irrationalism. She simply does what she feels she must do, and if that makes her feel
happy, she is mentally and physically placated.

The sheer amount of weak effeminate behaviour characteristic of men at large in our

modern society is indicative that many the great majority of men lack Machiavellian traits
and capabilities to any beneficial self-serving extent. Governments want men complicit
and mentally unaware so that they don’t rise up, but instead continue to pay the tax bills
which fund for-profit wars and the welfare state. They want men to “man up” which
means to be productive little economic slaves for the benefit of the state, and to a lesser
extent the feminist bureaucrats and politicians who can only fund their perverse laws and
practices with the aid of your sweat n’ tear tax dollars. Then when a man losses everything
because he was too naive in matters of Machiavellianism to see what was going on around
him, he is profusely blamed and shamed for his naivety. Dark triad men and women are
proficient Machiavellians and can run rings around the average person, making them
jump through all kinds of mental hoops and subjecting them to all kinds of tests and
power plays; be it out of a desire to seek entertainment or to ascertain control over a
situation. Machiavellianism is inherently in and of itself the most logical part of the dark
triad persona which runs counter to the inherently delusive nature of the triad’s
narcissistic component. Naturally, this makes it possible for said components to clash.

Dark triad men who are abusive and have women pining for them, wanting to fulfil their
every whim do so by emotionally addicting said women. Their very presence causes said
women to have rushes of dopamine/serotonin/cortisol/oxytocin as well as other
neurochemical shit I don’t know about. It’s this hormonal cocktail of an emotional
rollercoaster (better simplified as: drama) which causes women to form an addiction to
said man. Women are addicted to dramatics; it is the basis of every modern soap opera,
chick flick and romantic comedy. By associating the systematic release of these
neurotransmitters and hormones with the company of a specific man who acts as the

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stimulus for these releases, they become biochemically addicted and thus mentally
dependent upon him. The removal of such a powerful man from a woman’s life can thus
elicit withdrawal symptoms similar to that of a drug comedown.

The stimulus is the dark triad man because if he’s absent for long enough the chemical
processes stop and she has withdrawals from the cycle which leads her to start
proclaiming shit like “needing him to go on” despite the small little fact he’s an abusive
asshole. Controversial conclusion: mental abuse can be chemically addictive to women, as
painful as it is, they get off on the theatrics. Women to this degree demonstrate a
predisposition for masochistic tendencies, especially in relation to love and sex, this
however is a topic that falls outside the spectrum of this article and is a topic for another
time.

In summation of this section: dark triad individuals tend to pull people in with
narcissism, control them with Machiavellianism and then addict them with the emotional
rollercoaster previously described. The final element of the triad complements
Machiavellianism quite brilliantly in how it aids in forming emotional addictions to the
manipulator, that element is psychopathy.

For those who wish to emulate Machiavellianism, it can be learned and is considered

academically to be a “social maladaptive trait.” Basically, Machiavellianism is nurtured;
you can become a Machiavellian by studying the arts of political and military strategy and
then applying the principles to your own social interactions.

–Understanding Psychopathy

Psychopathy is the reason you cannot train yourself to be a dark triad individual,
psychopathy is how your brain connects your behavioural choices to your sense of
guilt/remorse. These are essentially the body’s way of morally provoking you to cease
immoral activity. If you felt no guilt or discomfort for making immoral choices, your
likelihood of committing immoral behaviour increases tenfold. Furthermore if you
actually derive pleasure from immoral behaviours, that can act as a social reinforcer for
being immoral (read: sadistic pleasure, crime being profitable etc.)

Psychopathy defined in relation to the dark triad is the inherent ability for the dark triad
individual to show no aversion for immoral or harmful behaviour, predominantly because
they feel no empathy, guilt or remorse when doing bad things. This is perceived as a skill
of sorts in the ruggedness of the oft unfair modern world but is medically defined as a
mental disorder.

Commonly new and naive followers of red pill philosophy think “hey I can do that too via
stoicism/Zen meditation.” The difference between stoicism and psychopathy however is
that stoicism is the suppression and self-control of emotions that are released either after
performing an action, or prior to an action. It is the suppression of detrimental
emotion that elicits strong feelings which inhibit the ability to self-control, such as
suspense, eagerness or anxiety. A psychopath on the other hand has neurologically weak
connections between the emotional centre of their brain and the part of their brain

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responsible for behaviour/decision-making. This means they feel nothing or very little
(dependent on the individual’s brain) when doing something immoral and thus have
nothing to actually suppress to begin with. This isn’t a question of desensitization for
them but more of an inability to care about the feelings of others. It is thus by extension of
that inability that they are not limited by the element of guilt that would normally follow
in the aftermath of such dubious choices.

This lack of ability to feel guilt or fear as consequent of their personal choices is a great
source of the dark triads power (the power of fearlessness.) It’s this ability to ruthlessly
exploit people which addicts women to dark triad men. Psychopathy is very closely linked
with the Machiavellian component, however the sheer unpredictability and audaciousness
of the psychopathic element is what addicts women to these individuals, the spontaneity
and impulsivity is electric. It’s like crack to them.

The constant highs and lows psychopathy generates is the drama that women thrive off of.
Psychopathy is the delivery system of the Machiavellian core, the spontaneity, the
audaciousness, the guile; it’s the creme da la creme in executing a tactical manoeuvre.
However, when psychopathy gets out of control and manifests itself independently (say
the dark triad person loses their temper,) it’s completely illogical and separate from the
Machiavellian element, perhaps utilising elements of Machiavellianism but not actually
being pre-meditated in nature. You may know this as “someone going batshit crazy.”

Psychopathy is a clinical condition and state of mental-being. The people who are afflicted
with psychopathy have abnormal neurological structures, short of going and getting
yourself brain damage no amount of self-determination will result in ascertaining
psychopathy. You can mimic a psychopath and even fool others you are one with some
degree of success, but neurologically you will not be one. You will still have to deal,
introspectively, with the emotional consequences of your actions, something an actual
dark triad individual does not. Hence your efforts will make you an imitation, not an
actualisation of that which you lust to become.

Dark triad people are very powerful individuals. They are harmful both to society and
themselves, as by nature of their personalities they are extremely unstable individuals.
The fact of the matter is they tend not to care about changing their negative aspects even
if they are self-aware enough to realise what the negative aspects of themselves are. They
are more concerned with concealing the existence of their negative aspects and convincing
others they do not exist or are otherwise justifiable or acceptable within the context of a
situation. Rather perversely, they appear to be at peace with their deepest faults even if
they verbalise the contrary.

Due to the psychopathic element of the triad a person cannot become “fully dark triad” as
this element in particular appears to be something imbued either genetically or in the
development stages of childhood brain formation. Dark triad individuals cannot be
“fixed,” a dark triad individual will remain one for the entirety of their lives. Most of them
don’t want to be fixed as they’re addicted to their own power and sense of self-
importance. They can be emulated, you cannot “become one” but you can “become like

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one.”  With training and study, one can demonstrate borderline or sub-clinically dark
triad qualities and that is much the purpose and topic of this blog. So should you find this
topic to be of interest, I recommend you follow this blog. You can do this by entering your
e-mail in the top right corner of the sidebar.

Relevant Reading:

Blog Material:

Everything in the Dark Triad Portal

Also, specifically:
Utilising The Dark
Triad: Machiavellianism
Utilising The Dark Triad: Psychopathy

Book(s) on Psychopathy:

Buy “The Wisdom of the Psychopaths” in the USA

Buy “The Wisdom of the Psychopaths” in the UK

Book(s) on Machiavellianism:

in the USA
Buy “The 33 Strategies of War”

Buy “The 48 Laws of Power” in the USA

Buy “The 48 Laws of Power” in the UK

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