A good rule of thumb for dealing with the problem character in your life: trust your gut before you trust their words.

For the first time, [In Sheep's Clothing] allowed people to understand what was really going on with their abuser, how they managed to get hoodwinked, blindsided, and manipulated, and what they could do to keep such things from happening again.

When the disturbed character wants something, he doesn’t necessarily think about whether it’s right, good, or legal — or whether his pursuit of it might adversely affect anyone. He only cares that he wants it. His incessant concern for himself and the things that he desires creates a pattern of thinking which embodies an attitude of indifference to the rights, needs, wants, and expectations of others.

Persons with disturbed characters don’t act the way most of us do largely because they don’t think the way we do. Some will even advance points of view which they don’t really believe but which they want you to believe that they believe — all with a view to manipulating you or managing your impression of them.

There is some research coming out of USC that supports much of what I have been saying about lying and the reasons why disordered characters do it – especially when there appears to be no obvious advantage to it.