For an update on this epidemic, please see the following posts:

Narcissistic Abuse Recovery “Coaches”: The Grift In 2022

The “Narsassist”: How The Crowd Diagnoses Strangers Online

I remember writing a few years back that if this trend of arbitrarily diagnosing people with personality disorders was not halted by common sense, soon, kids would use “psychopath”, “narc” and “sociopath” as a common schoolyard slur.

These labels, dished out like fortune cookies on New Year’s Eve, would become the go-to explanation for any behaviour self-proclaimed empaths deemed upsetting, even momentarily.

It’s now 2018 and the chickens have come home to roost.

The past fortnight has seen an explosion of such Eureka moments in the minds of impressionable teens, as well as a sleuth of other people, after Shane Dawson and his very empathetic therapist (irony intended) put together an impromptu assessment of a YouTuber’s mental condition, partly to promote a shady online “therapy mill” known as Better Help.

A couple of years ago, authors of self-help books and recovery forum owners were arduously “spreading awareness” so people could “identify disordered types” lurking around every corner and “learn to protect themselves”. The lovely people at Psychopath Free had a plan of taking their campaign into schools, in order to spread the hysteria where it was more likely to catch faster than Ebola.

Shane Dawson’s “documentary” series on Jake Paul’s presumed sociopathy has already garnered over 12 million views per video – many of them from young fans who thank him and his empathetic therapist for the life-saving information – namely that sociopaths are everywhere and they’ve undoubtedly met a few.

It’s no surprise that videos such as this one, this one and this one are popping up like mushrooms after it rains.

The first video thanks these two empaths for perfectly describing the creator’s school friends with their vague and unprofessional scaremongering, meaning all those kids must be sociopaths.

The second one describes the gaslighting of victims of  narcissists and sociopaths and mentions “spreading awareness about these disorders” (mixing them all together and bringing recent a murder case into the discussion). In other words, “us, the good ones” versus “them, the evil ones”.

The third one credits Dawson with valuable, truly educational work. “If Shane Dawson had made his documentary years ago I wouldn’t have suffered because of a sociopath”.

These are, of course, just three random examples lauding this sensationalist charade as if it had any value and was not an invitation to arbitrarily label people in a generalised witch hunt.

Of course, the gentle empath Kati Morton is heavily involved with Better Help; she is the go-to therapist for YouTubers promoting it for profit. She’s been making videos on mental health for a few years, often focusing on – you might have guessed – how to get away from toxic types (also the focus of many amateurish content creators claiming expertise). At least one video was the almost faithful recitation of someone else’s article (it was plagiarised).

It seems that in her view, raising awareness about mental health issues people might want therapy for needs to involve this witch hunt, stigmatising people with personality disorders, in a PF-esque crusade to save the world from them. There’s little doubt in my mind that it’s a marketing strategy on her part. In fact, considering what has gone on with this company, there is no doubt.

Fear sells; so does vindication (enabling people to label those who have hurt them as irredeemable by nature).

It will be interesting to see if the backlash is sufficient to curb this enthusiasm for exploiting people’s vulnerabilities.