Personality (pathological) test

[andyf]

From a friend at work:

This is an old one so you may have seen it before. It's a question from
one of those 70's psyco profiling tests which was basically designed to
work out if you're a nutter. Can't wait to see the answers from you
"well balanced" individuals!

A young woman's mother dies. She's heartbroken. She sets the funeral
arrangements, posts the death notice in the paper and mourns her
mother. The day of the funeral arrives and once there she meets a man
in the lobby of the funeral parlor. He tells her he's an old family
friend, however he does not give her his name. He consoles her and
they chat at length. After a time she realizes that this is the
perfect man for her, he's her soul-mate, she knows it in her heart.
She wishes to keep talking to him but the funeral is beginning and
they all have to sit. During the ceremony the man gets up and leaves.
Afterwards she looks for him, but he is gone. She asks other guests
about him, but no one seems to know who he is. She then returns home
and kills her father. Why?



Well my answer was 'she's a closet psycho' .

I found one whole reference on google to this, and it suggested there is a particular answer a person can give that suggests they may be susceptible to pathological tendancies.

If anyone can shed any light on this I'd be interested.

[andyf]

Update:

Awesome, I got it right (second guess, i claimed schizophrenia).

The database guy over on the other desk got it right first time. We're having a bit of a chuckle with him, whilst quietly planning not to invite him to the next night out.

By the way, getting the 'right' answer is not a good thing in this case :)

[pos]

yeah, me friend told me this one the other day - its good :D

[Say_Ten]

I'd have said, 'cause she's nuts and thinks he might come to her fathers funeral. But hey there you go ;p

[Cheez]

I thought that as well say_ten, she kills her father in the hope that the perfect man comes to her fathers funeral as well as her mothers.

[andyf]

I'm guessing that's why it is patho- logical :)

[andyf]

oooh just been looking at 'traits' of sociopathic disorders and noticed I was going quite well until:

11. Promiscuous sexual behavior

ah well :)

[TE-Hellfire]

Solving the problem doesn't mean you have "pathological" problems or whatever fashionable psychological disorder you secretly wish you had, all it does is demonstrate the person has a basic level of logic to work out what her game was.

It seems the "in" thing these days to have some kind of psychological problem and show it off. I think I'll give myself one then run around claiming sympathy from everybody.

Let's see now: Autonomous Cognition Disorder.

Yes, poor poor me, I suffer from automatically thinking all the time.

[Say_Ten]

Yeah, that's a bugger for trying to get to sleep, I feel for you man I really do ;p

[Bonkers]

Probably killed her mother too - she must like meeting people at funerals

[Elbonio]

without reading any replies or searching on google i would say that she killed her father becuase he always kept her inside, wouldnt let her go out with ANY boys, she never had ANY FUN and now her one chance has gone AND ITS ALL BECUASE OF THAT GIT. THE BASTARD DESERVES TO DIE MOTHER****ING ****. I'D TAKE A ****ING AXE TO HIS HEAD THE ******.



did i pass?

[andyf]

Originally posted by TE-Hellfire
It seems the "in" thing these days to have some kind of psychological problem and show it off. I think I'll give myself one then run around claiming sympathy from everybody.


From my post
It's a question from one of those 70's psyco profiling tests which was basically designed to work out if you're a nutter.

70's Hellfire - the 1970's :D Not quite 'these days' :D:D

[Strych]

Originally posted by andyf
oooh just been looking at 'traits' of sociopathic disorders and noticed I was going quite well until:
11. Promiscuous sexual behavior
ah well :) I think that's more what he was referring to. And I agree. Look at any LiveJournal and it's full of "Look, I took this personaility test and I'm sooooo schizophrenic / sociopathic / manic-depressive"

Remember kids, metal illness isn't cool.

[Strych]

Originally posted by TE-Hellfire
Solving the problem doesn't mean you have "pathological" problems or whatever fashionable psychological disorder you secretly wish you had, all it does is demonstrate the person has a basic level of logic to work out what her game was. I believe in the 70s, the "in" thing in Psychology was that certain people had certain modes of thinking. If you naturally assume its a ploy to meet the father, it was implied you thought this was a logical and reasonable course of action. If you were initally totally stumped and just thought it was a really shocking / inexplicable / illogical way to behave, and blamed it on mental illness (as andyf did), or had no explanation, it showed that you were not able to think in the same manner as the psychopath in the passage.

This is kind of discredited now, as people with good logical reasoning skills can figure out the reasoning without necessarily thinking it a reasonable course of action. However, I'd still be rather wary of anyone who instinctively went "to meet to guy again of course, duh!"...

[Zakalwe]

Ah they were so silly back in the 70's. Of course, now we're far more scientific. We know that it's the people with the close-set eyes we need to watch. And carnys, very small hands...

[andyf]

wp zak :)

I was more inclined to watch out for the monobrows ...