Being a psychopath helped me excel as a lawyer and not care about gender roles. Non-psychopaths can learn 2 things from me. [Video]

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with M.E. Thomas, the pen-name of an attorney, ex-law professor, and author of “Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight.” Business Insider has verified her identity and her diagnosis of anti-social personality disorder. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Most people think being a psychopath means being violent and manipulative, but there are big differences between this stereotype and my experience as a female psychopath.

Most of this stereotype seems to come from early studies done on male psychopaths in prison — so it’s not shocking that they make psychopaths seem violent and criminal. That’s how they got there in the first place.

But it’s not necessarily about violence. I think of personality disordersas being some disruption to the formation of a sense of self — we know this happens around the age of two, when we …