Smelling fear

From a reader:

Nervous people have sweat that contains pheromones which in neurotypical people activate regions of the brain responsible for empathy.

One psychopath interviewed by Hare's team said quite frankly: "The first thing I do is I size you up. I look for an angle, an edge, figure out what you need and give it to you. Then it's pay-back time, with interest. I tighten the screws." Another psychopath admitted that he never targeted attractive women - he was only interested in those who were insecure and lonely. He claimed he could smell a needy person "the way a pig smells truffles."

I once noticed that I could smell some girls when I walked behind them or when they walked past me and they usually have a similar scent. Nobody else could relate to me about this. A year later, I decided to walk behind a very shy girl that was attracted to me and smell her. She had this scent, and I immediately felt like devouring her, something like having sex with her or beating her, which have a similar feel. I don't understand the sexual appeal of intercourse and my entire sexuality is based off of scents and tastes.

I have a fairly even mixture of factor 1 and 2 traits but I am by no means a "primary psychopath" because I tend to be more anxious than the average person. I'm not hotheaded like "secondary psychopaths" are said to be, but rather, I set a grandiose goal for myself (#1), so I have to watch what I say. I definitely don't have the trait "callous and lack of empathy" and I get a certain feeling when someone is crying or when there is sad music playing. It's like sadness, but it's shallow, neutral, and only momentary. Anxiety and empathy both function through connections from the amygdala to regions of the frontal lobe, I think that maybe this is intact in me but some area of morality isn't since I have shallow emotions and a lack of morality.

The primary psychopath has many brain abnormalities but mine is probably quite intact, I wouldn't think that something as peculiar as pheromone hypersensitivity would happen in my brain. But it appears to exist. Have you encountered the smelling phenomenon?

M.E.: I don't think I've noticed the smell thing, but there are certain people that I suddenly feel like violating. It does generally tend to be people who have a certain vulnerability to them, typically women although not exclusively. I wonder if that has something to do with smelling them? It doesn't seem farfetched, as some people say that sociopaths are supposed to have super sensitivities, like other people on the autism spectrum. although i'm pretty impressed with your talent.