Biotrophic Parasites and Psychopaths

In the previous chapter, we explored the character and behavior of two traders who acted independently in their quest to exploit the financial system for financial gains. Although rogue traders cause disruption in the system, other more subtle players enlist the assistance of employees, colleagues, friends, and acquaintances to aid them in bilking the financial system, instead of relying solely on technology. In the natural world, parasites that rely on the survival of their host are known as biotrophic. They need their host to stay alive to live themselves. There is a relationship between the parasite and the host, to which the host may or may not have consented. The English author and dramatist Sir Henry Taylor commented that “shy and proud men … are more liable than any other to fall into the hands of parasites and creatures of low character. For the intimacies that are formed by shy men, they do not choose, but are chosen.”1 This is a perfect description of how people can unwittingly become the prey of predatory psychopaths. Two men who acted like biotrophic parasites in carrying out their strategies bear consideration in our search for financial psychopaths.