Can a leopard change its spots?

Of course a real leopard cannot change its spots but the question refers to psychological spots, such as personality characteristics, behaviors, emotions, values, beliefs, childhood influences and conditionings and on and on. Psychological spots vary and depend on an individual's psychological make-up.

Psychology, just like the medical field, relies on diagnoses to help guide treatment approaches. Unlike medical ailments, psychological conditions are not physical; nevertheless, these conditions often do influence a person's physical body as well. The conditions can be severe, making changes difficult or impossible. For example, a psychopathic person displays no remorse for harming others; the person lacks a conscience and there is no empathy for other people. A psychopath's spots never change.

There are, however, other severe diagnostic spots that can change but the changes require much effort and dedication. These diagnoses include sociopaths, borderline personalities and narcissistic personalities. Most often, these spots are quite obvious to everyone, except the inflicted person.

So, when a leopard walks by in a slow, deliberate way, displaying its spots to everyone with a sense of pride or arrogance, most people eventually, if not immediately, see the spots. If the leopard, however, covers some of its spots, attempting to mislead us into believing that changes have occurred, it is important for us to realize that changes are difficult and do not happen quickly. In these situations, we usually only need to wait a short while before all the spots are revealed once again.

Unfortunately, this happens, and happens all too often. We see politicians, high-level business people, religious leaders and highly visible public figures, trying to mislead us into believing that their spots have changed. With careful attention, we can see this behavior for what it truly is-manipulation, and often it is manipulation of the most viscous kind.

There is no self-awareness of the harm being done to other people; there is a lack of self-awareness of the personal shadow (the dark side of the personality); there is a lack of relationship to other people and only self-centered interests, deceptions and greed are present, motivating such manipulations.

So, when a leopard is parading in front of us, it is important to be able to see the leopard's spots but it is more important to recognize when the leopard is attempting to manipulate us by expressing changes. We must realize that the spots are often temporarily hidden due to the person's deceptions, misleading statements and altered behaviors.