Post: #1

Just read this article, and found it equal parts fascinating and disturbing. The idea is basically that psychopathy is a neurological condition that can be identified even in toddlers. Then the question becomes: if we know this kid is going to become an adult psychopath, what do we do with him?

Can You Call a 9-Year-Old A Psychopath?

Quote:In another famous case, a 9-year-old boy named Jeffrey Bailey pushed a toddler into the deep end of a motel swimming pool in Florida. As the boy struggled and sank to the bottom, Bailey pulled up a chair to watch. Questioned by the police afterward, Bailey explained that he was curious to see someone drown. When he was taken into custody, he seemed untroubled by the prospect of jail but was pleased to be the center of attention.

Post: #2

If you find this interesting you should look up James Fallon. He's a neuroscientist that studies psychopaths. He could look at a brain scan and determine if the person was a psychopath. He also studied certain genes that led to psychopathy. Then he discovered that he had the brain, and genes of a psychopath, and had famous murderers in his lineage. Really fascinating stuff.

It's a mixture of genes, environment, and a damaged brain.

http://www.ted.com/talks/jim_fallon_expl...f_a_killer

Post: #3

Has there been any research involving meditation and psychopaths? Meditating on compassion increases the capacity for empathy, and this article flirts with the hope that empathy in psychopaths can be built. The obvious challenge is getting them on board - some would simply refuse to play ball - but there might be something there for a large percentage of them.

I wonder how many false rape victims are psychopaths, at least the more extreme ones.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #4

It is a well known fact that a disproportionately large part of men at the top of society are psychopaths. In fact I'm sure there are plenty of psychopaths on this forum and many, myself included, who are closer to psychopathy than the average person. It is basically men who are not guided by emotions in the least, which I believe to be a good thing. It becomes troublesome when you do not care for other people, meaning lack of empathy and when your actions damage others. The empathy part is what makes the difference between the very egoist nature of some men (which is defendable) vs. the problematic psychopaths (a small percentage I believe).

For instance you can be a loner living in the woods, doing your own thing and having absolutely no care for others,, you are psychopath but you harm no one.

Post: #5

That was one of the finest articles I've ever read in NYT before it went downhill SJW style. Very unapologetic and brutally honest about roots and treatment of psychopathy.

Post: #6

(11-07-2014 12:20 AM)rottenapple Wrote:  It is a well known fact that a disproportionately large part of men at the top of society are psychopaths. In fact I'm sure there are plenty of psychopaths on this forum and many, myself included, who are closer to psychopathy than the average person. It is basically men who are not guided by emotions in the least, which I believe to be a good thing. It becomes troublesome when you do not care for other people, meaning lack of empathy and when your actions damage others. The empathy part is what makes the difference between the very egoist nature of some men (which is defendable) vs. the problematic psychopaths (a small percentage I believe).

For instance you can be a loner living in the woods, doing your own thing and having absolutely no care for others,, you are psychopath but you harm no one.

Isn't mild psychopathy called sociopathy? Sociopathy as I understand it being not willing or not able to play 'the game' of society.

Post: #7

(11-07-2014 07:36 AM)Dr. Howard Wrote:  Isn't mild psychopathy called sociopathy? Sociopathy as I understand it being not willing or not able to play 'the game' of society.

They're two ways of saying the exact same thing.

Most journalists use the term 'sociopath' because they're ignorant of the difference between psychosis and psychopathy (or god forbid, psychopathology) but are aware that they continually misuse those words and look like dipshits to the entire academic community on a regular basis.

Post: #8

(11-07-2014 07:36 AM)Dr. Howard Wrote:  

(11-07-2014 12:20 AM)rottenapple Wrote:  It is a well known fact that a disproportionately large part of men at the top of society are psychopaths. In fact I'm sure there are plenty of psychopaths on this forum and many, myself included, who are closer to psychopathy than the average person. It is basically men who are not guided by emotions in the least, which I believe to be a good thing. It becomes troublesome when you do not care for other people, meaning lack of empathy and when your actions damage others. The empathy part is what makes the difference between the very egoist nature of some men (which is defendable) vs. the problematic psychopaths (a small percentage I believe).

For instance you can be a loner living in the woods, doing your own thing and having absolutely no care for others,, you are psychopath but you harm no one.

Isn't mild psychopathy called sociopathy? Sociopathy as I understand it being not willing or not able to play 'the game' of society.

Yeah, the article in the OP mentions that they are basically they same thing.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #9

(11-07-2014 12:20 AM)rottenapple Wrote:  It is a well known fact that a disproportionately large part of men at the top of society are psychopaths. In fact I'm sure there are plenty of psychopaths on this forum and many, myself included, who are closer to psychopathy than the average person.

Heh.

I was put through a bunch of psychometric tests by the company I work for when I was up for management promotion. They take those tests very seriously and spend a lot of money bringing in third party consultants to run it.

I went in to it thinking I'd just tell them what they wanted to hear, but they'd already thought of that. The multiple choice test forced you to pick between various "bad" options which would reveal something about your character whichever one you picked. And it was deliberately run at a breakneck speed so you didn't have time to overthink it.

They followed up with interviews and got people to analyse a sample of your work emails for corroboration.

The end result was a 30 page document stuffed with graphs, bar charts and whatnot describing your personality, strengths and weaknesses.

I was shocked at how accurate it was. My wife burst out laughing when she read it because she said they had me to a T. They included a bar for "empathy" and mine looked more like a fingernail.

I'm not a psychopath. I am good to people, kind to animals, and give money to charities. The only time I feel homicidal impulses is when I'm held in a queue when phoning the electricity company and they keep playing inane hold music at me.


Someday somebody's gonna run you over in his car...

But, I've always tried to not let people at work know that I really don't care about their personal lives and dramas. I just want them to do their jobs. It's not that I wish them any specific harm, more that when somebody comes crying to me that her cat is sick, my first reaction is to wonder why she's telling me this.

But you can't manage women without navigating their emotions. I can - and do - call any one the men in my team a cunt, in public, and then we'll laugh about it later. You can imagine what happens when you behave the same way with female employees.

Anyway, I was sweating like a poof in a sausage factory over the empathy thing, even though the same report put me in the top tier for leadership abilities. My firm is bedevilled with fluffy, politically correct noises coming from HR and senior management about how "caring" we are, so I worried that would sink me.

I needn't have worried. Turned out I was exactly the sort of person they were looking for.


I also like Huey Lewis and The News

Post: #10

Most great men, most of the great minds in history, were at the very least sociopaths. Thank God for them.

On Henry Cavendish, who calculated the density of the Earth in 1798 to within 1% of of the currently accepted figure:

Quote:Cavendish was a shy man who was uncomfortable in society and avoided it when he could. He conversed little, always dressed in an old-fashioned suit, and developed no known deep personal attachments outside his family. Cavendish was taciturn and solitary and regarded by many as eccentric. He only communicated with his female servants by notes. By one account, Cavendish had a back staircase added to his house in order to avoid encountering his housekeeper because he was especially shy of women.

Post: #11

(11-07-2014 11:54 AM)heavy Wrote:  Most great men, most of the great minds in history, were at the very least sociopaths. Thank God for them.

On Henry Cavendish, who calculated the density of the Earth in 1798 to within 1% of of the currently accepted figure:

Quote:Cavendish was a shy man who was uncomfortable in society and avoided it when he could. He conversed little, always dressed in an old-fashioned suit, and developed no known deep personal attachments outside his family. Cavendish was taciturn and solitary and regarded by many as eccentric. He only communicated with his female servants by notes. By one account, Cavendish had a back staircase added to his house in order to avoid encountering his housekeeper because he was especially shy of women.

Not sure if that's sociopathy or some kind of autism. But a lot of great men are oddballs.

Nikola Tesla loved pigeons and suffered from various bizarre phobia, e.g. about jewelry.

Isaac Newton was obsessed with the occult.

Adan Smith was a hypochondriac and all-round weirdo.

All three of these men were reputedly virgins. But also great geniuses.

Post: #12

There seems to be a difference between someone coldly using game to get women, or gaming the workspace to advance their career, and someone screaming like a banshee smashing their toilet seat to pieces...

Post: #13

(11-07-2014 07:03 PM)Sonsowey Wrote:  There seems to be a difference between someone coldly using game to get women, or gaming the workspace to advance their career, and someone screaming like a banshee smashing their toilet seat to pieces...

Exactly. I find the idea of nonviolent psychopaths ascending to the top of the social hierarchy to be pretty fascinating as well, but this article struck me as so deeply unsettling precisely because of its focus on the violent/disturbed kind.

Children smashing toilet seats, watching toddlers drown just for idle amusement, cold-bloodedly tormenting family members - this shit is creepy as hell. What would you do if you realized your kid was like this? It'd be like being trapped in a horror movie for 18 years

Post: #14

(11-07-2014 09:21 PM)Seamus Wrote:  Children smashing toilet seats, watching toddlers drown just for idle amusement, cold-bloodedly tormenting family members - this shit is creepy as hell. What would you do if you realized your kid was like this? It'd be like being trapped in a horror movie for 18 years

Train him like Dexter's father did to Dexter.

Post: #15

(11-07-2014 11:37 AM)SteveMcMahon Wrote:  I was put through a bunch of psychometric tests by the company I work for when I was up for management promotion. They take those tests very seriously and spend a lot of money bringing in third party consultants to run it.

Was it the MMPI that you took?

Post: #16

(11-07-2014 09:21 PM)Seamus Wrote:  

(11-07-2014 07:03 PM)Sonsowey Wrote:  There seems to be a difference between someone coldly using game to get women, or gaming the workspace to advance their career, and someone screaming like a banshee smashing their toilet seat to pieces...

Exactly. I find the idea of nonviolent psychopaths ascending to the top of the social hierarchy to be pretty fascinating as well, but this article struck me as so deeply unsettling precisely because of its focus on the violent/disturbed kind.

Children smashing toilet seats, watching toddlers drown just for idle amusement, cold-bloodedly tormenting family members - this shit is creepy as hell. What would you do if you realized your kid was like this? It'd be like being trapped in a horror movie for 18 years

There's a time-tested solution to that...

Post: #17

(11-08-2014 03:13 AM)SteveMcMahon Wrote:  

(11-07-2014 09:21 PM)Seamus Wrote:  

(11-07-2014 07:03 PM)Sonsowey Wrote:  There seems to be a difference between someone coldly using game to get women, or gaming the workspace to advance their career, and someone screaming like a banshee smashing their toilet seat to pieces...

Exactly. I find the idea of nonviolent psychopaths ascending to the top of the social hierarchy to be pretty fascinating as well, but this article struck me as so deeply unsettling precisely because of its focus on the violent/disturbed kind.

Children smashing toilet seats, watching toddlers drown just for idle amusement, cold-bloodedly tormenting family members - this shit is creepy as hell. What would you do if you realized your kid was like this? It'd be like being trapped in a horror movie for 18 years

There's a time-tested solution to that...

Ha, no doubt. Except the kid in the article seems like the kind who'd afterwards come shove a corkscrew through your eye while you're sleeping