4 ms·

Behind the Mask: The Myth of the Psychopath

9 points by mercer 10y ago

RogtamBar 10y ago
So.. advert for a shitty book by a bunch of psychologists.
- neuronexmachina 10y ago
  Could you elaborate?
  - RogtamBar 10y ago
    The article is basically an unhelpful load of bull plugging a book. Yes, of course the word 'psychopath' is abused. Yes of course it's not an either-or thing, and a lot of law abiding people have some features of archetypal psychopaths. Any psychiatrist would tell you something like this. So, a lot of 'water is wet' type of filler. >> The Myth of the Born Criminal argues that, rather than genes, psychopaths' most significant commonality appears to be an abusive childhood, which related research has demonstrated can affect the anatomy of the brain in various and profound ways.<< The book dismisses all those cases (there are some) where perfectly normal families produced complete monsters. A good share of serial killers weren't abused. It's thought that those are just people who happen to express a set of genes good for social predation. Nice explanation in this abstract: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14786010802159814?src=recsys&journalCode=gjup20 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14786010802159814... Also, the article has howlers like: >>It never occurred to me that Gregory’s behavior in Kenya could be the product of anything other than his brain, and thus I never asked or inquired about what might have been going on in his life. I ignored the strong, decades-long relationship he had with our boss, the sort of relationship that psychopaths are supposed to be incapable of sustaining.<< Because whatever goes on in your life of course cannot affect your brain. Why is this sort of stupid dualism even allowed in the 21st century? A person is their brain, and their body, taken together. You can't separate it.
cowardlydragon 10y ago
It's too bad "psychopathy" remains so ill-defined despite the fact history and life experience show something approximating its popular conception irrefutably exists. I harbor a pet theory that psychopathy is directly rewarded by capitalism, and that since capitalism forms a semi-closed feedback loop of reproductive success rewards, psychopathy behaviors and genes (if they exist) should be increasing in prevalence. While my general opinion is that people are more and more psychopathic (ahem, Trump), it sucks that psychology can't get its act together with IMO its second-most important mission (depression being the first mission): limiting the damage of psychopaths whom have wreaked havoc in history past.

9 points by mercer 10y ago

RogtamBar 10y ago

So.. advert for a shitty book by a bunch of psychologists.

neuronexmachina 10y ago
Could you elaborate?
- RogtamBar 10y ago
  The article is basically an unhelpful load of bull plugging a book. Yes, of course the word 'psychopath' is abused. Yes of course it's not an either-or thing, and a lot of law abiding people have some features of archetypal psychopaths. Any psychiatrist would tell you something like this. So, a lot of 'water is wet' type of filler. >> The Myth of the Born Criminal argues that, rather than genes, psychopaths' most significant commonality appears to be an abusive childhood, which related research has demonstrated can affect the anatomy of the brain in various and profound ways.<< The book dismisses all those cases (there are some) where perfectly normal families produced complete monsters. A good share of serial killers weren't abused. It's thought that those are just people who happen to express a set of genes good for social predation. Nice explanation in this abstract: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14786010802159814?src=recsys&journalCode=gjup20 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14786010802159814... Also, the article has howlers like: >>It never occurred to me that Gregory’s behavior in Kenya could be the product of anything other than his brain, and thus I never asked or inquired about what might have been going on in his life. I ignored the strong, decades-long relationship he had with our boss, the sort of relationship that psychopaths are supposed to be incapable of sustaining.<< Because whatever goes on in your life of course cannot affect your brain. Why is this sort of stupid dualism even allowed in the 21st century? A person is their brain, and their body, taken together. You can't separate it.

cowardlydragon 10y ago

It's too bad "psychopathy" remains so ill-defined despite the fact history and life experience show something approximating its popular conception irrefutably exists. I harbor a pet theory that psychopathy is directly rewarded by capitalism, and that since capitalism forms a semi-closed feedback loop of reproductive success rewards, psychopathy behaviors and genes (if they exist) should be increasing in prevalence. While my general opinion is that people are more and more psychopathic (ahem, Trump), it sucks that psychology can't get its act together with IMO its second-most important mission (depression being the first mission): limiting the damage of psychopaths whom have wreaked havoc in history past.