4 ms·

There have been many, many articles like this, and I think they have little value except the glorification of psychopaths. The term "psychopath" is fascinating

by Toine 8y ago

There have been many, many articles like this, and I think they have little value except the glorification of psychopaths. The term "psychopath" is fascinating to many, due to the cultural references linked to it. However psychopathy has never been clearly defined in the DSM. Maybe it's just a combination of other disorders (autism + NPD ?), maybe it's a separate disorder waiting to be discovered. Either way, nothing to be fascinated about.

xg15 8y ago
> The term "psychopath" is fascinating to many, due to the cultural references linked to it. Given that (in popular culture, not necessarily in reality), it's also associated with cruelty and lack of empathy, this scares me a little.
eksemplar 8y ago
I disagree, I think it’s interesting. But then, I’m interested in that sort of thing, I mean, I spent my entire Saturday trying to understand how the world would look if you were colourblind. So maybe I’m just weird. What’s more interesting is the comments though, there sure seem to be a lot of tabu around this topic. I wonder why that is.
krcz 8y ago
As far as I know psychopathy is most often connected to Antisocial Personality Disorder – up to the point of fusing these two terms – which has clear definition in DSM.
mjfl 8y ago
The whole concept of psychopathy depends on the premise that normal humans act with empathy towards each other, which is laughably false.
- felix_nagaand 8y ago
  I think this is a bit more nuanced. Humans rationalize ways to absolve themselves of feeling empathy for the sufferings of others. This is not an innate human behavior. (At least ive seen no anecdotal or published evidence of such.) what I have seen is people being taught to dehumanize others, usually following percieved wrongs (see hatfields v mccoys). Look at the way homeless people are treated. They need to just pull themselves up by their bootstraps, stop being mentally ill physically disabled addicts and get one of those impossible to live on jobs pushing carts at whole foods for minimum wage so we can stop being inconvenienced by their poverty and suffering on our way to our overpaid jobs or when we go shopping or out on the town. It's fascinating to juxtapose how children perceive the homeless versus how the media portrays them: Children: why is that person so dirty? Why do they ask for money and food? Why do they hurt? Why are they talking to the air? Media: https://nypost.com/2018/08/18/state-senate-candidate-launches-no-homeless-shelter-party/ https://nypost.com/2018/08/18/state-senate-candidate-launche... https://www.economist.com/britain/2018/08/18/no-end-in-sight-for-the-homeless https://www.economist.com/britain/2018/08/18/no-end-in-sight... (I cherry picked two articles from google news after searching "homeless")
- slv77 8y ago
  Oxytocin fosters empathy towards people in the same in-group and reduces empathy for those outside the in-group. Oxytocin is the reason that a mob can be moved to avenge an injustice which requires both empathy and callousness towards another persons suffering at the same time. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-love-hate-relationship/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-love-hate-relat... Even feeling empathy for someone in pain doesn’t naturally lead to compassion. Empathy is just the ability to mirror someone else’s emotions and is a neurotypical response. If your happy, I’m happy. If you hurt, I hurt. If I’m hurting because you hurt my natural response is to stop my pain. In some cases that mirrored pain can result in acts of compassion but can also result in lashing out, victim blaming or fleeing. These are all normal responses for someone feeling pain. Empathy is a “normal” response but compassion is a choice. Few people have the emotional regulation skills and patience to see someone in pain, feel their pain and sit with them in their pain.
SpecialistEMT 8y ago
Agreed. Complete broscience to me.

by Toine 8y ago

xg15 8y ago

> The term "psychopath" is fascinating to many, due to the cultural references linked to it. Given that (in popular culture, not necessarily in reality), it's also associated with cruelty and lack of empathy, this scares me a little.

eksemplar 8y ago

I disagree, I think it’s interesting. But then, I’m interested in that sort of thing, I mean, I spent my entire Saturday trying to understand how the world would look if you were colourblind. So maybe I’m just weird. What’s more interesting is the comments though, there sure seem to be a lot of tabu around this topic. I wonder why that is.

krcz 8y ago

As far as I know psychopathy is most often connected to Antisocial Personality Disorder – up to the point of fusing these two terms – which has clear definition in DSM.

mjfl 8y ago

The whole concept of psychopathy depends on the premise that normal humans act with empathy towards each other, which is laughably false.

felix_nagaand 8y ago
I think this is a bit more nuanced. Humans rationalize ways to absolve themselves of feeling empathy for the sufferings of others. This is not an innate human behavior. (At least ive seen no anecdotal or published evidence of such.) what I have seen is people being taught to dehumanize others, usually following percieved wrongs (see hatfields v mccoys). Look at the way homeless people are treated. They need to just pull themselves up by their bootstraps, stop being mentally ill physically disabled addicts and get one of those impossible to live on jobs pushing carts at whole foods for minimum wage so we can stop being inconvenienced by their poverty and suffering on our way to our overpaid jobs or when we go shopping or out on the town. It's fascinating to juxtapose how children perceive the homeless versus how the media portrays them: Children: why is that person so dirty? Why do they ask for money and food? Why do they hurt? Why are they talking to the air? Media: https://nypost.com/2018/08/18/state-senate-candidate-launches-no-homeless-shelter-party/ https://nypost.com/2018/08/18/state-senate-candidate-launche... https://www.economist.com/britain/2018/08/18/no-end-in-sight-for-the-homeless https://www.economist.com/britain/2018/08/18/no-end-in-sight... (I cherry picked two articles from google news after searching "homeless")
slv77 8y ago
Oxytocin fosters empathy towards people in the same in-group and reduces empathy for those outside the in-group. Oxytocin is the reason that a mob can be moved to avenge an injustice which requires both empathy and callousness towards another persons suffering at the same time. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-love-hate-relationship/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-love-hate-relat... Even feeling empathy for someone in pain doesn’t naturally lead to compassion. Empathy is just the ability to mirror someone else’s emotions and is a neurotypical response. If your happy, I’m happy. If you hurt, I hurt. If I’m hurting because you hurt my natural response is to stop my pain. In some cases that mirrored pain can result in acts of compassion but can also result in lashing out, victim blaming or fleeing. These are all normal responses for someone feeling pain. Empathy is a “normal” response but compassion is a choice. Few people have the emotional regulation skills and patience to see someone in pain, feel their pain and sit with them in their pain.

SpecialistEMT 8y ago

Agreed. Complete broscience to me.