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Obviously a smart and practical person like him knows that this will not work It's interesting how people will acknowledge the guy is insane and in the same

Obviously a smart and practical person like him knows that this will not work It's interesting how people will acknowledge the guy is insane and in the same breath accuse him of being sane enough to understand something doesn't work. Arguments based on that premise can't hold: if someone is insane, all bets are off. Especially because you can't know how this huge failure (being incarcerated is losing the 'get-what-you-want'-game big time!) affected his mind. I'll offer an alternative 'explanation': his mind does in fact contain all kinds of 'feeling guilty' thoughts, but it doesn't know how to handle them. Hell, the appropriate pathways may be missing. As a response, his mind comes up with some plan to restore her to life. Never mind his justifications: they may just be made up by other parts of his mind, so it can ponder a narrative that seems coherent/consistent to itself. He may just ve trying to silence nagging guilt in the only way he can.

JshWright 16y ago
hristov never said he was insane, he said he was a psychopath. Psychopaths are often _exceptionally_ rational people. (Note: I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with histrov, I'm just saying that calling a psychopath "smart and practical" doesn't contradict his argument)
- Confusion 16y ago
  Note that I'm not necessarily disagreeing with hristov either. I'm just arguing that psychopaths are not just rational people and are known to behave in what are generally considered to be 'insane ways'. The idea that psychopaths are often exceptionally rational people is a misconception, popularized by the common depiction of the 'accomplishments' of highly intelligent psychopaths. Most psychopaths are not highly intelligent. Moreover, as far as psychopaths seem to function as normal people, it's because they employ rational methods of thinking to know how to behave to get what they want. However, that their behavior is mostly based on rational ways of thinking, does not necessarily mean they are actually any good at those ways of thinking. Only the highly intelligent are. And even then: point in fact: murdering your wife is hardly ever, and certainly not under the circumstances Reiser did, a rational thing to do. Psychopaths behave in insane ways, specifically because they only employ rational modes of thinking, which are necessarily insufficient to make proper decisions about 'how to get what they want'. Why is that? Because you always lack enough information to make proper rational decisions. I can't rationally decide whether to eat another cookie.

JshWright 16y ago

hristov never said he was insane, he said he was a psychopath. Psychopaths are often _exceptionally_ rational people. (Note: I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with histrov, I'm just saying that calling a psychopath "smart and practical" doesn't contradict his argument)

Confusion 16y ago
Note that I'm not necessarily disagreeing with hristov either. I'm just arguing that psychopaths are not just rational people and are known to behave in what are generally considered to be 'insane ways'. The idea that psychopaths are often exceptionally rational people is a misconception, popularized by the common depiction of the 'accomplishments' of highly intelligent psychopaths. Most psychopaths are not highly intelligent. Moreover, as far as psychopaths seem to function as normal people, it's because they employ rational methods of thinking to know how to behave to get what they want. However, that their behavior is mostly based on rational ways of thinking, does not necessarily mean they are actually any good at those ways of thinking. Only the highly intelligent are. And even then: point in fact: murdering your wife is hardly ever, and certainly not under the circumstances Reiser did, a rational thing to do. Psychopaths behave in insane ways, specifically because they only employ rational modes of thinking, which are necessarily insufficient to make proper decisions about 'how to get what they want'. Why is that? Because you always lack enough information to make proper rational decisions. I can't rationally decide whether to eat another cookie.