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It would be an understatement for me to claim that I'm not an expert in forensic psychology ... but I suspect that spotting the potentially dangerous people is

by bloak 3y ago

It would be an understatement for me to claim that I'm not an expert in forensic psychology ... but I suspect that spotting the potentially dangerous people is relatively easy but that the really difficult part would be circulating that information in a way that won't be used maliciously, both by people discriminating unnecessarily against people who are a bit strange and by people deliberately wrecking (or threatening to wreck) other people's lives with false reports.

pc86 3y ago
I think the idea that you could so easily ruin an innocent person's life proves it's not "relatively easy" to detect these psychopaths as children. The outliers, sure, but there are plenty of evil people who seem completely normal their entire lives.
daveguy 3y ago
> ... but I suspect that spotting the potentially dangerous people is relatively easy but that the really difficult part would be ... You have probably met several sociopaths and psychopaths in your life and never knew. It is even difficult for a well trained psychologist or psychiatrist to make a definitive conclusion. Sociopaths and psychopaths are good at hiding it. They know what to say to make them appear empathetic. It is not easy and it would be a disaster all around.
- bloak 3y ago
  Of course I agree it's not easy: I was pointing out some of the difficulties. There's probably no point in arguing about whether the diagnosis or the data protection side is, in general, harder. They're both very hard problems in any case. There are, of course, clever psychopaths who are good at hiding it. But there are also psychopaths that you/I know about but there's still almost nothing you/I can do with that information to warn other potential victims. You're probably right that I've met several sociopaths without knowing it. But I've also met several people whose socipathy became rather obvious to me, yet I never had the opportunity to warn anyone else about them. (Even a rather dimwitted sociopath will realise when I've identified them as such and will then avoid dealing with my close acquaintances whom I might have warned.)

by bloak 3y ago

pc86 3y ago

I think the idea that you could so easily ruin an innocent person's life proves it's not "relatively easy" to detect these psychopaths as children. The outliers, sure, but there are plenty of evil people who seem completely normal their entire lives.

daveguy 3y ago

> ... but I suspect that spotting the potentially dangerous people is relatively easy but that the really difficult part would be ... You have probably met several sociopaths and psychopaths in your life and never knew. It is even difficult for a well trained psychologist or psychiatrist to make a definitive conclusion. Sociopaths and psychopaths are good at hiding it. They know what to say to make them appear empathetic. It is not easy and it would be a disaster all around.

bloak 3y ago
Of course I agree it's not easy: I was pointing out some of the difficulties. There's probably no point in arguing about whether the diagnosis or the data protection side is, in general, harder. They're both very hard problems in any case. There are, of course, clever psychopaths who are good at hiding it. But there are also psychopaths that you/I know about but there's still almost nothing you/I can do with that information to warn other potential victims. You're probably right that I've met several sociopaths without knowing it. But I've also met several people whose socipathy became rather obvious to me, yet I never had the opportunity to warn anyone else about them. (Even a rather dimwitted sociopath will realise when I've identified them as such and will then avoid dealing with my close acquaintances whom I might have warned.)