3 ms·

Well, I guess I walked into that one. Even reading those, though, I'm not convinced that being a psychopath is a real thing -- that is, a difference from norma

Well, I guess I walked into that one. Even reading those, though, I'm not convinced that being a psychopath is a real thing -- that is, a difference from normal human behaviour that is one of kind, not of degree.

lerouxb 14y ago
So what real thing does this kid have, then? Or what _degree_ is it?
- planetguy 14y ago
  He's a brat. He's also a brat who has learned he can get more of a reaction out of adults by acting in a certain way that they find unsettling, thus reinforcing that behaviour. From the sounds of things, his bad behaviour has been getting reinforced by feelings of specialness ever since he got sent to a psychiatrist at the age of three for being a little more bratty than usual. At this point, being a brat has got him all the way to being profiled in the New York Times, so I doubt there's much hope for him now. He's internalized "I am a kid who misbehaves, misbehavior makes me special".
  - amalter 14y ago
    And kids, like one who grew up on my block, who got their kicks dunking people's cats in gasoline and throwing fireworks at them? Was that just being a brat?
    - planetguy 14y ago
      No, he was an asshole.
      - amalter 14y ago
        Now your dancing around the wording. This one boy got pleasure bullying the rest of us neighbor kids, and more disturbingly, killing and maiming animals for fun. This was elementary school since he was shipped off to some special place by middle school. He had two really nice brothers who seemed as relieved as the rest of us when he was gone. As already recommended in this thread, I urge a viewing of "We Need to Talk about Kevin" Asshole, brat, jerk ... We all might fall in and out of these fugues as we mature. But, very few of us are evil. You do disservice to those trying to understand these conditions (whether biological or environmental) by minimizing them.
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
  - mynameishere 14y ago
    You don't know much about children. I was a brat. I mean, I was the worst kid in every class, but I never destroyed toilet seats in uncontrollable day-long rages. The kid's a classic nutjob, and I'd give you 10-to-1 odds that he'll murder his first prostitute before he's 25.
astrodust 14y ago
If you consider the mind to be a series of complicated, inter-connected components, then one consequence of that is sometimes things get disconnected or incorrectly connected. Sometimes that leads to people who see sound or taste colors, other times you get people that simply cannot empathize or feel zero remorse. It's a real thing. Sometimes it's by degrees, the connections are weak or malfunctioning, but sometimes there's never been a connection or anything to connect with. They're damaged by definition compared to the "norm".

lerouxb 14y ago

So what real thing does this kid have, then? Or what _degree_ is it?

planetguy 14y ago
He's a brat. He's also a brat who has learned he can get more of a reaction out of adults by acting in a certain way that they find unsettling, thus reinforcing that behaviour. From the sounds of things, his bad behaviour has been getting reinforced by feelings of specialness ever since he got sent to a psychiatrist at the age of three for being a little more bratty than usual. At this point, being a brat has got him all the way to being profiled in the New York Times, so I doubt there's much hope for him now. He's internalized "I am a kid who misbehaves, misbehavior makes me special".
- amalter 14y ago
  And kids, like one who grew up on my block, who got their kicks dunking people's cats in gasoline and throwing fireworks at them? Was that just being a brat?
  - planetguy 14y ago
    No, he was an asshole.
    - amalter 14y ago
      Now your dancing around the wording. This one boy got pleasure bullying the rest of us neighbor kids, and more disturbingly, killing and maiming animals for fun. This was elementary school since he was shipped off to some special place by middle school. He had two really nice brothers who seemed as relieved as the rest of us when he was gone. As already recommended in this thread, I urge a viewing of "We Need to Talk about Kevin" Asshole, brat, jerk ... We all might fall in and out of these fugues as we mature. But, very few of us are evil. You do disservice to those trying to understand these conditions (whether biological or environmental) by minimizing them.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
- mynameishere 14y ago
  You don't know much about children. I was a brat. I mean, I was the worst kid in every class, but I never destroyed toilet seats in uncontrollable day-long rages. The kid's a classic nutjob, and I'd give you 10-to-1 odds that he'll murder his first prostitute before he's 25.

astrodust 14y ago

If you consider the mind to be a series of complicated, inter-connected components, then one consequence of that is sometimes things get disconnected or incorrectly connected. Sometimes that leads to people who see sound or taste colors, other times you get people that simply cannot empathize or feel zero remorse. It's a real thing. Sometimes it's by degrees, the connections are weak or malfunctioning, but sometimes there's never been a connection or anything to connect with. They're damaged by definition compared to the "norm".