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I find psychopaths incredibly interesting. Probably because I recognize that I am about the furthest thing from one. I incessantly worry about the future and
by Xcelerate 14y ago
I find psychopaths incredibly interesting. Probably because I recognize that I am about the furthest thing from one. I incessantly worry about the future and the consequences of what I'm currently doing. I always wonder what people are thinking, what they are thinking about others, and what they are thinking about me. It takes me 50 minutes to type a short email because I'm constantly playing out the scenarios of how it comes across to others in my mind. In fact, I'd say I edit almost all the posts I make on HN multiple times after I've posted them. And finally, I have a tendency to become really sad upon hearing sad news. I avoid the news for this reason. And although I love reading about startups, I could never imagine myself leaving a secure, stable job unless I had very high confidence that my startup would succeed.
This sort of thinking has obvious negative drawbacks. Social interaction becomes a chore because you think you're never going to come across positively, so why interact at all?
I've always wished that for just a day, I could have a psychopathic personality -- just to see how things work out differently. (Realize that psychopathy is not the same thing as evil or immoral by the way).
- hayksaakian 14y agois there a term for the opposite of psychopaths? why is intense concern for what others think of you and how you react considered normal?
- platz 14y agoPerhaps neuroticism includes it, but I think the term has been retired from usage in the past couple decades.
- dmor 14y agoI think that is generally referred to as self-consciousness, and it can be very extreme (to the point of paranoia and anxiety attacks) or more tame, as in the stereotype of the average teenager.
- georgeorwell 14y agoempath? https://www.google.com/search?q=empath https://www.google.com/search?q=empath
- dkarl 14y agoIt seems like the opposite of psychopathy would be a mix of insecurity, guilt, social anxiety, and intrusive, excessive, uncontrollable empathy. Imagine that every time an ambulance went by with its lights and siren on, you were overwhelmed with fear and sadness for whoever was hurt, while at the same time feeling guilty for no reason, and being afraid that whatever happened to the poor person in the ambulance, you would be blamed for it.
- nnq 14y agoThere's the hypo-mentalism - hyper-mentalism axis: http://edge.org/conversation/the-imprinted-brain-theory http://edge.org/conversation/the-imprinted-brain-theory (scroll to the second picture for a tl;dr, ignore the genetics thing if it's not your thing...)
- DanBC 14y agoIt's hard to talk about opposite. Some people with borderline personality disorder have a hyperactive amygdala - this means they're hyper aware of perceived risk and what people think about them, and what they think about themselves. BPD has a high correlation with various eating disorders and with attachment problems. Sometimes people with BPD can be involved in horrific deliberate self mutilation, but without wanting to die at that point. I guess that comes quite close?
- Millennium 14y agoI think the article tried to put neuroticism on the other end of the spectrum from psychopathy.
- michaelochurch 14y agoI'm an anti-psychopath, and most people wouldn't consider me empathetic, because I have such a moral extremism about me. Actually, I think of psychopaths as lawful evil, so the opposite is chaotic good. Chaotic good tend to have strong empathy but a sort of moral extremism/pathological honesty that can override it. In fact, they're willing to be disliked if they believe they're doing good for others or the world. The chaotic-good anti-psychopath is the anti-authoritarian who insists on Living in Truth (Vaclav Havel's concept) whereas psychopaths revel in manipulation and lies.
- theorique 14y agoThe author of the book (and OP article) writes about his experience with transcranial magnetic induction that is able to turn him into a temporary psychopath by effectively disabling the center of the brain associated with empathy. (The anecdote is in the full text of The Wisdom of Psychopaths - I don't think I've seen it online.)