Is there a human condition that, if cured, could banish the woes of our whole world?
If so, that condition might be psychopathy.
Too Utopian?
Psychopathy is highly underestimated, first, for being surprisingly common, but also for a notorious capacity to make its host very sick. People involved with psychopaths report losing careers, homes, finances, their physical/emotional health, some even landing in mental asylums. Psychopathy obviously affects society negatively and influences the entire world in which we live.
“What's missing in psychopaths are the qualities that people depend on for living in social harmony.” Psychopath vs. Antisocial Personality Disorder and Sociopathy (1997-2009)
Without Psychopathy, could this be an ideal world? Probably not. Non-psychopaths can be cruel as psychopaths (though less consistently and for different reasons); emotions alone do not create stellar people.
But still, one wonders … and imagines ... dictatorships dying out on their own, prison walls falling, media lies (backed by rotted and corrupted governments) losing influence, sadistic child abuse and animal torture ending, wars for profit (or even pleasure) no longer acceptable … After all, even psychopaths prefer a freer, easier world.
Psychopath Label
Being psychopathic means having emotional deficits severe enough to create a lack of conscience. Recent brain imaging and scientific studies suggest psychopathy is physical (neurological or genetic), and partially environmental, thus demystifying some of its darker aspects.
But even leading expert Robert Hare is reluctant to say what psychopathy truly is, wondering if it’s a disease or merely different brain wiring. Some believe psychopathy is a modern survival mechanism although no research proves that. Others compare psychopathy to a necessary storm or earthquake, dangerous, yet somehow natural.
Obviously, more research is needed. What’s been proven, scientifically, is that brain images of psychopaths are far different than those of non-psychopaths.
Psychopathic Denial
Sandra L. Brown M.A., author (Women Who Love Psychopaths), suggests psychopaths are unable to change, emotionally, the same as mentally handicapped people cannot change intellectually. Psychopaths are simply unable to achieve high emotional I.Q.s (through no chosen fault of their own) which makes them think amorally. In a very real sense psychopaths are emotionally disabled and unable to appraise their own deficits. They remain two-dimensional people, missing out on the experience of an entire inner world.
Liars. Cheaters. Opportunists. Sadists. Pitiless. Psychopaths are often described this way. Brown claims psychopaths rarely reach the age of fourteen, emotionally (although there may be varying degrees of dysfunction). Yet they are hard to identify, appearing outwardly normal and often very likeable.
Psychopaths are Intellectually Normal
Psychopath’s can be highly intelligent, thriving in certain fields such as sales, entertainment, politics, law, espionage, military, or other positions of authority and power. Because psychopaths enjoy dominating and scaring people, they may even be found in hospital settings, the media, or just about anywhere they can influence or control people. Crime is another area many find meaningfully exciting.
A Poisoned Culture
One really need only appraise a nation’s media, movies, magazines, ethics, politics, corporations, governments, and crime to guess the number of psychopaths who may be involved in the fabric of its culture. Like a cancer, psychopathy gladly devours its host.
Hare estimates one in twenty-five Americans are psychopaths. Psychopaths have existed in every known era; the world’s most demonic leaders are/may have been highly psychopathic. Often, charismatic psychopaths use natural leadership skills, along with subliminal abilities to control (even hypnotize) others while the world blindly follows, seduced by lies.
The psychopath is metaphorically queen bee of humanity’s hive and can convince people to do things they normally would not do, from deviant sexual acts to killing strangers in distant wars. Too savvy to stand on battle fields unless they enjoy that kind of excitement, the psychopath allows others to carry out his deeds of blood and gore (although not all psychopaths are sadists).
Psychopathy is not only a strange disorder unto itself, but also destabilizes the foundation of the society it seems to mesmerize.
Casey Anthony Murder Trial and Psychopathy
There are, of course, psychopaths not doomed to be horrible, who seek successful lives, are nonviolent, and live within the law (conversely, non-psychopaths break laws, hate others, avenge, and kill, precisely because of strong emotion). Only a small minority of psychopaths become the infamous mass murderers and torturers.
Nevertheless, some get away with murder; Casey Marie Anthony may be poster child for that kind of creature. Her jury, criticized for her acquittal, was blamed for misunderstanding circumstantial evidence. Perhaps they also misunderstood psychopathy (a risk factor for predicting sustained crime).
Pathological lying is psychopathy's huge red flag, along with promiscuity, emotional detachment, guiltlessness, destroying other people’s reputations, feigning personal victimhood (all characteristics Casey Anthony portrayed).
Psychopaths easily seduce an audience (to gain sympathy), blame others for their own acts, spin other people’s realities, and do not feel love. The world lacks education on this subject to adequately protect itself.
Tomorrow seems bright
When asked if a future cure for psychopathy is possible (presently there’s none), Kent Keihl (associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque), positively responds:
“Absolutely. Brain imaging is just one tool to help us understand things. I don’t think it’s a panacea but it does help us to know that, yes, behaviour originates in the brain and yes, it’s malleable and treatable. So there’s a lot of hope.” (New Scientist)
Acccording to the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry (2009) hormones affecting regions inside the brain can potentially modify behavior, perhaps causing neurobiological abnormalities seen in psychopathy. Studies are underway to identify particular genes possibly compromised in psychopathic people, all suggestive of a future treatment:
“If psychopathic traits and serious offending are, in part, neurodevelopmentally determined, successful prevention and intervention efforts would be most effective if they begin in early childhood, infancy, or even prenatally.” ( Canadian Journal of Psychiatry (2009)
As more scientists hold optimistic views in revamping the brain (as happened with mental illness with highly positive results), such research seems timely. What remains unclear is how many psychopaths desire a cure, since they don’t believe anything is missing or wrong. In that case, treatment may not be ethical for many. Yet even a few X-psychopaths could powerfully impact a whole chain of events.
Lessening psychopathy could herald a new golden age for the world and its time weary civilization; it may be mankind’s greatest evolutionary leap.
Sources:
- Effects of Psychopathy Label on Jurors Interpretation of Defendants, Jami Worley, University of South Florida Sarasota Manatee
- "What Psychopath" Means" (Scientific American, December, 2007)
- Dr. Robert Hare (Without Conscience) Psychopathic Personalities: Mental Disease or Competitive Advantage?
- Psychopath vs. Antisocial Personality Disorder and Sociopathy, Discussion Excerpts: Robert Hare
- Women Who Love Psychopaths, Sandra L. Brown M.A., 2010
- Neurobiology of Psychopathy: A Neurodevelopmental Perspective, Gao, Yu, Glenn, Andrea L, Schug, Robert A, Yang, Yaling, Raine, Adrian
- New Scientist - Life, The Man Who Gets into the Minds of Psychopaths (Kent Kiehl), February 21, 2011, Samantha Murphy (Magazine issue 2800)
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Paula Marie Deubel - Published author/writer/journalist/poet I've always written under the pen name "P. Mari," an abbreviation of my full name. I have ...
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