Do You Know a Psychopath?
Thursday July 17, 2008
Many times when a psychopath or a serial killer is arrested or exposed, the people who worked or lived around them say they are completely shocked to find out the person they knew was capable of such behavior. The signs were there, but they just did not recognize them. What are the common characteristics? Do you know a psychopath?
See Also:
Serial Killers and Mass Murderers
Comments
Psychopath’s are among all of us. These people have a bright sunny side and a dark evil side, which out weights the sunny side. My mother was murdered by a serial killer Jeremy Jones, he lived and worked like you and I do, but these people are different than us. They feed and live to attack and kill their next victim. They have no remorse for the victim or the crime. Understanding a psychopath is impossible. I would like to see more studies on what make a person turn into a psychopath. My belief is that no one is born evil; God does not create evil souls. Something happens to these people, it could be childhood abuse, neglect by parents or even other children. Psychopaths are the lion’s of the human world. They pick their victim and then they prey on them until they attack and kill them. My prayers are with all murder victims and their families. What can stop a psychopath? What can prevent a child from turning into a psychopath? Who can stop a psychopath?
Psychopaths are all around us – some, like the serial killers, are there but have no control over their situation. The dementia is the added dimension to these people and that is the primary difference. A psychopath can be a law-abiding citizen and we would not think otherwise. First, they do not have sensitive feeling for others, do not learn from errors, and are satisfied with their lifestyle. This does not mean they are a serial killer – so we need to isolate this difference. I can understand the writer’s feelings against psycopaths but she needs to look deeper into this if she wants to understand “other” behavior in addition to psychopathology.
1. It is wrong to think of psychopaths as bearing some property of ‘evilness’. Perhaps it is correct to define the word “evil” in terms of the behavior exemplified by psychopaths. The reason for the distinction between some property that the psychopathic soul (if there is such a thing) might bear, and behavior, is that part of the social problem inhibiting us from apprehending and incarcerating psycho’s before they hurt or kill someone is the reluctance to falsely attribute the property of evil. This, and other manifestations of cowardly apathy facilitate psychopath success, and allow psycho’s to believe that their deceptions are more effective than they really are.
2. The problem is NOT that psychopaths are not well understood – that is, if “understood” is taken to mean “well described in the scientific community”. Many books have been written on the topic, and psychologists and criminologists have acquired an impenetrable arrogance regarding their understanding of the disorder. When confronted about pursuing further psychopath research, professionals in the aforementioned fields will either ignore, or will smirk and mention one of the aforementioned books. Yet, the problem Jennifer indicated persists – psychopaths are identifiable and they still succeed in their crimes! Let victims just try to tell the members of their (oh let’s say, church community) that they have been victimized by a sicko! Just see how people respond!
3. I will explain one of the social problems responsible for our inability to incarcerate psychopath’s early and will gesture at several others which are too complicated to discuss here. The idea that all people are born good, is part of the problem. We need to have the courage to identify sickos. Quirky behaviors are very often evidence of a sick mind. Any non-sick person should be happy to be checked up on. Check up on me ANYTIME! You won’t find anything weird going on. I hope that my neighbors look in on us from time to time, both to make sure that we’re not victims, and to make sure that we are not predators.
3a. Additionally, psychopaths will continue to thrive in Nations where:
- Christianity, or Islam (that is, modern religions) are predominant religions
- There is a high degree of wealth and security
- The power of folk psychology is ignored in favor of misguided Behaviorism, and/or Identity Theories are prevailing theories of mind, and intentionality is taken as some private thing.
- Apathy and pretend ignorance continue to be the key expressions of cowardice
- Reluctance to look into what weird, creepy, or quirky people are doing.
It puzzles me what Christianity and Islam have to do with psychopathic characteristics. One can accuse traditional religions of many things, but psychopathic phenomena are present in all societies regardless of their religious inclinations: The difference is that some societies are much more open to acknowledging its presence than other societies, and this is why it might appear that in some societies we have greater number of psychopaths than in other societies. If the lack of conscience is a result of some kind of neural underdevelopment, then it is hard to see how these two religions contribute to its presence.