Thursday, July 17, 2014

On preventing psychopathic behavior





















"You start to really see personality disorders emerge around puberty, but for some children who might be primary psychopaths—that is, they have all the genes and their brain sort of set in the third trimester—this can start emerging very early, around 2 or 3-years-old. That is why we have to have more trained eyes—because that is where this becomes important for society.

A primary psychopath won't necessarily be dangerous, but if we can see that in a kid, we can tell parents to look for certain kinds of behavior. And if those behaviors emerge, we can safely discuss, protecting the privacy of that family and of the kid, how to have the child interact with a nurse practitioner or a trained professional. At that point, we can say: Make sure this kid is never bullied in school; keep them away from street violence, on and on.

A lot of kids, most kids, get bullied and they may get pissed off, but that doesn’t create a personality disorder. But there are 20 percent of kids who are really susceptible and they may ultimately be triggered for a personality disorder in puberty. If we know these children can be helped by making sure that they aren't abused or abandoned—because you've got to get there really early—well, then, that would be important to do. I don't mean to preach."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This quote is from an Atlantic piece that interviews a neuroscientist who accidentally discovered he was a psychopath. He came across a brain scan in a group of scans of his family, including him, that was being used as a control group in the study of Alzheimer's. He thought it had been accidentally mixed in from a group of psychopath scans he had been studying as a side project.

What are the odds he had already found out he was a psychopath and concocted this story in order to boost sales of a book he planned to write, and has written, The Psychopath Inside: A Neuroscientist's Personal Journey Into the Dark Side of the Brain.

14 comments:

Unknown said...

I love that story.

" honey - turns out I'm a psychopath".
...
"We know, dear."

edutcher said...

Interesting stuff, especially that this could be developed even before birth.

deborah said...

April, I like how his mom kept her concerns to herself, and just concentrated on being a good mom.

Ed, yes, amazing. The doctor himself was surprised how much environment can determine the development of certain genetic tendencies. Before his discovery he didn't think environment was such a big factor.

William said...

Oddly enough when he dissected his twin brother's brain in the garage, he was unable to find any sign of pathology. Some of the neighbor's children, yes, but not his twin brother. Strange.

deborah said...

Oh, William :)

Trooper York said...

He did admit that most of the cats in the neighborhood were some sort of psychopath. On the other hand they were very flammable so it wasn't too much trouble to light them so there was that.

Icepick said...

Shouldn't chick or deborah link to Psychotic Reaction for a radio thread?

deborah said...

:( @ Trooper.

Ice, I'll leave that to chick, I'm not familiar with it. Just listened, nice. Besides Sixty will have a stroke if he hears that of a morning.

I'm getting such a Tom Petty/HB education today. I had no idea they were so varied in their styles. He's just great.

MamaM said...

My first response to Trooper York's addition to William's tale, was a reflective, Oh, Trooper :)

Informative post. One of those right place, right moment things adding to the last nights discussion on Violence and Masculinity with this:

I found out that I happened to have a series of genetic alleles, "warrior genes," that had to do with serotonin and were thought to be at risk for aggression, violence, and low emotional and interpersonal empathy—if you're raised in an abusive environment. But if you're raised in a very positive environment, that can have the effect of offsetting the negative effects of some of the other genes.

chickelit said...

@Icepick: Here you go: Lester Bangs Really Loved This Song

chickelit said...

I can't believe I never recorded this comment: link

chickelit said...

I went back to my mother
I said, 'I'm crazy ma, help me.'
She said, 'I know how it feels son,
'Cause it runs in the family.'


~ "The Real Me" by The Who

MamaM said...

...The wondrous dimension of imagination

That was a trip down the lane!! Requiring the nailing of "crazy is as crazy does" to the blog wall.

rcommal said...

"And" not "or."