After rape threats and bomb scares against well-known women in the UK, Twitter is making it easier to report abuse. Twitter cracks down on abuse, threats, on USAToday.com. …
New research on psychopaths and empathy
Psychopaths are typically described as lacking in empathy. New research from the Netherlands, however, suggests that psychopaths have the capacity for empathy, but it's usually turned off. The study was just published in Brain: A journal of neurology. I heard the first author, Dr. Harma Meffert, present the research when I attended the conference sponsored by the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy in June. The researchers asked convicted criminals, who had been diagnosed as psychopaths, to view short video clips while hooked up to fMRI machines, so that the activity in their brains could be observed. The videos showed two hands interacting in ways that were painful, …
Sexual predators for mayor: Anthony Weiner and Bob Filner
My husband and I live in New Jersey, close enough to New York City that when Terry goes to the local convenience store for coffee, he can also buy the New York Post. He loves the paper's clever, double entendre headlines and pull-no-punches stories. So when he heard Anthony Weiner was going to run for mayor of New York, he was thrilled. "I can't wait to get the paper," he chortled. "It will be full of Weiner jokes!" Yesterday the news broke—Anthony Weiner was at it again, sexting women he never met. He held a press conference declaring that his behavior was wrong, it was behind him, and he was still a candidate for New York City mayor. His wife Huma Abedin was by his side. She read a s …
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Mental health consequences of stalking, and how to cope
A new study documents high rates of post traumatic stress, anxiety and depression among stalking victims. Experts offer suggestions on how to deal with a stalker. Number One: Notify the police. Number Two: No contact. Stalking distress goes unnoticed, on BBC.co.uk Link supplied by a Lovefraud reader. …
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A mostly accurate portrayal of sociopaths/stalkers
In Gold Bar, a tiny town in the state of Washington (population 2,075), the local news website posted an article entitled The Mind of the Stalker. It's unclear who wrote the article, because there is no byline. The author describes the behavior of stalkers, writing that many of them are textbook sociopaths. Most of the article is accurate, and is drawn from the work of experts, such as Dr. Robert D. Hare and Dr. Hervey Cleckley. I disagree with a few statements, such as "they cannot control their behavior." But I'm glad to see that someone in this tiny town outside of Seattle is trying to alert the community to the social predators who live among us. I imagine that this person had a …
Everyone is a sociopath
Editor's note: Steve Becker has a very dry sense of humor, and the following post is written tongue-in-cheek. If you have a humorous story about a sociopath, feel free to add it as a comment. Well, thanks to the Investigation Discovery Channel, the latest estimates are that 85% of the general population is sociopathic, and likely to commit a horrific, calculated exploitation of another human being within the next three weeks. Even leading researchers on psychopathy laud this cable channel (which, admittedly, is absolutely riveting) for getting their own estimates properly realigned. Only in the last two months, just on my street alone, two of my neighbors killed a spouse (one for …
Sociopaths and their changing demands
When you're dealing with sociopaths, figuring out what they really want is nearly impossible. Why? Because they keep changing what they want. When my ex-husband, James Montgomery, moved into my house, I agreed to convert my basement, which I used as a small gym, into an office for him. I put away my gym equipment. I hired builders to install more electric outlets to run his array of computers, televisions and business equipment, which required enclosing the lower part of the walls. Making the improvements, and installing a small bathroom downstairs, cost me $6,000. (He promised to pay me back, but of course he never did. When Montgomery first moved into the office, he was delighted. When …
Intermittent reinforcement: conditioning helps explain why we stay with abusive individuals
An overview of conditioning from a behavior specialist's perspective I will not get too specific regarding behavior reinforcement schedules, but I will ask you to follow me through a brief overview of some of the basics. While I cannot do the explanation justice in a few paragraphs, I can present enough background to facilitate an understanding of why this matters to us. When studying behavior analysis, most programs, at least at some point, look to the work of B.F. Skinner, the 20th century developer of operant conditioning. Very simply, operant conditioning subscribes to the belief that learning is modified by consequences.  The learner is motivated by reinforcement and punishment al …
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The mind of a potential mass killer
In the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut, a young man who at one point harbored similar thoughts sent an essay to The Daily Beast. I just found it, and even though the three-part essay is six months old, I believe Lovefraud readers will find it interesting and relevant. This anonymous young man eloquently explains why, as a teenager, he was filled with rage, and how he was able to turn his life around. The key reason is that his mother did not give up. I was Adam Lanza, on TheDailyBeast.com. …
New research shows that 1 in 3 women worldwide suffer intimate partner abuse
According to the World Health Organization, 30 percent of the world's women experience physical or sexual abuse by a partner. And, a new study published in The Lancet says that 38.6 percent of female murder victims are killed by intimate partners. 1 in 3 women worldwide suffers abuse from partner, on KTUL.com. Link supplied by a Lovefraud reader. …
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