It’s an ambitious project—attempting to explain psychopaths in global leadership positions, a possible cause of what looks like psychopathic behavior, and what to do about it all. This is the documentary film, I am <fishead(, produced and directed by Misha Votruba and Vaclav Dejcmar.
Here’s a clip, featuring Dr. Robert Hare, the guru of psychopathy:
[youtube_sc url=http://youtu.be/xiDhVdCjaok rel=0 fs=1 autohide=1 modestbranding=1]Corporate psychopaths
Fishead is divided into three parts. Part 1 is about psychopaths, specifically corporate psychopaths, who are blamed for the global financial meltdown that began in 2008. This is probably true, although the only individual named is Bernie Madoff.
The authors of Snakes in Suits, Dr. Robert Hare and Dr. Paul Babiak, explain psychopathy, and how psychopaths in business claw and backstab their way to the top of organizations. Hare and Babiak certainly know their stuff, and you’ll recognize their descriptions of psychopathic behavior.
But then Hare and Babiak start talking about the difference between psychopaths and sociopaths. This is a matter of debate and disagreement in the mental health field, so essentially they are expressing their opinions and preferences, not fact. Hare mentions that the film Reservoir Dogs highlights the difference between psychopaths and sociopaths—apparently one kills because he has to and another kills because he likes it. But Hare didn’t specify which was which, and I wasn’t sure. My contention, of course, is that from the point of view of the dead guy, it doesn’t matter.
Antidepressants
Part 2 of Fishead goes off in a different direction. It’s about “happy pills—”antidepressants. As you watch, you may wonder if the filmmakers are claiming that antidepressants cause psychopathy, but they don’t quite go that far. Here’s what they write:
The second part of the film touches on how, for a small number of people, overuse of antidepressants can result in behaviors that appear to mimic some psychopathic features. Although overuse of these medications will not produce psychopathy, they may stifle emotion and decrease the user’s ability to feel empathy.
Actually, I think the real problem with antidepressants may not be that it makes users behave in sociopathic ways, but rather, antidepressants enable victims to tolerate sociopathic behavior in others.
For example, in my upcoming book, Red Flags of Lovefraud, I have a chapter on protecting yourself from predators. In the Internet survey that Lovefraud conducted last year, we asked if people involved in romantic relationships with sociopaths had an intuition or gut feeling early on that something was wrong. A whopping 71 percent of respondents answered yes. And 40 percent ignored their intuition.
Why? One woman explained:
I ignored it because I loved him. After a time he convinced me there was something wrong with ME and convinced me to go on antidepressants. The drugs mellowed me and I lost that feeling.
I’ve heard stories like this one many times—sociopaths are causing distress and to cope with it, the victims go on drugs. This can be the problem with antidepressants. We are upset because something is WRONG! If we no longer feel upset, we don’t try to change what is WRONG!
Change
The third part of the documentary asks the question, “So what do we do about all of this?”
Fishead talks about the work of Dr. Stanley Milgram, who conducted numerous famous experiments showing that most people will administer electric shocks to others, even though they know the person is being hurt, if they are directed to do it by someone in authority. But it points out an interesting experiment that is not as well known. Dr. Milgram also found that if the experiment subjects first saw someone refuse to administer the shocks, they were much more likely to refuse as well.
The point is that when people stand up to authority, or evil, it gives others the courage to stand up as well. In fact, the filmmakers say it only takes 5 percent of the people in a group to behave differently for the entire group to be influenced.
Food for thought
I am <fishead( is a well-made film. Artistically, it has an art-house feel to it, with stark backdrops for the guest expert interviews and clever animation. And, the film is narrated by the actor Peter Coyote.
Although I don’t agree with all the points, the film does a good job of drawing attention to what is probably the biggest hidden problem facing our society: the outsized damage caused by psychopaths (sociopaths). And it challenges us: What are we going to do about it?
For more about the movie, visit the website: Fisheadmovie.com.
You can watch the movie on the Internet—the length is 1 hour, 17 minutes. Just click the “where to see” link, and email the producers to get your free password.
I think everyone has the capacity to behave without empathy at times. It was mentioned in another blog here about the Milgrim experiments – this was a very famous psychological study that showed that ordinary people will administer very painful electric shocks to other people just because an authority figure told them to. Anyone who has studied psychology at the high school or college level is familiar with this study. This explains why the whole holocaust thing could happen. People can be swayed to do all kinds of things under certain conditions. For instance, poverty and hunger in third world countries drives people to steal, con tourists, and prostitute their bodies. I feel we all have within us the capacity for good and for evil and all kinds of gray shades in between. And I have met very very few people who are so saintly that they have never committed any kind of transgression even in their minds.
Oxy
If there is such a thing as a “gift” that we have been given by spaths, it is when we become AWAKENED to the danger of sociopathy. The problem is Individuals are AWAKENED, but segments of society are not. A further problem is that even some individuals that we communicate with here on LF have encountered spaths but they seek to further “study” and “understand” or even to “get even” with a sociopath. Although experienced with spaths, these INFORMED victims are NOT AWAKENED.
There is a great example from the film. Peter Coyote is an ACTOR and in the opening scene, he acts with all the charm of a sociopath, yet few people grasp that. Instead they are CHARMED by him. The sentence and his look,…. “you’re involved in a deep. personal. bond… (pause, head down, looks straight at you (into the camera) drop his voice a little)… with a psychopath (sly half smile). Even those with spath infection experience MISS THIS NUANCE. They are not yet AWAKENED. They still don’t SEE when it happens.
WWII WOKE people up. But those people are all dying of old age. Soon it will again be the very few who Are AWAKE. So if people have spath infection don’t always get AWAKENED, and the whole segments of the population are so mind numbed so they have NO reference point to understand, HOW DO WE WAKE PEOPLE UP?
I agree Stargazer, that every one has behaved without empathy at times. But I also think that EVERY ONE of us who has behaved that way, if SOMEONE pointed out, would feel remorse at our transgressions, EVEN IF it were excusable (i.e.stealing b/c of starvation – which I don’t define as stealing). The ones who don’t feel remorse for their transgressions are sociopaths.
Katy,
I know your question is directed at Oxy, but I hope you don’t mind if I respond too. Your definition of “awake” is limited only to being able to recognize and steer clear of sociopaths. I would define “awake” as to having self-awareness in general. This doesn’t mean honing some sort of radar for sociopaths, but to really know ourselves and who we are and really love ourselves. To me, this is the BEST innoculation against sociopaths. Sociopaths target everyone. But the most vulnerable are the ones who don’t know themselves well or love themselves much. Love is the answer for these people, Katie. So we can facilitate their process by simply caring about them so they can know what real care feels like. We can’t do this is we don’t love ourselves or if we are not healed ourselves. Then we will just be shoving our judgments or philosophies down their throats and telling them how to be, what they should see, feel, and do, because we know so much more than they do. This is disrespectful. It will feel like prosthelitizing (sp) and no one likes that. Sociopaths perpetuate fear and chaos. The opposite is love and peace. We need to continue to work on ourselves and be at peace with ourselves. This will radiate outward and affect other people too. People who love themselves have better boundaries.
So my humble opinion is that we change the world by changing ourselves first. What is that saying from the Bible about pulling the log out of our own eye before we can pull the splinter out of someone else’s?
I don’t think the gift of a s’path is to just be awakened to the danger of sociopathy. If we stop there, then we are only focused on the negative aspect. I think the more profound gift they give us is the gift of knowing and loving ourselves.
My .02
Star,
I understand what you mean.
Spaths take advantage of people who were raised by N’s or P’s because we are not familiar with real, respectful love if we never had it from our parents. If our experience with love is controlling love or sacrificial love, then we accept that as how love should feel. When a spath comes along, he love bombs us alternating with controlling and selfish behavior. We accept it, it feels familiar.
The quality of love is more important than the quantity.
Stargazer
Love other points of view. They help me to define what I really think. So will say, that my definition of AWAKE is greater than what you say it is. Being AWAKE carries a responsibility b/c in my opinion, there is NO innoculation against spaths. I do not believe the solution is isolation. I do not believe that being AWARE is enough. I believe that being FULLY conscious IS part of my definition of AWAKE. It’s not enough to say the sky is falling. There is MUCH more to my definition of being AWAKE. It’s not enough in my code of ethics, to save myself from an spath. Once I know the danger, I feel honor bound to help save others.
Stargazer
To continue, I agree that SOME spaths sow confusion and chaos. But OTHER spaths manifest peace and LOVE (see Jim Jones.) Religion is rife with evil and condemnation and cruelty masked in peace and LOVE. I think a one size fits all solution is IMPOSSIBLE. I conclude that we ALL must become a PART of the solution, that we all contribute in whatever way, with whatever gifts we have. That way, it is not others who limit me, but I am free to seek new ways to give, as is every one else.
Sky, yes that’s what I’m saying. Also, spaths create fear. If we continue to live in fear, even if it’s fear of them, then they have won.
Katy, In answering your question from my point of view (and keep in mind I am somewhat monklike in my views), I apologize if I misunderstood the question or misinterpreted your meaning. From a social activist point of view, I don’t know if it’s possible to defeat all the spaths in the world. The reason is because normal humans have ethics and cannot in good conscience go around killing everyone we think is a spath. We can’t because normal humans can at times display sociopathic behaviors themselves under certain conditions. There are always shades of gray, and we are playing God if we try to decide where those shades lie.
I still maintain that by focusing on peace within ourselves, and teaching others to do it, we create very strong boundaries. I know many people (not on this site) who have encountered spaths in their lives and ran at the first hint of trouble. They did not feel very traumatized by the experience and did not even know they were dealing with a sociopath – they recognized something was not right and they left. This is because they knew who they were and knew what they wanted in their lives, and didn’t like what they saw. This is what I’m talking about.
As far as standing up to evil, we all pick our battles. We are not all out there protesting against our corrupt government, though we probably could. I know I have some really bad news renters living upstairs in my building. I have considered contacting the owner about them but I fear for my safety and the safety of my animals if I do, and so do a few of the other immediate neighbors. I pick my battles. I don’t think we’re evil because we’re not standing up to these people. We’re just in self-preservation mode. There are so very many fights to fight in this world. There is so much injustice and corruption. I don’t want to be told how I should fight, and I don’t think it’s my place to tell others what their fight should be.
Star,
right. fear is not the correct emotion for spaths. Revulsion is the correct emotion. We need to feel disgust when we see their behavior. Unfortunately, some of us are trained to feel pity.
Even when spaths portray love, it doesn’t come across as normal. It’s over the top (lovebombing) and that should be our cue to exit stage left.
I just finished the book, “everything she ever wanted” a true story by Ann Rule. It’s a haunting story of a spath woman who was raised by a narcissistic, self-sacrificing mother who could never say no to her. EVER. She could say no to her other children, but the daughter, Pat, was too cute and too needy. So Pat never learned boundaries. She was just arrested again recently at age 70.
sad and sick.