Last night Larry King Live of CNN hosted a discussion about whether criminals can be rehabilitated. I think it will be re-aired this weekend so try to watch. One of the guests drew a distinction between “learned” criminal behavior and psychopathy. She stated she believed that criminals who have learned to be that way can unlearn but psychopaths cannot be rehabilitated. I know many of you also hold this belief so I would like to tell you why I strongly disagree.
First I will tell you my position:
ALL criminality stems from an interaction between a person and a situation. A person is a product of his/her genetics and experiences. So in a sense what makes up personality (the “person”) is learned for everyone including the psychopathic. We are preprogrammed by our genetics to learn certain things better than others.
In terms of situational variables solid research has demonstrated that antisocial associates, poor work and educational performance, substance abuse, poor family ties and poor recreational achievement are all associated with criminality. These variables operate independently from personality variables and are important for even the most psychopathic individuals.
The more psychopathic a person is, the more deeply ingrained is the lifestyle of parasitism and predation BUT even those with lower levels of psychopathy can be very resistant to change and very dangerous to society. The definition of response to treatment depends on what you are looking for. If a person cheats 8 people a week, then goes into a program and cheats 1 person a week, that is a change. Everyone has a different definition of “rehabilitation”.
Coincidentally, I just read a great book, Persons in Context: Building a science of the individual. It is a tribute to Walter Mischel, Ph.D. one of the great thinkers of modern psychology. In his chapter “Intelligence as a Person-Situation Interaction”, Robert Sternberg lists five fallacies of thinking. He says, “There is another dimension to person-situation interaction: the extent to which particular situations elicit ‘stupid’ thinking in intelligent people.” All of his 5 fallacies occur in the context of perceived power or dominance. They are:
- The unrealistic optimism fallacy. This occurs when one believes that one is so smart and so powerful that it is pointless to worry about the outcome of what one does.
- The egocentrism fallacy. This occurs when one comes to think that one’s own interests are the only ones that are important.
- The Omniscience Fallacy. This occurs when people think they know more than they do.
- The Omnipotence Fallacy. This results from the power one wield or believes one wields.
- The invulnerability Fallacy. This derives for the illusion of complete protection.
Dr. Sternberg is one of many scientists who have discovered that the experience of power changes the mind/brain. Some people are more prone than others to these effects of power. Since psychopathic individuals seek out power constantly like a heroin addict seeking a fix, they are never free from all of the above fallacies of thinking. Life is a situation of constant power or perceived power.
In the absence of a loving nature all power pursuit becomes antisocial. Now power pursuit and attainment can also stomp out a person’s loving nature, if it was ever present in the first place.
To rehab the psychopathic we have to strip them of any power and teach them to love and care for others. To my knowledge there is no program that has yet succeeded in doing this even for those “sociopaths” who score at the lower end of the psychopathy scale.
Dear Liane,
Great article!
The most perplexing issue is the treatment of a sociopath. The crux of the issue here is that, regardless of what we may think, the sociopath is not suffering from their disorder. To the sociopath there is nothing wrong and moreover, there is no illness to deny. Everything is fine and everything feels fine. People around the sociopath may be troubled, even deeply troubled, by the sociopaths behavior. To the sociopath, this is everybody elses problem. It presents no difficulty to the sociopath and there is neither reason or motivation to change.
Hen,
That’s exactly right! (unfortunately)
hens,
You are so right (your post being spot-on)! The normal people who are around the sociopath oftentimes end up being the sociopath’s conscience, trying to steer them in the right direction, giving them the lessons that they should have learned early on (like during their childhood). You end up realizing it’s pointless -these people are hard-headed, doing what they want to do no matter what the result is, being without shame. They’re set in their ways, unable and unwilling to change for the better, never recognizing their damaging ways. It’s beyond frustrating.
I’ve gone back and read and re-read this article several times, it is a thought provoking one.
First: How and under what circumstances could you strip ALL POWER from anyone. Example. My P son is in prison, and has been about 99% of the time since he was 18…he is now 38. He still feels “In control” of himself and his environment, and even in control of his family. Even in solitary, he stays, he thinks, “in control.” He sees himself as powerful and in control, even when he is in lock down. Control for him, is his state of mind. Nothing is ever permanently stripped from him, just delayed. He’s a winner. He will win in the end.
He has the 5 fallacies completely. They all apply to him 100% at the high end of the spectrum.
He is bonded to no one, though he feels he owns his family members and they owe it to him to give him what he wants. He is entitled to punish them if they rebel in following his directions.
Just as I might punish a dog that crapped on the floor when it KNEW BETTER, he feels entitled to punish us if we do follow directions he has given.
If I had a dog that was aggressive and say turned on me when I punished it and bit me, I probably would put this dog down if it fought me, he feels entitled to put me “down” because I “bit him” when he tried to punish me for not following directions he had given.
OOps, I got away….but I don’t think there is any way to rehabilitate him, or the other psychopaths in this world. Maybe a baby born with the propensity to become a psychopath under the right conditions might be nurtured as an infant and the psychopathy be avoided, but once it is there and SET in, imprinted, learned, the brain developed for it, I think it is un-fixable at that point. Where is that point? I’m not sure—might be 1 yr old, might be 5 years old, just no telling. But when we SEE the psychopathy I think it is, at that point, TOO late. Just working on “gut feelings” and thoughts here.
Thank you for the intriguing article, Liane!
My personal feeling is that a socipath cannot be rehabilitated – ever. If they don’t have financial, sexual, or emotional control, they’ll invent new and creative methods of control using any foothold that they can find. It’s not about doing what’s appropriate, it’s about doing what they want.
Just my 2 cents! 😉
Brightest blessings!
In all honesty, I do find the article fascinating on a professional level, however on a personal level THEY CAN ALL BURN IN HELL AND I DON’T GIVE DAMN!!!! JUST STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM ME AND MY LOVED ONES.
I once would have been the one to really research and find out more articles and studies that support the idea that spaths could be rehabilitated and then I would have used that material to justify my staying with husband spath because of the glimmer of hope. “Well, maybe I didn’t try hard enough”. “Maybe I didn’t believe enough to help him”. “If I really loved him, I would suffer through it all until he became whole again.” “Well, God will punish me as a wife for not supporting my husband.” I would actually have longed for the suffering because there was something deep within in me that believed that I didn’t truly deserve to be happy and would have gladly accepted the struggle and punishment of a difficult relationship so that I could really prove that I was worthy to be loved in the first place.
Right now, I don’t give a darn. I really don’t. Whether or not they can be helped is not a cause I wish to champion. I’ve taken on a cause that I’ve neglected for so long: ME! So at this point in my recovery, I can’t even (and don’t want to) think about how they can be helped.
The power cannot be stripped. The power comes from within. They would do very well and pretend to be rehabilitated. They will enjoy the silent power over those they fool. It would not be any different to have this program. Punishment and forced labor are the only things that make sense.
Any human being learns fear. If fear is present and power is looming, the Ps will pretend to be good and obedient. And – you know what? – it’d be good enough for me (in social terms, criminal terms and legal terms, not emotional, unfortunately)
Healingfast! TOWANDA!!!!! That is the spirit!!!! You are so right on with that. It is NOT our job to take on trying to heal them, we first must take care of ourselves.
Even God doesn’t expect us to allow them to abuse us and use us, but unfortunately so many people use the “turn the other cheek” out of context and the “forgive” but we don’t have to believe that Gaslighting (twisting of context) because that is what it is, they take a statement of truth and twist it into a chain to tie us to them. Like a slave.
I’m glad you saw the light and broke free! “Follow the drinking goard to freedom!” “Throw up your hands and shout!”
I have a copy of a water color painting of a Conestoga wagon pulled by oxen in my living room that was part of a series of the done done by the artist about the Underground Railroad before the War Between the States. Abby Kelly, who was one of the first women in the North who fought for the freedom of the slaves and devoted her life to work and poverty to free people she had never met and to advance the cause of not only freedom for the slaves, but the right for them to vote, and the rights for women to speak publicly.
In a way, I think that we are advancing the cause of FREEDOM for anyone who is in domestic slavery, whose voice to speak out is silenced–by fear, by guilt, by shame. Taking care of ourselves is our first duty and our second is to speak out to those who are already free, and to advocate for those who are still in slavery. Being under the control of a psychopath is slavery, no matter what the relationship is because they dehumanize us.
TOWANDA for us!!!!!
I happenned to pick up a book at ayard sale and read it yesterday. It was called “Why He Can’t Love”…the “committment phobic man”. It was really interesting. When they described the men who have this “phobia”, it was so similar to “sociopaths”.
It’s worth reading. It gives women guidelines and skills needed to spot men who have this “phobia” and be able to “run” when they see the “red flags”. There are even “stages” of the relationship. They sound so much like what so many on here have been through. The interesting part is when the author interviewed these men and how they felt and why they tell women they love them one minute and then drive away and never call them! It was really interesting and a good warning for women to spot these guys…
He says that these men really want love and to be in a relationship, but once it happens, they have a deep seeted “fear” ….like claustrophobia….and they end the relationship. Some of the men interviewed claimed that they really did love the woman…but didn’t want to.
I’ve read alot of books on relationships, but this was something new. Worth checking out.
In the meantime, I am seeing my xb/f again and we have really discussed so many things…talking for hours each day!
We have agreed to rebuild our friendship first and rebuild trust. I feel closer to him than ever..and I KNOW that he is NOT a sociopath…although, my xhusband IS. It took me 5 yrs to even want to date a man again after him and he was professionally diagnosed, so I needed a lot of time to heal.
I also realized that I was very insecure and afraid to confront my x, due to my experience with my xhusb and this affected my relationship with my b/f. I finally confronted him with so many questions about things I “assumed” during our r/s and I was really surprised to hear the truth…and that I was mistaken on many things.
I believe that after my 8 yr marriage to a socio…and the abuse I dealt with…I was still not “healed” and strong enough to get involved with anyone. But, I did and I didn’t handle myself well in many areas. By ending the relationship, I have really built myself up and I now have the skill to set “boundaries” with people. Being more secure with myself now, I stand up for myself with everyone….and I have avoided much pain….just in the past few months…even with friends and family and my b/f. I’m different now. ….and the results are different.
So, whatever doesn’t destroy you, will make you stronger in life. It IS possible to rebuild and trust again…because you learn to trust yourself. I am now teaching my daughters the skills to have good relationships…how to spot people who are “toxic” and how to never trust anyone until they “earn” it…and how to take their time when getting to know someone.