Although fearlessness is not part of the formal definition of psychopathy or DSM IV antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), it is widely recognized that this temperamental attribute is part of these disorders as well as their childhood precursors, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD). Thankfully, not all fearless individuals are sociopaths but it appears that fearlessness is present in varying degrees in everyone with these disorders. (Interestingly some sociopaths do show anxiety. The exact relationship between anxiety and fearlessness is not completely understood.)
Fearlessness is a good trait to study because the trait reflects the function of specific brain regions that are linked to a person’s ability to learn from punishment. The trait is also influenced by genetics. In addition to psychological measures, fearlessness can be assessed using physiological measures. The most universal finding related to fearlessness and genetic risk for sociopathy is that children at risk have low heart rates. Low heart rate has been documented in groups of at-risk children from six different countries and in children as young as 3 years of age.
It appears that the psychological trait of fearlessness has its roots in the physiological trait of “autonomic under-arousal.” This means that the sympathetic nervous system of fearless individuals is under-active at rest and does not readily respond to cues of danger. The sympathetic nervous system is under the control of a part of the brain thought to be abnormal in sociopaths. That is the amygdala-prefrontal cortex circuit.
In a recently published study, Similar autonomic responsivity in boys with conduct disorder and their fathers (J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2007 Apr;46(4):535-44), researchers from the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Rostock University, Rostock, Germany, studied 44 conduct disordered boys and their fathers. They compared them to 36 “healthy controls” and their fathers. The boys were between 8 and 13 years of age.
The researchers examined sympathetic nervous system activity as measured by skin conductance. They also measured personality characteristics in fathers. Fathers of CD boys were “more aggressive, hostile, and impulsive” than the fathers of the non-disordered boys. The researchers showed the fathers and sons pictures that usually elicit emotional responses from people. CD boys and their fathers showed significantly less emotional responses to the pictures. They also had little physiological response to the pictures compared to the control group. “Psychophysiological measurements were highly correlated between fathers and sons.”
The researchers conclude their abstract with this statement: “High father-son correlations in psychophysiological measures raise the question of whether autonomic abnormalities may constitute a biological mediator through which the disposition for antisocial behavior is transmitted within families.” In making this statement, they are not asserting a purely genetic basis for the trait. A father’s behavior toward his son could also influence this trait since these pairs were in contact or lived together.
In my opinion there is overwhelming evidence that low sympathetic activity and accompanying fearlessness are present very early on in developing sociopaths. Furthermore, the caregivers of fearless kids know their kids are fearless usually by age 2. The most important question is, what can we do to help fearless children develop guilt and empathy so that they do not develop CD or ODD?
There are no studies comparing children at risk who have or have not had contact with their sociopathic parent(s). There are, however, many studies that suggest that fearless children require special parenting. Fearless children who do well have an especially warm and loving relationship with at least one caregiver. A warm loving relationship with that caregiver predicts conscience formation in fearless children. Researchers have called this “the alternative pathway” to conscience. Since they do not readily experience guilt, fearless people rely on empathy for conscience. Empathy develops from early affectionate experiences.
Many at-risk children are in triple jeopardy. They have the genes from one antisocial parent, the environmental exposure to that parent AND another parent who has major depression. This depression is usually aggravated by having to deal with the sociopathic partner. Depression in a mother predicts antisocial disorders in children with sociopathic fathers. I believe the reason is that a mother battling untreated depression has a difficult time relating to a child in a way that promotes enthusiasm for loving and the development of empathy.
There are many things that people co-parenting with a sociopath, or raising an at-risk child, cannot control, starting with genetics. Court ordered visitation is a big problem for many kids and co-parents. There is, however, one thing these parents can control, that is their own loving relationship with the child. For more on how to overcome your child’s genetic connection to sociopathy, addiction and ADHD, read Just Like His Father?
My son is 14 mos. old. At 13 months he was riding the carousel with me and became freightened and tried to get off the horse.
This a is a good sign right?
when my ex-s/p/n’s son started school, they had to go in all the time to discuss the child’s aggressive and bullying behavior. like father. like son.
Dear Liane,
This is a great article and some interesting research. Correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding of the “adoption syndrome” today shows that many children who are adopted by “good parents” are higher in CD and ADHD ODD than the “general population.”
In my limited experience with young children who were dx with CD, ODD and/or ADHD (at least 2 of the 3) it seemed to me than the majority of them in the population I was exposed to were adopted kids.
As you know, my oldest biological son C is very ADHD but has (if anything) TOO much conscience, but my psychopathic son is in no way “hyperactive” at all. Though my son C (ADHD) was very “fearless” as far as his activity, he was not aggressive to other children, not “mean” at all, and though he kept me on my toes as a parent, he was not disobedient or oppositional at all. I saw evidence of care giving, attachment and loving in him as early as age two when he was comforting his younger baby brother by notifying me the baby was unhappy, or handing him his “paci” or covering him up if the blanket was kicked off.
By age three he had taken on the role of “protector” of his toddler brother’s safety and entertaining the “baby” by actually distracting him from things the older child knew were “no, nos” The tenderness with which my older son (ADHD) did this was remarkable to me and others who observed it at the time they were toddlers.
When my older (ADHD) son was tested at the Uof ARK for Medical sciences at age 7, he was deemed “one of THE MOST hyperactive children we have seen.” they advised putting him on Ritalin, and I gave it a two week trial, which rendered him a zombie, took him off of it and put him on the Feingold diet for Hyperactivity (and boy was THAT a difficult thing even for a stay at home mom!) but I saw good results from the diet and my ADHD son, who is very bright, did well academically for the first two years in public school. After that, I put him in private school or home schooled him. He has a college degree now and functions very well on the job and with his co-workers and others in the community. He has a good moral compass and is kind and compassionate, and very giving.
To me, comparing the kids who are ADHD without ODD or CD to my son who was VERY ADHD but without the definance or conduct disorder is like “apples and oranges” in the way the children behaved. The ones with ADHD and CD or ODD did actually SEEM “driven to do evil” and were VERY SCARY children, even as young as 6 or 8. They were like little whirling dervishes hell bent on finding something to do that they KNEW you would find “bad” but they did it with a GLEE and a definat look in their eyes that would turn your blood cold.
Dear Banana, I wouldn’t worry about your child at this young age in whether or not he shows “fear”—all babies show fear sometimes of new things, and new people, and these things are normal maturation stages they go through. Just love your baby and give him all your attention and care—that’s what every baby needs at this young age. As Dr. Leedom said, at least ONE good and connected parent who bonds with that child is what EVERY child needs in order to connect them to the human race. I wouldn’t start “worrying” about him yet or trying to “see” some major thing in every episode of his behavior at such a young age. He has already got ONE thing that is wonderful for him, YOU–a caring and concerned and giviing mother!!!! (((hugs))))
I know virtually fearless children who have grown up to be exceptionally moral, empathetic, honorable people.
Bond with the child, and it will be OK. Fail to bond with the child, and the outcome is never good.
Parental rejection, abuse or neglect is damaging for all personality types.
Excellent article, Liane, and thank you.
It’s been nearly 2 weeks with Mike. He’s engaging, hilarious, and very intelligent. He’s been letting little bits and pieces out about his “life” with the spath brother and wife. The damage is apparent, but he’s working hard to Survive, even by meeting people and realizing that he’s accepted in social circles without having to watch what he says, or say the “right things” in conversation. Meeting neighbors the other night, we returned home and I mentioned that he hadn’t displayed ANY “awkward moments,” and he was thoroughly astounded. “I did okay, then?” I answered, “Of course you did! You’re fun to be around, and everyone responded to your sense of fun.”
The insidious nature of abuse and neglect, especially when we’re talking about a child born to a spathic environment, cannot be understated. Mike displays a LOT of symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome – the spath brother “took care of” him, even when Mike was suffering from physical maladies and conditions. The spath brother never took him to a physician to attend to a series of illnesses, but he “took care of” Mike via his armchair practice of medicine.
The “big discussion” is coming up, tomorrow. What Mike’s expectations are of us, and what our expectations are of him. The “contract” is also going to be drawn up and discussed.
My responses to Mike’s insistance that his spath brother “helped” him out is being strained because it’s NOT helpful to let someone go a week with a fever without medical attention. It’s NOT helpful to let someone go with an abcess without medical attention. It’s NOT helpful to set someone up in a studio apartment for a month with no food or money and only a filthy mattress on the floor. It’s NOT helpful to cause someone to live in constant terror if “something goes wrong.” These are the triggers that I have to manage, at t his point. The spath father is a moot point – that may come out in the wash over a period of years, but the loyalty displayed is so deep that I don’t believe that Mike will ever recognize the Truth – at least, not in MY lifetime.
So……the whole point of this post is that it’s not a failure to seek counseling/therapy from a well-versed clinician when we’re dealing with the aftermath of sociopathy and domestic violence/abuse/neglect. This site, thank God, provides a good measure of therapy for Survivors, but additional help is imperative to remain on the healing path, in my humble opinion.
How do we find a counselor/therapist that is familiar with sociopathy? Calling a mental health referral service is a good first step. Trying on counselors/therapists is also very important. Just like a pair of new shoes, some counselors seem to be a perfect fit until a couple of miles down the road, and our emotional feet begin to swell, develop blisters, and become uncomfortable. It’s nothing personal against the counselor if we feel we need to change – it’s PRESERVATION.
More importantly, we are not allowed to consider ourselves a “failure” because we’re asking for help from a professional! How did this stigma ever become so virulant??? If we’re on the side of the road with a blown head-gasket, we do not have the tools or equipment to fix that engine. We hire a qualified mechanic, right? What makes us think that it’s shameful or disgraceful to ask a qualified professional to help us sort through the emotional baggage to find and remain on our healing paths?
Mike’s healing path is going to be long, bumpy, and full of revelations, I believe. But, it’s also a good possibility that he’s going to take this proverbial bull by the horns and make his life his very own, for once.
Brightest blessings and many thanks for the support, guidance, and encouragement!!!!!!!!
That’s my story. I am not a sociopath, but it put me in a situation were my sociopath father and deeply disturb mother “softened me up” in such as way that adult sociopaths were able to reconise me as an easy target.
The whole thing with genetics and sociopathy I find hard to buy. Mainly as one’s personality is not rooted in your genes. This is the kind of garbage which science was throwing around in the 1970’s that DNA was the answer to everything. This idea of a sociopath gene comes from the same junk science mindset as a Fat Gene or an Alcoholic Gene. Prue garbage. The New Scientist magazine recently had an article stating that the entire GENEOME Project has been a gigantic failure and science may even be on a completely wrong path with many aspects of genetic science. This was to be the Rosetta Stone of everything from curing disease to saving mankind. A huge waste of time and money.
The proof for me is that every sociopath I ever enountered, either male of female all grew up in normal homes and had non-disordered loving parents and siblings. I can certainly see how a socipathic mother or father can screw up their children. But that’s not the same thing as claiming they will grow up to sociopaths themselves. Evidence would suggest that sociopaths just seem to arrive out of nowhere.
Frank Lee;
“This idea of a sociopath gene comes from the same junk science mindset as a Fat Gene or an Alcoholic Gene. Prue garbage.”
First, learn how to spell. Second, get your science correct. While there is no one gene governing obesity or alcoholism, there are a combination of genes that lend a propensity towards obesity, alcoholism and any number of other diseases and disorders.
I subscribe to New Scientist and do not remember seeing any article “stating that the entire GENEOME Project has been a gigantic failure and science may even be on a completely wrong path with many aspects of genetic science. This was to be the Rosetta Stone of everything from curing disease to saving mankind. A huge waste of time and money…”
Please provide a reference, as I remember reading quite the opposite and other than the human genome being far more complex than originally thought, everything else was positive. Below are some QUOTES:
“Genetic testing is already saving lives, and the numbers benefiting should soon grow dramatically..”
“Sequencing genomes is now much faster and cheaper, but not better yet. The next generation of sequencing technology will take results to a new level…”
“We know many diseases are partly inherited, so geneticists are baffled by their failure to find the genetic variants responsible…”
The latter mere indication of the genome complexity, not a worn path or waste of money.
You say, “the proof for me is that every sociopath I ever encountered, either male of female all grew up in normal homes and had non-disordered loving parents and siblings.” MAYBE IT IS GENETICS THEN.
“Evidence would suggest that sociopaths just seem to arrive out of nowhere.”
Ridiculous, no further comment necessary.
I am not surprised that conduct disordered boys are just like their fathers. I would go as far to say that a male with an abusive or otherwise disordered father should be a red flag.
At the age of 4, my x-sociopath was abandoned by his father. Jamie hated is father so much that he never spoke to him while alive, refused to visit him when he was terminally ill and did not attend his funeral.
I never pressed Jamie for more details. I presumed his father was either successful while Jamie and his sister and mother remained poor, or, more likely, his father was a poor alcoholic whose actions were known to Jamie, causing him shame and embarrassment. I say this because his father died at a young age (late 40) , consistent with being poor and alcoholic.
I read an article somewhere stating that 30 percent of male raised in English “Council Homes” (public housing) were sociopaths. I do not know if Jamie grew up in public housing, but the rest fits (poor, urban, single parent).
Thus, Jamie’s father was most likely a sociopath, just as Jamie. How much is genetics vs. nurture is the great debate, but sociopaths don’t “just seem to arrive out of nowhere.”
Blue eyes, my ex spath and spath son are prime examples (proof and evidence) that this theory is valid. The spathy goes back WELL beyond ex spath’s father, as well.
No, they don’t just spontaneously errupt – they are often carbon copies of their predecessors and groomed to be even more heinous in their predation BY their predecessors. Of the spaths that I’ve met in my lifetime, NONE of them were products of loving, emotionally healthy environments. Having said that, I don’t believe I’ve ever met anyone who didn’t have some sort of dysfunctional family……
Where/how/why sociopathy occurs is a moot point. What is vital is that sociopathy be re-defined with specific criteria and parameters to include the “everyday” sociopath, and that the information about these people is made as public as possible.
I am going to take a bit of time to absorb and read this aritcle …and Oxy’s reply especially… (been pre occupied in the ‘abusive relationship’ that is the ‘hope’ that england would win the world cup!) but frank and BBE I really think the jury is out on all this stuff so both your perspectives are food for thought for me but dont have a punch up;)x.x