Today’s New York Times Magazine has an excellent article on the signs of psychopathy in children. It presents a heartbreaking story of parents trying to cope with a “callous-unemotional” 9-year-old, and covers much of the current research on the disorder in children. Very well done.
Read Can a 9-year-old be a psychopath? on NYTimes.com.
Story suggested by a Lovefraud reader.
skylar
Kim,
I agree. Children are children, that means they can change. The younger they are, the more potential to change. It would be foolish to write them off, if for no other reason than the opportunity to learn about human nature and the human mind.
If we can be curious and explore outer space at the cost of billions, why shouldn’t we be curious and explore the space between the ears? The need and the payoff is so much greater.
kim frederick
Well. Ox, kids are impressionable, and remember that the nazis had really young children enlisted in the SS. These kids were culterally trained to hate…normal kids. We can look at them from the outside and assume that they were psychopaths if it eases our minds, but, sigh, humanity has the capacity for both good and evil, and normal people can fall into the grip of a psychopathic system…children are the most easily seduced. Children, and desperate people and weakened people. Sometimes I tire of LF’s self rightousness, but then, maybe it’s because I know I have issues and am not one of the select few who are without psychiatric issues. In a way I think I’m one of the lucky ones because it keeps me humble and compassionate.
kim frederick
Vision, Why do you assume your GS was lying? Is it totally out of the question that his mother had some reason for not wanting her son to brush his teeth at your house?
kim frederick
Okay, guys. I’m triggered. Probably better for me to just go to bed. Knowing me, I’ll reneg tomorrow.
Had a strange mother’s day. A mixed bag. Ex lyin’ ass cheatin’ husband was there, and histrionic pound cake lady who tried really hard to make me feel guilyt for not answering her calls….ohhhhhhhhhhhh, don’t get me started. But, also saw my son and both my daughters…so, it was good.
kim frederick
My aunt told me this story: for years, on Christmas, or for Thanksgiving, when she would cook a ham, she cut the ends off of it. One year her Mother asked her, “Why do you always cut the ends off the ham?” My Aunt was befuddled. “Well YOU always cut the ends off the ham….” My Grandma answered, “yeah, but that was only because it didn’t fit in the pan.”
Another example: A child grew up hearing, over and over again, “never lay a hat on the table or a coat on the bed” so, for years, he didn’t. It was alsmost obsessisive. Then, finally, he asked his mother why. She could hardly remember even telling him that. Then, she remembered. For about a year, they had neighbors who were rumored to have head lice. So….instead of understanding the REASON why it was important for that one year, he had lived 40 years believing it was an unquestioned evil to lay a hat on a table or a coat on the bed.
skylar
Hey Kim,
Don’t be triggered! I agreed with you!
skylar
Kim,
I read another Flannery O’Conner story today: Revelation.
Have you read it?
kim frederick
I know, Skylar. I think we are the true liberals.
kim frederick
Skylar, Ummmm, not sure. Can you give me a synopsis?
skylar
Ok, Ruby Tarpin is a woman in a doctor’s office and she judges everyone as being either better, the same or worse than her. Depends on race, wealth and disposition. Then she has a revelation that everyone gets to heaven because in the end, the values that we hold, good or bad, get burned off by the desire to be saved.
It’s a 7-page story, but I found it by reading an essay on Girardian theory.
I put some links on my website, in my last comment.