According to Merriam Webster online a pet peeve is something that annoys or bothers a person very much. One of my pet peeves is people of all sorts who say that psychopathy is “fascinating” or worse even assert that it is “beneficial”. There is nothing fascinating or beneficial about a disorder that is linked to child rape and murder of innocent victims and countless ruined lives. It also bothers me that professionals who talk about psychopathy in this way are sought after by the press.
Several months ago a lovefraud reader forwarded me an article I had not seen. Nepotistic patterns of violent psychopathy: evidence for adaptation? Linda and I wrote a comment on this paper and that comment has just been published. The comment argues that psychopathy is not an adaptation but is instead a “spandrel.” The word spandrel in evolutionary psychology is analogous to the architectural term. A spandrel, (also spelled spandril or splaundrel), is The roughly triangular wall space between two adjacent arches. This space has no meaning other than it is there because of other important features.
In my opinion psychopathy as no meaning outside of selection for high mating effort (sex drive) and social dominance. Both of these confer advantage when they are found in people who are able to love and care for others. To understand why psychopathy exists we simply need to understand the advantages of sex drive and dominance. We do not have to assume human predators are somehow “superior” beings.
To read our paper visit Is psychopathy a disorder or an adaptation? Please recommend the article on your social network if you agree with the article. If you choose to comment please do so respecting the scientific nature of the discussion.
Just remember spandrel… scoundrel same difference!
Yea appears that he and one of his brothers were in it together, daddy was murdered then they went to the school to do in mommy and the kids–I don’t see this as any “psychotic break” or “crazy” I see this as a PREMEDITATED RAGE in which they may have egged each other on, but this was pure psychopathy as far as I am concerned. At least one of them was a full on psychopath! maybe both.
OxD, I agree. Was it the other brother that was found dead in the home?
I just can’t process what happened. Really, I can’t. Just like the Aurora theater shootings, VA Tech, the Amish school, or any of these other horrific rampages.
The official “profiler” was going on about how people who do this finally “snap.” I disagree that the shooter snapped – it was premeditated when someone walks in with an arsenal and just starts shooting to kill.
I never, ever remember hearing about this kind of crime when I was a child. I remember seeing imagery of Viet Nam on the news, every night, but I can’t remember any reports of something as horrific as this.
I remember when the People’s Temple episode happened, and I couldn’t wrap my head around that, and I was already an adult, by that time.
Ugh….just………….omigod
I’m not watching it. I can’t. It’s awful. I saw it come across my newsfeed early this afternoon and have heard it on the radio, but I refuse to watch TV. I was nearly in tears in my car. If he wanted to kill his mom and dad and himself, that is bad enough, but why the innocent children? No reason for that whatsoever.
No, it was not the other brother found dead. The brother is in custody. I believe it was the father. He killed his mother (the school teacher) and his father and his girlfriend is also missing!
Now it looks like it’s Adam who is the killer and he’s autistic.
He shot his mother in the home, then went to kill her kindergarten class. The father is in contact with the FBI and the brother is talking with police. Not sure what is happening with the gf.
What??? I am not watching TV so I am not up on what’s going on for sure.
So Adam is Ryan’s brother? Where is Ryan? I thought the mom was teaching in the classroom? I thought the father was dead? Confused.
I think Ryan and Adam lived with their mom. Ryan went to work. Adam shot the mom and went to kill the babies.
Dad lives elsewhere.
Wow. What time did it happen? Does anyone know why the mom wasn’t in her classroom? He must have had a jealousy towards those children.
He shot her before she went to work.
All spaths hate their mothers and they envy children.
skylar:
They do hate their mothers. I didn’t realize so much about the children, but I do now. He obviously was jealous of those children. All those innocent lives.
I was just talking to my best friend and I said there are going to end up being suicides after this. There is going to be a parent out there of one of these children who just isn’t going to be able to handle this. We never know what is going on in people’s live and for something this horrible to happen on top of everything else…to have your child taken away like that…I am just sure someone is not going to be able to deal with it.
The Australian radio show hoax was an example of this. That woman most likely had some other major issues going on and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
This world is out of control. Jesus is coming soon…I can only hope.
The news hhas been wrong on so much stuff, but I saw a kid who said that someone in HANDCUFFS was marched out of the school and he saw it, so I assumed from all that was being said that there were two brothers in on it and one not in on it. It also reported the mother was a teacher, a teacher’s aid, a volunteer, did not work at the school all in the same 5 minutes. Also reported the father dead at home…so still not sure what it is all about.
May not know for days what it is all about. One report said the mother was very RIGID…so blame the mother…not sure of anything at this point except a bunch of kids are dead and now they will blame guns.
How about that man that STABBED 20+ school kids to death…should we ban knives?
The woman who hanged herself was from a culture where SHAME is a big time thing and she felt I think she had let her job down, let her hospital down…and yea she probably had some issues but I think that radio show pushed her over the brink. I wish those folks would be canned and banned from ever working in radio again.