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!
Oxy:
Yep, I had thought the exact same thing about the woman in London. She was Indian and they are very proud people.
It’s an example of never knowing what our actions are going to do to a person. Just like spath…even though I know he was only playing games with me and didn’t care about me, he is so self absorbed and narcissistic, he NEVER thought about what was going to happen to me…he didn’t think that he would destroy my life, but he did. I get that he may have WANTED to destroy me, but when I REALLY think about it, I don’t think he thought that far ahead about it…it was ALL about him and only him. He was only doing what he had to do to get what he wanted not thinking for a second about how it MIGHT affect ME!
These things have a domino effect and people really need to start thinking before they act. But we are a bunch of flawed humans who can’t seem to do that so…
Louise, I agree with you. Some Ps seem to WANT to hurt the victim and others don’t see or care that it will hurt their victim…they only think about what they want in the moment.
The continuum of psychopathic traits runs from just doesn’t care to total malice aforethought…different ones are on different levels but the bottom line is it is ALL ABOUT THEM.
I have dealt with several different levels of psychopaths and several who are like my son Patrick are PURE EVIL and are out to hurt the victim, ENJOY hurting the victim…and some that are just out for what they want and don’t care that someone is hurt.
All of them are selfish…and all of us are selfish to some extent as well, but bottom line is that some of us have some remorse for the things we do that hurt others…and “they” don’t have remorse or conscience.
Oxy:
Very true. There is definitely a continuum. All are selfish that is for certain. Thanks for your support and input!
Oxy and Louise,
I think that the continuum isn’t just in the group but also in the individual. By that, I mean that sometimes a selfish person can be uncaring and at other times they become malicious. So they can move along that continuum depending on circumstances in their lives at the time. For example, blood sugar changes or stresses in their lives.
I imagine that this kid Adam, was profoundly affected by his parents’ divorce. Someone that narcissistic takes everything personally and is bound to blame his mother.
Everyone is saying the CT shooter ‘had obvious problems’…
‘obvious mental/personality disorder’ difficulties…
Kind of like “IT” – just bounces off walls…
ALL the time; flails his arms and shouts and hollars…
pissed off at the drop of a hat…instantly sweet..yikes…
MY POINT is this: “IF” people display these kinds of
traits, WHY is not something done MORE to intercede?
BEFORE they murder someone? OBVIOUSLY they can’t
help themselves, so, someone MUST do it for them.
I told PPATH once: “You must learn to control yourself
OR someone is going to control YOU.” Seems to me, if
we just followed the laws on the books, we would be okay
but I DO believe we should have guards in our schools.
DEFINITELY. Our children are our most precious resource.
I have been sobbing all afternoon.
For some reason, I can’t stop.
There is no excuse for this whatsoever.
I tried to get help with “IT” and was blown off…
God help us all.
The only thing we CAN do is protect ourselves and
our families the best we possibly can. No wonder
I am agoraphobic…with this kind of stuff going on,
I am really starting to understand myself…
Maybe my agoraphobia is WARRANTED…
I pray for the children we lost and the innocence
of childhood that has been stolen…I pray for all
those parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles,
grandparents, that lost a child today…
May this horrid tragedy give us the strength to
make the necessary changes so that this will NEVER
happen again.
They are going to miss Christmas…..
Dupey..I think the world is sobbing with you. What do we do? What can we do? I drive past the high school sometime’s, I see all kind’s of creepy kid’s in their black gothic attire, noses peirced, huge rings in their ears, tattoed like a colouring book, faces buried in their Iphones with a dazed angry look …i cant watch or listen to this anymore…..it will happen again and again..it’s the world that is mentally ill…
I just saw a blip on the news, as i was drying off from my shower, getting ready for work yesterday…..kind of brushed it off….still don’t know the whole story…..what is the psychology behind this? So very sad.
One thing we can all do…..(or continue to do) is speak up. Not let the politicaly correct ‘thing’ get in our way of what is right.
We can continue to educate others and point them in the direction of learning about disordered persons.
And we see the media reporting more on Psychopaths/sociopaths when things like this occur.
It is here….it is in our world…..and it’s only going to get worse because we have allowed ourselves to be silenced and we’ve ‘taught’ people ‘how’ to treat us as a society.
There are NO consequences for bad behaviors.
There is no money to keep criminals in jail.
Hence, the non law abiders are not afraid of ‘what’ will happen, like the rest of us are.
If we break it down to our own experiences calling BS on someone…..and we get chastized and silenced. We are taught to accept and most ‘go away’ and shut up.
We can’t let this happen.
We’ve got to continue to have our voices.
We must stop enabeling bad behaviors……as a society.
Only then……will things start to change.
We all have a voice….and we can use it. If ‘collectively’ you see bad behaviors, talk about it, report it, keep notes and keep watch on the person.
I also believe that if more people were armed up……the criminals would think twice about doing the gun crimes.
This is why home invasions have decreased….the morons don’t want to crash into a home where someone ‘may’ be armed and THEY get shot!
They look for ‘easy bait’. And THEY are the ones making the judgements on ‘easy’.
Being armed won’t stop someone from shooting up a theatre or a school or casino etc…..but it sure could slow em down if more people pulled out thier guns and ended it before more damage was done to innocents.
EinBrock wrote:
We must stop enabeling bad behaviors—as a society.
Only then—will things start to change.”
Enabling – as in not participating in the process. Staying home – not voting – avoiding town meetings – letting the spath politicians lie and cheat and steal and not be held accountable.
“
Dupey, I had to turn off the news because I couldn’t stop crying. It’s a pain and horror that I can’t even being to imagine.
Erin Brock, yes, yes, yes. It’s about time for people to start screaming from rooftops for Legal Reform, accountability, and severe consequences. This shooter didn’t wake up, yesterday morning, and suddenly make a decision that shooting his parents, innocent people, and then himself would be preferable to going to work or college classes. This is something that had been escalating for a long, long time and there were probably VERY clear indications that this young man was disturbed, at the very least, and disordered, most likely.
Fixerupper, precisely. Enabling is the societal equivalent of turning the other cheek – which is a gross misinterpretation to mean, “It’s not my business, so I’m not going to get involved.”
Labeling is another excuse. “She’s been diagnosed ADHD, so we’re going to medicate her, give her an easy IEP, and shove her through the educational hoops to graduation.” Bullsh*t. If there were a poster child for adult ADHD, I would be it. I had to learn how to focus because there were certain expectations set forth for me. And, I thank GOD that Ritalin wasn’t the “in-thing” for people like me when I was a child!
What a horrible tragedy, and the news is beginning to broadcast interviews with survivors and talk about how these teachers sacrificed their lives to protect their students. I’m so very, very sick for these people – they will need YEARS of help to heal from this vicious massacre.
Brightest blessings