Two Lovefraud readers brought an article in the latest issue of The New Yorker magazine to my attention. It’s entitled Suffering Souls—the search for the roots of psychopathy, by John Seabrook.
The article starts off describing the work of a researcher, Dr. Kent Kiehl, who is using an fMRI machine to study the brains of prisoners in the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility, searching for physical indications of psychopathy. The author provides a brief history of the evolution of scientific understanding about this personality disorder, and describes today’s conflicting opinions about it. Seabrook reviewed the literature and interviewed experts, including Dr. Robert Hare.
All in all, the article provides an excellent summary of the state of scientific research about psychopathy. If you want to understand how the researchers think about this personality disorder, I recommend that you read it.
Never met a psychopath
Although the story is comprehensive, one of the points made me think that we at Lovefraud have a better understanding of psychopaths than researchers.
“Unlike most academic psychopathy researchers, Kiehl has spent many hours in the company of his subjects. When he meets colleagues at conferences, he told me, “they always ask, ”˜What are they like?’ These are guys who have spent twenty years studying psychopaths and never met one.” Although the number of psychopaths who are not in prisons is thought to exceed the number who are—if the one-per-cent figure is correct, there are more than a million psychopaths at large in the United States alone—they are much harder to identify in the outside world. Some are “successful psychopaths,” holding down good jobs in many types of industries. It is generally only if they commit a crime and enter the criminal-justice system that they become available for research.”
This is scary—many researchers in psychopathy never met one? We should consider ourselves better informed, because we’ve all had extremely close encounters with these predators. And we know exactly how the ones who are not in jail behave.
More information is needed about psychopaths in the community. That’s why our contributions to the study, Victimizations, coping, and social support of adult survivors of psychopaths, are so important. If you haven’t yet filled out the survey, be sure to do it.
Parents and children
According to the New Yorker article, Dr. Robert Hare does not approve of using his Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) in child custody disputes. Although I can understand where Dr. Hare is coming from—his test was designed specifically to predict recidivism among offenders—it is still the gold standard in identifying psychopaths. As we at Lovefraud know, psychopaths make terrible parents. Unfortunately, there is no scientific documentation—yet—of what we know to be true.
This points to the need for more research on psychopaths who are not in jail. First of all, we need to be able to identify them, especially in family court cases. Secondly, we need research documenting that psychopaths do, indeed, harm their children. I know this cause is very important to Dr. Liane Leedom, and we hope to contribute to more thorough understanding of these problems.
The article also touches on the issues of children with psychopathic traits. On the one hand, it states that psychologists don’t want to label children as psychopaths. On the other hand, there is some evidence that children with psychopathic traits can be helped, “if you catch it young enough.” That means they need to be identified.
It’s a circular problem. There is a very strong genetic component to this personality disorder, so it is crucial to identify psychopathic parents, because their children may be at risk of also becoming psychopaths. We also need to identify children who have inherited the dispostion to the personality disorder and are, in fact, at risk. That means diagnosing them so we can try to help them.
The issue of at-risk children is not one in which we should be squeamish or politically correct about identifying the disorder. Lives are at stake.
Mental illness?
In scanning prisoners’ brains, Dr. Kent Kiehl hopes to find a biological cause for the psychopathic personality disorder. By finding a cause, there is the chance of developing drugs to treat the disorder.
This raises philosophical and ethical questions. What if he succeeds? What if he proves that psychopathy is a form of mental illness? But what if people are diagnosed and treatment doesn’t work? If psychopathy is a mental illness, does that mean that these predators aren’t responsible for their crimes?
I don’t have the answers to these questions. But I do know that here at Lovefraud, we are building a valuable knowledge base beyond that of the scientific researchers. We know how psychopaths behave when they are free, out in the community, and doing what predators do.
Tood: I agree with you. Then again, some people have been manipulated all their lives by control freaks one way or another, they just chalk it up to being normal for how our society is today. At least in the big cities it’s the norm. I don’t know about the smaller, rural towns and burbs, that know everyone and take time out to check on the welfare of their fellow neighbors.
I noticed that when I went through my suit with my managers… many of my co-workers looked the other way out of fear, others that were on the bosses bandwagon followed orders to ignore me and ignore anything they should happen to witness what was planned against me, not to speak with me, or when they spoke to me, they spoke down to me. Others didn’t want to get involved knowing from experience about these bosses having their wrath come down on their careers too. Then my favorite were the co-workers that came from such abusive family lives they (what it looked like to me) loved seeing another person get abused. I felt like they some how got vindication witnessing others get what they received all their lives from their home life. They were the ones who had it, live and learn to survive, it’s no big deal attitude.
It all comes down to conditioning. Condition the humanity out of all of us.
What is that motto, oh yeah “CHAOS REIGNS SURPEME”.
Peace.
Let me provide a real life example in this discussion.
He was imprisoned for his part in helping to kill another person. That was just the crime he was caught and imprisoned for. He also committed various other crimes. He was abusive to his girlfriends, he was impulsive, he was charming when need be, he was egocentric, he was intelligent and glib, he had difficulty in regulating not ust his impulses but also his emotions, he displayed little to no remorse for his lifestyle and behaviors, he displayed no empathy for his behaviors, he was deceptive and manipulative, used drugs and alcohol, was easily bored, had a quick temper, had a low tolerance for frustration and stress, was unable to delay gratification.
So do you think he is a psychopath?
He was and is not. While he was in prison his sister was killed. She had followed his example and entered into the anti-social lifestyle and paid the ultimate price. He blamed himself for her death. After he left prison he got his act together. He received counseling with a specialist, received medication along with that. He got married, had children, became employed and started helping others to break free from their anti-social lifestyles. He stopped using drugs and alcohol, surrounded himself with pro-social people and formed a circle of people close to him who would help him stay on the pro-social side and not be abusive to anyone. His wife was an assertive woman who had no problems confronting him and he took that well and last time I spoke with her they were still happily married and were looking forward to grandchildren soon.
Now of you asked the people (or many people really) that this person had abused and mistreated if he was a psychopath you would here a resounding yes. And that is perfectly understandable. Does it mean he was?
He is not. He was diagnosed and treated for ADHD once he was released (one of his children also has it) and had good follow up care. The medication and counseling made a huge difference in his life and in helping him figure out so many things. He had empathy, he had remorse, he had guilt, and and the list goes on. But with the problems of ADHD added to the drug and alcohol use suppressed/hid all this. He often did not display certain emotions because he was constantly under the influence and he had difficulty regulating his emotions even when he was not. He also felt deeply about some people but differently about others.
But unless the specialist he went to had not had the training and taken the time to tease out all the variables and history it would have been extremely easy to say this guy is a psychopath. AND if you had tested him with the PCL-R at the time of his arrest he very well may have tested out pretty high. Proper diagnosis of a person is, well should be, a very in depth and complex thing.
All the symptoms on Hare’s can easy apply to someone with ADHD. I would suggest looking at the long term studies that have been running for 25+ years about ADHD and see how many more times a person is likely to go to jail and prison if they have it than those that don’t. It is scary.
Dr. Thomas E. Brown of the Yale University School of Medicine listed these as some, but not all, of the signs and symptoms of ADHD in adults:
Easily bored
Low tolerance for frustration and stress
Unstable, unpredictable moods
Quick temper
Inability to delay gratification
Speaking without thinking
Acting impulsively (e.g. impulsive spending, sudden change of plans) without regard for consequences
Jumping to conclusions
All of those are things that also apply to psychopaths.
Anyways just something to consider 🙂
BloggerT7165: Interesting … gives the rest of “them” hope. Well, at least we can hope for them.
It does prove about the conditioning theory I hold, that they immaturely condition themselves from such early ages to suppress emotions due to actual or perceived trauma. Thinking and believing that they are correct by doing so, that they’ve conditioned their lives to be such, they’ve become accustomed to it, not realizing what they are missing.
Peace.
If you go with the conditioned belief then you are leaning towards “sociopaths” rather than psychopaths. Personally I believe there are both and there is a difference between a psychopath and a sociopath.
The man in this case was not conditioned into an anti-social lifestyle as a child and certainly did not “condition” himself as a child. ADHD can be a very serious disorder that is biologically based. His mother, grandparents and other family members were middle class law abiding people and they raised him in a decent environment and tried to get him to follow their example. However he was never diagnosed and treated for the disorder he had and things spun out of control for him. His relatives would tell you that he was a sweet child before he started school but after he entered the school system things started to change for him.
I read that just drug addiction alone, like to cocaine for ex., can cause a person to behave like a psychopath. That you have to look at how their behavior was prior to the drug addiction and then once they are off the drugs, instead of just how they behave while addicted.
Interesting example, BloggerT7165. Aren’t all clinicians supposed to rule out any other condition that could account for symptoms that look like psychopathy anyhow, before diagnosing someone as a psychopath. But I guess any diagnosis would only be as good as the clinician who is doing the diagnosing and unfortunately not all of them might not be so thorough.
Jen2008: Well, cocaine was the drug of choice for those that worked with me.
What started off as a casual Thursday night happy hour boosts, went to Thursdays and Friday night hurrahs … to Thursday, Friday and adding Saturday only during the day, then what the heck it’s Saturday night LIVE… so they added that in too. Then it became, Thursdays, Fridays, All day Saturdays, and Sunday just to get them through the day. Oh, boo-hoo, it’s MONDAY morning and they can’t get up, can’t come into work, what the heck and it would snow all through Monday too. Now it’s Tuesday and they are trying so hard to be good, as they snap down your throat for saying good morning, or how’s your day? Or, can you help me on this project? That was a big no, no. So the saga was now Monday through Monday, week after week, by month after month … until the years passed by … one big blurr … to … we hate you Wini, you’re the reason we are so miserable, and jumpy, and thin, and getting so old … and …
Peace.
Actually there is no “psychopath” diagnosis in the US. And the one that is close is ASPD. You can have ASPD and ADHD at the same time actually. ADD and other mental health disorders are Axis I diagnosis but MR and Personality Disorders are Axis II diagnosis.
And yes a good clinician should try to rule out other conditions but that can be very hard to do at times. Obviously many criminals are not like most clients and have no incentive to be honest or helpful.
I have seen quite a few people who have been diagnosed with depression yet they consume a 1/5 of alcohol a day for years, or use drugs everyday for years. Do they get diagnosed as substance induced mood disorder? I have seen very few that do. And yes drug/alcohol use can cause people to do many behaviors that mimic other disorders.
You are right, like any profession there are good clinicians, bad clinicians, and so/so clinicians.
I forgot to mention that for people under 18 the one that might be close would be Conduct Disorder/Childhood Onset. Which means onset prior to 10 years of age.
BloggerT7165: What about the use of antihistamines for colds or allergies? My EX constantly took over the counter stuff … Winter through to the next winter. And I always wondered why someone would constantly take that stuff. Is this a secret addiction?
There are misdiagnosis events in all forms of medicine and in mental illness I would think more than in physical medicine (at this point in time).
I have a son who is VERY ADHD, but he has never been violent and has a conscience and empathy. Dr. Leedom published an article (CRS cant remember the name of it) with statistics showing that about 1/3 of people who are bi-polar are also psychopaths. Even well regulated bi-polars (as far as the mania/depression are concerned) can still be psychopaths. My Trojan HOrse Psychopath was/is. she also noted in that or another article that ADHDs are more likely to be psychoopathic. Apparently the genes for bi-polar and ADHD have something in common with the genes for Psychopathic tendency. And, some of the behaviors for bi-polar and ADHD can be similar.
My ADHD son though has never exhibited any kind of manipulative or hateful behavior at all, ever. My psychopathic son, however, is NOT ADHD at all. In fact, he is very calculating and manipulative and lays his plans far in advance and with malice aforethought. My ADHD son may be from time to time “impulsive” but not in ways that harm others. He can delay gratification, and manages his money well. He (like me) has some “enabling” behaviors but is (like I am) working on them and his own healing. Personally, he is a very likeable and trustworthy person.
So, yes, diagnosis can be a problem. And not all criminals are psychopaths, and not all psychopaths are criminals. However, my experience *(which may not be typical) with the criminals I have know, there is no (or rarely at least) such thing as an EX-convict.
The “best indicator of future behavior is past behavior”–doesn’t mean someone convicted of a crime can’t change, but with the recidivism rate what it is–what? 60-70%–? I will not lose any sleep over thinking that someone might change if only I would take them under my wing when they get out of prison.