Dr. Robert Hare, who did seminal work in identifying psychopaths, refers to them as “intraspecies predators.” This prompted questions from a Lovefraud reader who asked,
- If psychopaths are indeed natural predators (by implication, their design is part of nature’s plan to maintain some balance) then would we ever be able to weed them out of society?
- Do they have a purpose in the natural order of things?
In this article, I’m going to address the second question. Then, next week, I’ll suggest an answer to the first question.
I don’t know about a purpose, but there are researchers who believe psychopaths are around us today because they survived the natural selection process of human evolution.
These researchers call psychopathy “a nonpathological, reproductively viable, alternate life history strategy.” This theory is outlined in Coercive and Precocious Sexuality as a Fundamental Aspect of Psychopathy, a paper published in 2007 by Grant T. Harris, PhD; Marnie E. Rice, PhD; N. Zoe Hilton, PhD; Martin L. Lalumiere, PhD; and Vernon L. Quinsey, PhD.
Evolution
Let’s talk about the evolution idea first. The authors write that our distant ancestors probably formed stable groups, characterized by cooperation and adherence to rules, which enabled early mankind to survive and flourish. However, some humans survived through cheating and exploiting others—the alternative life strategy.
Grant et. al. write that from childhood, psychopathic personalities are fundamentally different from others, but the differences are not the result of a medical failure or injury. They point out that pregnancy difficulties can be related to schizophrenia and mental retardation, but not psychopathy. “While many adverse medical conditions and injuries lead to antisocial and violent behavior, our selectionist hypothesis suggests that they do not cause psychopathy,” they write.
The early psychopaths—cheaters then as now—put a lot of energy into acquiring sexual partners, and were willing to use deception and coercion to do it. As a result, they produced a lot of offspring. Even if early psychopaths died young because then, as now, they probably engaged in high-risk behavior, their liberal procreation was enough to get the hereditary train rolling.
Sex and criminal behavior
Psychopaths first have sex at a young age, have many partners, and are uncommitted in sexual relationships. Studies show that people who have this approach to sex also are more likely to engage in criminal and violent behavior.
Some people, called life course persistent offenders, Grant et. al. write, “begin aggressive and antisocial conduct at very young ages and persist at rates higher than any other offenders throughout the lifespan.”
People tend to think that their problem is poor social learning, that individuals who break laws against crime and violence also break social norms regarding sex. But research has also shown that delinquency and antisocial behavior are associated with early onset of puberty and sexual activity. Young people don’t learn, or decide, when to mature sexually. So why is there a connection between early onset of puberty and crime?
The study
Grant et. al. believe that “coercive and precocious sexuality” is not a result of the psychopathic personality, but a key to defining it. For the study described in the paper, the researchers predicted “early onset, high frequency and coercive sexuality would be a key, unique and diagnostic feature of psychopathy.”
The researchers studied the case histories of 512 male sex offenders. (Sex offenders were selected because their files generally contain detailed information about their sexual history.) They established the scores of the offenders on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). They also looked at the sexual histories of the offenders prior to age 15. A statistical analysis revealed correlations between early and frequent sexual behavior and sexual coercion with general antisocial behavior and elevated PCL-R scores.
“We propose that interpersonal sexual and nonsexual aggression are not best conceived of as the consequence of psychopathic personality traits, but as fundamental aspects of the condition itself,” the authors wrote.
Genetic history
The researchers’ expected that coercive and precocious sexuality were indicators of psychopathy because of their original hypothesis—psychopathy is an alternative life strategy.
“From a theoretical perspective, the present results lend some support to a selectionist hypothesis that psychopathy exists because it has been a heritable and reproductively viable condition during human evolution.”
Psychopaths, in other words, are not physically defective or medically ill. These researchers believe that they are just different, and, because they engaged in a lot of sex, were able to pass on their genes through the millennia.
Read the complete study:
Coercive and Precocious Sexuality as a Fundamental Aspect of Psychopathy
They are what they are
It’s shocking to think that there may be nothing medically wrong with these “intraspecies predators.” But in a way, the idea that psychopaths are pursuing an “alternate life history strategy” dovetails with what we often say here on Lovefraud. Psychopaths are what they are. They are cheaters and exploiters. They take advantage of others because that’s what they do.
Did nature intend this? I don’t know, but they survived.
While researching this story, I came across another paper with an interesting perspective on what to do about it, which I’ll discuss next week.
Elizabeth Conley
“Oh Woe is Me”
Has been the sociopathic catch phrase of the week around here.
We’re all having a hard time. There’s been an unexpected death in the family and a house fire that left 7 homeless.
Most family members have pitched in to help others or pulled themselves together and taken care of themselves.
One or two have sung “Woe is Me” so convincingly that they’re being taken care of royally.
Whatever!
Knowing what they are and what their modus operandi is has helped me cope better than I would otherwise have.
ErinBrock
Mike:
My best Girlfriend said to me at the beginning of my ‘journey’…..EB……what I love about you is your the most authentic person I know.
This has stuck with me……and It was a huge compliment to hear at the time I was seeing my life unravel and NOTHING in it was as it seemed to me.
I am facisnated with how well you write and are in tune with your aspergers and how it affects your daily life. How you overcome your abilities to nuture your dolphin and provide the best you can for her by educatiing yourself to compensate for the realities of aspergers.
I’ll tell ya…..there are times…..being an over analyzer and thinker……it’s not always a good thing! I know going through my years with the S, I voluntarily turned ‘robotic’ to tune out all the pain and hurt to survive.
I used to tell the S ex …..”YOU LIVE ON AN ISLAND” …..all by yourself! Yet, you choose to live in the world with others……
His behaviors made no sense to me!
Many people don’t use logic……posessing it or not….it’s not used……so maybe when you find that ‘Vulcan’ place……I’ll pay a visit with you all!
🙂
EB
ErinBrock
Elizabeth:
Sorry to hear of your families ‘woes’…..I can’t imagine what it must feel like to have lost a home and all lifes collected treasures.
One thing no one, not even mother nature can take from us is our memories!
It’s interesting how our knowledge and realizations have empowered us to deal with things differently going forward.
Survival of the loudest victim cryer of a Sociopath.
No matter what the destruction….we all must pick up and move along the path of life……as I tell my kids…..The clock doesn’t stop ticken for no one!
Sarah999
1) I believe that years ago, when families lived together, a psychopath would not be very successful because, the gossip between and amongst families would prevent him/her from getting very far. Their best success would be to go to another community where he/she was not known for what he was. That is IMHO opinion what prevented them from proliferating, so that kept their number down.
2) I believe recently (last 100 years) with the advent of easy transportation, big cities, people not living with families, it was much easier for psychopaths to do their harm, because innocent people took them at their word (or their looks, or their charm) . . . There were no warnings as to reputation etc. and they proliferated.
3) I do believe now (last 10+ years), that with the internet etc. we are again a very small community. I believe now psychopaths are now doomed. We know that they exist. We know how to spot them. We can identify them. We are all a family spreading the word. And they are doomed. I do believe in the next generation, they will be culled from our society. Of course, a few will remain. Hopefully . . very few.
one/joy_step_at_a_time
Sarah: The spath of my life is adept at using the internet to exploit whole communities online.
And the internet will ALSO be her downfall. although she is very good at exploiting the anonymity of the internet, so will her dupes be.
one step
ErinBrock
Sarah:
Nice posting.
I love point #1 and 2….
And I hope to god your on to something with #3.
Although, the internet is so impersonable, I am not sure it won’t make us more suseptible.
bulletproof
Sarah999
Music to my ears to hear you say:
I believe now psychopaths are now doomed. We know that they exist. We know how to spot them. We can identify them. We are all a family spreading the word. And they are doomed. I do believe in the next generation, they will be culled from our society. Of course, a few will remain. Hopefully . . very few.
alarm bells, red flags, intuition, responses that draw the psychopath into the open so we can see them and walk around them, cut them off, take em to court, get a protection order, cut loose, recover and never stop spreading the word…
I tell the kids in secondary school, we have discussions, they become conscious of the possibility there are some people who have no conscience, who do not care and the best way to deal with it is to wake up and respond by protecting self….Telling people is effective, because the psychopath relies on innocence and politeness to get the hook in.
one/joy_step_at_a_time
hey bulletproof! (still do conversion in my head to your old name 😉 )
your last line about why we are compliant: ‘innocence and politeness’ also explains quite succinctly HOW she got her hooks into me: by PRETENDING TO BE INNOCENT AND POLITE – Two things I am extremely responsive to. FK!
thank you!
ErinBrock
Delete.
ErinBrock
HI.