Are you one and don’t know it? This is a fascinating article about psychopaths and the world’s leading expert on them.
[Dr. Robert ] Hare once illustrated this for Nicole Kidman, who had invited him to Hollywood to help her prepare for a role as a psychopath in Malice. How, she wondered, could she show the audience there was something fundamentally wrong with her character?
“I said, ‘Here’s a scene that you can use,’ ” Hare says. ” ‘You’re walking down a street and there’s an accident. A car has hit a child in the crosswalk. A crowd of people gather round. You walk up, the child’s lying on the ground and there’s blood running all over the place. You get a little blood on your shoes and you look down and say, “Oh shit.” You look over at the child, kind of interested, but you’re not repelled or horrified. You’re just interested. Then you look at the mother, and you’re really fascinated by the mother, who’s emoting, crying out, doing all these different things. After a few minutes you turn away and go back to your house. You go into the bathroom and practice mimicking the facial expressions of the mother.’ ” He then pauses and says, “That’s the psychopath: somebody who doesn’t understand what’s going on emotionally, but understands that something important has happened.”
My ex sister-in-law is like this.
That’s not the mind of a Psycopath, that’s the mind of a woman, she’s probably thinking “less competition for my baby.”
That’s a gross oversimplification…
The behavior he described is known as ‘lack of affect’ and cannot be taken (by itself) as evidence of socio- or psychopathology; it’s one symptom alone, and it’s also symptomatic of other, unrelated mental disorders.
A true psychopath might’ve, after noticing blood on their shoes, viciously kicked the kid and said “You fuckin’ brat, look what you did to my shoes!”
Violating social norms with no guilt and utter lack of empathy for others are true signs of the psychopath. Simply being coldly unemotional is not.
I work with a person like this. She regards me as a marksman regards a target.
I’m interested in hearing more about the Laren the Ghoti personality evaluation test.
You learn something new every day the old adage goes, in my case I learned today that Lauren has credentials that exceed those of Dr. Hare and his 30+ years of study and publication. Thanks for the point of clarification on Dr. Hare’s error Lauren. I trust you have contacted the authorities in various governmental institutions so you can help fill in where Dr. Hare’s simplifications dont penitrate deep enough.
What scared me (guess I’m not a pysco) is many of the traits he mentioned are close to how I would describe myself. I want to see the rest of the list. I worked in a prison for some time and these types are very obvious to spot, nothing ever seems to have a real effect on their actions or thoughts.
I have to take issue with Lauren, too.
My “expertise” 😉 comes from reading Ann Rule’s book on Ted Bundy.
(OK, I’m no expert but…) in Rule’s book, Ted Bundy was hard to tell from the average person.
I think most people have the ability to disconnect from the suffering of others. It’s probably a coping mechanism; if we had compassion for every one of the millions of suffering in the world, we’d burn out.
So, I suppose it’s a matter of proximity. The psychopaths can see suffering or even cause it and not feel compassion.
#7 – I think most people have the ability to disconnect from the suffering of others.
You think? You mean the evidence isn’t clear enough for you yet?
My brother IS a psychopath. When I was a kid I used to say that he ‘acted for the audience’, meaning that he never did anything out of genuine initiative, he observed others and then mimicked what seemed the most popular behaviors.
He now has an army of admirers who, if he decided to kill someone, would testify that the victim was guilty for being killed, without even considering the evidence – and I MEAN THIS FOR REAL – it would actually happen!
I also used to say he lacked a bit of brain that would make him ‘human’. He boasted of being able to lie without blinking (some girlfriend told him that, and he was actually PROUD of it!!!), and that one of my main faults with girls was that I actually LIKED them…
I noticed all of this when I was still in my 10 or 11 years old!!! And now I see other people with similar behaviors in the top management ranks of the company where I work.
And everyone likes them and says I’m nuts… Until it’s too late…
Arrius, have you been to my place, seen what pieces of paper hang on my walls?
Didn’t think so. So until you do, a large dose of STFU is indicated.
• • • • • • • •
Hare is a widely known and respected authority on the topic – but the example cited in that article only illustrates one minor aspect of what constitutes a psychopath, and not the fundamental characteristic, absence of conscience.
I’ll accept the blame for not being more explicit in my correction: the error was on the part of the article’s author, not Dr. Hare… you drew the perhaps understandable, but still erroneous, inference that I was taking issue with the Dr., which I was not.
Pffft. 😛
You’re right, Miguel…
We’ve reached a point of fucked-upedness in this society that people who exhibit psycho traits are actually rewarded instead of shunned. Pretty fuckin’ sad state of affairs when people who by rights should be taken out back and shot are instead admired and emulated. I mean, Jeebus.
Lauren,
Since I have only seen your walls throught he distorted camera hidden in your power outlet, please forgive my oversight on the papers that hang there. Perhaps in leau of seeing those papers in person you could direct me to your publications or the list of doctorial graduates that have studied under your supervision.
The article seems quite clear that Dr. Hare related the scene in which a person walks in blood and does not attach any emotions to the topic, not the author of the article covering Dr. Hare. So I dont quite follow your thoughts here. You are indeed criticing Dr. Hare and his experience with Mrs Kidman, not the person that wrote the article and merely related the experience of what Dr. Hare told Mrs Kidman.
I don’t really see the dispute here. Lauren already said he wasn’t disputing Dr. Hare, just that the example given didn’t really cover psychopathy. No doubt Dr. Hare would agree.
I read recently of an experiment, in Scotland I think, where they showed convicts who had been classified as psychopaths a series of pictures of faces expressing grief, pain, etc. Certain portions of their brains that light up when normal people see the pictures remained dark to the MRI among the psychopaths. That was a test of empathy, and the psychopaths simply didn’t have any. So the bit about going home and practicing an emotion was spot on – psychopaths don’t feel emotions or empathize with others the way normal people do. So they practice mimicry because they do know it’s important to others. I apologize that I couldn’t find the link – I did go look for it.
New Scientist, in a section that unfortunately requires a subscription, ran an article in 2004 on the general subject,. Here is a pertinent excerpt:
It is only recently that psychopathy has been defined by criminal or antisocial acts. In the 1940s, the definition relied chiefly on personality traits – narcissism, lack of remorse, lack of empathy, ability to manipulate others and inability to accept responsibility. These traits, if they persist over time, are still what distinguish psychopathic antisocial behaviour from “normal” aggression or teenage rebelliousness. Thinking is now reverting to these older descriptions, with researchers beginning to concur that there are degrees of psychopathic personality, rather than its being an all-or-none character flaw. It means that a larger subset of society is included.
As far back as 1977, Cathy Spatz Widom, then at Harvard University, suggested a means of luring what she called “non-institutionalised psychopaths” out into the open. She put an ad in a non-mainstream Boston paper: “Wanted: charming, aggressive, carefree people who are impulsively irresponsible but are good at handling people and looking after number one.” Of the 73 people who responded, she interviewed 29. All of them met the criteria for psychopathy as defined by personality traits and antisocial behaviour, and two-thirds had a history of arrest. But of those who had been arrested, only 18 per cent had been convicted. On the whole, they had managed to stay out of prison. The main difference she noted between her respondents and convicted criminals who were typically studied at that time was that they were better educated. She showed that if you went looking for psychopathic traits in the non-criminal population, you would find them.
Sorry about the length. The article, with the charming title “Snakes In Suits,” is at http://tinyurl.com/345x3j for those with subscriber access.
Quote:
“Three decades of these studies, by Hare and others, has confirmed that psychopaths’ brains work differently from ours, especially when processing emotion and language. Hare once illustrated this for Nicole Kidman, who had invited him to Hollywood to help her prepare for a role as a psychopath in Malice. How, she wondered, could she show the audience there was something fundamentally wrong with her character?
“I said, ‘Here’s a scene that you can use,’ ” Hare says. ” ‘You’re walking down a street and there’s an accident. A car has hit a child in the crosswalk…..
”
Not to beat a dead horse but lets at least rest the conversation on a logical point. Dr. Hare would disagree with his own analogy Geezer? Pray explain that one.
My point was Lauren rebutted my original comment on the grounds that she didnt disagree with Dr. Hare, but then she called his story off the point. Dr. Hare presented the scene of the person witnessing a horrific event but not feeling the emotional aspects of the event, and therefor needs to pretend in a mirror and mimic those that actually do have feelings on the matter.
C’mon, Arrius. I didn’t say Hare would disagree with his own analogy. I said he would agree with Lauren that it doesn’t give the whole picture. Get it?
Sheesh.
I’m not suffering from mental illness, I kind of enjoy it!
Get a grip people! Read the whole article where the other aspects of the disorder are mentioned. The example he gave to Kidman was to provide enough reference so she could play a role in a film, to APPEAR psychotic, not become an expert in all aspects of the disorder. Crips!
dammit. looks like im a psychopath.
I’m forced to agree with Lauren the Bigot to an extent. One criterion missing here is the component the sociopath or psychopath has not of just indifference, but pleasure in others’ pain, and, often, pleasure in causing pain. Another is that the sociopath or psychopath does not need group back up, i.e., societal approval.
But, I must also partly agree with Lauren’s critics. Researchers have shown that given an opportunity to ‘torture’ another person most people, in Western societies at least, will. The majority of a society can support behavior that is pathological, such as unjust wars, racism, slavery and genocide. So, the notion of a clear dividing line between, say Lauren, and a Ted Bundy is not supported.
I’m sore amazed that an cynically amoral professional Marxist propagandist and general bullshit artist such as yourself doesn’t make any effort to expand his repetoire of deceitful ploys and strategems beyond the tired ad hominem and straw man fallacies your “arguments” are so dependent on…
But upon due reconsideration, I suppose that’s because nothing more subtle is needed to pull the wool over the eyes of the sort of feeble-minded souls who’re sufficiently gullible to fall for your lame-ass pseudoliberal PC doubletalk and buncombe in the first place.
A hypocritical Al Sharpton clone in whiteface like you needs nothing resembling facts or logic – just self-righteous name-calling and underhanded diversions from the fatal flaws in your ludicrous “arguments.” After all, no point in messing with a winning formula, eh, Podperson?
I’ll just leave your smug ass with some choice words from Miss Jean Knight:
Mr. Big Stuff –
Tell me, tell me
Who do you think you’re foolin’? 🙂
I think medicine is taking the fun out of mocking people that work in marketing departments.
Such vitriol! The answer to your question, Rodney King, is: no – apparently, we cannot, no matter how much we have in common.
Hare says: “THAT’S THE PSYCHOPATH: somebody who doesn’t understand what’s going on emotionally, but understands that something important has happened.” (Emphasis added)
This cannot convey properly what is psychopathic behaivour. This is an example to help an actress whom probably has no training in abnormal psychology to get an IDEA of what the roie MIGHT entail.
IF we ONLY go by this very simple explanation by Hare, then WE could say that on 9/11 when the first plane struck and Bush kept reading the book in the school, instead of leaping to his feet and leaving to do get more information and still remaining after the second plane hit and they told him; then Bush would be by this example ALONE a psychopath. I do not believe that President Bush is a psychopath, I do believe that he has emotional detachment due to his upbringing, but he is not a full blown psychopath.
This example and explanation cannot be the sole criteria for the condition. If that was so, most americans whom have witnessed the condition of Darfur and sent to email, phone call or letter to their representatives to stop the violence there are ALL psychopaths.
So are we a nation of psychopaths? Hardly.
Are we a nation that has trouble with emotional detacthment?
Just open your eyes.
Cursor_
WTF people?
What’s wrong with being a psychopath? As long as psychos aren’t hurting anybody else, leave them alone!
This is psycho-profiling at its worst, and I resemble that!
Does anyone know if profusely meretricious rants are a product of an unloving daddy figure when an adolescent or something? Not enough hugs when growing up perhaps?
While we are quoting songs:
-I am the maker of rules dealing with fools.
-I can cheat you blind.
-And I dont need to see anymore to know that I can read your mind.
-APP
#8 OhForTheLoveOf
I’m curious… which personality type ignores the content of what someone says and, instead, targets a perceived weakness in the way he said it?