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The Neuroscientist Who Discovered He Was a Psychopath
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Joseph Stromberg writes at the Smithsonian that one afternoon in October 2005, neuroscientist James Fallon was sifting through thousands of PET scans to find anatomical patterns in the brain that correlated with psychopathic tendencies in the real world. 'Out of serendipity, I was also doing a study on Alzheimer's and as part of that, had brain scans from me and everyone in my family right on my desk,' writes Fallon. 'I got to the bottom of the stack, and saw this scan that was obviously pathological.' When he looked up the code, he was greeted by an unsettling revelation: the psychopathic brain pictured in the scan was his own. When he underwent a series of genetic tests, he got more bad news. 'I had all these high-risk alleles for aggression, violence and low empathy,' he says, such as a variant of the MAO-A gene that has been linked with aggressive behavior. It wasn't entirely a shock to Fallon, as he'd always been aware that he was someone especially motivated by power and manipulating others. Additionally, his family line included seven alleged murderers, including Lizzie Borden, infamously accused of killing her father and stepmother in 1892. Many of us would hide this discovery and never tell a soul, out of fear or embarrassment of being labeled a psychopath. Perhaps because boldness and disinhibition are noted psychopathic tendencies, Fallon has gone in the opposite direction, telling the world about his finding in a TED Talk, an NPR interview and now a new book published last month, The Psychopath Inside. 'Since finding all this out and looking into it, I've made an effort to try to change my behavior,' says Fallon. 'I've more consciously been doing things that are considered "the right thing to do," and thinking more about other people's feelings.'"
If he were a psychopath, he'd not be disturbed by it. Of course, maybe he's only faking being disturbed by it to promote his career.
In the US are psychopaths. The med school selection process encourages it. The pay/power scales back it up.
Elizabeth Bordon took an axe
And gave her Mother forty wacks
And when the job was nicely done
She gave her Father forty-one
maybe psychopaths are not as one-dimensional as you think.
I question the serendipitous discovery. As a neuroscientist aware of his family's predilection for anti-social behavior, wouldn't his interest in this career path likely have been influenced by curiosity about himself?
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
as a psychopath perhaps he realized he could achieve more fame and therefore more power by coming forth and adapting himself to new ways. I've always understood that psychos were perfectly capable of being nice people. It's just they don't feel an intrinsic need to be nice people so they aren't nice unless it serves some purpose.
Just another second banana
Maybe this guy proves that despite your genes you still have a choice. No excuse like "I'm sorry your honor, I couldn't help killing him, it's because of my bad genes".
I am not really here right now.
The most troubling aspect of this story is that the person felt that he needed to change his behaviour when he learned society would diagnose him as abnormal, despite having been a functional member of society and a respected scientist for several decades with his behaviour as-is.
The problem with psychopathy is that the very definition came from selection bias.
We took a bunch of people who exhibited aberrant behaviour (socially unacceptable behaviour) and looked for common attributes. Then we invented a name for these attributes ("psychopathic") and the name became associated with the behaviour, but not the attributes.
There is abundant evidence that psychopathic tendencies are a spectrum. It's not a binary label, there's levels and shades of grey.
There is also abundant evidence that psychopathic tendencies are common.
There is also the evolutionary model, which proposes that leadership requires vision that isn't swayed by other people. The tribe will occasionally need leaders, so it's an advantage to have some psychopaths in the population. They are the ones who can step back and analyze a situation rationally, who aren't helpless against the flow of public opinion, and are immune to groupthink and mob psychology.
It should come as no surprise that lots of people are closet psychopaths, to any specific degree. The problem isn't that they are psychopaths, it's that they somehow feel that that they are damaged, dangerous, or somehow unacceptable. (Viz: gay people).
Relax, it's all right. We've identified a set of genes, you have a subset, and life is what you make of it.
1.) he was someone especially motivated by power and manipulating others
2.) MAO-A gene that has been linked with aggressive behavior
3.) is family line included seven alleged murderers
It's not all bad genes, but his genes affect his behaviour pretty strong, and the genes(family line) increase the chance of turning into a murderer.
The question is when will the trigger level be reached where he cannot suppress the violent tendencies and go postal. Yes he might have learned to emphasize
or simply learned to emulate it pretty convincing. And there is another question perhaps some folks at slashdot don't have the mild form of asperger but are just psychopaths, and get into a rage like "Hans Reiser".
So psychological conditioning is very important in these cases too, do you get a bonus for treating people in a human way or in an inhuman way.
- Is your peer group awarding you for helping someone or for calling someone a sissy, faggot or else ?
- Do you get a bonus if you treat your fellow workers with respect or you just use their burned out corpses as a ladder for your own success
And well taking these additional thoughts into consideration - soldiers are trained not to emphasize with the enemy, soldiers being awarded for brave behaviour (brave=where mostly the basis is a good rage like killing spree) - amok runs like the one in washington are a consequence of this trained behaviour and genetic disposition.
And the major question is how would a psycho-scan of the GOP and the Democrats turn out, because if you recall the term "liberal sissy" it carries a very distinct aggressive undertone and aims at casting someone out of a social group, and these are sociopahs (read: "manipulating others").
It's genes it's the environment it's the education the question is is there any free will or just a trigger level a source and a drain ?
Well, if you're going to buy into the whole scheme of quantitative analysis, that we are reducible to a set of statistics, it makes sense to surrender to the scheme.
Particularly the part about his 'genetic history' contributing to his pathology is telling. Shake that rattle witch doctors. Use numbers the way a numerologist would.
Out of how many? That seems like a whole lot of murderers.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
Lets start on people in positions of power... politicians..CEOs. Surely the numbers would be off the charts. I don't think anyone can rise to the top of the political or capitalist systems and be a really really nice person.
Spot on.
We ALL have psychopathic tendencies, empathic tendencies, etc ad nauseum. All of us learn, from the cradle, what is "acceptable" behavior, and what is not. We are all born with the potential to become almost anything, good or bad. Some of us have to work hard to learn some things, others of us just follow our natural inclinations.
We actually NEED all of these traits, IMHO. Consider the doctor - if he's psychopathic, then he's probably a cold, analytical, unfeeling kind of guy. Is that necessarily a "bad thing"? Absolutely not - those traits are good things in a scientist. He isn't going to allow stupid feelings, opinions, or emotions stand in the way of his research.
Sure, there is probably some point, or degree, at which being psychopathic makes you totally worthless to society. Where is that point?
Lizzie Borden probably had some value, up until she committed murder. PERHAPS had she been properly evaluated, and received counseling, she might have understood herself, and the people around her better. Being better able to relate with her family and acquaintances, she may have made more intelligent decisions. Or not - each person remains an individual after all. We each make conscious decisions to get along with people, or not to get along.
IMHO, we, as a race, developed all of our traits and tendencies for a reason. Even our worst traits have value under certain conditions and circumstances. Our best traits can actually work against us in other conditions and circumstances.
I wonder how many slashdotters have ever taken a test, only to learn things about themselves that they didn't know. A leadership course in the Navy included a self-evaluation test, that was never turned in to the instructors. The purpose of the test was to reveal to the student which type of leadership he could use most effectively. You may, or may not, imagine my surprise to learn that I was primarily an authoritarian. (note that being 'primarily' authoritarian doesn't preclude other tendencies) Once I understood that somewhat important fact, I was able to improve my leadership ability tremendously.
We could probably all benefit from a little self analysis.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Let's take somebody from a privileged background with good breeding and then transpose his life with that of a common man. More specifically a petty thief with inferior parental lineage. We'll get the privileged individual brought up on charges, remove his access to money and his home and create false situations where he's accused of theft! At the same time we'll take the petty thief and give him all of the privileges, money and responsibilities in life. I assert that the man of good breeding will always conduct himself with dignity and honor regardless of the circumstance while the petty thief will always act like a common thug. That's because one's parents genetics determine what we become in life, forget education and opportunity if you're born from an oak tree you're strong, from a willow, soft.
I'll bet you a standard gentleman's wager, $1....
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
A different way to look at it is that the genes alone don't determine the individual, there are other mitigating factors involved.
I have a deep distrust of any science that is as powerful in every way including political and yet has such enormous inconsistency to it.
I refer to psychiatry of course.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
I heard an interview with him, and it's worth pointing out that just because you have gene(s) that predispose you to something doesn't mean it's a random roll of the dice whether you get it or not. There's an interaction between genes and environment (it's not a simple "is it nature or nurture?"). In his case, the psychopathic tendencies only come out if you have a bad childhood. In other words, if two children have bad childhoods, the one with the bad genes will end up being truly bad, but the one with the good genes ends up without the psychopathic tendencies. But, if both children have good nurturing childhoods, your genes don't matter so much.
"Did you ever take that test yourself? Deckard?"
The Wikipedia article was quite informative and even had some nice pictures of the parents' bodies. For the curious, the actual number of hatchet (not axe) wounds appears to have been 10-11 chops to the head and face for the father (including one that split one of his eyeballs in two), and 19 blows to the head of the mother from behind, crushing her skull. There is some question about whether someone tried to poison them before the axe murders, as the family had been violently ill in the few days preceding. No evidence of poisoning was found during the autopsy, however. Whoever killed them, the motive appears to have been money, with the Bordens' estate being worth about $10 million in present day dollars.
I felt bad for the man who had no signature, until I met a man who had no comment.
IMHO, we, as a race, were created by God and anything that doesn't adhere to the most average standard representation of God's image (aka normal) is a pathology that represents an incursion of the forces of hell into our heavenly realm. Therefore, it must be cured and harnessed to prevent the spread of evil.
If we were to take it as given that psychopathy is a good thing for a leader to have -- not just good for him but good for those led -- then how ought a person to vote informed by that knowledge?
Should I uniformly vote for the most ruthless person in every race? Or should I identify the most ruthless person at the highest level and then vote for him and the people he will most readily use to accomplish his purposes?
Or can I take into account what his apparent goals are? If he's truly psychopathic, it should go without saying that his goals are not my goals. He does not have my best interest at heart. Rather, my goals are important to him only insofar as they help him accomplish HIS goals, which are ultimately selfish.
What about my own smaller organization? Should I try to identify psychopathic traits in my subordinates and if so should I weed them out or cultivate them? Which is more beneficial to my purposes? Is the same to the long term good of my organization?
And how about this? Your future wife will be a leader of your family. Will a psychopathic wife make a good mother for my kids or should I play it safe and pick a nice empathic woman? Certainly it would make me happier to have an empathic wife, but what about the good of the children?
Jimmy Fallon is a psychopath.
Not everyone who is a psychopath chooses to do evil. It's well known that many people who lack a visceral, emotional "sense of right and wrong" operate instead on logic and rules that substitute for a sense of right and wrong; and like this person, they seek feedback from trusted people about the morality of their actions. For them, being a psychopath is a brain disability which can be dealt with, and not a license to run around killing people and wreaking havoc.
I think we forgot the value of "cooler intellect." Rational introspection doesn't seem to be of value anymore. This is largely practiced in order put people into a trance in which they can be easily convinced to shop. But we can keep out of science, can't we? Suppressing ones emotions (including empathy) is more important when attempting to analyze a situation than embracing them.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
something tells me the test is not quite 100% accurate
So, you are saying that Jimmy Fallon is a psychopath.? He seems like such a nice guy on TV. But, that may explain how he got the Tonight Show gig. Isn't that how Leno got it?
I'll have to watch the TED talk. I find I have both mild psychopathic thought tendencies and also issues with depression. In my case they generally balance each other out rather than feeding each other. Perhaps the one issue is due to continued suppression of the other. Related to an earlier story, I also hear "voices" in my head -- basically I have a more or less continuous internal discussion going on in the background. I have had to sit down and have a "conversation with myself" on a couple of occasions to remind myself what is the correct thing to do, what is the "correct" behavior. Similarly the "angry voice" has had to kick me out of a depression state on more than one occasion.
I use various techniques, learned over the 20+ years of my adult life, to maintain a balance. I can shut out the voices with the right music. I meditate. I can readily visualize objects -- and will work through various manipulations dissassembling and re-assembling them to occupy my mind. I extend that into the physical by building cars, electronics, other projects. If overstressed I find a physical task like splitting wood and work myself to exhaustion.
I'm not perfect. I've broken both hands punching walls and given myself a mild concussion once, to avoid attacking another person. I recognize the angry, anti-social and psychotic side coming out and I walk away. I manage.
Am I a productive member of society? Yes. I have a family that I take care of. I have a job as an engineer. I keep my head down and give other people credit in order to keep people from noticing me, in spite of the urge to step on people and seek more power for myself. I participate in civic events. I give to a few charities because I tell myself it's the right thing to do.
Am I concerned I might lose control? No. Are there situations I can imagine giving in to those urges? Yes.
Arguably true...but then, it depends what you mean by true psychopathy -> if I care for only my family, or my tribe, am I a psychopath? If I am exhausted from caring for people beyond my resources and capacity...am I an evil person?
I am John Hurt.
Anyone who hates the Irish doesn't get to drink with us.
I am John Hurt.
Most happily warp their own perceptions of situations to make themselves the "good" guy while they fuck people over. Heard of doublethink? How about propaganda for transmitting the same to others? Psychopaths are ironically more sane and less sloppy.
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head."
This doctor is doing exactly what psychopaths do: he is charming and manipulating the public, creating a safe zone for himself and we have absolutely no idea what he may or may not be lying about.
I wouldn't go near that guy for anything.
Further, I suspect that he is being propped up on some level as a poster boy for the imaginary "Good" psychopath in order to muddy the argument in the public sphere.
Nature v. Nurture
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
Most doctors in the US are psychopaths.
It would be worth studying why assertions like this get an instant mod-up from the geek without a single citation to support them.
That is nicely put and concise. I would add that (my guess) belief systems have a major impact both on psychopaths and non-psychopaths. And I don't know if psychopaths may be more amenable to do very ugly things than non-psychopaths.
A belief system of the type "The world is a jungle and you have to be ruthless and stop at nothing" can have very ugly effects at times. Likewise 'a leader has to have a big picture vision and should do what it takes to achieve it and not be afraid to break a few eggs on the way'.
That's very interesting. How should I interpret this averaging? Does God have one ball and one tit?
Granted, my knowledge of psychopathy is based in psychology and not neurology, but rather than degrees of psychopathy it's better to think of types of psychopaths. While there is a scale or spectrum of psychopathy, measured by the Revised Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R, or PCL-YV for the Youth Variation), subjects are generally extremely psychopathic or not at all. To be deemed a psychopath a subject need a score >= 30, 40 is the maximum. For a simple comparison, the typical 'career criminal' scores, on average, a 20 on the PCL-R. For the true psychopaths, it is the type of psychopathy that is of primary importance. Of the ten basic subtypes of psychopaths, only two --malevolent psychopaths and tyrannical psychopaths-- are characterized by overt anti-social behavior and violence, the two rarest but the two most commonly associated with the term 'psychopath' in popular culture. The rest are more driven by material gains (this isn't necessarily 'better', but it is much more common and probably, given my extremely limited knowledge of the subject, what drives Dr. Fallon if he is a true psychopath). The two violent subtypes are predominantly characterized by sadism and extreme self-aggrandizement, respectively (murderous variants of these two types rarely kill only one victim, as the violence amuses them). For example, sexually sadistic serial killers such as Ted Bundy are malevolent psychopaths; a serial killer like the Zodiac Killer who taunts authorities and views his (not a sexist pronouns, 80% of psychopaths are men) victims as inferior i.e.: the Zodiac 'hunting people' and his belief that after his death "ALL THEI [sic] HAVE KILLED WILL BECOME MY SLAVES."
But, again, this understanding is psychological not neurological. However, there is most likely a genetic component, as psychopathy appears equally across social classes and family environments. Further, psychopaths cannot be successfully treated psychologically. In fact, treatment generally exacerbates their qualities and makes them better psychopaths be teaching them to recognize, and thus better mask, their distinctive psychopathic traits.
Sheeple are supposed to take mainstream media reports like this at face value and NOT see the real story contained within.
Neuroscientist James Fallon announces that brain scans are appropriate for PRE-CRIME detection purposes.
It is an old medical propaganda TRICK where the doctor declares that he's tried the method on himself, and therefore it is obvious that the method is ready for use against the general public. This uses the psychology of "WOULD I DO IT TO MYSELF IF IT WAS BAD?"
In the 40s and 50s, American neuroscientists at the highest level attempted to get psycho-surgery (brain butchery like pre-frontal lobotomy) as commonplace as inoculations in society. Forced brain surgery on the 'under classes' (which in the USA at the time included EVERY Italian- a shocking side of US historical racism long forgotten) was promoted in popular pulp fiction like "Doc Savage" (the character from whom the 'inventors' of 'Superman' stole most of their ideas).
Indeed, the highest prizes in medicine were awarded to those who promoted lobotomies as the 'cure' for every societal 'ailment' including 'habitual' criminals, restless children, and women who didn't enjoy the sexist dominance of males in society.
Imagine how enthusiastically vile, depraved West friendly Middle East regimes like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain would apply this technology to their 'dissidents' proving that democracy protesters were really anti-social psychopaths who need to be executed or locked up for life.
Will YOU fall for the simple propaganda trick in this story? Or will you recognise the pattern of history behind 'researchers' who tell us to trust them because they experiment on themselves? The owners of Slashdot are banking on you being this stupid- if you are not convinced, spend an hour online researching the history of medical atrocities in the USA, going back to the massive use of 'slaves' as Human guinea pigs for live Human experimentation in every major US university.
No, he was still a brutal mugger who beat his wife and bit a mans ear the fuck off.
Changing his environment just gave him new targets.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
out of fear or embarrassment of being labeled a psychopath. Perhaps because boldness and disinhibition are noted psychopathic tendencies, Fallon has gone in the opposite direction, telling the world about his finding in a TED Talk, an NPR interview and now a new book published last month, The Psychopath Inside
I'd infer that his "boldness and inhibition" suggest that he's tenured.
Indeed. I think I've heard about this guy on the radio. When it comes to the 'murdering psychopath' twist, it was identified that you not only needed the genes, they also generally had to be 'activated' by a horribly abusive childhood.
IE you have a reasonably well adjusted member of society if you raised your potential psychopath well, or a person without the genes horribly(sad as that is). It's only when the two mix that you get serial killers.
Just because you're a psychopath doesn't mean you need to be a murderer - as I like to joke: 'I'd have no problems killing you, but hiding the bodies is such a pain'.
Personally, I believe in the 'social contract'. Humans are NOT set up to 'go at it alone'.
I don't read AC A human right
anyone can try and overcome and get help with their issues if they first acknowledge them, decide to try to address them, and let others know. You don't have to do it alone, and you will be accepted. Keep trying, and you will succeed.
The claim was 30%, not 10%.
Subsequent investigation revealed that the actual rate was closer to 80% for engaging the enemy, and the remaining 20% were more often engaged in tasks more important than them, personally, shooting at the enemy - including things like calling in airstrikes/artillery, delivering ammo, and treating the wounded.
The only way you could get it down to anywhere near 10% is if you include support troops that never saw a battlefield.
I don't read AC A human right
What is most interesting about your rant, is that you sound like a psycopath in saying it.
Anyway, personally, I can turn off any sense of empathy at will. I figure that comes with certain genetics, and I'm not embarrassed about that fact. Mind you I also don't put myself into that state be because I don't believe it is emotionally healthy.
I'm not a mental-health practitioner, but my lay opinion is that you just disqualified yourself as a psychopath.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Who gives a shit about other people's feelings.
Yes. Many in the US and other 1st world countries are aware that most of the world lives in poverty. Hundreds of millions are lacking adequate food, water, shelter, medical care, etc. We have the resources and technology to help everyone, but collectively we don't really care enough to. Many just tune it out and are more interested what the latest celebrities are up to (Kim Kardashian, etc).
We are all psychopaths to some level. Except maybe Mother Theresa?
Movie characters aren't real people. Just so you know.
Having learned that psychopaths are more attractive to women than guys who have good jobs and don't punch them in the face, I'd like to have a brain scan and see if I'm lucky enough to be a psychopath. If I am, maybe I can get laid!
But I need to point something out that I don't think has been remarked on here...
The understanding of what psychopathology is, it's only a model.
Strangely, I once knew an anesthesiologist who was just like this. He tried to strangle me in public once, but before that he'd tell us about all sorts of things he'd done to other people, professional rules he loved to break, pictures he'd take of patients when they weren't looking.
Great-looking guy, highly successful, but he did fit the descriptions above, esp. when he flipped his shit.
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+5 troll, indeed.
Well said, please mod up the parent!
Why would a clinical psychopath come clean?
Perhaps you want examples of the modern psychopath. Commodity traders who trade in essential food options knowing full well, their profits drive up the prices of food, resulting in millions not being able to afford it and starving to death. Pharmaceutical corporations with drugs running up to 10,000 percent markup, to maximise profit knowing full well millions will die suffering in agony as a result of not be able to afford the profit margins not the drugs. Here is a bit from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy, not in no way does my use of language reflect psychopathy as I make not claims about myself but then that doesn't matter as we both know who you and your fellow modders are, consider the agencies who monitor this site, you have exposed yourself for nothing, well, just to insult me ;).
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
As per research studies there is no such thing as intrinsic motivation. http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/inmotiv.htm
Casteism