Posted on 08/04/2009 3:15:48 PM PDT by GraceG
Scientists have long searched for a biological basis for psychopathy, a behavioral disorder attributed to chronic immorality. While previous studies have found no clear evidence, Professor Declan Murphy of the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London believes he has found an area of the brain that is decidedly different in a psychopath as compared to a normal person.
It is unsurprising that much of the research to date has focused on the amygdale (the part of the brain involved with emotions and aggression) and the orbitofrontal cortex (which deals in decision making). However, an unstudied area is the uncinate fasciculus (UF), a white matter region that connects the amygdale and the orbitofrontal cortex. While the UF may not have a direct behavioral role, its dysfunction may lead to abnormalities in the areas which it connects.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
>>>> and if they have it then make them ineligible for office... <<<<<
Great idea!
Capitol Hill would become a ghost town.
they make the best soldiers, surgeons etc.
they just don't have feelings of sympathy/empathy. However, they CAN be moral.
Good post and good subject graceg.
Hopefully you mean disarm or disable another nightmare.
Psychopathy by definition includes history of a variety of "immoral" behaviors.
Screen, Hell, open them up and take a good look! You might lose a few that way, but they breed like rats and grow like weeds!
Another correlational study, just like the “research” that supposedly uncovered a “gay gene”. Fact is we don’t know whether structural brain abnormalities cause psychopathology or if they are caused by psychopathology.
BTW, here in American, it is the “amygdala” not the “amygdale”.
Yes but the most successful psychopaths are those that have learned to fit in and channel whatever aggression they may feel into something useful. There are psychopaths you know and work with in all likelihood. You just don't realise it because they've learned how to behave- they see it as a means to an end. Some psychopaths get very adept at passing psychological evaluations, for example.
A good book to read that touches on this subject is - On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society by Lt. Col David Grossman. A very good read.
A lot of sociopaths/psychopaths gravitate towards the military or law enforcement. In the military, in the combat arms, it pays for a platoon leader to identify these soldiers because they are 'combat mulitpliers' and you want to place them so they can have the biggest effect- i.e. on a crew served weapon like a machine gun. They are usually very aggressive and don't display or react to fear the same way the ordinary person would. They also don't get upset about killing. In combat, other soldiers can be inspired by these 'natural killers' to drop their inhibitions to killing (which are natural in a normal human) and to kill the enemy with greater effectiveness.
This is something that is known in the military. It isn't Hollywood fabrication. Not to argue with you but I agree with Mariner. I was in the infantry. I knew quite a lot of soldiers who were sociopaths. The infantry was a good job for them because it provided them with a rigid framework of control and a channel for their aggression and (it must be said)- with the hope that they might be able to kill one day with the sanction of their society.
While the Hollywood myth is untrue, not all psychopaths are antisocial. This is because, like with many mental conditions, there is a gray scale to the degree in which they are psychopathic.
Most people, at least for a time, can imitate being psychopathic, when a situation needs some degree of emotionless ruthlessness, or uncaring sentiment.
“The psychopath is defined by an uninhibited gratification in criminal, sexual, or aggressive impulses and the inability to learn from past mistakes. Individuals with this disorder gain satisfaction through their antisocial behavior and lack remorse for their actions.”
But this describes a full psychopath. Importantly, while a lesser psychopath will not learn from their mistakes, they often *can* learn to imitate the actions of someone who cares. And this is often almost as good.
Some lesser psychopaths turn to religion, and for example, if Christian, *literally* ask themselves “What would Jesus do?”, as a serious question. Then they try to behave in a manner as they think Jesus would have in that situation.
A “polite psychopath” once described what his state of mind was like, by saying that no matter what happened around him, he could not “care”. Emotionally neutral, he said he just didn’t feel emotions, or register them from others, so had to use the context of the situation.
However, he could make himself laugh at a joke, or pretend to be sad and even cry when he could tell it was appropriate, as did Bill Clinton when leaving Ron Brown’s funeral. Laughing one second and crying the next, when he saw the camera.
Some psychopaths are adventure nuts like Steve Fossett and Marco Polo. Some psychopaths are evil and bad things like Lori Drew and Joseph Stalin. It depends on how one channels it. One reason I believe evil is a choice people make. Psychopath and psychotic are two different things.
"Die Infidels!"
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