The unburdened mind

Psychopath is such a negative sounding word and tends to group many very different personalities into one group that tends to be recognized by the negative personalities in that group.

If you're an extreme genius and extremely creative, then that's all there is to it. If you happen to use those gifts to your benefit, even if some others disapprove, because of their jealously, then, so be it.

Why call me something that sounds utterly ugly when you could just call me to dinner, where we could discuss our next manipulative move. Again, manipulative even sounds a little negative, but isn't, necessarily.

Getting what you want by using seemingly devious means, with the help of extreme mental capabilities, isn't necessarily evil. Some of us use it for the good of others, or for ourselves, which couldn't possibly be evil. For, who matters most in this world, but me!!!

Love and Peace, ObiaMan

Yes, a very interesting article Jade especially since we're finding it to be more and more common.

ObiaMan: What?!

Very interesting and possibly quite right. Those who claw their way to the top backstabbing and stepping on others do exhibit a rather pyshopathic and sociopathic personality.

I totally agree with Cosmo.

Well Cosmo, apparently that was the case the past 8 years. Not sure about the previous presidents. I am not surprised by these findings Jade, in fact just reading up or studying serial killer or their cases would show you that it does take an incredibly high intelligence for the more successful killers to be able to get away with their crimes. Most times they are caught not due to efficient detective work, but rather overconfidence and sloppiness on the part of the killers themselves. One can only imagine what they could apply their intelligence toward given the right medications or rather the right therapy for their mental "illness". It seems most "intelligent psychopaths" seem to go down the path of murder for the same reason, they are either righting a wrong in their life or proving themselves to others and more importantly themselves. Obviously their environment contributes to these needs and makes it easier for them to snap.

We live in a world that all too often projects or externalizes itself into, onto or attributes to others it's own thoughts, beliefs and motivations.

"Perception is subjective" is the golden rule. What percentage of people are completely objective, immune from subjective influences? Probably no one.

The question becomes whose perception or, misperception "today" will be the accepted definition?

To really grasp the issue(s), you must first realize all the components that are relevant. This requires an exceptional amount of self-awareness, understanding and / or a combination including education. A good education leads to self-awareness.

Since humans internalize, knowingly or in most cases unknowingly the environment they grow up in, the standards set, the level of value placed on human life, their life or life in general, on people's emotions, feelings, the extent to which they are validated or invalidated as individuals, the degree of importance they are endowed in a family system as children, etc., etc., like a complex symphony shapes the psychological outlook and makeup of every individual.

The stories about how some violent psychopath came from a perfectly normal home is completely off base and misleading. Those accounts where neighbors say "he or she seemed so normal" are also misleading. So, they say it, doesn't make it true. So, our perception on the subject is skewed terribly by acceptance of such common fallacy.

If Harvard graduates, wealthy and high ranking government officials embrace those with psychopathic tendencies, the smartest, wealthiest and most powerful in our country condone for personal empowerment these characteristics - such as to get elected, shouldn't we bow our heads and hope to become like them one day?

Well, believe it or not, the leaders set the tone of what is acceptable and what isn't in our society just as our parents did teaching us what was acceptable and what wasn't when we were children.

Mafioso, it isn't righting a wrong or proving oneself, it's acting out that which happened to them that they internalized. In a way, they are somewhat helpless in the matter as they're (re-)acting out a pattern or sequence that occurred to them. It need not be exactly the same, but if you look closely enough, you will see the elements which culminated in whatever crime was committed.

Of course, you must consider the validity of any conviction handed down as we know so many to be fatally flawed - executing innocent people while the guilty run free. You've got to think about that - a jury says an innocent man is guilty and sentences him (or her) to death - the jury is also allowing a violent guilty man (or woman) go free. Who's the psychopath now? Sure, those who carry the guilt of sentencing someone to death, will inevitably argue that "based on the evidence we were shown, he (or she) looked guilty." Is that excuse enough or is it that jurors are duped into this tragic play in the courtroom eliciting jurors to take part in 'projecting' or 'externalizing' their own demons; thoughts, beliefs and motivations on the accused? Isn't this why our system makes you "guilty until proven innocent?" And isn't this all the more reason to abolish the death penalty?

A number of years ago, I was victimized by a man (and then public servants who collaborated with him) who in an effort to shield himself from prosecution of felony offenses - just as the individual in the article did, who made many false accusations against me - the reason I no am no longer a tree hugger in the racing industry. After a number of years, the state of California is still incapable of seeing the forest for the psychopaths to resolve the issue.

Tree hugger in the racing industry - sounds like a contradiction doesn't it?

There was this man who lived in my parents home for many years. Apparently he was very charming and had a way of getting people to instantly like him and want to defend and protect him.

I didn't see any of those things in him. I only saw a psychopath, someone who lies and manipulates with a smile and tears. Well it took me four years but I finally figured out who he was; a murderer besides being a psychopath. I turned him into the FBI and he was arrested. Since then he continues to manipulate minds of many people through hundreds of letters he has written to members of my family, except for me and my dad. My mother and my sister both are in love with him and are waiting for him to get released so they can pursue relationships with him; frankly its disgusting to me.

I can accept that many psychopaths are good people, but my experience has been that most of the psychopaths I have encountered are what I would call evil.

I define evil as not coming from supernatural satan or satanic force, but I think evil is a lack of conscience; or no conscience at all. This murderer who everybody thought was the cat's meow has had no remorse for his crimes; any of them. He continues to pretend to be this great guy and my mother, sister, and some of my nieces and nephews still think he is the shit.

He murdered his wife by burning her alive. I am sorry folks but this kind of psychopath deserves to be locked up for the rest of his life. If he killed once and fled, he is capable of doing it again. Your second kill is always easier than your first.

Calculation has nothing to do with Impulse... to act out something that occurred to you would be impulse... what sets that apart from psycopaths who repeat the act lamost habitually is that they perfect it each time and become more efficient, which implies a use of a different part of the brain, which means it is independant, no doubt affected by the trauma of the "occurance", but independant. The same way someone can learn from something that happened to them and use it as a way to help others, is the same way someone else takes a different path. It has to do with a different part of the brain that determines the manner in which they deal with the trauma. Not all people who go through a traumatic experience become psycopathic which proves there is a choice in the manner in which you cope with the trauma. It has to do with the way your brain is programmed and the environment you were in and how you coped with the situation at the time. If you used aggression or self mutilation or another pain driven source for comfort, you will identify with that when you are older, but if you dealt by telling others and figuring out how to not let that happen to someone else, you may take a different path. Mental development occurrs even in the womb, and definitely once out, and also predetermined genetics, environment, all determine how someone will turn out given a traumatic experience which triggers our coping mechanism, but I have no doubt some choice takes place in the matter and it is almost always driven by feeling some sort of release or justice for that which was done to them, or a way to explain injustices in general. The injustices of the world so to speak. I am no intellectual when it comes to psychology or psychotherapy, but I read alot of serial killer books and criminolgy studies and stuff like that, cause I like Law and Order, and CSI, and Unsolved Mysteries, A&E, etc. And it just seems to me to make sense to me how they feel, but it was definitely something they chose, maybe due alot to predetermination through several factors, both physical and mental, but almost always a choice is made, a conscious one at that. It depends, because at times it also has to do with the imcompetence of those investigating and the overlooking of obvious evidence based on a superficial assumption.

Cosmo -what?

I'm not impressed with what I've read. I'm not an expert, but I have insight into it as I've been a student of behavior all my life.

Frankly, I think it's the folly of almost any intelligent person to adopt contempt for the ignorant masses. Psychopathy seems like a misleading term, for it is no mental affliction that encourages this emotional dullness, but a mental endowment. I blame all those who are not psychopaths.

Voyager films, by your comment it seems you are saying that you are an expert and we are all wrong. Is that what you mean?

No not at all, but what is lost in the article and generally in discussions about this subject is the subtleties that form a psychopath and whatever behaviors come from it.

A person who as a child is loved, does not somehow mysteriously turn into a psychopathic predator. This is a misconception.

A person who is not loved as a child, treated indifferently, who is emotionally and / or physically abused can learn to trust people, to love themselves and others, or becomes a psychopath to some degree or another.

In my mind, it's that simple.

If a child is taught his life is unimportant to it's parents, he / she learns that life is unimportant, if that same child is victim to physical violence or it is demonstrated that violence is an acceptable means to an end, you've got potentially a violent psychopath.

This child, can only grow to become such a person if they also are detached from themselves emotionally - as a result of emotional neglect and a lack of validation or recognition that the individuals emotions are valid and have value, and are of concern to the parental / primary figures in the child's life.

I'd like to go on, but I've got to run for now.

Cosmo and Jade, they are also the "Born Again" evangelical preachers who have no conscience as they enslave vulnerable people into the Christ Myth.

Voyager - I disagree on the idea that a psychopath is formed from the nurture they recieve. Education weighs far more heavily. What an individual learns, and how they interperet it is the fundamental source of this hardened, manipulative personality. It is within everyone of us to become this. With the power and imagination that these individuals have acquired, it is only natural that they abuse it. They have the means to accomplish our wildest dreams; and they do so.

dco - that doesn't make any sense to me.

If the 'education' you refer to is what is imparted to them by their parents, then I'd agree with you, but if you are referring to schooling or other factors, the weight value of the 'other' factors on personality development diminishes rapidly.

An individual will abuse the 'power and imagination' you refer only if their development is deficient. But, who would decide what abuse is? Therein lies abuse as yet again one individual or a group attempts to imposes their specific flavor or truth on another.

Furthermore, you may not realize it, but you have endowed these people you refer with nearly superhuman capacities or "power," rather than realize it is your own lack of understanding of yourself and therefore others that is at issue. You are in effect accusing them of "witchery" as a result of your own ignorance - as we now know and understand of the witch hunts in times past.

By education, I meant the overall process of knowledge. Throughout life, all media effects our outlook on life. I do not count this as part of the "nurture" scope. It is largely parental education, but the part that leads to the development of this misanthropic model is the interpretation. Those who interperet it negatively may become sociopaths, or psychopaths; people who do not like others, or who manipulate others. Both of these perspectives reflect doubt of the goodness of mankind. A sociopath is resentful of interaction with frustrating outsiders, while a psychopath uses outsiders to their advantage. It is an individualstic mindset, the utilization of massive intelligence and charisma to achieve personal goals. This is what I mean by abuse. Success at the expense of others. I don't mean to make them out as superhumans, in fact, the opposite. They are the same as us, except they have succumbed to a base desire to harm others. They are worse than the norm as far as morality is concerned, and better only by intellectuality. It is unfortunate that such ingenious people are so depraved, but others are intelligent enough to realize how beneficial morality really is. What is worse is the people who don't consider knowledge a virtue. They are a far worse threat to society, as they stunt its progression beyond what a select few misanthropes will ever do. Furthermore, the ignorant masses are largely the cause of psychopaths' misanthropy. This is not to insult humanity, or to compliment psycopaths. Just trying to see this from the psycopath's perspective.

Hmm. Okay, I understand.

I understand what you are saying, but how you are expressing it makes no attempt to express a hierarchy of issues relative to their importance or impact the development of an individual.

I expressed that - it's very simple really.

I suppose so. I was largely trying to say that the "evil" aspect of the psychopath personna is within us all. The only thing they have is the tools with which to use this evil. I can guarentee you would do the same with such tools.