This man could be a psychopath . He understands what is going
on but just cant empathise. He said his daughter was in constant pain
as her teeth became rotten and all fell out due to lack of dental
treatment. He understood but didnt feel her pain. A pet scan will show
decreased activity in the frontal lobe.
It is important to pet and cat scan all prisoners so those who
are psychopaths or can be predicted to be dangerous can be medically
treated or isolated. BTW religious leaders are also known to be
.ually hyperactive and lack empathy , and dont mind forcing their
cult members to suffer from fasting and malnutrition.
All criminal lawyers should be trained in brain structure and
function.
excerpts
Psychopathy is a personality disorder that afflicts a tiny
fraction of the general public, but about 25 percent of the prison
population. Psychopaths are impulsive and self-centered, with little
capacity for guilt, fear or remorse. They take great pleasure in
manipulating and exploiting other people to get what they want and
tend to live disorganized, nomadic lives on society's fringes
"Psychopaths do know right from wrong; they can tell you right
from wrong. They just don't care," said Kent A. Kiehl, a psychiatrist
at the Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center in Hartford, Conn.
Dennis Rader, the BTK serial killer, was the perfect picture of a
psychopath during recent televised court appearances. His emotionless
recollection in June of murdering 10 people illustrated a complete
incapacity for guilt or remorse. And his bizarre attempts to make
himself seem human at his sentencing by drawing parallels between
himself and his victims ("Dolores Davis ---- she loved animals and I
worked in animal control") revealed an utter lack of empathy.
Kiehl's research suggests that psychopaths have abnormalities in the
paralimbic system, a far-flung network of brain structures associated
with emotion and emotional memories.
People with brain damage in one component of the paralimbic system,
the orbitofrontral cortex, often behave impulsively and selfishly.
When epilepsy causes damage to the anterior temporal lobe ---- another
element of the system ---- the result can be inappropriate .ual
behavior, problems maintaining personal relationships and a lack of
empathy.
Experiments indicate that psychopaths have decreased brain activity in
all of those regions. Now Kiehl and his colleagues want to know why.
"Most likely, as with most disorders, there's multiple pathways,"
Kiehl said.
For example, abuse or stress during childhood could affect how the
paralimbic system develops. Brain damage due to a head injury might
induce psychopathic behavior.
But genes almost certainly play a role. A recent study of 7-year-olds
by British researchers found that if one in a pair of twins has
psychopathic tendencies ---- especially, a callous and unemotional
personality ---- the other is more likely to share those qualities, as
long as the two are identical rather than fraternal.
That suggests a hereditary element because identical twins are
genetically identical; fraternal twins share only half their genes.
Some psychologists believe that psychopathy is not so much a disease
as an evolutionary artifact. During the millennia of human history
before there were criminal justice systems and written records, they
say, a small number of psychopaths could lie, cheat and steal their
way to success. As long as these deviants remained a small, marginal
element of society, people of good conscience might not notice their
habitual transgressions.
In a 1995 paper, the late sociobiologist Linda Mealey argued that
evolution created two types of psychopath. The first is purely
genetic, born without the capacity for normal human emotion. No matter
what, these individuals will go through life with no regard for
society's rules or the consequences of their actions.
The other type of psychopathy is also genetic. But it is only produced
in the kind of stressful or chaotic social environment where following
the rules does a person no good.
A total of 30 subjects of both genders faced a set of
scenarios pitting immediate harm to one person against future certain
harm to many. Six had damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex
(VMPC), a small region behind the forehead, while 12 had brain damage
elsewhere, and another 12 had no damage.
The subjects with VMPC damage stood out in their stated willingness to
harm an individual – a prospect that usually generates strong
aversion.
“Because of their brain damage, they have abnormal social emotions in
real life. They lack empathy and compassion,” said Ralph Adolphs, Bren
Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Caltech.
“In those circumstances most people without this specific brain damage
will be torn. But these particular subjects seem to lack that
conflict,” said co-senior author Antonio Damasio, director of the
Brain and Creativity Institute and holder of the David Dornsife Chair
in Neuroscience at USC.
For months before he reportedly killed, anyone could follow the epic
struggle in the mind of Joseph Edward Duncan III ---- live, on the
Internet.
"It is a battle between me and my demons," Duncan wrote in his Web log
on April 24. "I'm afraid, very afraid. If they win then a lot of
people will be badly hurt."
Three weeks later, authorities allege, the demons won.
Three members of an Idaho family were bludgeoned to death. Two
children were dragged to a remote part of Montana, where both were
.ually molested and the 9-year-old boy was murdered.
It's hard to conceive a heart black enough to commit such evil acts.
But researchers are beginning to understand how another organ, the
brain, can conjure the demons that haunt Duncan and other violent
.ual predators.
Many, perhaps most, dangerous .ual predators appear to possess one
or more brain abnormalities that predispose them to their extreme
criminal behavior. Those defects can be caused by traumatic childhood
experiences, genetics or events that happen as a person's brain
develops in the womb before birth.
But whatever their source, they might eventually be used as a
neurological "mark of Cain," offering both a warning of what a person
might be capable of and an opportunity to prevent them from realizing
that potential.
would have been shot.
...
excerpt
. The psychopath has antisocial traits for sure but they are
coupled with and enhanced by callousness, ruthlessness, extreme lack
of empathy, deficient impulse control, deceitfulness, and sadism.
Like other personality disorders, psychopathy becomes evident in early
adolescence and is considered to be chronic
Psychopathy may be hereditary. The psychopath's immediate family
usually suffer from a variety of personality disorders.
Consequently, psychopaths feel no remorse when they hurt or defraud
others. They don't possess even the most rudimentary conscience. They
rationalize their (often criminal) behavior and intellectualize it.
Psychopaths fall prey to their own primitive defense mechanisms (such
as narcissism, splitting, and projection). The psychopath firmly
believes that the world is a hostile, merciless place, prone to the
survival of the fittest and that people are either "all good" or "all
evil". The psychopath projects his own vulnerabilities, weaknesses,
and shortcomings unto others and force them to behave the way he
expects them to (this defense mechanism is known as "projective
identification"). Like narcissists, psychopaths are abusively
exploitative and incapable of true love or intimacy.
Narcissistic psychopath are particularly ill-suited to participate in
the give and take of civilized society. Many of them are misfits or
criminals. White collar psychopaths are likely to be deceitful and
engage in rampant identity theft, the use of aliases, constant lying,
fraud, and con-artistry for gain or pleasure.
Psychopaths are irresponsible and unreliable. They do not honor
contracts, undertakings, and obligations. They are unstable and
unpredictable and rarely hold a job for long, repay their debts, or
maintain long-term intimate relationships.
Psychopaths are vindictive and hold grudges. They never regret or
forget a thing. They are driven, and dangerous.
|