how do you know you're not a sociopath

[noyen]

wiccan kink, wink wink.

[reprise85]

check it, brain development and psychopathy. very basic but i just came across it randomly, though it was concise

[Future Boy]

tl;dw

[reprise85]

god you know what never mind i dont want to introduce this video i found FUCK

[reprise85]

watch at your own risk it gets worse and worse jesus fucking christ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2-Re...eature=related

[Luke de Spa]

Originally Posted by reprise85

check it, brain development and psychopathy. very basic but i just came across it randomly, though it was concise

starts off interesting but gets into blah anecdotal mode quickly

got any that stay on the science side of things?

[reprise85]

i'll see what i can find. there's a ton of journal articles but videos... people are more sensational. let me see

[reprise85]

brain potentials... psychopaths see emotional words as neutral... different than most people, and also their brain scans show a lot of differences during the tasks:

[Luke de Spa]

that one's good

a question that sprang to mind: do other species that experience emotional contagion (e.g. dogs) have the equivalent of psychopaths?

[reprise85]

that's an excellent question. i have no idea, hmmmmmmmmmm

[Luke de Spa]

i guess i'm wondering if psychopathy might be an evolutionary adaptation unique to humans

i mean there are obvious advantages to being wired up to not give a fuck about others – and being able to hide it – within a population of people who generally do

[reprise85]

yeah i was trying to think of how to express that sentiment. i agree that it is a total advantage for individual survival. if everyone was like that we'd be fucked, but as individuals someone can do really well if they're smart enough. the real epidemic of psychopathy is not even those in jails, it is those we have no ways of counting, those who do so well they never get caught and only (maybe) their victims know who they are. imagine if you spent a day just fucking with people by doing little things. how easy would it be to get away with? how much mental trouble would you cause people? and i'm not even talking about really malicious things. hide someone's cell phone and put it on silent. put their keys in the toilet tank. put bleach in their shampoo. we take for granted that most people don't fuck with us for the hell of it

[Luke de Spa]

yeah. only a small percentage of psychopaths are going to also be the kind of people who enjoy creating suffering. thankfully.

a lot of inputs there. when i was a child, i didn't see any reason why i shouldn't cheat at games if i was certain i wouldn't be caught. i only cared about winning and the status that "victory" granted. i gradually developed a pretty comprehensive sense of empathy, but i think cheating was the last thing to go. (the earliest empathetic experience i remember is when my sister broke her arm in a playground when i was about six, and being almost totally immobilised. but i was still cheating at games for years after that.) since becoming aware of that slow transition i've often wondered if empathy is innate or learned (or innate but conditional, if you know what i mean)

anyway boring, but i'd love to see some kind of game theory breakdown of the pros/cons of, you know, non-sadistic psychopathy

[null123]

yeah I was a sadistic sociopath until age 10 probably

[null123]

although i never hurt animals. but i was mean to my fellow humans

[reprise85]

i had a developed sense of guilt for as long as i can remember. empathy, maybe not so much, but where empathy failed me as a child i definitely felt way too guilty to do anything i thought was wrong... or really anything in general... i was a walking mess of guilt and chronic embarrassment. i mean i did have empathy but it would take seeing someone actually crying or telling me they were hurt for me to register compassion.

as far as game theory... would be interesting... but not being able to emotionally connect to others is a big big negative as far as meaning is concerned, although im not a psychopath and they probably think the exact opposite

[reprise85]

Originally Posted by Luke de Spa

since becoming aware of that slow transition i've often wondered if empathy is innate or learned (or innate but conditional, if you know what i mean)

yeah i wonder as well. it seems innate but conditional... like if nothing goes too wrong and you have 'normal' genes you will develop it... but when did that start? it is an interesting thing to think about. one of the things i think about studying is improving outcomes for "psychopathic" (becoming psychopathic) kids. it's widely seen as impossible to "teach" empathy or to stop the abnormal brain development train once it's started but and people like robert hare have done research but i think that would just improve the quality of life for so many people

[dean_r_koontz]

cookd and bombd has funnier and nicer people than hipinion, i urge anyone who wants to have a bigger, faster moving board with more content to go there instead.

[Luke de Spa]

i like the quiet here

more boarding is not what we need

[dean_r_koontz]

Originally Posted by Nimrod's Son

this is going to sound callous, but why in the fuck would I *want* to feel guilt? and with empathy, i am better than most at determining the emotions others are experiencing because I don't let empathy get in the way, so I'm more prepared for their next actions and it makes them easier to deal with.

guilt is, essentially, a weakness.

this is something that's quite fascinating and i think i understand the smugness that comes from not feeling bad for other people, it sort of removes a bucketload of bad emotions a person could feel while interacting with others. When i got off my medication i was sort of cut off from some bad emotions that comes from guilt, for example, it felt pretty good, i didn't feel as vulnurable as usual. Now i'm back in empathy hell again tho

Do you ever feel happy for other people Nimrod?

I think in terms of genetic survival there's obviously things about sociopathic traits that make people who have them not reproduce as often and that's the reason there are relatively few sociopaths around, but that doesn't necessarily mean that there aren't any sociopaths who live pretty happy lives.

[dean_r_koontz]

Originally Posted by Luke de Spa

i like the quiet here

more boarding is not what we need

it's a good board is all i'm saying AND the funniest boarder i've seen is there, this boarder is also female which is extraordinary.

[vixnix]

A tendency toward sociopathic behaviour seems like a random mutation. Whether or not sociopaths are identified by the group seems to be a matter of luck. Sometimes, two of them find each other and have kids, e.g. My husband and I.

[null123]

]

[null123]

g

[null123]

fg

[null123]

g

[vixnix]

well, an interesting aside.

[null123]

lol wrong tab wow

[null123]

i guess i'll delete all those ;-(

[vixnix]

well they were good posts! And I thought they looked good there.