Should we have compassion for psychopaths?

Failed Conservative Values: Gordon Wright - Psychopaths



Psychopath Channel4 - [part1]


part2 www.youtube.com...
part3 www.youtube.com...
part4 www.youtube.com...
part5 www.youtube.com...

[edit on 2-3-2009 by HulaAnglers]

For the record, a psychopath is a person who cannot learn from past mistakes, and enjoys engaging in anti-social behavior.

A person who believes that he is seperate from everyone else is not a psychopath, but may be schizophrenic

A person who believes that he is attached to other people to an unreasonable degree may be sociopathic or psychotic

It's feasible to assume that someone can be remediated as long as he can learn the consequences of his actions.

Many people refuse to learn the consequences of their actions, but again this is not psychopathy.

Most psychopaths have suffered some kind of trauma manifesting in physical changes in the brain. Whatever can "rehabilitate" such changes might be able to reverse psychopathy. Until such a treatment is developed, they should be seperated from society at large, so as to maintain order. Treating him as an equal with other humans, indeed, only enables him and might even cause trauma to others resulting in anti-social behavior in those people as well.

reply to post by unityemissions


I have a dear old friend that the past ten years has suffered severe seizures. At one time he was a regular natural herb user and without knowing it this had controlled his seizures, back in 1999 his wife gave him an ultimatum. Quit or divorce court. This has made his seizures become progressively worse and each seizure created more damage that was causing them in the first place located in the hippocampus portion of his brain.

Two years ago at the Cleveland Clinic they removed most of his hippocampus. He is now a surgically induced sociopath. He is cold and has no empathy for anyone. The other day I went to visit him and he was watching some new show about serial killers. He is completely engrossed in this subject and couldn't stop talking about them, he was in awe of how smart they were.

He does not nor ever will be able to cured of being a sociopath. I fear for his wife. All because the doctors chose to remove his hippocampus instead of him using the natural herb that had prevented his seizures in the first place because the pharmaceutical drugs would not work. A time bomb waiting to go off. So what to do about him? Just wait? Before all this he was such a good friend and liked everyone, now he is like this computer that can laugh but does not feel for others.

Edit to not violate the new T&C.

[edit on 2-3-2009 by LoneGunMan]

I feel for your friend although he can no longer feel for anyone. It's really sad that the medical community is not willing accept that certain herbs are more effective for some conditions than the existing chemical medications.

Fucoidon for instance is a nutrient found in brown seaweed (only place you can find it). It is clinically proven to cause cancer to go into apotopsis (self destruct mode). It's proven to kill cancer and physicians in a lot of places in the world want to see this nutrient to boost chemo therapy. Peoples of Japan eat this seaweed in their daily diet and have hardly any cancer rate at all. Lowest in the world actually. Fucoidon has the same side effects as broccoli.

Point is that clinical studies focus on chemical drugs instead of the natural occurring and potentially just as effective as chemicals without all the nasty side effects.

It however is too late for your friend. If he has become a sociopath then it is time for him to be separated from society before he hurts himself or more importantly someone else especially if he is starting to idolize serial killers. He is dangerous and should be treated as such.

You say he was a very good person before all this.....

What a waste. My heart goes out to you and your friend.

[edit on 2-3-2009 by DaMod]

reply to post by DaMod


Not only that he is about to inherit over 60 million dollars from his father.

A very frightening mix.

reply to post by unityemissions


Yes, i think we should have compassion with Psychopaths. Why? Because imho it is a disease, and thus the psychopaths themselfes cant really do anything to stop it. They are as much a victim as the people they execute there psychopath-manners on.

Its like being gay, its a disease.
(And i dont care about gay people going to bash me now. God made man and woman fit like a puzzle. Penis and Vagina. And that simple fact tells me he did not intend to make gay people. If he did, a homo or lesbian couple could have made kids also, but they cant, it has to be one man and one wife, so it was never intended for gay people to exist, and so it is a disease!)

I would think it's necessary to as-if play the role of someone in a jury trial and get to know all involved. Unfortunately, we may never know every detail as to what makes some of these people what they are. Maybe it's genetic, such as a parent was a mercenary etc. Our goverment has also been said to create these people intentionally.

From a supernatural perspective, if these people aren't in some way, spiritually saved, we may be releasing their demonized spirit also.There are also stories of haunted buildings like prisons and assylums. This has been suggested in some science fiction movies.

The supernatural subject and possible connection is still unknown. I think we still need to scientifically and psychologically analyze these cases to further understand and prevent them in the future by making the necessary corrections which may also be environemental. Kinda like precrime.

The mention of these people as predators should be studied and recognize the are of the brain possibly responsible. A death sentence may be avoided if treatment is sucessful. Some people have amnesia and have personality changes. This can possibly happen both ways also.

Curing with death, to me, isn't the correct answer.

I also want to understand what is the "sick fascination" with appalling horror movies. Is this all just another form of dissocation, rebellion and escapism?

And what about those soldiers in war who commit suicide? Is this something they believe only they can control and are driven insane by not knowing when and if they will die? Maybe there's a connection.

What are god's intentions really? You can't say because of that reasoning he did not intend on making gays and lesbians even though their feelings go against the laws of nature because they cannot procreate. They are here for a reason.

Anyone that says they know exactly who and what god is and what his intentions are don't know anything at all. God is beyond our realm of understanding.

reply to post by unityemissions


We should restrain such people and take note of their actions, but we should also understand that they are not 'evil'.
The only real difference between them and us is that we feel something when we hurt others while they do not.
Do we feel anything when we step on a spider? No.
We could be considered psychopaths to some people.
It's all a matter of perspective.
The thing that keeps us together and makes us feel something when others are in pain is a direct result of our societal nature.
So then it makes sense that those who don't have the same traits should not be part of the society - but they also should not be punished for how they were born, just restrained from causing damage to the innocent.

Compassion, like prayer and fantasy, is in your head. It may have effects in other realms or reality, but the base emotion/behavior/etc. is still only in your head.

It doesn't matter whether or not we 'have' compassion; that's about what's inside us.

I believe the reasonable follow on to this would be, "and if people had compassion this would cause _______ behavior toward, or in response to, psychopaths". As that is where it ceases to be an internal feeling and becomes something that affects someone else.

For all the people who are compassionate, how would that change the *behavior*? Since if it doesn't, what difference does it make?

Just curious.

PJ

There is evidence to suggest that certain medications causes plaque on the brain that causes lobotomy.

www.sntp.net...

I believe there will be other things that can cause parts of the brain to lobotomize. Thus leaving a person without emotion, capable of murder.

I would take all things into consideration such as studying the brain and making links to enviromental causes, the persons history, disease, diet.

[edit on 2-3-2009 by Applesandoranges]

So if a person becomes a psychopath by:

1> selling their soul to the devil (I'm kidding, but let's go with it)

2> accidental medication, injury, etc.

3> genetic abnormality ("born evil")

What difference does it make? I mean, once you become a crocodile, you're a crocodile either way, right?

PJ

What difference does it make?

Then They should just all go to hell right!

I can see thats a great thing for the christian God but i think hes more intelligent & understanding on individuality then that. More then can be comprehended into words. More then demonization of another human soul.





[edit on 2-3-2009 by Applesandoranges]

Originally posted by Applesandoranges
There is evidence to suggest that certain medications causes plaque on the brain that causes lobotomy.

www.sntp.net...

I believe there will be other things that can cause parts of the brain to lobotomize. Thus leaving a person without emotion, capable of murder.

I would take all things into consideration such as studying the brain and making links to enviromental causes, the persons history, disease, diet.

[edit on 2-3-2009 by Applesandoranges]

Medication is probably the fastest way to achieve that, but many foods like processed carbohydrates also cause plaque buildup in the brain, albeit over many years. It usually manifests more as a debilitating condition like Alzheimer's disease rather than psychopathy, however.

vcwxvwligen

The article also discuses frontal lobe lobotomy, so Alzheimers would be a different part of the brain. Maybe different parts of the brain coincide with eachother if it is on many parts of the brains. Who knows im no brain expert. But would be a great thing to study since we use it everyday.

Originally posted by Applesandoranges
What difference does it make?

Then They should just all go to hell right!

Um. No, did not invoke or even refer to religion. I mean in terms of how we as citizens or countrymen or however one wants to put it, behave toward psychopaths. (That was the focus of the thread last time I looked.)

Someone had commented implying that it depended on how they got to that state. So I was basically saying, does it matter (to US, and to how we react to them) how they got there?

I wasn't actually pondering whether it mattered to God. I think that would be a different thread.

Paradox I feel remorse when stepping on a spider.

I'm not a Buddhist like ipsedixit, but I agree with him or her: everything that lives deserves compassion. Why? Because nothing that lives deserves its fate.

Well, I think otherwise. I think it's a grave mistake to assume all Homo sapiens have a conscience.

Until people can come to some agreement on if this statement is true, or not, it’s hard to move on to compassion or no.

IMO I believe there are some *people* who are born, in fact, without any conscience whatsoever.
Some might call them evil, some disassociated, whatever.
But I’ve come into contact with tiny little children who are just evil - and to think any different is being naive.

Now when they grow up - if they get a chance to without getting caught killing small animals, etc and move on to committing higher atrocities - should we have compassion for them?

Compassion for someone born without the same *skills* (if you will) we have?

Would they even recognize or appreciate compassion?

Would compassion for these people put others at risk?

Etc...

No, far too many questions to just yes or no this one, but, some great mind candy to ponder.

peace

reply to post by TheNetherlands

(God made man and woman fit like a puzzle. Penis and Vagina. And that simple fact tells me he did not intend to make gay people.

Um, so then, by your reckoning, if God didn't want gay men He wouldn’t have made anal cavities?

Come on - why bring homosexuality into a conversation about psychopaths.

That's just soo stretching it and really insulting by the way.

You've no more *proof* why gay are gay any more than you do why psychopaths are born the way they are, but really, how do they belong in the same discussion?

The son is the father of the man - so - by birth or experience it really doesn't matter, gays are gay, but as a whole you don't see them boiling and eating their significant others or burying little children alive.

peace