Should screening for genetic sociopathy be mandatory for politicians and police?

The terms, "psychopathy", "sociopath" and others refer to individuals who look human but, in elemental ways, are not. They harbor a condition which cuts them off from us. Their automatic emotional reactions, foundational to limiting wrong behavior, do not exist. These individuals emulate compassion, concern, affection, kindness and love only to further their purposes. They feel no compunction about stealing, lying, or committing crimes to achieve their goals. They consistently demand sympathy, knowing perfectly well they deserve none. They do not want or need sympathy. But they do need you to feel sorry for them, to want to help them. It is all manipulation, emotions emulated to get what they want. They know we feel sorry for them and project the existence of emotions they never feel, just another lie.

People catching their eyes report feeling a chill of fear, as if looking into the eyes of a predator. Psychopaths are predators among us. The pain and suffering of those around them mean nothing, is pleasure to them. Their motivations seem inexplicable to the emotionally normal, who comprise 96% of the population.

Psychopaths have no conscience.

Genes play a significant role in the development of psychopathy. However socialization and other environmental factors interact with genetics, so genes are not the only determinant in whether one has psychopathic traits. Studies on the heritability of psychopathy have focused primarily on identical twins (100% shared genes) and fraternal twins (50% shared genes). One study (Larsson, Andershed, & Lichtenstein, 2006) which examined the heritability of psychopathy in twins reported that genetics accounted for approximately half of the variation in the features of psychopathy (as assessed by a self-report measure, the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory). Other studies have also reported substantial heritability to psychopathic traits when these are assessed using self-report measures (Blonigen, Hicks, Krueger, Patrick, & Iacono, 2005; Brook, Panizzon, Kosson, Sullivan, Lyons, Franz, Eisen, & Kremen, 2010).

The finding that about 50% of individual differences in psychopathic traits are genetic suggests that a fair amount of variance in psychopathic features is environmental. (It is worth noting that approximately 40-60% of the variance in many personality traits and in several other disorders also appears to reflect genetic factors. Thus, psychopathy is similar to other personality traits and disorders in which genetic factors are important, yet do not explain everything.) Although specific genes relevant to psychopathy have not yet been identified, most people believe there are probably multiple genes which contribute to psychopathy, just as there are multiple genes involved in most clinical conditions which are partly heritable. (Thus, there is not usually just one gene that by itself leads to a clinical disorder or condition.)

Tests are showing that the nervous system of the psychopath is markedly different; they feel less fear and anxiety than normal people. One carefully conducted experiment revealed that “low arousal levels” not only causes impulsiveness and thrill-seeking, but also showed how dense sociopaths are when it comes to changing their behavior. A group of sociopaths and a group of healthy individuals were given a task, which was to learn what lever (out of four) turned on a green light. One lever gave the subject an electric shock. Both groups made the same number of errors, but the healthy group quickly learned to avoid the punishing electric shock, while sociopaths took much longer to do so. This need for higher levels of stimulation makes the psychopath seek dangerous situations. Perhaps this is the reason for many serial killers seeking to become part of the police force due to the intensity of the job.

Genetics and physiological factors also contribute to the building of a psychopath. One study in Copenhagen focused on a group of sociopaths who had been adopted as infants. The biological relatives of sociopaths were 4 – 5 times more likely to be sociopathic than the average person. Yet genetics don’t tell the whole story; it only shows a predisposition to antisocial behavior. Environment can make or break the psychopathic personality. This environmental factor again relates back to what sociologists were saying, about how the social structure and social influence play a part. The words of the sociopath “I haven’t failed, society has failed me” seems to be more powerful and explanatory than first anticipated.

THE NEURAL BASIS OF PSYCHOPATHY

The amygdala is involved in aversive conditioning and instrumental learning ( LeDoux, 1998). It is also involved in the response to fearful and sad facial expressions ( Blair et al, 1999). The amygdala is thus involved in all the processes that, when impaired, give rise to the functional impairments shown by individuals with psychopathy. It is therefore suggested that amygdala dysfunction is one of the core neural systems implicated in the pathology of psychopathy ( Patrick, 1994; Blair et al, 1999).

Interestingly, two recent neuroimaging studies have confirmed that amygdala dysfunction is associated with psychopathy ( Tiihonen et al, 2000; Kiehl et al, 2001). Thus, Tiihonen et al ( 2000) used volumetric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to explore the relationship between amygdaloid volume and degree of psychopathy in violent offenders as measured by the PCL-R. They found that high levels of psychopathy were associated with reduced amygdaloid volume. Kiehl et al ( 2001) used functional MRI to examine neural responses in individuals with high (>28/40) and low (