Add to that that most psychopaths have a few “apaths” that they’ve personally manipulated into doing their bidding too, and it starts to look like about 20% of our population either has some form of antisocial personality disorder or is enabling the schemes of them.
1 Like
And I didn’t say you said it or implied it. I offered an alternative explanation for the discrepancy you noted. And as someone famous once said:
6 Likes
5 Likes
Tough one. Psychopathy gets things done, and stupid is far from harmless. Intelligent people can build systems that can constrain psychopathy.
I guess I would disappear stupid.
1 Like
And a combination of the two is disastrous.
7 Likes
3 Likes
Agreed.
2 Likes
Math checks out.
The PCL-R has serious issues. One paper I read said that many factors that can influence someone’s PCL-R score include the person administering the test being of a higher economic class than the subject, whiter than the subject, being more prone to anxiety than the subject, and piles of other things.
We should open-mindedly consider but challenge psychological work from a carceral perspective whose stated goal is to Find Evil People in Twenty Easy Steps and justify whatever throwing away of the key we’re tempted to do rather than work toward rehabilitation.
Hare, unfortunately, falls into just that category. Much of his research is problematic (apart from threatening to sue journals that publish work critical of it) because of his epistemic trap door. If someone is shown to be a psychopath, they’re a psychopath. But if you know someone’s a psychopath don’t take a lower score as proof they got better, the first test was wrong, or what have you, because Psychopaths are Tricky. He advocates not making any attempt toward treatment or rehabilitation as it just trains psychopaths into manipulating people.
While something like psychopathy as defined by a lessened ability to recognize or respond to distress in others (particularly fear) likely exists, the ‘intraspecies predator’ business is clear hyperbolic, dehumanizing nonsense that needs to stop happening.
We’ve been here enough times that there is no excuse for ‘Look! Science says all the people I think are bad have /evil/ where their souls should be!’
19 Likes
Interesting take on the subject.
5 Likes
It’s also worth noting that in research done by people whose agenda is driven more by treatment and rehabilitation than neuroauthoritarian scaremongering, much of what the PCL-R can see as psychopathy is often a comorbidity of some other condition that is treated when the other condition is treated. Mania for example can be accompanied by a lessened ability to recognize the distress of others that goes away when the affected person re-enters euthymia, leading to a situation where any number of people with a transient condition we know well how to treat now get branded as ‘Eeeeevil’.
6 Likes
There’s an edit button where you can add onto your already existing lengthy comments. No need to reply to yourself.
Just fyi.
6 Likes
I find it sort of amusing that this article immediately follows an article about Florida’s psychopathic governor Ron DeSantis. Look! There’s one!
10 Likes
3 Likes
That’s a room full of daytime vampires right there.
3 Likes
That’s an insult to vamps; those are ghouls.
6 Likes
Turns out if you use different tests that set different thresholds for defining psychopathy, you can make the results turn out any way you like!
3 Likes
(Consults rulebook)
I stand corrected.
3 Likes
Vamps will just bleed you dry; ghouls ravage your entire carcass.
6 Likes
