The Pros And Cons Of A Psychopath

Often times, when the word psychopath is mentioned, it sends chills through people's bodies. More often than not, a majority of people associate psychopaths with the image of Hannibal Lecter ripping someone's face off, or serial killers, serial rapists or sex offenders. The thought that all psychopaths are dangerous, is a very popular belief, but a considerable misconception. Psychopaths are far more common than people perceive, there are thousands of them, walking around, living lives just like normal people, but only some of them become dangerous and even become the monsters we are lead to believe (Scott). Not all psychopaths are criminals or killers, but some psychopaths become dangerous and criminal because of traumatic events that happened
to them as children. A psychopath or sociopath, these words can be used interchangeably, is a person who has no emotions.
Psychopaths are generally manipulators, they are self-serving and egotistic, and often times they are impeccably smart, but this does not make them dangerous (Psychopathy 154). A majority of the time, psychopaths do not even realize that they are one, like Paul’s case in The Menacing Stranger. Paul was pressured into therapy by his family because he was having issues with them. The therapist Paul was seeing asked, “What kind of feeling do you have when you see or hear about people in distress?” While Paul responded, “There are always people in distress somewhere. It’s a part of life. I don’t see any point in dwelling on it” (Grant 37). The therapist concluded that Paul showed minor traits of psychopathy with his lack of emotions, empathy and manipulative
responses. Paul only presented inconsequential traits of a psychopath, just as many people would, but this is much different with criminal psychopaths. When it comes to killer or criminal psychopaths, all of these characteristics are heightened and they are most likely aware of their condition. These types of psychopaths realize that murder is wrong, but the need to control and dominate another, to suppress their childhood, overcomes everything that society pays as right (155). Though psychopaths realize that murder is wrong, there is still evidence that projects that a psychopath's brain develops differently. As psychopaths age from adolescence to adulthood, their brains tend to lack development at the normal rate, they take a longer time to mature. The development of the brain, specifically the temporal lobes and the limbic systems, control memory and emotions (Scott). Shirley Scott, the author of What Makes Serial Killers tick? declares, “When the development of this part of the brain is genetically impaired and the parents of the child are abusive, irresponsible or manipulative, the stage is set for disaster” (Scott). Though most psychopaths brains are different, the abnormal growth of psychopaths brains, and an abusive home is the reason that some psychopaths transition from having a disorder and living a “normal” life, to becoming a criminal. Ultimately, when a psychopath grows up in an unstable home, it triggers the killer, or criminal in them. When a criminal is in jail, he is there because of a crime he committed. Sometimes criminals commit crimes to let out anger from their childhood. The idea is similar with psychopaths, except there is another layer to it because they are more complicated. Not only do they kill because of past traumas, but for a gain in their ego, because they felt wronged as a child (Serin). “Psychopaths committed violence for material gain, whereas non psychopaths were apparently motivated by strong emotional arousal” (Psychopathy 424). Psychopaths were motivated to kill for material gain, so a gain for power. When a psychopaths homelife is out of control, they are strongly influenced, just as Professor Kiehl believes, someone who has worked with psychopaths for over 20 years (Miller). These criminal psychopaths felt so out of power when they were younger, that they felt the need to gain it back because psychopaths hate to feel out of power. Someone who has dealt with psychopaths for over 20 years is Kent Kiehl, a neuroscientist at the Mind Research Network and a professor at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
Kiehl believes that psychopaths become criminal from home life, especially when younger (Miller). Kiehl reveals, “I consider it a mental health problem because it’s associated with impairments at home, at work, with family, with friends.” Professor Kiehl has worked with psychopaths for over 20 years, studying how the brains of psychopaths are different, and how they differ from a healthy person. Kiehl has interviewed many psychopaths, ranging from mediocre psychopaths, who score a 28 out of 40 on the psychopath test, to perfect psychopaths, 40 out of 40. Kiehl agrees that psychopaths become criminal because of their home life, such as emotional, verbal and physical
traumas. To show how psychopaths brains differ from healthy individuals, a study was conducted. The study had dangerous psychopaths and healthy individuals, who were all given electric shock, when they answered a question incorrectly or made the wrong decision. Both groups made errors, but it took the psychopaths a lot longer to stop making errors. Scott conveys, “This is need for higher level of stimulation makes the psychopath seek dangerous situations” (Scott). As mentioned earlier, psychopaths do not have emotions, they have lacked them their entire lives, so these thrilling situations are what they look for. Committing criminal acts, such as killing, is a very dangerous, and usually emotional situation, the psychopaths urge for a larger level of stimulation could be one of the main factors as to why psychopaths kill, aside from childhood traumas. To help understand why psychopaths commit gruesome crimes, such as murder, Ralph Serin conducted a study. Serin is a researcher and a professor at Carleton University, in the Department of Psychology. His specialty is Forensic Psychology Research. Serin conducted a study to show the overall relationship of criminal psychopaths and their violent behavior. The study compared psychopaths and criminals who are not psychopaths. Exactly 87 males were analyzed and tested to find out who was a psychopath and who was not. A test was given to these 87 males and if they scored 28 or above then they were considered a psychopath for the test (Serin 423). In order to get a good range of tests in the study, they were given hypothetical situations to show if the males misinterpret cues. Overall, the study found through intensive testing that psychopaths committed the violent crimes for their own self right gain, to make them seem powerful and advance their ego. While criminals killed for the emotional arousal (424). Serin discloses, “They were more likely than other inmates to behave aggressively, to have committed more serious past offenses, to have used weapons, threats and instrumental aggression, and to have suffered physical abuse as a child.” The fact that these psychopaths who are criminal have committed more violent crimes and were likely to have suffered physical abuse as a child is worrisome and saddening. Although it is hard to understand why a parent would abuse a child, it seems a more comprehensible when the parent has a child psychopath. Scott suggests, “Punishment rarely works, because they are impulsive by nature and fearless of the consequences” (Scott.) Since punishment did not work as a child, then there is a likely possibility that parents would resort to violence. All children, even if they have a disorder, are impressionable at young ages. If a parent resorted to violence, then the child psychopath, or any child in that fact, would grow up thinking that violence was the answer. Since their parent hit them when they did something wrong, then they would grow up with the mindset that violence is a normal human reaction, and as a child psychopath they are confused by their lack of emotions, so any social cues from a parent they would pick up on. Since psychopathic children’s brains are different from “normal” brains, they look for thrilling situations to suppress their boredom. Jennifer Kahn is a New York Times journalist who interviewed a family who has been dealing with a suspected psychopath child. The article emphasized the environment in which the child, Michael, lived. The parents were very caring, and tried everything they could to help Michael. Michael’s behavior is in fact troublesome and he shows signs of a psychopath, but he is developing in such a positive environment that it is highly likely he will ever experience any childhood traumas that would later cause him to be criminal. Kahn observed that the family is in fact a supportive family, “It was tempting to scrutinize Anne and Miguel for signs of dysfunctional dynamics that might be the source of Michael’s odd behavior. But the family seemed, if anything, exceedingly normal” (Kahn). It is fantastic that Michael is in a positive home, because if he was not then he might end up a criminal. Another instance, that was not as positive, was mentioned in the article. Kahn mentioned a suspected psychopath child in Florida, who is already a murderer. The boy is 9 years old and allegedly pushed a toddler into a pool because he was interested in seeing someone drown. Although the reason why the boy had snapped and killed a toddler was not revealed, it was stated that the boy was very happy to be the center of attention (Kahn). Major lack of attention at home seems to be one of the only sensible conclusions because, why else would a little boy go to such an extent? Children committing crimes, especially murder, is rare compared to adult psychopaths like Ted Bundy. Bundy is one of America’s most well known psychopathic serial killers. Bundy allegedly raped and gruesomely killed between 30 and 40 females, ranging from 12 years old to 40, while showing absolutely no remorse. The females all had characteristics similar to his ex girlfriend who broke up with him. A few of the victims were decapitated and their heads were kept in Bundy’s apartment for a period of time as mementos. Bundy would allegedly go back to his crime scenes, were the bodies were decomposing, and still perform sexual acts on them (Caputi 439). Although the cause for Bundy’s emotional break is unsure, it is speculated that his girlfriend leaving him was what hurt him most and childhood neglect. Psychopaths feel an enormous amount of egotism, and by being broken up with his ego was hurt, causing him to look for revenge everywhere he could. Robert Eckstein, someone who knows more about Ted Bundy than an average reporter would, is a professor at the University of New Hampshire who teaches Forensic Psychology and has a degree in Psychology. Ecksetin worked in a prison for a year and personally talked with suspected psychopaths. Eckstein believes that Ted Bundy’s past did have a very strong effect on his want to kill. Eckstein noted that Bundy was abandoned when he was younger and raised by his aunt who he later found out was his mother (Ecksetin). Ted Bundy’s life was a roller coaster ride, to say the least, the instability of his childhood was one of the biggest reasons he cracked. If Bundy had grown up in a home life James Fallon then maybe the outcome of Bundy’s life would be different. James Fallon is a neuroscientist and a psychopath. Fallon was conducting research on murderous psychopaths brain scans, when his scan showed a strong correlation with psychopaths. Fallon reveals, “I found out that I happened to have a series of genetic alleles, “warrior genes,” that had to do with serotonin and were thought to be a risk for aggression, violence, and low emotional and interpersonal empathy- if you’re raised in an abusive environment. But if you're raised in a very positive environment, that can have the effect of offsetting the negative effects of some of the other genes” (Ohikuare). Fallon happened to be raised in a very positive and loving home, which ended up offsetting is “warrior genes”. Fallon still had aggressive thoughts and tended to be aggressive, but the loving environment of his family kept him from becoming a monster like Ted Bundy. Ecksetin believes that early childhood plays a really significant role in psychopaths lives, but not the only role. Ecksetin states, “Needless to say, early childhood experiences, and trauma and exposure to violence and poverty, are predictors of violence” (Ecksetin). Overall, psychopaths are incredibly different from healthy individuals. They’re manipulative, egotistic, defiant and knowledgeable. What the media often portrays is the serial killer psychopath, which skews societies view of psychopaths. The type of psychopath that society should be afraid of and should be aware of, are the psychopaths such as Ted Bundy. These criminal psychopaths become broken from home life and childhood traumas. The abusive relationship between parents or guardians of psychopathic children impact society more than they think. Not only do these criminal psychopaths become crippled from broken homes, but so do a majority of criminals in the system. Childhood is one of the most important times in the development of a human being. That’s where we make mistakes, learn and try again. Childhood should bring back happy memories, but this isn’t often the case. In order to start creating a healthier society , and a safer one for the future, we must take a look at ourselves. How can I positively impact someone? If Ted Bundy had been nurtured in a positive home and given the correct tools on how to deal with broken relationships, then so many lives could have been saved. This goes for all of those psychopathic killers out there, all those psychopathic rapists. If they were given a nurturing home, would they end up to become the monsters they are or were? In the end, it all comes down to treating everyone with respect,equality and with love, to ensure we’re not someone's breaking point. This is how we can all change the world, one step at a time.