Tuesday, March 19, 2013

"Psychopath"

From a reader regarding Jennifer Skeem's most recent article debunking sociopath myths:


I think she's much closer to the mark, ironically by not really trying too hard to pin down exactly what psychopathy is. As I recall her main line of attack is focused on the current conception, the Hare model. The two areas that I think are weakest with the current model are where she focuses, namely the idea that psychopathy is totally untreatable, as well as including criminality as central to the disorder. Both of these assumptions are based on faulty data. For a laugh, check out the methodology of the first study that concluded psychopaths weren't helped by therapy. They put a bunch of violent convicts together naked in a room and gave them a ton of LSD. What a shocker that didn't turn out well.

Skeem's revised model is more like the lack of a model. Rather than claiming to have an objective definition she argues that psychopathy should be understood as a nebulous constellation of personality traits. I think this is a much more realistic approach because people are always going to be more complicated than a checklist. The more I read about the subject the more I question if psychopathy truly exists. "Psychopath" is something that you call an other person. Anyone who claims that title for themselves without any reservations probably wants to see themselves that way, for whatever reason.

There's another really interesting section you may want to check out that probably would be better as another post than an addendum to the first. The section is called "Does Secondary Psychopathy Exist?" and I think poses an important question. I don't think that high anxiety, highly emotionally reactive people are psychopaths, even if they may exhibit similar behavior.


For what it is worth, I completely agree with that last part. These people who feel overwhelmed by their emotions -- their emotions are the root of their impulsivity -- that just sounds like something too different to include in our general conception of what is a psychopath, even if the outward manifestations of it are similar.

40 comments:

  1. i remember reading that the difference between psycho/sociopaths, are psychopaths have emotions but no empathy and sociopaths dont have either. that made sense to me for some reason.

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    1. More than likely, that was written by a sociopath, if that was even what was actually written. Re read this post. More than once if necessary. Can you see them??? The depth is truely masterful. Excuse me while I go vomit.

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  2. This might be dumb to say but I hate that we throw the PDs at each other like weapons. Who wants to have a PD? It is a terrible thing to have and is, usually, from abuse. If someone is one of these PDs, the person could not help it.

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    1. i like this post and i agree
      aspd is not a sociopath
      the primairy sociopath is the one and only real sociopath

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    2. il y a beaucoup de pd en bruxelle

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    3. I agree with you Monica. It dehumanizes people and turns them into mere categories.

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    4. Medusa
      For what it is worth, I like the new you. I see a change in you and it looks good on you!
      Peace be with you. :)

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    5. Medusa
      ^ In fact, you're the most disciplined regular! I always admired your intelligence. :)

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    6. Medusa
      And the above posts were not from monica.

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    7. Okay... thank you. Whoever you are. Although I find all flattery to be generally suspect I'll take it for what it's worth.

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    8. Medusa
      Sincere remarks.

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    9. Yes, the whole psych eval process can be very dehumanizing. There's usually reports with lengthy interpretations of test results and interviews etc that can be far worse than a simple label (which can be bad enough).

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    10. Medusa, me too @ 11:33.

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    11. Anon 6:46
      Would it have been less suspect if posted that she was less "evil" than the others?"

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    12. Hi 724

      My comment at 646 means that i can relate to Medusa's feeling on flattery.

      I am not sure i understand the question.

      Are you asking me how i feel bout myself? Or are you asking me how i feel about Medusa, now that i see a few of our common traits ?




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    13. asking whether you think she is evil.

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    14. That time she put a moving penis in and out of davidsocio's mouth in the forum?

      I thought it was an ungrateful way of showing her appreciation for his well-crafted, personal love messages to Ukan ~

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    15. Someone else made that image, not me.

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  3. http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/06/paper-on-psychopaths-delayed-by-.html
    the author Jennifer Skeem got inn trouble with dr hare

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    1. Disputes among academicians are not uncommon. They are usually played out in peer review journals in the form of point-and-counterpoint articles, or rebuttals and rejoinders. Recently however, a threat of litigation was issued against the authors of an article and the editor of the scientific journal which had accepted that article for publication following peer review. In this commentary we review legal commentary on litigation (and threats of litigation) involving academic disputes and literature regarding the values that underpin the scientific peer review process. We conclude that the use of threats of litigation to suppress the publication of articles accepted for publication in scientific journals strike at the heart of the peer review process, may have a chilling effect on the values at the core of academic freedom, and may potentially impede the scientific testing of various theories, models and products.

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    2. Abstract

      The development of the Psychopathy Checklist—Revised (PCL–R; R. D. Hare, 2003) has fueled intense clinical interest in the construct of psychopathy. Unfortunately, a side effect of this interest has been conceptual confusion and, in particular, the conflating of measures with constructs. Indeed, the field is in danger of equating the PCL–R with the theoretical construct of psychopathy. A key point in the debate is whether criminal behavior is a central component, or mere downstream correlate, of psychopathy. In this article, the authors present conceptual directions for resolving this debate. First, factor analysis of PCL–R items in a theoretical vacuum cannot reveal the essence of psychopathy. Second, a myth about the PCL–R and its relation to violence must be examined to avoid the view that psychopathy is merely a violent variant of antisocial personality disorder. Third, a formal, iterative process between theory development and empirical validation must be adopted. Fundamentally, constructs and measures must be recognized as separate entities, and neither reified. Applying such principles to the current state of the field, the authors believe the evidence favors viewing criminal behavior as a correlate, not a component, of psychopathy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

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  4. Oh my god M.E... This sucks! You are totally jumping the shark here with this white high contract background. It hurts the eyes dude. I do realize you may be going for that look. But then why not add strobe lights for the full on seizure effect? Ah, of course, that would just send everyone away... you want to keep them around as you torture them with this eye breaking white. Seriously though, it does suck. In addition to its pain invoking properties, it does all look a little Pussy-fied with its soft blue and sweet female mask echoing in the background.

    Dude, woman, go back to the all black background that you had initially with the default template. Not the one with the space shit in the background but the one prior. Thank you for listening. Aspie.

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    1. It does look a little like a nasal spray commercial.

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    2. is Me's name Michele?

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  5. M.E., maybe make SociopathWorld, Sociopath World, to make distinct.

    Description tag might help lend stability.

    I would look into metatags in general, and I don't mean the keywords tag.

    Also, please ditch this crappy white background and go back to black.

    For you M.E.:

    Black

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  6. I wonder how M.E handles all of this. If she really is a lawyer, and some kind of law teacher, and a sunday school teacher of Mormons and other things, then all of this together might identify her to someone. She has a paypal account and possibly a book agent? Can she keep hidden with all of this? If she really is a sociopath, then she may lie often (as they do). But sociopaths are also impulsive sometimes and poor goal planners and considerers of the future.

    How much of the M.E book and website is lie?, how much is just impulsivity and not rational planning? Is M.E. even female and if all of this were true, would M.E being outed and known as a sociopath, a lawyer, sunday school teacher etc affect her ability to continue in those professions?

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    1. my gues is anonymous will publish here full name and address in order to derail there organisation they will start a witch hunt

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    2. lies make great books

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  7. I am a tapestry. I am depraved and seemly. Some colors shine vibrantly, like sunshiny yellow. Others are murky like the green that makes you want to run when they paint the walls with it.

    I take out my unseemly side. I feel like a lady, in times past, when she wore layers upon layers and underneath was the corset.

    Now, I loosen the corset and reach my bony hand out to touch another bony hand. I think this is intimacy,two bony hands reaching out for each other. It is just a touch but I think this is as good as it gets and it is good enough.

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  8. J. Skeem is a diligent researcher and analyst, and brings up very important methodological concerns, but she is very wrong about the nature of psychopathy-- people "suffering" from psychopathy are definitely "evil," in the sense that they have a driving need to hurt, obliterate competition, lie, cheat, steal, scapegoat, and torture.. and are very violent and criminal-- they just don't get caught.

    I know of two (2) highly--placed career criminals that are felonious-- and have no criminal records, because they are never caught.

    That is their game: to put one over on everyone, by cruelty and torture, making as much money as possible.... don't fool yourselves, these people are malignant, and they lie about absolutely everything.. listen to Hare, and factor in her criticisms.

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