Showing posts with label criminality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label criminality. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Knowing the limits of our answers

I thought this was a very interesting Wired article about the limitations of the PCL-R.  The author begins with the anecdote of Alan Turing's attempt to answer the question of whether computers could think.  Realizing that the question framed that way was impossible to answer (what does it mean to think?), he reframed the question to be whether computers could pass as humans.  He set up an experiment where test subjects were asked to determine whether responses from an unidentified source came from another human or a computer.

Turing constructed the test in transparently trivial terms. If a computer could fool someone for five minutes 70 percent of the time, it was as good as intelligent. This is powerful not because of its implications for intelligence, but because of its insight into asking tough questions. When we don’t understand the underlying causes of a phenomenon, what scientists call its mechanism, we must resort to studying its effects. But it is crucial that we be aware of the limitations of this approach and remain humble in our inquiry.

He then goes on to compare the difficult misalignment between what we can test and what we hope to learn in terms of the PCL-R and other diagnostic tools for psychopathy:


In the next year, the American Psychological Association will put the finishing touches on the latest version of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, its compendium of psychiatric illnesses. Psychiatry is up against a problem similar to the one Turing faced. The illnesses are complex and their causes hard to discern. Without a clear mechanism, psychiatrists must rely on their patients’ subjective symptoms. It’s a process that’s always fraught, but it works when psychiatrists are realistic about the constraints of their tests.

Things become more troubling when the stakes are high and the diagnoses are tough to change. This is the case in prisons throughout the Western world, where inmates are subjected to the revised Psychopathy Checklist, or PCL-R.

Like the Turing Test, the PCL-R is about effects and symptoms, not causes.

The problems with the PCL-R:


The PCL-R, unlike the Turing Test, is inflexible by design. The Turing Test merely relies on the ability of the machine to be convincing in the present. It doesn’t take into account the machine’s past track record. It leaves open the possibility for change and improvement. The PCL-R is not so forgiving. If a person with a history of psychopathic behaviour were to get better, testers would likely interpret this as deception. After all, deception is a key feature of psychopathy. The PCL-R tries to have it both ways. It relies on observing a set of behaviors, but it resists assigning significance to a change in those behaviors.

Leaving open the possibility of change isn’t about setting serial killers free. But for crimes on the margin, the batteries and assaults and armed robberies, we have to decide whether to deny people who score high on the PCL-R the same opportunities we would give those who score low.

The take away:

The checklist demands that we confront our values. For the possibility of a little more security, are we willing to risk denying a person a second chance? We have to understand the tradeoff and the uncertainty of the reward.

With the Turing Test, it’s pretty straightforward. Five minutes and 70 percent can only tell us so much. How much can the PCL-R tell us?

Alan Turing taught us that when the question is hard, we must know the limits of our answers. At stake here is redemption, the possibility that the wretched can make good. It is an aspiration worth more than a guess. It deserves our humility.


I like this issue about knowing the limits of our answers.  I have recently dipped more into the empirical side of my profession and it has been fascinating and eye-opening to see some of the common mistakes people make in terms of believing that they are "proving" things or that some things are capable of being "known."  There really is a great deal of hubris, and particularly when these pieces of "knowledge" leave the academic area of origin and are used by other people who are unaware of the inherent uncertainty (courts, parole boards, trolls, etc.).  I can understand why people would want to believe things are knowable, particularly when it comes to something as scary as psychopaths, but they just aren't -- at least not currently.





Wednesday, May 30, 2012

The criminal element

A reader writes:

I discovered I was a sociopath only several days ago. It took me 30 years of self-introspection. Finding you site finally connected me to something. I'm not sure what it means exactly that I've finally been realized by myself, but it's calming. I am not a criminal and have rarely been involved with the law on any level. I also have no craving to break the law. I DO have a craving not to go to prison, so that's probably part of it. I do not wish to psychologically harm others, but I do. Why am I not a criminal? I fit every exact thought and description of a sociopath, yet I do not commit crimes.

I find myself wishing there was a person who could help study us without being motivated by the fact that they need to be scared of us and that sociopath = criminal.

My response:

I think that sociopaths naturally exploit what is easiest to exploit. If a sociopath was born on a farm, maybe he would become a farmer. If his parents were academics, maybe he would become a scholar. If he was born on skid row, he would probably become a criminal. He would recognize that he has a natural advantage in a particular world and try to exploit that natural advantage. I have never been interested in being a career criminal, but I also don't have the sorts of connections or advantages that would lend themselves for that type of life for me. Instead, it has been much easier for me to play the racket that is the highly intelligent, consultant type role. People want me to tell them what their problem is, and that is easy and interesting enough to engage me. There is no pull to break the law just because it happens to be the law -- I get no particular thrill from breaking a law, just from the inherent interest of the activity itself. If I do break the law, it just happens without regard to the law.

I also wish that there were more people studying so called successful sociopaths.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

On becoming a sociopath (female)

From a reader:
 
In terms of ASPD: I still am, to a degree, but I am much less inclined to that disorder than I was as a  child. For the high-functioning sociopath, it is mandatory for him to have a relationship with himself. He lacks any sort of internal social inhibition, and therefore, he doesn't automatically incorporate the majority ethics. As a kid, I was at my most impulsive. Until I came to develop a code rooted in reason, rather than guilt, I was all over the place. People take for granted "right" and "wrong,” and many don’t question the ‘why’ behind it until they are much older, because they may cruise along on autopilot with the common knowledge that stealing is bad, and that they feel bad. If the sociopath can't introspect, however, he'll grow into a dangerous criminal as he hits adulthood and gains the means. For the sociopath, he has to mature early in, or face possible legal consequences for the rest of his life.  Although being a female and a sociopath is unique, I am fortunate in this respect. If I were a man, there’s a great chance that I would not have made it.
    
I hate to sound sexist, but it’s the truth: men are typically stronger than women. At the age of eight, I was already fantasizing about sex crimes. I remember thinking, verbatim, that it wasn’t “enough to love. You have to rip apart.” For me, cuddling and kissing could only go so far before the emptiness sank in. The threshold was reached, and boredom stirred. A man, or woman, could satisfy with soft whispers and affection to a point. Then, to overcome that boundary, sadism came to play. The only way I felt that I could truly share something with another human being, was to torture and to push him over the edge. There was excitement in this, and my own brand of worship. I didn’t realize that my desire was abnormal. For a long time, I didn’t realize that others weren’t like me. I observed them, and I thought that we were putting on a show, and so I acted, too. I watched and waited, half-expecting an explosion as one of us broke. It never came. Every now and again, I saw them clearly and was slammed with questions. "Is this real?" I wanted to capture their faces, to make them look at me. I lived in denial.
    
Bottom line: I stayed out of prison because I lacked the brute muscles to kill, and the dedication to go through with plans (I had constructed a motif in my head). Twice, I snapped on human beings and did everything in my carnal power to injure them, craving their expressions, because the fear and shock filled up a void within me. It was a foreign substance, and, as such, I took it as a druggie. 
    
I was let down in my weakness. I didn’t go after children my age, but lashed out against men who I perceived as strong. I wanted the triumph of breaking them, and I fell short. It was humiliating to have revealed and lost. Thus, I retreated to my intellect, and became the cult-starter. I manipulated without touch, and although, in the end, the new approach could have proved even more dangerous than the corporeal given my structure, I was appeased by little stunts, and, thankfully, came to my senses before moving onto greater defeats. Honestly, I just grew up, and trust me when I say that if I had waited even another year, given the crowd that I had gathered, things would be different. I have formalized legal opinions now, and a definition for good and evil, but I don’t possess the faculty of remorse. I can regret: regret meaning, I can find the consequences of something not to my enjoyment, and I can wish that I had acted otherwise, but, if not caught, I don’t have remorse, in that I don’t feel guilt for doing what I see as justifiably illegal. Hence, my version of “right” and “wrong” revolves around what is good for me, psychologically. Unrestrained, I slip and intentionally perform acts which I reject, lawfully, when statistics suggest a lapse in capture, but I do try to avoid this more often than not, because, regardless of how good I am, it’s never surefire.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Dopamine: treatment for sociopathy?

I think my brain produces unusually high amounts of dopamine -- and I think I've recently learned how to trigger my brain into producing more, sort of like mental masturbation. Apparently some women can think themselves to orgasm -- imagine thinking your way to mental ecstasy.

As I've mentioned before, I experience supersensitivity, and it is quite easy for me to achieve ecstasy based on external stimulus, particularly while experiencing rich food, beautiful music or imagery. Sometimes people think I am on drugs, but it's all me. Recently, perhaps due to some lifestyle changes, it has been especially easy for me to achieve ecstasy with relatively little prompting. It was happening so frequently that I started experimenting. First I tried to simply prolong and increase the intensity of the ecstasy when it came. After I got better at doing that, I successfully tried inducing it myself. I found that it was easiest to achieve ecstasy by focusing on an external stimulus as before, like music, food, or sunlight. After a while I was able to do it by focusing on a single sound or visual image and just trip on it. Now I can do it pretty much just by concentrating.

Perhaps this ability is just one more side benefit of the large degree of control I have over my mind and emotions. Or maybe there is a stronger link. Autism has also been linked with excessive amounts of dopamine in the brain, and is specifically associated with the autistic's stereotypical behavior. Physicians have achieved modest success in minimizing these behaviors by giving patients dopamine inhibitors. If sociopathy is on the autism spectrum, along with with asperger syndrome, then sociopaths may also have elevated amounts of dopamine, but not high enough to hamper social functioning.

Excessive amounts of dopamine seem to adversely affect behavior on the autism spectrum, but so do insufficient amounts. Sociopaths with lower levels of dopamine would presumably be lower functioning than those with higher levels of dopamine, because higher levels of dopamine would allow the sociopath's need for excitement and stimulation to be fulfilled by lower risk behavior, whereas sociopaths with less dopamine have to engage in riskier, more antisocial behavior to get the same high. At least one study has confirmed this intuition, that "low levels of dopamine-beta-hydroxylase (DBH) are associated with undersocialized conduct disorder and psychopathy whereas high levels of the enzyme were associated with socialized conduct disorder and secondary sociopathy." If individuals with autism are able to improve symptoms by decreasing dopamine levels, maybe criminal sociopaths could be treated by increasing dopamine levels.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Sociopaths in the news: fratricide

Kids these days... tsk tsk.
An Indiana teen who has allegedly admitted strangling his little brother likened the murder to satisfying a craving for a hamburger and told authorities he was inspired by the television series "Dexter."

Anthony Conley, 17, is charged with murdering his 10-year-old brother Conner on Saturday night, allegedly strangling the boy and then stuffing his head in a plastic bag so that blood wouldn't "get everywhere," according to Dearborn-Ohio County Prosecutor Aaron Negangard.

"It's disturbing that a 17-year-old would want to kill under any circumstances, let alone his own brother," said Negangard. He described Conley as "emotionless" when he was interviewed by police.

Negangard said that when Conley was asked to explain his behavior by investigators the teen said he identified with Dexter Morgan, the main character in Showtime's "Dexter," which chronicles the life of an undercover Miami blood spatter expert who doubles as a serial killer.

"Conley said that he just 'felt like him,'" said Negangard.

In interviews with investigators, Conley also allegedly likened his desire to kill to a craving a person gets when they want a particular food.

"He analogized the murder to when someone wants a hamburger," said Negangard. "He said that when someone wants a hamburger they've just got to have it."

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Criminal sociopathy (part 4)

Last installment. (As a sidenote, there are a lot of things I know about my readers who email me that I don't include when I publish about them. I know that means you don't get the whole story, but I weigh that against other considerations. I have this guy's backstory, and if he is who he says he is, then he is who he says he is.) My comments in bold.
The truth is most people make me sick. They disgust me. I don't care about them, because they don't care about themself. I don't respect them, because they don't respect themself. Luckily I think that a lot of people are sort of charming. I can be very fond of people, but definitely not anyone who is a self-hater. Those people are lost.

I hide behind the mask because if they knew how great I really felt and who I really am they would hate me because they can't be that way. Yeah, I think you are right that they would hate you. I don't know if it would necessarily all (or even primarily) be because they are jealous. I feel like it is more because you threaten their very way of life, are a parasite, someone who is at least capable of doing terrible things to them.

The vast majority of people besides sociopaths are insecure, self loathing, self hating, miserable people guided by their weaknesses who will never change. I wonder if your opinions are somewhat influenced by who you have found yourself surrounded by in jail and with the gang. I think a lot of people are great. I myself have met many smart, really dedicated people who are not at all a drain on society.
Psychologists who call our personality types evil and a mental illness are leading the charge. Blaming everyone for their weakness. Pointing fingers at us calling us evil, because they can't 'treat' our 'illness'. They can't manipulate us, in fact they fear us because without even studying psychology we can manipulate them. Its no wonder they have a high suicide rate. This sounds accurate, although I don't know about the correlation with the high suicide rate and their failure to treat sociopaths.

I want to end in this. Know yourself. You are your worse enemy. Learn to identify other leaders, or 'sociopaths' and be honest with them, don't try to manipulate them because they will also become your worse enemy. Right, making enemies with sociopaths is a losing scenario for both empaths and sociopaths. It's like Dangerous Liaisons -- stuff will turn needlessly ugly for both of you.
Don't try to be weak and insecure like them and have them tell you that you're sick because you don't feel guilty, insecure, and negative about yourself. You are amazing, gifted, and the most important person in your life so live that way. I like your style. You sound like you have worked out a great life philosophy for yourself. Stay gold, Ponyboy.
A little more commentary about this: when I first read it I was turned off (apparently, like many of you) by all of what seemed to be braggery. I don't know what I was expecting from my first exchange with a criminal sociopath, but I was surprised, particularly on the second reading, to see how much we had in common. To a large extent when i read things like this, it is like looking into a mirror:
Most 'criminals' lack any sophistication to put anything out there on the internet or any media for people to understand us. I wanted to change that. I also wanted to see if there's people out there like us who understand maybe that's on another walk of life. I found your site when doing research on sociopaths trying to find a positive alternate view. I found a dr. as well who says he leans towards a minority opinion that it might be a personality type which I agree with.

Most 'disorders' are personality types in my opinion or everyone would have a disorder. I think the DSMIV was written by weak minded psychologists who seem to dominate the industry. Which is why the majority are bananas themselves.
From reading the websites on sociopathy there seems to be a growing trend of people who want to be sociopaths like its a badge of honor. Maybe we might be getting some positive reviews as people now. The strange thing I've found is the fact that people hate us so much by definition but in reality we are surrounded by everyone who looks to us for guidance and leadership. Its a ironic contradiction.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Criminal sociopathy (part 2)

(cont.)

In all that time I manipulated everybody. I was out of control and angry things weren't going my way. I always thought I was the victim of injustice and if I had power everything would be set straight. I still believe it as a matter of fact. I controlled everyone around me. My friends, people who thought they were my friends (I called them crash dumbies), and my family. I believed my own bullshit and so did everyone else. This sounds familiar, minus criminal behavior. There's only so much your friends and associates can take from you, though, without realizing that you are actually their problem, not their savior.
I wouldn't just manipulate on small scale either. Let me give you another example. I worked at Staples (while selling coke out of it might I add) and they wanted me to become a lead in the business machine section due to my leadership skills. Thank your manipulation skills and charm for that.

They said eventually I'd be a manager. This is when I was 18. I was excited because this was my shot to be legit with a real job and future. Ah, what could have been!

One day this guy steals something and there's this big commotion. Long story short this cop comes and wants me to give a statement. I'm not a snitch [issues with authority figures] so I don't want to give one, but they take me to him anyway. This cop turns out to be one that arrested me for not letting him search me. He illegally arrested me a day after I turned 18. So I started yelling at him. Because of this incident they didn't want me as lead or even work there so they started cutting my hours. My reaction: I called UFCW. The union vons and safeway workers have. I started a union campaign that had the vice president of Staples come down to speak to us about why we should vote no on the union. Long story short Staples lost a lot of money fighting the union campaign, but I lost and they fired me. I like this. I also take the offensive once I realize that my chips are down. It is usually a longshot, but I find some consolation in thinking that if I am going down, a lot of other people are going down with me. Of course it can also be turn into assured mutual destruction...

Let me tell you why I call my friends that aren't my friends crash dumbies. You can tell them to do anything and they will do it. They are loyal out of sheer stupidity. I've crash dumbied many people. Some committed crimes for me. Some fought for me. Some shot for me. Some even got arrested doing something I was going to do, but they beat me to the punch to impress me.

One day this guy I considered a good mentor told me I have a ability to pursuade people my age to do things. That the youngsters followed me. I toldem that I don't tell people what to do, they do what they want. He said my refusal to accept leadership was really my refusal to accept responsibility. This is wisdom.Ii don't know why this is, but all sociopaths seem to go through a phase of denying reality and rejecting responsibility for their actions, e.g. pretending they're normal, thinking that nothing is their fault, thinking that everyone does/is similar, etc. Maybe we are just freaked out by what we are capable of, but all sociopaths seem to deny Christ at least a few times before coming to Jesus. Maybe this is why lack of responsibility for our actions is thought of as being a "typical" sociopath trait amongst the mental health community. I don't think that high functioning sociopaths are irresponsible (obviously, I guess, otherwise they wouldn't be high functioning), but it is definitely an issue for most (if not all) sociopaths at one stage in their development.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Criminal sociopathy (part 1)

From a reader (my responses in bold):

Dear M.E.

I've discovered I'm what they call a sociopath a year ago. I waz actually reading psychology to help me manipulate people better. This is one of the big reasons psychologists hate treating sociopaths, by the way -- they feel like we just take the info we learn from them and use it against them.
I waz ordered by the courts when I waz younger to go to therapy for anger control and my therapist called me one and refused to 'treat' me, so it kind of jumped out at me. If I knew then what I know now she can't diagnose me at one at 25 [you mean 15?] cuz its a 21 and over thing. I've always thought sociopaths were serial killers and rapists. You know the hype I'm sure. Yeah, all too familiar.

Let me start by saying everyone wear's a mask, but not like I can wear one. I started manipulating people in first grade. I got my first grade teacher fired from her job, because she didn't like me. I got the kids to hate her, their parents, and my parents. I had the kids feeling like they were in a sweatshop of classes. So much homework there's no way to finish it, I said. The kids all agreed of course. The parents followed suit. It was to long ago to remember the course of events exactly that lead to her getting fired, but I remember how powerful I felt. Ha, I love it. Firing teachers is like a teeth-cutting activity for sociopaths, it seems. I didn't start getting teachers fired as early as first grade, though. That's pretty impressive.

My schools were a series of fights and illegal activities after elementary, till I was expelled from the entire school district in 10th grade. I started selling drugs and was (and still am) in a gang. I went to the hall (juvi) and got on probation. I got detonation of a explosive at 14, assault with a deadly weapon at 15, at 16 I got sales of explosives on school property, and was charged for arson at 17 but it was dropped for lack of evidence. My folks still think I was innocent on all counts. At 19 I waz arrested for trying to attack a aryan nation meeting with a improvised timed inciendrary. I ended up doing three years in prison when all the cards were down. Nice rap sheet. No wonder people were jumping the gun to diagnose you as a sociopath before you were technically old enough. But this highlights an interesting point -- psychologists don't diagnose until 18 because they don't want to misdiagnose people for things that just turn out to be tempestuous teenager-type activities. But sociopaths act like sociopaths from the beginning. You're a great example of that.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Sociopaths in the news: candidates for early release from prison

The subheading of this article says it all: "Psychopathic criminals are more likely to be released from prison than non-psychopaths, even though they are more likely to re-offend, a study suggests."
The psychopaths had committed significantly more offences (both violent and non-violent), and psychopathic child abusers had far more charges and convictions than non-psychopathic offenders.

The researchers from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia found psychopathic offenders were around 2.5 times more likely to have been given a conditional release than undiagnosed offenders.

And on average, psychopaths offended again, and were returned to prison after one year, compared with two for non-psychopaths.
...
"Psychopaths are so adept at "putting on a good show" and using crocodile tears that they can be convincing to psychologists as well as other professionals.

"They use non-verbal behaviour, a "gift of gab", and persuasive emotional displays to put on an Oscar award winning performance and move through the correctional system and ultimately parole boards relatively quickly, despite their known diagnosis."
Ah, those sneaky psychopaths.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Are you one of us?

I stumbled upon this a while ago, and then the other day. "Are you one of them?" the caption reads. The article purports to present a test of sociopathy. Both times i "failed" the test (I had forgotten the answer after the first time). I guess that makes me not a sociopath. r at least not a sociopath who has been stupid enough to be incarcerated.

It got me thinking, though. I am
sort of lonely. I would like to talk a little with my peers. It'd be good if there was some real way to test if people I know are also sociopaths, like Bladerunner's Voight-Kampff machine. It's tricky though, because sociopaths are so good at remaining undetected, even to other sociopaths. And you'd want the test to be very good at excluding false positives and negatives. You'd have to sneak up on them in a way that deprives them of other cues about how to act, like sneaking up on a baby you suspect is deaf and clapping to see if he reacts.

A possible test might be something that offends all sides of the moral spectrum, like the Freakonomics argument that the crime drop in the 1990's was due to Roe v. Wade because all the babies that would have grown up to be criminals had been aborted. Because there's so much moral static regarding that proposition, and because it offends absolutely everyone with any sort of moral compass, the sociopath can't make out any one particular signal. A better analogy might something like two very loud noise sources that are directly opposed. So by the time both noises reach the sociopath, they've canceled each other out and the sociopath hears nothing.

How would you expect the sociopath to react in such a situation? When I first read the Roe v. Wade argument in Freakonomics, I cried. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever read. The reasoning was so familiar to me. I recognized the pattern of my own brain's reasoning. I felt like I belonged. So if I'm any indication of how sociopaths would react, elation, joy, feeling of belonging--these are the sorts of things you would be looking for.

Who cares about "them." Are you one of "us"?

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Batman


I just watched the new Batman finally. At first I was bored and disappointed. Why was Batman acting all good? It had been several years since the last Batman movie, but I seemed to recall it being dark with an antihero protagonist. In the new one, Batman has somehow reformed and become a contributing member of society. Not likely. Batman is a sociopath. He's actually one of the better examples of what i consider "the good sociopath." Being a sociopath doesn't necessarily mean you do bad things, it just means your brain is wired a certain way, and you do things a certain way. Power is power. A sociopath can just as easily satisfy his cravings for power and excitement by fighting alongside local city police as fighting alongside villains. But Batman's girlfriend's note pleads with him to not lose faith in humanity. I guess for the normal moviegoer it's too much to believe that Batman would fight on the side of good for anything other than an undying belief in the decency and equality of mankind. How about because fighting is fun? Or convenient? How about because his natural inclination was to be a fighter, and the best option to him at the time was to fight for "good"? How about because he was trying to impress a girl? There are many reasons why a sociopath like Batman would choose to fight for "good"--reasons that have nothing to do with a vague faith in humankind.

And how about the Joker? His character is a more accurate depiction of a sociopath, although the portrayal here is somewhat heavy-handed. The Joker's view of humanity is jaded in a way that many sociopaths' views are. I mean jaded strictly in the Webster's sense of the word: "Made dull, apathetic, or cynical by experience or by surfeit." "Bad" sociopaths tend to have little respect for the social structure because they have been exposed to it enough to know it's rotten. The Joker makes some typical sociopathic comments about humanity, saying that people are only as "good" as the situation allows them to be. But he quickly learns that people are actually worse: empaths will frequently make irrational decisions based on something other than the exigencies of a particular situation. The Joker is surprised when the criminals and civilians on the ferries did not kill each other because he believes empaths can make the rational decision of blowing up the other ferry before they get blown up themselves. But they can't. The movie portrays the behavior of the passengers as noble, when really it is just irrational. This capacity for irrationality is probably the most disturbing thing about empaths to the sociopath. It's what makes them unpredictable and dangerous. The great thing about sociopaths is that they won't let emotions cloud their rational decision making.
Join Amazon Prime - Watch Over 40,000 Movies

.

Comments are unmoderated. Blog owner is not responsible for third party content. By leaving comments on the blog, commenters give license to the blog owner to reprint attributed comments in any form.