Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Quote: Mobs

“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”

― StanisÅ‚aw Jerzy Lec

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Pros and cons of dating a sociopath

This was an interesting blog post about the pros and cons of maintaining a relationship with a sociopath. I believe that this definitely could be one person's experience of one particular sociopath. I wonder whether people think that it could be generalized. Some traits, sure -- exciting, charming, etc. Others, maybe not? For instance, is it true that sociopaths tend to push their partners to achieve their potential? I could see that happening perhaps with a high functioning sociopath that sort of takes the partner under his or her wing and teaches him or her to be more risk seeking, brave, confident, etc. 

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Curing Psychopathy

I got this press release and a copy of Willem Martens' new book on psychopaths who are no longer psychopaths:

[T]he new book of William Martens – MD, PhD. The Firebirds among the Psychopaths – Development and Remission in Psychopathy,” will be available from January 15 2015 on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, Kobo, Apple iBookstore etc; ISBN: 978-2-7659-0740-4

This book is an attempt to describe and make understandable this rare phenomenon of complete remission in psychopathy and the developmental embedding of it. In this book the history of the concept of psychopathy; the psychosocial, psychodynamic, genetic and neurobiological aspects, the diagnostic tools as well as the therapeutic determinants of the phenomenon will be discussed in this volume.

A complete remission of psychopathy is defined as complete disappearance of all such manifestations of disease.  The case reports of remitted criminal and noncriminal psychopaths which are presented in this book are the only examples of real remission in a sample 667 patients which were treated in a forensic psychiatric hospital between 1966 and 1995. This a percentage of just nearly 2% .They might become “weller than well” as Karl Menninger called this phenomenon in his study of remitted in schizophrenic patients. This means that these patients are not just cured, but their life as very much enriched by the experience of conquer the disorder and self-transformation. They will continue improve still further.


Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Ender's Game on love and understanding

From a recent comment from the post about the Ender's Game quote:

This is actually one of my favorite quotes. If you haven't read the other books, you should. I've only read to Xenocide, but they're fantastic.

This quote makes a lot of sense. ...Sometimes, I accidentally profile people. I have a knack for knowing when something is "off," and by intuitive leap I've identified a few socios and a neurotypical or two who were waiting for someone to see behind the mask. Usually I'm clueless as to what makes a person tick, but when this thing happens, I am terrifically accurate. And I love them. The way them love themselves. Deeply, instinctually. It isn't empathy, but it is understanding. And oh, how I could destroy them. For me there's a fine line between love and the desire to destroy. They go hand in hand. Knowing someone in this way makes me love them, and loving them makes me want to break them. Ruin them. Possess them. When I love someone, I want their soul. Love, of course, is the reason I take care of them instead. But yes, knowing someone well enough to love them makes it possible to destroy them so completely they, for my own purposes, become essentially a non-entity.

Another quote, Ender talking about the Hive Queen:
"I knew her so well that I loved her, or maybe I loved her so well that I knew her. Either way, I was tired of fighting. So I blew up her planet."

And one more:
"You are the one human being who is capable of understanding the alien mind, because you are the alien mind; you know what it is to be unhuman because there’s never been any human group that gave you credentials as a bona fide homo sapien."

I think most of us here can relate to that one, just a little bit. 

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Human purpose

This was an thought provoking comment from an old post:

being a sociopath can be incredibly beneficial, and most of us are smart enough to react properly and "empathetically" to most situations, as long as we choose to be inherently good and exercise any amount of willpower over our actions we become capable of pretty great things, the lack of guilt or shame and general quick wit and flamboyance that we often exude is great for attracting a wonderful spouse with whatever qualities you choose to seek if family is something we choose to pursue. if not we can turn those same traits and find success in business and advertising and marketing with ease, we make pretty good managers and business owners as we never have to worry about emotions clouding our judgement, this generally avoids issues with depression and fortifies us against things like PTSD, heartbreak, or emotional stress. by no means are we evil, and we did not choose to be wired like this, its only natural for a creature to play to its strengths and use what resources it has at its disposal to attain comfort and success and advance for personal gain then reproduce with a suitable mate. at our very core this is the greatest purpose any human has managed to achieve so far and we just go about it a little differently. the truth is if a climatic event were to happen tomorrow, and society were to collapse I believe sociopaths would have the greatest chance of survival in a more...natural environment. this is probably why were still such a common occurrence, and may even eventually become the norm for the human species. most "empaths" are afraid of sociopaths to some degree, and regard us as dangerous but we aren't afraid of them, think long and hard about what that says about how this food chain is working. last I checked, the lion isn't scared or wary of the antelope and the wolves do not steer clear of deer. and really I could keep going for hours with every metaphor on the planet but the point is whatever differences we have in our genetics we all still exhibit free will and are all still in control of, and accountable for our actions. we are what we choose to be, whether our heartstrings are capable of being plucked or not. and no intelligent creature should forget that.

There were a lot of possibly controversial points made, but the one that stuck out to me most was "its only natural for a creature to play to its strengths and use what resources it has at its disposal to attain comfort and success and advance for personal gain then reproduce with a suitable mate. at our very core this is the greatest purpose any human has managed to achieve so far".
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