
When your child is a psychopath - dodorex
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/when-your-child-is-a-psychopath/524502/?single_page=true
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spangry
Seems pretty quiet in here, so I figure I'll do a bit of spruiking. The
article is definitely worth the read; I found it quite riveting.

The most interesting part is the suggestion that there might be effective
methods of treating psychopathy/sociopathy. This would be groundbreaking if
true, as psychopathy is generally thought to be untreatable. In fact, it has
been observed that treatment will often just teach psychopaths how to more
effectively manipulate others.

Another interesting bit: brain scan studies show that psychopaths have smaller
amygdalae compared to non-psychopaths. The amygdala is a part of the brain
that processes emotions, particularly fear, and is implicated in 'fear
conditioning'. It's basically your brain's "module" for heuristic threat
recognition. For example, the amygdala of an arachnophobe will light up and
send the "pump adrenaline" signal if they are exposed to a spider. In
contrast, psychopaths don't seem to experience fear and have difficulty
recognising this emotion in others:

 _" I don’t know what you call this emotion," one psychopathic prisoner said,
looking at a photo of a fearful face, "but it’s what people look like just
before you stab them."_

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throwawayy109
I have read somewhere that programmers are especially subject to sociopathy.
Or rather, a lot of successful sociopaths grow up to be programmers. I believe
the draw is the tiny rewards when program compiles and executes. At least for
me personally.

I grew up a happy child in a middle class home and the symptoms didn't
manifest until when I was 17. Looking back, I started a pattern of petty
crimes such as shoplifting, sabotaging school computer, spamming teachers'
inboxes, stealing answers to exams. I had 3 ultimatums from school. Because
nobody understood computers at the time, I did complete my high school and got
into a relatively good college for CS.

Just before graduation, my friend whom I bullied emotionally for 4 months
attempted commit suicide. This is when I started to realize what I have
become. I consider myself lucky because of the latent manifestations of
sociopathic behaviors, which exempts me from further punitive conditioning
from society forces.

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restalis
_" Psychopaths have always been with us. Indeed, certain psychopathic traits
have survived because they’re useful in small doses: the cool dispassion of a
surgeon, the tunnel vision of an Olympic athlete, the ambitious narcissism of
many a politician."_

 _" The condition can go unnoticed because many children with these traits—who
can be charming and smart enough to mimic social cues—are able to mask them."_

This claim comes interestingly close to that of Pieter Hintjens' in his blog
and book:
[http://hintjens.com/blog:_psychopaths](http://hintjens.com/blog:_psychopaths)

~~~
spangry
I've always been fascinated by this idea; the possibility that a few of the
highly popular or charismatic people you come across are actually psychopaths
with a well constructed 'mask'. Indeed, one of the phrases that is used to
describe this concept in general is 'the mask of sanity'.

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VaChildAbuse
"No evidence of abuse" Ha. So, some people just turn out this way, for no
reason?

I think I know what "no evidence of abuse" means, having lived through it. It
means everyone believes you deserve it, or that it doesn't harm you, or that
the people who are supposed to report and investigate abuse are at least not
doing their jobs or are predators themselves. The kid shows up at school with
a burnt hand, or bloodied and bruised. The kid describes watching pornography,
being given drugs, and physical and sexual abuse in front of the teacher at
age ten. The kid's parents admit, in direct language, to social workers and
law enforcement that they commit abuse. A teacher visits the house and
witnesses drunken dad beating up on the kid. The kid turns in a writing
assignment which is a recollection of sexual abuse. Police officers eyewitness
the kid being assaulted, take reports of abuse from the kid after the fact,
and the dispatchers document requests for assistance. These are just some of
the things that can add up to "no evidence of abuse."

I believe that it is no miracle that when I no longer experienced physical,
sexual and drug abuse and psychological torture, that after some time I began
to not hate, want to kill or harm, and be devoid of respect for anything,
everything, and everyone. However, these experiences left me crippled because
I was prevented from developing into a normal human being. Somehow, I managed
to not physically harm or destroy anything more, and only caused emotional
pain inadvertently (something that I feel shame and regret for - nB I did not
experience these feelings at all during the first twenty years of my life.)

It was many years, only after I healed enough to begin processing my
experiences and realized that these things should not have happened to me, and
that many people should have acted differently, before I wanted to harm
anything again. Nowadays, instead of anything and everything, I would like to
cause harm, pain and suffering to some of the principals and accessories of
the abuse I experienced. I have developed, despite tardily, a sense of morals
that prevents me from committing crimes and doing evil, and a sense of justice
that leaves me unable to forget that these people are still alive, not
punished, and will die without paying for their crimes. The juvenile probation
officer whose fat thighs flash before my eyes every time I try to be intimate
with my wife, because her jowly privates were the first I'd smelled, decades
ago. The principal who accused me of a petty theft from a class I never went
to, who grabbed me and spread me open when I didn't understand what he meant
by 'grab your buttocks.' The psychotherapist who listed and billed for me as a
patient, despite primarily teaching my family members how to continue their
abuse and remain undetected while manipulating me with shame to not speak of
it. The Chesapeake Police officers who threw my reports away, and the Virginia
State Police agents who threatened me with arrest should I not stop
complaining about abuse. I want them to live long, and suffer in pain every
day, and terrible as this is, to watch their innocent grandchildren be abused
and know the ability to determine the terms of their first sexual experience
was taken from them. I simply cannot stop fantasizing about harm coming to
these people.

I want to stop thinking these things, and instead take care of my self and
family. Instead of calling me a schizo or a psychopath, they now say I have
PTSD and reassuredly tell me that I'm a victim and my thoughts are rational.

~~~
vnchr
While this may not be the appropriate forum for what you shared, I am deeply
saddened to hear what you have struggled through. No one deserves that kind of
abuse. And the severity of that pain would make forgiveness or empathy
difficult for anyone. I am glad you desire to care for your self and your
family, and I hope you experience success in those areas as you continue to
heal and grow.

