Show #3, Feb. 3rd 2013: Are Psychopaths Cool? Uncovering the predators among us
- Thread starter Niall
- Start date
I wasn't able to listen to the show live, but I would like to add some impressions regarding Obama. I never trusted the man - as soon as he was being floated -- his book had come out and a lot of my colleagues were excited -- I had an 'icky' feeling in my gut. One question I never saw or heard anyone else ask was "would you define, Mr. Obama, exactly, how you understand the terms 'Hope' and 'Change'???"
Kris
Kris
Muxel
Dagobah Resident
I liked that, when Laura joined in, it took off into animated conversation between a group of friends. Both interesting and instructive.
Maybe "species" isn't the word for it. If psychopaths arise statistically out of genetic recombination, then they're just a manifestation of the Law (or Overlords) of Entropy. I'd want to know, how does genetic recombination produce an organism capable of housing a soul/consciousness 50% of the time? What biological features determine the presence of soul/consciousness?
Maybe "species" isn't the word for it. If psychopaths arise statistically out of genetic recombination, then they're just a manifestation of the Law (or Overlords) of Entropy. I'd want to know, how does genetic recombination produce an organism capable of housing a soul/consciousness 50% of the time? What biological features determine the presence of soul/consciousness?
Muxel said:
For the first question, I'd say that's just a manifestation of probability and for the second, I guess that's the 64,000 dollar question, as they say.
I suspect that there are certain genetic lines that do produce more psychopaths - that's pretty much what certain genetics studies say. But my real point was to say that you can't just eliminate psychopathology in a population by selectively getting rid of certain members or sterilizing them or whatever. Genetic mixing has been going on for so long that probably everyone has the potential, even if it is recessive or much less likely, to produce a child with such a mix of genes.
You could read Barbara Oakley's "Evil Genes" for some clues, keeping in mind the fact that she appears to carry a strong tendency herself to "authoritarianism" (witness her admiration for Rumsfeld and her belief in the neocon propaganda).
From this you will learn that there are a few well-identified genetic glitches that lead to SOME aspects of psychopathology, but they all need to express at the same time or at least in certain combinations. Then, there are diseases and/or physical traumas that can change the way the brain works that can come into play.
Another source for the dynamics of genetic "selection" and changes and mutations would be Bryant Shiller's "The 5th Option".
The bottom line is, I don't think there could ever be a genetic test that would say "this person is a psychopath" (or some other manifested psychopathology) and that's that. I don't think brain scans will do it either though both genetic tests and brain scans can contribute to an overall assessment assuming that a population could deal with the logistics of administering same.
In the end, what seems to be the only sure method is observation and experience of the person by a number of individuals who compare notes over a long period of time and possibly even set up little "tests".
Sol Logos
The Living Force
Laura said:
Do you think dream frequency (or even ability), type / analysis could be useful as a diagnostic tool? At the least it might tell something of the internal workings, anyway just an idea. Of course a real psychopath wouldn't be freely giving his / her dreams away. BTW very interesting show guys, thanks!
alkhemst said:
How would one go about analysing their dreams? You can't trust a psychopath to tell the truth about anything. I don't know, but it seems that something like that would be fertile ground for corruption. Lots of people have very disturbing dreams, full of violence. Others don't. Categorising human beings according to their dreams could lead to a lot of useless and unfounded labeling. OSIT.
Measuring the brain waves during sleep might tell us something, but again, I don't think it's a good idea. Some experts say that psychopathts need little sleep, so I imagine the waves would show differently in some cases. But a lot of good people suffer from insomnia!
Sol Logos
The Living Force
Ailén said:
Yeah you're right, difficult to even get that type of info considering. Where I was going though is if a psychopath has a faint soul imprint, I'm thinking that might mean they don't really dream, or rarely or at least very differently. You've got the processing type dreams, that's like the regurgitation of the day's events etc. then you've got the type of dreams that's more so to do with personal development, or soul development, like Jungian individuation stuff. The later type apparently happens in deep sleep, and maybe that's something you can more easily observe amongst other factors to get an understanding of whether a person's potentially a psychopath or not. If there's a faint soul imprint, this I'm guessing would affect the sleep experience very uniquely. This is all speculation might you, but that was my train of thinking behind the comment FWIW.
Ailén said:
This discussion about psychopaths' brain waves reminds of a short passage I read in Dutton's book (couldn't make it past chapter 3, but this I found interesting so I wrote it down) about something allegedly Robert Hare told him. From page 6:
Sol Logos
The Living Force
Alana said:
Was just Googling and came across how theta waves are high in trance like states, when pentecostals speak in tongues or witch doctors are connecting with spirits for example. In a way aligns with how the Psychopath is completely disconnected from feeling / sensitivity, given that a trance can put someone into a state where they can temporary disconnect from their body's normal feelings and sensitivities as well.
paralleloscope
The Living Force
Attached is the transcript for this show.
There are a few places marked [inaudible] or [?], (mainly in Jasons parts). They are only a few words though and one doesn't loose context without them, imo, but if someone has time to lend an ear, that would be nice.
There are a few places marked [inaudible] or [?], (mainly in Jasons parts). They are only a few words though and one doesn't loose context without them, imo, but if someone has time to lend an ear, that would be nice.
parallel said:
Wow! "Listening" in english is one of the skills I am trying to improve because I don't get it all and all this effort you guys do each time you produce a transcript is priceless. Thanks for sharing it!
