Raine, Samenow, Fallon: Neuropsychology & The Work

[flashgordonv]

I have now read both titles by Raine and Samenow and the missive from Fallon. In simple terms I found Raine provided the genetic/physical reasons for people to be psychopaths/hardened criminals, with a weak acknowledgement that environment might affect some people. Samenow was the polar opposite. focusing on thinking errors and repeatedly pointing out that lots of people come from poor, abusive, appalling backgrounds and most of them do not live a life of crime. So, we have a basis for people being born psychopaths, we have a basis for people engaging in a lifetime of crime due to thinking errors and clearly there is an overlap with people born with mechanical errors manifesting gross thinking errors.

It was illuminating to read Fallon straight after Samenow. His thinking errors were so obvious. He repeatedly told us he was a good person. He dismissed criminal behaviour in his youth as highspirited larking - even though we are talking about burglary, breaking and entering, car theft and setting fires. The final irony was his attempt to redefine himself as a prosocial psychopath - a psychopath without the anti-social tendencies,basically a good guy but a nit high spirited. So deluded, such wishful thinking, so completely ignoring the hurt he inflicted on his family and friends. Fallon needs to read Samenow, not that it would make a difference IMO.

 

[Keyhole]

I finished Samenow's Inside The Criminal Mind a few weeks ago.

That one was a real difficult read. Right from the get go and especially in the first few chapters, I found myself cringing with each turn of the page. On several occasions I had to physically put the book down and sat with this feeling that "this guy is exactly describing my childhood".

Growing up, I was viciously opposed to any perceived figure of authority. This included my parents, other family members, school teachers and even police officers. I carried with me a sense that I "knew more" than them. This manifested in aggression toward my parents whenever I was asked to do something I did not want to do (like small jobs around the house), so I think my parents gave up asking me because it would cause too much distress. My antisocial behaviour grew worse when I was around 8-9 years old, which was around the time that I got collared by the police for vandalising the side of a house with some friends, or when I was caught building a fire in a field smoking make-shift paper cigarrettes. Around 10 years old was when me and friends would start sneaking alcohol from our parents and getting drunk on occasions. This carried on for the next 6 or 7 years.

When I was around 12-13, me and a few others vandalised/trashed a staffroom at a school where I was taking night classes for martial arts - because we thought it would be "funny". When confronted about this by our martial arts teacher, I burst out in laughter, which demonstrates how little respect I had for this guy.

Throughout this time in my life, I was consistently being kept back at school for afterschool detentions, or losing lunch times because of my behaviour in class. My parents were often told by the teachers that I was "underachieving". I was that kid who sat at the back of class, disrupting other children and acting as the 'class clown', desperately trying to outsmart or demean the teacher with my wit and sarcastic remarks. I became aware that other children's parents sought to keep their children away from me because I was considered a bad influence on others. My mum used to tell me that this was because I was "open minded" and a "free spirit", so I grew to believe that it was the parents that were wrong. I saw no issue with my behaviour.

Later on, around 13-15 years old to 17 years old, I was drawn to experimenting with ellicit drugs and delving deep into conspiracy theories. Initially beginning with cannabis, and then later moving on to harder drugs. I used to believe that other children who were not involved in illegal activities were "boring" and "dull", or "sheeple" as David Icke would put it. The conspiracy theories fostered a belief that I was "special" because I had "secret knowledge" and was therefore different to others. Later, when I was 17 I met Jennifer, and we went backpacking together in several different countries.

Long story short: reading this book completely flipped my whole view of my childhood and development upside down and twisted it inside out.

The frame of reference has completely shifted, and I am gonna have to reassess everything I thought I knew about my life and myself as a person up until this point.

My world-view was rife with thinking errors right from the beginning/or from very early on. These manifest in more subtle ways now in adult life. In the past I have blamed my behaviour on my upbringing, my parent's style of parenting, or on society at large. I finally feel as though now I have the tools to identify the problematic thinking processes, and to be ruthless with myself. So thanks for this book recommendation... I think it is a game-changer.

Some initial thoughts and observations:

- Going travelling at 18 years old (with my parents money) was a cop-out to avoid taking responsibility and endure the hardship of having to work for a living.

- I lack respect and empathy for other people who I view as below me/ or inferior in some way. For example, in nutrition training I am required to participate in clinic observations, where me and several other students observe another student interview a client and take their case history. On several occasions now, if the student makes a mistake or offers advice which I view to be of poor quality, I have struggled to control my laughter. My clinic supervisor recently emailed me directly about this because another student (rightly) complained. This is a BIG problem - why do I feel superior to others? So much so that they deserve to be laughed at for making a mistake? This is a downright rotten quality, and makes me cringe when I think about it.

- I try to outsmart my lecturers during college on a regular basis - asking difficult questions about the specific details of minor biological pathways that cannot be answered by the lecturer, or by openly challenging them on some detail. This reinforces the belief that I "know more" and makes me feel superior, and is further compounded by comments I receive from my peers such as "you could be a lecturer here, because you know so much" etc. This is nonsense though, because I really don't know a lot. I pretend to know more than I do, so as to present the image of some wise guy.

- I consistently attempt to shirk responsibility for the negative outcomes of my own behaviour. Even something as trivial as eating a banana pudding. This happened the other night: Jen had cooked me dinner and told me there was a starter (if I would like one). It was banana and chocolate pudding. I said that I did not want to eat it because banana doesn't suit my digestion, but ended up scoffing it down anyway. Later, I felt a little nauseous and complained that I should not have eaten the pudding. Jen agreed and advised that if I know banana does not suit my digestion, then I should stay away from eating it.
Suddenly, I shifted the responsibility onto her, proclaiming that she should not have cooked it and it was her fault that I ate it, not mine. I am not in control of myself when it comes to puddings. Thankfully, she highlighted the error immediately, and so I apologised. It seems trivial, but this demonstrates the presence of a habitual and ingrained faulty way of thinking.

- Entitlement: I think I feel entitled to a comfortable existence, and this means without needing to be concerned about managing my monetary funds. This past year, I have on average taken a drop in my monthly wage. However, sometimes I spend money irresponsibly on tests or books or supplements without checking whether i have enough money in the bank to afford it. I actually avoid checking my bank balance a lot of the time, and hope that there is enough in there to afford what I want to buy. This manifested last month in a situation where I ended up with £0 in the bank, and unexpectedly needed to borrow money off of Jen. Jen recommended that I formulate a monthly budget and keep track of my funds. I started doing that, but became bored and did not follow through. Ultimately, there is a small part of me that believes that everything will 'fall into place' without me having to exert any effort in organisation. I will do the budget today on a spreadsheet.#

So overall, those are a couple of the things I have considered. There are a lot more, but could probably do with going on a separate thread because i don't want to clog this one up with my own issues. I genuinely want to change, because I see that the above characteristics hurt other people. I don't want to hurt others in the way that I do right now.

 

[Laura]

Keyhole, I think that everybody has a similar reaction to reading this book. We don't realize how pathologized we are. Some of it is normal teenage arrogance, but some of it is more than that. I was pretty rebellious as a teenager though not to the level described in the book, but still enough to make me ashamed!

And that is one of the reasons I wanted everyone to read these books: we all need to really SEE ourselves, past, present, future, and learn just how far some of those thought patterns can go if we don't see them for what they are and nip them in the bud. More than that, to see how our own thinking betrays us and contributes to our own unhappiness and alienation.

Now that you've finished that, get on with "Healing Developmental Trauma" and learn how valuable that information is as "top down" thinking about our patterns of behavior.

 

[Pierre]

why do I feel superior to others?

As you probably know, superiority complex is often an overcompensation for a core feeling of inferiority. So, while it's useful to stop superior behaviors in order to not hurt others, it might also be beneficial to work on the root cause, the underlying feeling of inferiority.

Here in France, arrogance, a form of superiority complex, is a national specialty. French kids go through a very twisted education system where they too often are belittled, humiliated, put against each other, ranked. As a direct result, a lot of them develop a strong feeling of failure and, later on, overcompensate with an apparent superiority complex (mocking, boasting...)

On top of that, parents, who went through the same system, also suffer from this compensatory superior complex and further the belittling of their own children.

I guess, the key to transcend inferior complex is as usual awareness, knowledge of the roots of the problem, its manifestations and becoming to yourself the good parent who sees the potential, the skills, the talents and the achievements that are in you.

And, of course, sharing here about your questionings and realizations can be very helpful, because we rarely see the whole picture, especially when it's a picture of ourselves.

I don't think that the 'criminal' behaviors you exhibited at a young age happened in a vacuum, there are only symptoms of deeper issues. For example the rebelling against authorities - symbolically the parents - that you described is, as stated in HDT, typical of kids who have to conform to their parents' wants and while they outwardly say 'yes' to keep their parents' 'love', they inwardly scream 'no' and pursue behaviors that more or less indirectly embody this unspoken 'no'.

In any case, I think your post is already a big step in the right direction

 

[Menna]

I know that during EE when I use to practice religiously I would have emotions/memories arise from years ago. Things I did or said and to realize/remember the impact in a more mature state during a calm meditation is humbling however this is not the point I am trying to make.

I infer from what is said above that even if we make pathological mistakes or interact pathologically at our intellectually unconscious level there is still an esoteric conscious part of us that realizes what we have done at the time and that inner knowing of what we did stays with us spreads throughout our life until it is brought to the light meaning the truth is known by our conscious.

Its amazing to me how valuable knowing something is...Not acting on that knowledge but just knowing it sitting with the truth letting that truth mesh with your being the truth is transforming without action hence why I and the majority of us are here on this forum.

 

[Approaching Infinity]

Long story short: reading this book completely flipped my whole view of my childhood and development upside down and twisted it inside out.

The frame of reference has completely shifted, and I am gonna have to reassess everything I thought I knew about my life and myself as a person up until this point.

My world-view was rife with thinking errors right from the beginning/or from very early on. These manifest in more subtle ways now in adult life. In the past I have blamed my behaviour on my upbringing, my parent's style of parenting, or on society at large. I finally feel as though now I have the tools to identify the problematic thinking processes, and to be ruthless with myself. So thanks for this book recommendation... I think it is a game-changer.

Those are some really useful realizations, Keyhole. That reassessment is pretty much the I-X-S dynamic from the Paul thread: a total reappraisal of your life, your motivations, and who you thought you were. It's only really possible to do it retrospectively. The old you was selfish, self-centered, and self-important. The new you is responsible, considers the well-being of others, has respect, and does things because they're right, not just because "you" want them. But parts of the old self live on. That's the ongoing battle. But if you keep the new self in view, and remind yourself of its traits, and put that new mindset into practice, the old self dies away bit by bit.

 

[fabric]

So overall, those are a couple of the things I have considered. There are a lot more, but could probably do with going on a separate thread because i don't want to clog this one up with my own issues. I genuinely want to change, because I see that the above characteristics hurt other people. I don't want to hurt others in the way that I do right now.

Thank you for sharing your observations Keyhole. I also was at a point where I was doing similar things as you described and while I did at some level realize something wasn’t right, it was easier to blame everything on external factors rather than consider that I myself was the problem. In fact, at the time I thought it was pretty cool and that living the 'good' life was for dummies. It’s a fine line I think, where thinking errors can very quickly and suddenly lead to very bad decisions if not checked at the beginning. Samenow’s book had for me the effect of bringing to the forefront how this happens and that knowledge was tremendously helpful in applying a more critical examination of my thought process. I think the amazing thing with these recent books are that they provide some concrete methodology to many of the esoteric concepts that in essence are describing the process that is talked about in other books (eg, parallels with Gurdjieff, the stuff on Paul and also Peterson).

Seeing our past behaviours, and how ‘soul-smashing’ it really is provides motivation for change. It serves as a reminder to know that if you don’t really make genuine efforts to change those aspects, they can bring you back down. And knowing that is of great value I think. Because you already know where that road leads. The other choice is open, leads to unlimited possibilities, and the universe responds in kind when you are living and acting in such a way that leads towards the “ideal” - whatever that may be for you.

 

[Alana]

Seeing our past behaviours, and how ‘soul-smashing’ it really is provides motivation for change. It serves as a reminder to know that if you don’t really make genuine efforts to change those aspects, they can bring you back down. And knowing that is of great value I think. Because you already know where that road leads. The other choice is open, leads to unlimited possibilities, and the universe responds in kind when you are living and acting in such a way that leads towards the “ideal” - whatever that may be for you.

There's no greater reminder of the "terror of (our internal) situation" than realizing how our thinking errors and bad habits can - in the least - hurt us and those we love, and - at worst - destroy our entire life and all our relationships. That was to me the most valuable lesson from Samenow's book. That, yeah, it's unlikely that my thinking errors will drive me to jail (although I never say never ) but they can still cause me to lose touch with reality and to fall into a destructive spiral if I keep thinking that I am right when I am not, or when I find all kinds of excuses to justify my behaviors so that I preserve the image of a "good person" to myself and others.

Regarding the steps to take to move us closer to our ideal self, I found this 1hour video by Peterson very helpful. It is his last class on Personality from 2017, and it is about the deconstruction of our badly-put-together so far personality, and how to reconstruct it in a form that serves us better, but also the world at large. He talks about more than that of course, but that's the underlining theme. I hope some of you find it helpful too:

https://youtu.be/J9j-bVDrGdI​

 

[3DStudent]

Thanks for sharing Keyhole. I've not posted much on the new books, but am reading them. I've read both Samenow books, and Anatomy of Violence. I've got a few more pages of Whoever Fights Monsters. The two Samenow books were indeed very revealing and were probably the most "hard hitting" books I've read. I guess I should see what comes from Healing Developmental Trauma.

But I can relate to your experience, maybe in the opposite way. Being an introvert, I avoided life and social situations by playing videogames. I had resentment for "normal" or obyvatel people. And I didn't even have a desire of going to college after high school, and just went because I thought I "should". So those basic life lesson issues are still with me too.

 

[aragorn]

Thanks for sharing, Keyhole. Reading Samenow can be rough, I know!

To me reading Samenow was both unpleasant and very helpful. I highlighted every passage that felt like a "hit", and collected everything in a separate document, where I wrote short descriptions of how they related to my own life. This process somehow kickstarted my thinking in other areas, too. As I later watched the discussion about diet and depression with Peterson and his daughter, I got inspired to start a full keto-diet, which I've been doing now for ca 10 days.

I don't know if it's the confrontation with my thinking errors or the ketosis, or both, but I've made quite remarkable progress in the recent days. I've started sleeping better, feeling "lighter", and my brain seems to have completely new ideas popping up, and I don't have that heavy, down pulling feeling in the mornings.

Connected to this, and inspired by both Samenow and Peterson (he said in some lecture that you can't possibly know your limits until you try), a couple of days ago I suddenly got a great idea for a topic/object for my doctoral dissertation (I had already given up on the whole idea of getting a doctoral degree). So, I discussed this first with my wife, and together and with her help we "condensed" the idea into a even better one, and next thing I knew, I was sitting in my professors work room explaining and presenting to him my plan! Now I'm really eager to start with the research.

ADDED: At the same time as I went full-keto, I suddenly got the idea of ditching eggs from my diet. I've never previously given up eggs, since I haven't been sure if they do any harm, and they are nutritionally so beneficial. However, this time I got the strong thought of "you must not eat eggs". Again, I can't say which elements effects what, but for the first time, since ever, my upper back and the base of my neck isn't stiff and doing "crackling" noises – it feels very strange to not have that tension around. Might be the eggs, or not...soon I'm gonna try and eat one and see what happens.

 

[nature]

I finished the 2 Collingwood's and I'm in me middle of Raine's anatomy of violence. What a wonderfull book: Raine is the reader's guide in the travelling of brain land. It's a discovery for me, or rather a re-discovery with new eyes. I realize better that :
1- each area, even very tinny areas, is not here for no reason, and has got its role to play. It reminds me of the C's "nobody is nobody". And even in a defined structure (example, the amygdala) there are parts (13 'nuclei' in the amygdala) with specific roles.
As if each neuron is a person, or group of neurons is a soul group. As above, so bellow.

2- and their connectedness to each other, it reminds me of Collingwood insisting on the fact that our error is to see things separated instead of seing them different but connected.

I now understand the importance of the reading order. Thank you very much Laura!
What an interesting journey to "travel in these books", discovering, wanting to discover much, like the curiosity of a child ( ;) to last Cs session)

 

[Corvus]

I ordered "Inside the Criminal Mind", so I am waiting it after reading IOH and having a pause because of job(being sent to eastern border as help because of immigration, seeing their misery in other words, also some being sent to Macedonia and Bulgaria volunteeringly), but when it comes to neurofeedback sessions that I managed to found it will have to wait because I plan to do bioenergy sessions to deal with my neck tremor that is case of neural damage, essential tremor or cervical dystonia, been doing all kinds of therapies and medical appointments for more then a 1.5 years, shoots of B12 helped a lot, also trying to quit smoking because of hearth, but it is different topic.

 

[LQB]

I agree with what Pashalis said (here: https://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,45113.msg749484.html#msg749484) about Raine (compared to Samenow) and I’ll add a couple of things.

In several places Raine uses the phrase “statistically significant” but he doesn’t quantify it. In none of his many plots of results does he show any confidence intervals. I suspect that an honest attempt at quantifying/displaying these intervals might result in a watering down of his message/conclusions.

Raine suggests that his biosocial markers are significant risk factors, and their future use will create a much safer social environment and relieve a burden of social suffering that results from violent crime. But I think most of us here would agree that the greater social threat lies with high-functioning pathologicals (criminal minds) that inhabit positions of great power throughout institutions, corporations, governments, etc. The majority of these will never see a jail cell. These are the people that can send thousands or millions to great suffering/death and do it with relish/enjoyment. Low-level violent crime pales in comparison to this. Raine does not address this latter group of pathologicals– presumably because there are not enough of them in jail – but he suggests our social future is bright through the use of this neurocriminology.

But Samenow addresses the criminal mind across the spectrum of function (low and high - at least as far as his experience can go). On Raine, he suggests that the majority of his bio-markers are the result of thinking/processing errors – and not the other way around. In many cases, Samenow presents data on early childhood of his subjects which suggests (to me) that there is a very strong genetic component. As the child develops the thinking processes (and behavior), these processes may be reflected in brain structure, functional pathways, and other biology. I think Samenow comes much closer to the truth – as far as he goes.

Early in Raine’s book he talks about survival strategy and whether criminal/violent behavior is a good strategy for the individual’s genes. In today’s world/environment the answer is yes. But I want to take this concept to a higher level – and here I’ll go into pure speculation.

Let’s lump the entire human gene pool into a single entity responsible for all humanity. Let’s also assume that this gene pool entity has access to information regarding the state of the human population (on the planet) at any given time – iow, it has access to information about its collective self. Let’s also assume that this gene pool entity can facilitate the injection of criminal minds/psychopaths into the population at large. Before suggesting why this might be the case, let’s assume two scenarios.

In the first scenario, humans are living in small groups – tribal environments that require close individual cooperation for the benefit of tribal survival. Individuals naturally suppress self-interest in favor of the greater group interest and assume appropriate roles. The planet human population is low and grows only slowly. From the standpoint of the gene pool entity, the injection of the criminal/psychopath serves no purpose – in a tribal environment, the individual would likely be detected early and dealt with.

As time goes on, tribal groups evolve into larger groups. Various technologies/lifestyles evolve that enable much larger populations as societies, nations, empires, etc. At this point, injection of the criminal/psychopath is a survival challenge to the larger group, and the survival strategy of the criminal/psychopath can be successful. The challenge for the larger group is to limit the high-functioning criminal influence to allow for greater growth and prosperity of the whole. If successful, this prosperity leads to greatly improved standards of living, but eventually, birth rates decline (birth rates in the US, EU, and other advanced areas have been declining for some time). From the standpoint of the gene pool, the strategy has passed its usefulness. Injection of the criminal/psychopath becomes wholesale. [I think its important to note here that the psychopath’s principle role is destruction]

Here we reach the stage of the second scenario – the conditions we have today where criminality in high places is rampant and threatening collapse of near everything (not to mention coincidence of cosmic catastrophe). From the gene pool’s standpoint, its time to repeat the cycle – to spur things forward or at least start over. [And back to a tribal environment of some form]

We know that the times ahead will be massive human expressions of fear, emotional/physical suffering and pain in all categories. This “loosh” will be flowing like a firehose. Is this cyclic human trauma really just a consequence of the survival strategy of the gene pool entity?

I don’t think so – I think the gene pool entity has been tweaked/programmed/modified to produce a “loosh” pump for 4D STS with any long-term human memory (about this repeating process) “coincidentally” disappearing. But it may also be what makes life on the BBM the possible fast-track learning experience that it is.

 

[Keyhole]

And that is one of the reasons I wanted everyone to read these books: we all need to really SEE ourselves, past, present, future, and learn just how far some of those thought patterns can go if we don't see them for what they are and nip them in the bud. More than that, to see how our own thinking betrays us and contributes to our own unhappiness and alienation.

Now that you've finished that, get on with "Healing Developmental Trauma" and learn how valuable that information is as "top down" thinking about our patterns of behavior.

[quote author=Pierre]As you probably know, superiority complex is often an overcompensation for a core feeling of inferiority. So, while it's useful to stop superior behaviors in order to not hurt others, it might also be beneficial to work on the root cause, the underlying feeling of inferiority.[/quote]
I am waiting for HDT to be delivered in the post, and hopefully it arrives soon. From reading the thread and everyone else's responses, it seems like its gonna be a hard-hitter. Hopefully it should provide some insight into where some of these underlying feelings stem from.

I am slightly confused now though, because after reading Samenow I was left with the impression that searching for the root cause of the issues could very well just act as buffer against changing the behaviours. Like saying "hey, until I understand the root cause of my issues, you will just have to deal with my behaviour for now". Not that I actually say that out loud, or even think that way, but I am concerned that through investing too much effort into understanding my past (possible) traumas in more depth, that the focus will be taken away from challenging my thinking patterns and controlling my behaviour - if that makes any sense at all.

Basically, what I am trying to say is that if (hypothetically speaking) there are only a certain amount of resources at hand, then I feel safer investing them in just behaving correctly. My go-to method in the past has been to cite external influences and past experiences as excuses for behaving like a total jerk, especially after reading those books on narcissism. I feel like I need to be ruthless and pretty harsh with myself on this one, otherwise I will just slip up and end up back where I was in the first place.

[quote author=Approaching Infinity]Those are some really useful realizations, Keyhole. That reassessment is pretty much the I-X-S dynamic from the Paul thread: a total reappraisal of your life, your motivations, and who you thought you were. It's only really possible to do it retrospectively. [/quote]
I'll have to read through that thread properly. Thanks AI

Also thanks for sharing fabric, 3D student, and Aragorn. And good luck with the PhD Aragorn. That is a big commitment, but it sounds like you have thought it through and are making the right preparations. I'll look forward to hearing more about how it goes!

 

[Laura]

The material on HDT should probably be put in its thread here: https://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,45330.0.html