RyanX
The Living Force
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/385/Pro-Se
This episode is composed of stories where people have chosen to represent themselves in court. The term for this is "Pro Se", a Latin term which means "on behalf of oneself".
A friend of mine pointed me to the first act in this episode because he knew I had an interest in psychopathy. The act is called "Psycho Dable" and comes from journalist Jon Ronson who is the same man who wrote the book (which is now a movie) "Men Who Stare at Goats". I'll attempt to summarize the act and then give some of my thoughts on it.
Summary
The act deals with a man named Tony (not his real name) who is serving time at Broadmore, a maximum security mental hospital for the criminally insane in Britain. The story starts out with the journalist, Jon Ronson, meeting a man named Brian who is a Scientologist. Scientologists, apparently have a disdain for all psychiatrists and have organized themselves in direct opposition to modern psychiatry - something I wasn't entirely aware of. Anyways, this Scientologist, Brian said to the journalist that he should meet this man Tony, who has been at Broadmore for about 12 years because he "beat someone up" when he was 17 years old.
The journalist eventually decides to meet with this Tony character to find out whether he is really insane or not. Tony describes to him the process of how difficult it is to convince the staff at this hospital that he is actually sane. He says that the staff scrutinize his every word and action in a skewed way that makes everything he does look insane. He mentions an example of a time when he struck up a conversation with a nurse about how the US Military was training bees to sniff out explosives. The nurses used this as evidence of his continued insanity and wrote it up in a report, even though Tony claims he was just trying to make small talk.
After the interview, the journalist receives a letter from Tony describing a few more things about his stay at Broadmore, but it also includes a description of what he did to land him in such a predicament. Apparently when Tony was 17 he was walking down a street with some friends when a drunk, homeless man made some inappropriate comments about one of his friends. As retribution, Tony decided to beat up this man by punching and kicking him several times until he was down on the ground. He and his friends continued on their way. He passed by the same street on his way back from the bars and found the same man still lying there. He decided to punch and kick him a few more times. Ultimately the homeless man died and then Tony was charged with "grievous bodily harm", which I believe is the equivalent to involuntary manslaughter. To avoid prison time, he decided to fake being insane so they would send him to a hospital instead. To do this, he plagiarized lines from movies such as Black Velvet and A Clockwork Orange to make the prison psychiatrists believe he was actually insane.
At this point the journalist feels a bit uneasy about Tony and wonders whether he shouldn't stay in Broadmore. Even if Tony isn't "insane" in the way we think of it, he is at the very least violent and deceitful. Trying to make sense of the situation, the journalist talks to a Professor of Psychiatry, the man who was the head clinician on Tony's unit, who has seen Tony and understands his case. The psychiatrist basically comes out and says that Tony is a psychopath and that this is why all his attempt to act "sane" have failed because they are just seen as normal deceitful behavior for a psychopath. He claims that Tony continues to show no remorse for his victim and will just lie in whatever way he can to try to get out of Broadmore.
Wanting a second opinion, the journalist talks to another psychiatrist who has a different opinion. This psychiatrist claims that Tony made the mistake of saying some remorseless things when he was young and stupid and that this is what originally earned him the diagnosis of psychopath. This psychiatrist believes that Tony is, in fact, sane and does have some degree of remorse for his victim, but at the time when he was in jail he was just looking for any possibly way to avoid prison, so he just faked mental illness. He believes that Tony acted in a typical way for a 17 year old boy stuck in this situation and he didn't understand what going to a hospital would be like. Essentially this psychiatrist believes Tony's story.
At the end, the journalist and the Scientologist, Brian, decide to interview Tony one last time. They ask him if he feels any remorse. The journalist describes Tony as saying that he feels remorse for his victim, himself and his family. Tony says that he feels remorse that he has screwed up his entire life and he has to live with that every day. The journalist at this point feels comfortable in his opinion that Tony is actually a sane man and not a psychopath and that it is a big mistake for anybody to try to fake mental illness.
Thoughts
I suspect there is a strong chance that Tony is a psychopath, but it is difficult to say since the episode gives very little detail about his diagnosis as a psychopath. The first professor they interview claims that "most psychiatrists who know about Tony agree that he is a psychopath" (I'm paraphrasing here). Unfortunately, the episode doesn't go into all the details of why these psychiatrists believe that Tony is a psychopath. In other words, what is all the evidence?
While the journalist comes away from his final talk with Tony with a positive image of the man, I'm not sure if he really scrutinized what Tony said. It almost sounds like the journalist is just burying his head in the proverbial sand. Tony said he felt remorse for his victim, but the emphasis of his statements were directed at himself, his life and his family. In other words, he feels bad mostly for himself. He doesn't seem to genuinely regret the fact that he killed another human being. Then again, this is only one statement and it's probably unfair to make a judgment based on this alone.
In general, I think that modern psychiatry is screwed up in various ways - some of which are very disturbing. But I don't think that is reason to suspect that all or even a majority of criminally insane people are actually sane and should be free to roam the earth because psychiatry as a profession is inadequate. If that is the belief of Scientologists, that's pretty darn scary! It seems like the psychiatrists might have got it right in this case with Tony, at least they seem to be aware of the issues of psychopathy. This man, Tony, might just be very good at putting on a mask of sanity and that the journalist and his Scientologist friend were both fooled.
The episode seems to give some general awareness of the topic of psychopathy, but at the same time it raises some doubt as to whether the diagnosis of "psychopath" is a valid diagnosis or not. The report seems to suggest that people diagnosed as psychopaths could just be normal people who are caught in a Catch-22, unable to prove that they are normal. While, I agree that this could happen, the problems of psychopathy are too great to simply brush under the rug. If anything, the report should have emphasized that we should continue to refine our knowledge on psychopathy so that better diagnosis's can be made. The journalist seems to not have a clue about the ramifications of having psychopaths in positions of power and therefore doesn't give the topic of psychopathy its due.
Unfortunately, this is not the only less-than-par report on psychopathy that has aired on public radio recently. :(
Edit: I appologize, I thought this was something recent. It must have been on a rerun when my friend heard it because on the website it says it first aired in July of last year. Still, it was new to me :)
This episode is composed of stories where people have chosen to represent themselves in court. The term for this is "Pro Se", a Latin term which means "on behalf of oneself".
A friend of mine pointed me to the first act in this episode because he knew I had an interest in psychopathy. The act is called "Psycho Dable" and comes from journalist Jon Ronson who is the same man who wrote the book (which is now a movie) "Men Who Stare at Goats". I'll attempt to summarize the act and then give some of my thoughts on it.
Summary
The act deals with a man named Tony (not his real name) who is serving time at Broadmore, a maximum security mental hospital for the criminally insane in Britain. The story starts out with the journalist, Jon Ronson, meeting a man named Brian who is a Scientologist. Scientologists, apparently have a disdain for all psychiatrists and have organized themselves in direct opposition to modern psychiatry - something I wasn't entirely aware of. Anyways, this Scientologist, Brian said to the journalist that he should meet this man Tony, who has been at Broadmore for about 12 years because he "beat someone up" when he was 17 years old.
The journalist eventually decides to meet with this Tony character to find out whether he is really insane or not. Tony describes to him the process of how difficult it is to convince the staff at this hospital that he is actually sane. He says that the staff scrutinize his every word and action in a skewed way that makes everything he does look insane. He mentions an example of a time when he struck up a conversation with a nurse about how the US Military was training bees to sniff out explosives. The nurses used this as evidence of his continued insanity and wrote it up in a report, even though Tony claims he was just trying to make small talk.
After the interview, the journalist receives a letter from Tony describing a few more things about his stay at Broadmore, but it also includes a description of what he did to land him in such a predicament. Apparently when Tony was 17 he was walking down a street with some friends when a drunk, homeless man made some inappropriate comments about one of his friends. As retribution, Tony decided to beat up this man by punching and kicking him several times until he was down on the ground. He and his friends continued on their way. He passed by the same street on his way back from the bars and found the same man still lying there. He decided to punch and kick him a few more times. Ultimately the homeless man died and then Tony was charged with "grievous bodily harm", which I believe is the equivalent to involuntary manslaughter. To avoid prison time, he decided to fake being insane so they would send him to a hospital instead. To do this, he plagiarized lines from movies such as Black Velvet and A Clockwork Orange to make the prison psychiatrists believe he was actually insane.
At this point the journalist feels a bit uneasy about Tony and wonders whether he shouldn't stay in Broadmore. Even if Tony isn't "insane" in the way we think of it, he is at the very least violent and deceitful. Trying to make sense of the situation, the journalist talks to a Professor of Psychiatry, the man who was the head clinician on Tony's unit, who has seen Tony and understands his case. The psychiatrist basically comes out and says that Tony is a psychopath and that this is why all his attempt to act "sane" have failed because they are just seen as normal deceitful behavior for a psychopath. He claims that Tony continues to show no remorse for his victim and will just lie in whatever way he can to try to get out of Broadmore.
Wanting a second opinion, the journalist talks to another psychiatrist who has a different opinion. This psychiatrist claims that Tony made the mistake of saying some remorseless things when he was young and stupid and that this is what originally earned him the diagnosis of psychopath. This psychiatrist believes that Tony is, in fact, sane and does have some degree of remorse for his victim, but at the time when he was in jail he was just looking for any possibly way to avoid prison, so he just faked mental illness. He believes that Tony acted in a typical way for a 17 year old boy stuck in this situation and he didn't understand what going to a hospital would be like. Essentially this psychiatrist believes Tony's story.
At the end, the journalist and the Scientologist, Brian, decide to interview Tony one last time. They ask him if he feels any remorse. The journalist describes Tony as saying that he feels remorse for his victim, himself and his family. Tony says that he feels remorse that he has screwed up his entire life and he has to live with that every day. The journalist at this point feels comfortable in his opinion that Tony is actually a sane man and not a psychopath and that it is a big mistake for anybody to try to fake mental illness.
Thoughts
I suspect there is a strong chance that Tony is a psychopath, but it is difficult to say since the episode gives very little detail about his diagnosis as a psychopath. The first professor they interview claims that "most psychiatrists who know about Tony agree that he is a psychopath" (I'm paraphrasing here). Unfortunately, the episode doesn't go into all the details of why these psychiatrists believe that Tony is a psychopath. In other words, what is all the evidence?
While the journalist comes away from his final talk with Tony with a positive image of the man, I'm not sure if he really scrutinized what Tony said. It almost sounds like the journalist is just burying his head in the proverbial sand. Tony said he felt remorse for his victim, but the emphasis of his statements were directed at himself, his life and his family. In other words, he feels bad mostly for himself. He doesn't seem to genuinely regret the fact that he killed another human being. Then again, this is only one statement and it's probably unfair to make a judgment based on this alone.
In general, I think that modern psychiatry is screwed up in various ways - some of which are very disturbing. But I don't think that is reason to suspect that all or even a majority of criminally insane people are actually sane and should be free to roam the earth because psychiatry as a profession is inadequate. If that is the belief of Scientologists, that's pretty darn scary! It seems like the psychiatrists might have got it right in this case with Tony, at least they seem to be aware of the issues of psychopathy. This man, Tony, might just be very good at putting on a mask of sanity and that the journalist and his Scientologist friend were both fooled.
The episode seems to give some general awareness of the topic of psychopathy, but at the same time it raises some doubt as to whether the diagnosis of "psychopath" is a valid diagnosis or not. The report seems to suggest that people diagnosed as psychopaths could just be normal people who are caught in a Catch-22, unable to prove that they are normal. While, I agree that this could happen, the problems of psychopathy are too great to simply brush under the rug. If anything, the report should have emphasized that we should continue to refine our knowledge on psychopathy so that better diagnosis's can be made. The journalist seems to not have a clue about the ramifications of having psychopaths in positions of power and therefore doesn't give the topic of psychopathy its due.
Unfortunately, this is not the only less-than-par report on psychopathy that has aired on public radio recently. :(
Edit: I appologize, I thought this was something recent. It must have been on a rerun when my friend heard it because on the website it says it first aired in July of last year. Still, it was new to me :)
