Psychopaths are parasites

[Yas]

Hi all!

I started reading the book Plague Time, which is being discussed in this thread, and I've just finished a passage that reminded me so much of psychopaths. I thought I'd share it here because it might be off-topic in that thread.

Here's the excerpt:

Typically, acute infectious diseases turn quick profits for short-term gain. The pathogens that cause them are corporate raiders, out to get rich quick rather than maintain the health of their targets. If they depend on their host company’s well-being, they may have a fairly benign effect. But if the chance to exploit and move on arises, they take it, and the host company suffers and may even be destroyed. Biological parasites take food rather than money, and they spend the food on reproduction rather than material goods. For either kind of parasite-microbial or human-exploitative propensity depends on whether a relatively healthy host is needed for the leap to the next host. When a sick host suffices, the most damaging parasites can prosper.

The germs cannot consciously plan their moves in the way a corporate raider does. But natural selections molds the pathogens so that they act strategically, almost as if they were making plans. The strategic options can be envisioned as a competition that is played out in two contest. The first contest occurs within the host as food for their own reproduction. The second contest is played out in the transmission of pathogens to new hosts; those pathogens that have been successful at growing within hosts are now in competition o reach the remaining uninfected members of the society.

{...} A pathogen that takes so much from a host that it compromises its ability to get to next host may leave fewer descendants than a less gluttonous pathogen.

{...} In other words, because the genetically encoded characteristics of a germ that help it win the competition at one stage of the process might hinder it at another, evolutionary biologists consider the trade-offs that are associated with each characteristic. Growing rapidly inside a person typically involves an evolutionary trade-off: the benefit of of generating more progeny within a person is weighed against the reduced chances of contacting a susceptible person if the infected person is too sick to move around.

Well... what came to my mind was a thought about "well-adapted psychopaths" who remain hidden over time, causing a chronic disease and transmitting the infection to millions of people (ponerization). By moving stealthily among "relatively healthy hosts", i.e. people that aren't notoriously sick to the average observer, they get the chance to spread their pathogenic nature more and more, narcissism being one of the most effective means of transmission. That is, they abuse someone who then becomes a narcissistic person that can abuse others, and so the cycle goes for ever, making the host company (human society) a pyschopath-friendly environment that promotes their growth (and spread).

The other parasites, the ones that haven't developed such a stealthy way of transmission, are the ones that we usually hear of-serial killers, for example. They produce an acute infection, but they are more prone to being catched and prosecuted, and people are more aware of their pathogenic nature, so they reject them. They cannot reproduce a lot because they are so gluttonous.

It also makes me think of different kinds of governments. For example, some governments in Latin America (I'm thinking of Paraguay and Mexico), are so blatantly corrupt. In the case of Paraguay, the parasites in government don't care a bit about the host's minimal well-being, which of course, makes it more vulnerable to the most damaging type of parasites (Paraguay is coming close to Israel, they've just opened an embassy after 13 years without one), and the whole society is quite sick.

Then there are governments which are still pathogenic, but they hide behind the host's apparent well-being. They give some social benefits to the people and create an illusion that everything's perfect, while spreading their pathological nature in more covert ways.

OK... Maybe I'm making too much of it, but I wanted to share those thought with you fwiw.

Thanks for reading!

 

[skycsil]

OK... Maybe I'm making too much of it, but I wanted to share those thought with you fwiw.

Thanks for reading!

Coincidentally, I read this article yesterday and I think it's quite accurate at comparing psychopats and toxic people in general to worms. Although it's about personal relationships is worth a reading: _http://krillco.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Get-the-Narcissists-Worms-Out-of-Your-Head

Like any parasite, they do not want to totally destroy their host (you), because without you (and people like you), the NPD would totally fall apart. Like most parasites, NPD’s have inborn abilities to find and attach to a host without the host realizing that they have been infested. By the time the host recognizes that there is something terribly wrong, the parasite has firmly hooked in to the victim, making escape very difficult at least.

 

[riclapaz]

Yes, all this stuff about psychopaths, making this world an increasingly terrible place, such as Cs mentioned it, the cosmos will come to clean, you need some kind of reset in all this, Lobaczewski also says something important about the mind of a psychopath-parasite:

Germs are not aware that they will be burned alive or buried deep in the earth along the human body that are killed.

Certainly very regrettable.

Yas thanks for your thoughts.

 

[SeekinTruth]

Yeah, it's a very good illustration of successful vs. unsuccessful psychopaths.

 

[Chu]

It's funny that you start this thread, Yas. This analogy has been exercising my mind for a while. I think I mentioned it to you Spanish editors at some point, that I'd like to get to a point where a very easy to comprehend video can be made about this. People understand viruses, pathogens in very basic ways, and it may be a very good way to introduce the topic of psychopathy. Just imagine "The most dangerous parasite in the world" as a title on a YT video. :P

The thing is, the more I look into it, the more I think that typologies regarding the range of psychopaths-sociopaths-victims or narcissism who become narcissists- etc. are REALLY lacking in details. Lobaczewski proposed some divisions. There is an excellent book by Karl Frankenstein titled Psychopathy, which has a different but extremely interesting way of categorizing psychopaths. That's a start. The issue I'm having is that when compared to pathogens, some seem to act more like viruses, some more like bacteria, some more like fungus, biofilms, etc. It's a can of worms! (No pun intended! :D)

There are hundreds of known viruses, and they mutate. So, it may be difficult to find perfect comparisons. But, as above, so below, right? In the end, it would be cool to have a more detailed typology.

There are some lectures which might interest you. They are simple biology classes, but sometimes, when watching them, the parallel with psychopaths was so huge that my jaw dropped a couple of times.

Their reproductive cycle is particularly interesting (and here I'm only talking about viruses, so it gets more complicated later). Some viruses "fool" the host cell, until basically the cell works for them, to fulfill their purpose (think of a "spellbinder" and the people he or she gets to do their dirty work for). Some, in a different reproductive cycle, infect a bacterium, and give them a piece of their DNA or RNA. The bacterium assimilates it. The virus then is "latent", until it gets a right opportunity to spread out and infect healthy cells. But in the meantime, those bacteria have multiplied, carrying a piece of that viral DNA with them. Think here of ponerization in general, and how society adopts psychopathic values unconsciously. Some viruses leave the infected cell with a piece of their membrane, so as to be able to disguise themselves and not be immediately recognized by their next "victims" (mask of sanity!). And so on.

Personally, I find this subject fascinating. It is bringing up more questions than answers. If you consider it within the context of information theory, and what the Cs said about viruses being thoughts made manifest, etc., then it becomes a whole new world to explore. What is it that makes us susceptible to pathogens (tiny ones or psychos), what type of information are we ignoring or embracing each instant? And if you think about "who needs aliens when you have psychopaths", I think viruses and pathogens could be part of this. It would be easy to influence people with "thoughts/viruses", and create generations of mutated "born" psychopaths. But I'm sure it's not that simple, and there again, there are many possibilities. It is a real war for bodies, minds, hearts and souls. And we know so little about it!

Here's a nice lecture that explains the differences between the lytic cycle and the lysogenic cycle, two methods of viral reproduction.

https://youtu.be/EqK1CYYQIug

I recently finished reading Adrian Raine's book, The Anatomy of Evil. He doesn't focus exclusively on psychopathy, just violent behavior and its possible causes, from being "born" like that, to food, to brain damage, to lack of nurturing in the early stages of life, etc. But he does have some points regarding successful psychopaths vs. failed psychopaths, which I found to be interesting. Basically, he cites two studies where people were selected for their ability to "do whatever it takes to succeed even if it hurts others", etc. He tested them, and to him, they looked like successful psychopaths. He had a non-disclosure agreement, and these people knew that they weren't going to get caught, so, they basically confessed to all kinds of horrible crimes. Well, an MRI was done of their brains, and lo and behold, the "successful psychopaths" had a higher activation in areas that are supposedly known to be deficient in psychopaths in jail, including the frontal cortex. The worst part was that when compared with NON-psychopaths, they also did better. In other words, they seemed to have better brains than normal, good people. Of course, not everything is in the brain. Some people with brain impairments in areas that are said to be involved in psychopathy don't become psychopathic. But Raine does have interesting points about how successful psychopaths would seen to have a better capacity from actually learning to plan, calculate, learn from mistakes, etc. So, not all psychos are created equal. That would be like a "super virus", those that never get detected, that steal other cells membranes to look normal, etc. It's really creepy... I'll try to scan some passages and share them here.

 

[Yas]

Very interesting Chu! Thank you!

I think I mentioned it to you Spanish editors at some point, that I'd like to get to a point where a very easy to comprehend video can be made about this. People understand viruses, pathogens in very basic ways, and it may be a very good way to introduce the topic of psychopathy. Just imagine "The most dangerous parasite in the world" as a title on a YT video. :P

That would be great actually. I think that, if we can come up with a basic categorization of bacteria/viruses/fungus/biofilms compared to psychopaths/pathogenic people, etc... we could do a very interesting video that would really make a point! I think that we can do it simple for the moment, because, as you said, it can be difficult to find perfect comparisons, but we can make some analogies at least. I'd love to help in a project like that :D

I also find this subject really fascinating. It's like, the more I learn about the "battle within our bodies" (probiotic vs bad bacteria, mycoplasma, viruses, etc...), the more I can grasp the same concepts in a larger scale. There's much to learn on my side yet, though

I'll watch the video later, thanks!

 

[Nienna]

There are hundreds of known viruses, and they mutate. So, it may be difficult to find perfect comparisons. But, as above, so below, right? In the end, it would be cool to have a more detailed typology.

Wouldn't the mutation thing be similar to the way psychopaths change their tactics when someone is becoming aware of them? They change their strategy so that what they really are remains hidden.