Why Psychopaths Will Harm You,

and Why They Don't Care

Mental Health Awareness Month ~ May 2017

Good Afternoon Blog Readers, Followers & Visitors!

We're back for our next Blog Session concerning mental health.  In our last Blog Session we discussed the topic of Psychopaths.  The definition of a Psychopath, as well as background information concerning the research conducted on the mental illness relative to both psychopaths and sociopaths was provided.

If you had your Journal on hand to take notes, then you will have plenty of background information that should open your eyes to what a psychopath is, as well as what a sociopath is.  We also talked about how some researchers make a distinction between “primary psychopaths,” who are thought to be genetically caused, and “secondary psychopaths,” seen as more a product of their environments.

In addition, we discussed a mental health category for something called  "antisocial personality disorder"  (APD), while the World Health Organization delineates a similar category it calls "dissocial personality disorder." 

At this point, please grab your Journals, because you'll want to take notes about "Why Psychopaths Will Harm You, and Why They Don't Care."

JOURNAL NOTES

One of the key features of psychopathy is insensitivity to causing harm in others.  Researchers have long attempted to understand why people high in psychopathy have this emotional blindspot.  A new investigation by University of Padova (Italy) psychologist Carolina Pletti and colleagues (2017) tested a new model to provide insights into the reasons behind the failure to care about the suffering of their fellow humans by those high in this trait.

As we discussed in our last Blog Session, and for further confirmation, according to Pletti and her fellow Researchers, it is a well-established finding that people with high levels of psychopathy are less able to recognize distress cues, including facial and vocal expressions of fear and sadness by people in need of immediate help.  The potential relationship between emotions and morality is addressed in the Integrated Emotion System Model (IES).  Most of us, according to the IES, learn early in our lives to avoid making other people sad or afraid.  Those who are psychopathic, though, do not and therefore are less likely to base moral decisions on their potential to cause suffering to others.

The reasoning behind the IES model involves simple reinforcement.  We've learned over our lives that it is bad to cause pain and suffering in others.  Consider what happens when an ordinary toddler pushes a playmate, causing the playmate to burst into tears.  Toddler #1 will feel sad at having hurt Toddler #2, and may even start crying too.  Such encounters teach children to avoid causing negative emotions in other people.  Individuals with psychopathy, though, don’t make this connection and go on to become adults who aren’t deterred from harming other people.  Neuroscientists trace this lack of empathy in part to a deficit in the amygdala, a part of the subcortex which processes emotional stimuli.  The other deficit occurs in a part of the cerebral cortex involved in decision-making that would utilize this emotional information.

Research Discoveries

As other researchers have noted, the high-psychopathic individuals were less distressed in the life-or-death sacrificial situations compared to their low-psychopathic counterparts. The highly psychopathic also were equally likely to lie in the harmful vs. harmless everyday situations, and they were also less emotionally distressed at the prospect of causing harm through their lies.  Interestingly, the highly psychopathic seemed able to judge whether it was morally right or wrong to deceive others, but this judgement didn't deter them from making the harmful choice.  As the authors concluded, “psychopathic individuals are less inclined to refrain from pursuing a personal advantage involving harm to others because of their emotional hypoactivity” (p. 364).

In summary, people high in psychopathy are able to distinguish between right and wrong, but don’t let this distinction affect their decision-making.  They also will pursue choices that benefit them, even if they know they’re morally wrong, because they don’t have the same negative emotions associated with those choices that non-psychopathic individuals do.  We can’t say that people high in psychopathy are unable to make moral choices, then, but it does appear to be justified to say that they will feel less anguish when they have to do so.  The rest of us don’t want to cause harm to others and feel very stressed when forced to do so, but those high in psychopathy seem to be able to make the “utilitarian” or logic-based choice without feeling particularly distraught.

If you’re in a relationship with someone you believe is high in psychopathy, the Italian study shows the dangers that you may run into if that individual would need to make a sacrifice on your behalf.  All other things being equal, you’re far better off being in relationships with people who both know, and care about, what’s best for you.

Be aware of the people in your life, and understand when you are involved with someone who is either a psychopath or a sociopath.  Point that person in the direction of getting needed psychological help.

Our discussions this month on mental health have been very interesting, and very informative for all of us . . .

Until our next Blog Session, keep your Journals on hand to continue taking daily notes concerning your emotions, feelings, thoughts, activities, and any important information that you find that you would like to make a note of.

See you back here on the Blog for more exciting conversation!

Peace, Love & Light,

 René

©Copyright - René Allen - MAY 2017 - All Rights Reserved

____________________

References:  Pletti, C., Lotto, L., Buodo, G., & Sarlo, M. (2017). It's immoral, but I'd do it! Psychopathy traits affect decision‐making in sacrificial dilemmas and in everyday moral situations. British Journal of Psychology, 108(2), 351-368. doi:10.1111/bjop.12205 

Dealing with a Psychopath

Mental Health Awareness Month

MAY 2017

Good Evening Blog Readers, Followers & Visitors ~

We are back once again to discuss another mental health issue.  If you have been following the Blog, then you will have your trusty Journal to take notes.  If you are new to the Blog, please take a moment now to Bookmark us, and add your email so that you may follow along by email.  In the right-hand column, you will see an area that says, "Follow by Email" ... just add your Email address, and click "Submit".

For everyone who does not have a Journal and pen ready to take notes, just grab some paper, or a Notebook.  You'll really want to take notes on tonight's subject matter.

Time to Journal

What is a Psychopath?

A Psychopath is a person suffering from chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behavior.

First, before we talk about this mental condition, lets take a moment to go over a bit of terminological history so that we may clear up any confusion about the meanings of “sociopath” and “psychopath”,  and related terms...

In the early 1800s, doctors who worked with mental patients began to notice that some of their patients who appeared outwardly normal had what they termed a “moral depravity” or “moral insanity,” in that they seemed to possess no sense of ethics or concern for the rights of other people.  The term “psychopath” was first applied to these people around 1900.  The term was changed to “sociopath” in the 1930s to emphasize the damage they do to society.  Currently researchers have returned to using the term “psychopath.” Some of them use that term to refer to a more serious disorder, linked to genetic traits, producing more dangerous individuals, while continuing to use “sociopath” to refer to less dangerous people who are seen more as products of their environment, including their upbringing.  Other researchers make a distinction between “primary psychopaths,” who are thought to be genetically caused, and “secondary psychopaths,” seen as more a product of their environments.

Criteria Used to define sociopathy

The current approach to defining sociopathy and the related concepts is to use a list of criteria.  The first such list was developed by Hervey Cleckley (1941), who is known as the first person to describe the condition in detail.  Anyone fitting enough of these criteria counts as a psychopath or sociopath.  There are several such lists in use.  The most commonly used is called the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R), developed by Robert Hare and his colleagues.  An alternative version was developed in 1996 by Lilienfeld and Andrews, called the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI).  The book that psychologists and psychiatrists use to categorize and diagnose mental illness, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, (DSM IV) contains a category for something called  "antisocial personality disorder"  (APD), while the World Health Organization delineates a similar category it calls "dissocial personality disorder."  These are much broader categories than that of psychopathy.  The category of psychopath is seen as included within this category but considerably smaller so that only roughly 1 in 5 people with APD is a psychopath (Kiehl and Buckholtz, 2010).

If we overlay all of these lists of criteria, we can see them coalescing into the following core set:

Uncaring

The PCL describes psychopaths as being callous and showing a lack of empathy (traits which the PPI describes as “coldheartedness”).  The criteria for dissocial personality disorder include a “callous unconcern for the feelings of others.”  There are now several lines of evidence that point to the biological grounding for the uncaring nature of the psychopath.  For us, caring is a largely emotion-driven enterprise.  The brains of psychopaths have been found to have weak connections among the components of the brain's emotional systems.  These disconnects are responsible for the psychopath’s inability to feel emotions deeply.  Psychopaths are also not good at detecting fear in the faces of other people (Blair et al., 2004).  The emotion of disgust also plays an important role on our ethical sense.  We find certain types of unethical actions disgusting, and thus work to keep from engaging in them.  We also express disapproval of unethical actions.  But psychopaths have extremely high thresholds for disgust, as measured by their reactions when shown disgusting photos of mutilated faces and when exposed to foul odors.

Brain of a Psychopath

One promising new line of research is based on the recent discovery of a brain network responsible for understanding the minds of others.  Called the default mode network (because it also performs other tasks and is operating most of the time when we are awake) it involves a cluster of several different areas in the brain’s cortex.  The first studies have been done on the function of this network in psychopaths and as expected there are problems there.  Different studies have noted “aberrant functional connectivity” among the parts of the network, along with reduced volume in some of the networks crucial areas.

Shallow emotions

Psychopaths, and to a degree, sociopaths, show a lack of emotion, especially the social emotions, such as shame, guilt, and embarrassment.  Cleckley said that the psychopaths he came into contact with showed a “general poverty in major affective reactions,” and a “lack of remorse or shame.”  The PCL describes psychopaths as “emotionally shallow” and showing a lack of guilt.  Psychopaths are notorious for their lack of fear.  When normal people are put into an experimental situation where they anticipate that something painful will happen, such as a mild electric shock, or a mildly aversive pressure applied to a limb, a brain network activates. Normal people will also show a clear skin conductance response produced by sweat gland activity.  In psychopathic subjects, however, this brain network showed no activity and no skin conductance responses were emitted (Birbaumer et al., 2012).

Irresponsibility

According to Cleckley psychopaths show unreliability, while the PCL mentions “irresponsibility” and the PPI describes psychopaths as showing “blame externalization,” i.e. they blame others for events that are actually their fault.  They may admit blame when forced into a corner, but these admissions are not accompanied by a sense of shame or remorse, and they have no power to change the sociopath’s future behavior.

Insincere speech

Ranging from what the PCL describes as “glibness” and “superficial charm” to Cleckley’s “untruthfulness” and “insincerity,” to outright “pathological lying,” there is a trend toward devaluing speech among psychopaths by inflating and distorting it toward selfish ends.  The criteria for APD include “conning others for personal profit or pleasure.”  One concerned father of a young sociopathic woman said, “I can't understand the girl, no matter how hard I try.  “It's not that she seems bad or exactly that she means to do wrong.  She can lie with the straightest face, and after she's found in the most outlandish lies she still seems perfectly easy in her own mind” (Cleckley, 1941, p. 47).  This casual use of words may be attributable to what some researchers call a shallow sense of word meaning.  Psychopaths do not show a differential brain response to emotional terms over neutral terms that normal people do (Williamson et al., 1991).  They also have trouble understanding metaphors and abstract words.

Overconfidence

The PCL describes sociopaths as possessing a “grandiose sense of self worth.”  Cleckley speaks frequently of the boastfulness of his patients.  Hare (1993) describes an imprisoned sociopath who believed he was a world class swimmer.

Narrowing of attention

According to Newman and his colleagues the core deficit in psychopathy is a failure of what they call response modulation (Hiatt and Newman, 2006).  When normal people engage in a task we are able to alter our activity, or modulate our responses, depending on relevant peripheral information that appears after the task has begun. Psychopaths are specifically deficient in this ability, and according to Newman, this explains the impulsivity of psychopaths, a trait which shows up in several of the lists of criteria, as well as their problems with passive avoidance and with processing emotions.

Selfishness

Cleckley spoke of his psychopaths showing a “pathologic egocentricity [and incapacity for love],” which is affirmed in the PPI by its inclusion of egocentricity among its criteria. The PCL also mentions a “parasitic lifestyle.”

Inability to plan for the future

Cleckley said that his psychopaths showed a “failure to follow any life plan.”  According to the PCL, psychopaths have a “lack of realistic long-term goals,” while the PPI describes them as showing a “carefree nonplanness.”

Violence

The criteria for dissocial personality include, a “very low tolerance to frustration and a low threshold for discharge of aggression, including violence.”  The criteria for antisocial personality disorder include, "irritability and aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults.”

Questions to Ponder

What steps can we take to “correct” psychopaths and which of these is the most ethical?  If it is true that psychopaths have damaged or abnormal brains, can we hold them responsible for what they do?  Are there degrees of psychopathy, so that normal people may possess psychopathic traits?

OUR NEXT BLOG SESSION:

Why Psychopaths Will Harm You,

and Why They Don't Care

Friends ~ See you back here with your Journal!

Peace, Love & Light,

 René

©Copyright - René Allen - MAY 2017 - All Rights Reserved

Time to sit still for a minute . . .

We're talking about Mental Health

Mental Health Awareness Month

May 2017

Good Afternoon Blog Readers, Followers, and Visitors to the Blog ~ In our last Blog Session we discussed Delusional Disorders.  We all come here to the Blog Sessions with our Journals in hand to take notes.  As a recap . . .

Delusional Disorder is one of the category of psychotic disorders.  Not surprisingly, it is marked by the prevalence of delusions.  Delusions may be non-bizarre or bizarre. Delusions in general are persistent, unyielding beliefs that are not true.  These beliefs must persist for more than a month to be considered delusional, and must not be attributable to another disorder such as Schizophrenia, symptoms of which include delusions.

As promised, we are going to continue our discussion about our next mental health issue, which is the disorder of Schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that usually appears in late adolescence or early adulthood.  Characterized by delusions, hallucinations, and other cognitive difficulties, schizophrenia can often be a lifelong struggle.

If you were here for our last Blog Session, then you will have notes about the different types of schizophrenia and their characteristics.  We also discussed 13 different behaviors that are early warning signs of schizophrenia.

It is important to note that anyone who experiences several of the 13 symptoms that were listed for more than two weeks should seek help immediately.

For the sake of expanding upon our awareness of schizophrenia, we need to talk a little more about the symptoms . . .

What are the Symptoms of Schizophrenia?

A medical or mental health professional may use the following terms when discussing the symptoms of schizophrenia.

Positive symptoms are disturbances that are “added” to the person’s personality.

Woman undergoing disturbances to her personality

• Delusions –false ideas--individuals may believe that someone is spying on him or her, or that they are someone famous (or a religious figure).
• Hallucinations –seeing, feeling, tasting, hearing or smelling something that doesn’t really exist.  The most common experience is hearing imaginary voices that give commands or comments to the individual.
• Disordered thinking and speech –moving from one topic to another, in a nonsensical fashion.  Individuals may also make up their own words or sounds, rhyme in a way that doesn't make sense, or repeat words and ideas.
• Disorganized behavior –this can range from having problems with routine behaviors like hygiene or choosing appropriate clothing for the weather, to unprovoked outbursts, to impulsive and uninhibited actions.  A person may also have movements that seem anxious, agitated, tense or constant without any apparent reason.

Woman with Schizophrenia

Negative symptoms are capabilities that are “lost” from

the person’s personality.

• • Social withdrawal
  • Extreme apathy (lack of interest or enthusiasm)
  • Lack of drive or initiative
  • Emotional flatness
  
  Man with Schizophrenia
   

How is Schizophrenia Treated?

If you suspect someone you know is experiencing symptoms of schizophrenia, encourage them to see a medical or mental health professional immediately.  Early treatment--even as early as the first episode--can mean a better long-term outcome.

Recovery and Rehabilitation

While no cure for schizophrenia exists, many people with this illness can lead productive and fulfilling lives with the proper treatment.  Recovery is possible through a variety of services, including medication and rehabilitation programs.

Rehabilitation can help a person recover the confidence and skills needed to live a productive and independent life in the community.  Types of services that help a person with schizophrenia include:

• Case management helps people access services, financial assistance, treatment and other resources.
• Psychosocial Rehabilitation Programs are programs that help people regain skills such as: employment, cooking, cleaning, budgeting, shopping, socializing, problem solving, and stress management.
• Self-help groups provide on-going support and information to persons with serious mental illness by individuals who experience mental illness themselves.
• Drop-in centers are places where individuals with mental illness can socialize and/or receive informal support and services on an as-needed basis.
• Housing programs offer a range of support and supervision from 24 hour supervised living to drop-in support as needed.
• Employment programs assist individuals in finding employment and/or gaining the skills necessary to re-enter the workforce.
• Therapy/Counseling includes different forms of “talk”therapy, both individual and group, that can help both the patient and family members to better understand the illness and share their concerns.
• Crisis Services include 24 hour hotlines, after hours counseling, residential placement and in-patient hospitalization.

Coordinated Specialty Care (CSC) has been found to be especially effective in improving outcomes for people after they experience their first episode of psychosis.

We will discuss the next mental health topic in our next Blog Session:  "psychosis" 

Be sure to have your Journals ready to take notes!

The Keys to Discovery

Journaling

Peace, Love & Light,

 René

©Copyright - René Allen - MAY 2017 - All Rights Reserved