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More and more, these characteristics are appearing to be "alarmingly familiar" to some parents -- the teen who bullies other children and shows cruelty to animals, never showing a shred of empathy. This is an extremely relevant concern, especially in today's society, where questions are being raised regarding whether to take legal action against bullies, and what are the most effective methods of preventing bullying in schools and over the cybersphere.
Though it would be comforting to assure parents that this behavior is not their fault, unfortunately psychiatric experts say that psychopathy affects three to six percent of the population and is genetically based.
"It's biological and one of the most inherited human characteristics," said Dr. Igor Galynker, associate chairman for the department of psychology at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City.
In the psychiatrists' bible, the Diagnostic Standards Manual (DSM), the mental disorder is classified as "conduct disorder" in those under 18 and "antisocial personality disorder" in adults.
"These people really see you as a piece of furniture and the empathy that allows us to feel others' feelings is missing," he said. "These people are wired differently. Their brains are different."
About 50 percent of these neurological traits are inherited and 50 percent are shaped by other influences. Having the genetic predisposition and growing up in an aggressive environment can be lethal.
"Intimidation and bullying creates bullies," said Dr. Igor Galynker, associate chairman for the department of psychology at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. "In a perfect environment, raised by well-meaning parents, you can still draw a psychopath."
A study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, reported last year that increased gray matter was found in several areas of the brain in boys with psychopathic traits.
It's not always easy to identify, especially in children, who can be callous and cruel and torture their peers. And when psychopaths are diagnosed, they are hard to treat, though there has been some success with empathy training, according to Galynker, who said, "It takes years."
Comment: Actually, experience and research show, that psychopaths can't be cured or successfully treated. Such attempts just make them better predators.
Bipolar disorder can also mimic psychopathy.
It is easy to diagnose a psychopath in hindsight, according to Darwin Dorr, a professor and director of clinical training at Wichita State University in Kansas.
"We all do bad things, but with a true psychopath there is a predation about them," he said. "They prey on other people. That is part of their MO. Kids do bully, but is there a pattern of preying on kids?"
This clinical psychologist is pushing psychiatry's brain model. You can't get an article into the MSM unless you defer to this model. It is not a workable model. It is a piece of propaganda designed to scare and intimidate people.
Even this site falls for the story that psychopaths are untreatable.
Any condition that can be created can be un-created.
That doesn't mean that we want to spend a lot of time and money "curing" the ridiculously insane. After all, look at all the time and money they already cost us! But at some point in the future it will be necessary, and it can be done. No, psychiatry does not know how. They refuse to learn (it seems) any technique that would actually allow someone to recover. They are, as a political group at least, not in that line of work.
Since psychopathy seems to have caught on as a topic worthy of comment, I am sure we will see every imaginable distortion of what is actually known about it and the common-sense handlings for it. The psychopaths will try, I AM SURE, to turn it into a label they can apply to sane people who are in their way. Watch for this! And, maybe, this time, we will be aware enough to resist their exhortations to commit another blood bath to "save" the planet!