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talkpolitics2011-07-18 05:19 pm
kinvore.livejournal.com) wrote in talkpolitics2011-07-18 05:19 pm
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Sociopaths and society
I strongly recommend that everyone read a fascinating book called The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout, Ph.D.
What is a sociopath?
A sociopath (aka psychopath) is a person unable to feel emotions for other people the way most of us do. They can hurt us in many ways and sleep like a baby that night. They have no sense of guilt or remorse and are often a destructive force in our lives, both personally and sociologically. Studies indicate as many as 1 in 25 of us may have this lack of conscience (EDIT: it's only fair to remark several members of this community dispute that number and have provided their own links in the comments section that show this may be an inflated figure).
Many think of serial killers when they think of sociopathy, but those actually make up a small percentage of their numbers. One may think prisons would be filled with them but according to the book a study indicates roughly 20 percent of the prison population has this deficiency. They can be criminals and terrorists but they can also be a CEO or a politician. The scariest trait other than their lack of empathy is their ability to hide among us and remain difficult to detect.
Not all are violent, in fact many are smart enough to keep a low profile by avoiding violent behavior. In the book Dr. Stout gives several examples based on real cases, from a man who takes advantage of his wife, unemployed and sitting at the pool all day, to an administrator in a psychiatric facility who gets her pleasure from undermining the work of her colleagues (by sabotaging the progress of their patients), to a mild-mannered man that starts fires in post offices just to watch the frantic efforts to put out the blaze.
They are usually charming, spontaneous, and complex. And almost without exception they wreak havoc in the lives of those around them, usually because we refuse to believe that anyone can do such hurtful things to others just for the sake of hurting. They can be especially adept at getting others to go along with their schemes. They can be a terrorist, or a con man, or a teacher. They can be your next door neighbor, they can be in your family.
What does this have to do with politics?
Now here's where the book can really get interesting. As mentioned before, roughly 4% of the world's population is a sociopath, but in some countries the population can be much lower. In countries like Japan and China where there's greater social pressure to work cooperatively, the estimated rates vary between about .03% to .14%, far less than their counterparts in the Western world.
According to the book the United States has the fastest growing rate of antisocial behavior in the world (although no specific numbers are given). Our emphasis on individualism tends to both encourage sociopathy and makes it easier for them to hide among us. We tend to admire many of their traits, their risk-taking and daring natures.
Is this to say that individualism in itself is somehow wrong? Absolutely not, but it certainly demonstrates the need reevaluate the behaviors it may encourage.
Sociopaths can be a serious threat to our way of life. At times in history when many have risen in power we've seen the catastrophic results. So I think we need to work on better ways of detecting them among us. But let's say we find a fool-proof means of finding those among us without conscience, what is to be done with them?
There is no known "cure" for sociopathy, their brains simply work differently from the rest of us. Do we imprison them? Do we find some other way of sequestering them from society? Do we try to work with them, find a use for their lack on conscience? In the comments section I'll go more into detail about this, as well as something else mentioned in the book that deserves its own discussion.
What is a sociopath?
A sociopath (aka psychopath) is a person unable to feel emotions for other people the way most of us do. They can hurt us in many ways and sleep like a baby that night. They have no sense of guilt or remorse and are often a destructive force in our lives, both personally and sociologically. Studies indicate as many as 1 in 25 of us may have this lack of conscience (EDIT: it's only fair to remark several members of this community dispute that number and have provided their own links in the comments section that show this may be an inflated figure).
Many think of serial killers when they think of sociopathy, but those actually make up a small percentage of their numbers. One may think prisons would be filled with them but according to the book a study indicates roughly 20 percent of the prison population has this deficiency. They can be criminals and terrorists but they can also be a CEO or a politician. The scariest trait other than their lack of empathy is their ability to hide among us and remain difficult to detect.
Not all are violent, in fact many are smart enough to keep a low profile by avoiding violent behavior. In the book Dr. Stout gives several examples based on real cases, from a man who takes advantage of his wife, unemployed and sitting at the pool all day, to an administrator in a psychiatric facility who gets her pleasure from undermining the work of her colleagues (by sabotaging the progress of their patients), to a mild-mannered man that starts fires in post offices just to watch the frantic efforts to put out the blaze.
They are usually charming, spontaneous, and complex. And almost without exception they wreak havoc in the lives of those around them, usually because we refuse to believe that anyone can do such hurtful things to others just for the sake of hurting. They can be especially adept at getting others to go along with their schemes. They can be a terrorist, or a con man, or a teacher. They can be your next door neighbor, they can be in your family.
What does this have to do with politics?
Now here's where the book can really get interesting. As mentioned before, roughly 4% of the world's population is a sociopath, but in some countries the population can be much lower. In countries like Japan and China where there's greater social pressure to work cooperatively, the estimated rates vary between about .03% to .14%, far less than their counterparts in the Western world.
According to the book the United States has the fastest growing rate of antisocial behavior in the world (although no specific numbers are given). Our emphasis on individualism tends to both encourage sociopathy and makes it easier for them to hide among us. We tend to admire many of their traits, their risk-taking and daring natures.
Is this to say that individualism in itself is somehow wrong? Absolutely not, but it certainly demonstrates the need reevaluate the behaviors it may encourage.
Sociopaths can be a serious threat to our way of life. At times in history when many have risen in power we've seen the catastrophic results. So I think we need to work on better ways of detecting them among us. But let's say we find a fool-proof means of finding those among us without conscience, what is to be done with them?
There is no known "cure" for sociopathy, their brains simply work differently from the rest of us. Do we imprison them? Do we find some other way of sequestering them from society? Do we try to work with them, find a use for their lack on conscience? In the comments section I'll go more into detail about this, as well as something else mentioned in the book that deserves its own discussion.
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Terri Moffitt is a well-known criminologist who studies sociobiological stuff (sorta - lots of hormone level things), and she's co-authored an article that suggests that there's a genetic link for psychopathy (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2004.00393.x/full), but they use antisocial behavior and callous-unemotional traits as a measure for psychopathy, which... I don't know, I struggle with. "Antisocial behavior" is a pretty fucking vague term and has been use to describe everything from internalizing behavior to violent outbursts. It's kinda a catchall for "not right."
Other than that, I see a pretty slim smattering of articles about risk factors for socio/psychopathology (sorry to keep using that garbled term, but I'm really not sure what people are calling it these days), and nothing very recent. I found one from 1989 but I can't access the PDF, and I don't like citing articles based on the info in the abstract, because I want to see the methodology.
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But yes, there is a public perception that socio/psychopathy = criminal.
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Granted, here I admit my own bias; I have strong reason to believe that a relative of mine is a sociopath, and the things they have done to my family for their own benefit or just because they could... *shudder*
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