Miscellaneous Debris: "A Psychopath Walks Into A Room. Can You Tell? : NPR
A Psychopath Walks Into A Room. Can You Tell? : NPR:
'Some psychologists have a theory that many of the world's ills can be blamed on psychopaths in high places.
'Robert Hare, the eminent Canadian psychologist who invented the psychopath checklist, ... recently announced that you're four times more likely to find a psychopath at the top of the corporate ladder than you are walking around in the janitor's office,' journalist Jon Ronson tells Guy Raz, host of weekends on All Things Considered.'
This has long been a subject of curiosity for me. I have long-held personal beliefs that this article seems to reinforce. If you think about it, and do the math, it all starts to make a little more sense when applied to the Big Picture and it makes a lot of unexplainable things much easier to understand.
If the estimate is that 1% of the population operates entirely without, guilt, conscious, remorse, or empathy and then multiply that by 7 billion you get 70 million. Think about that number and then think of what someone who cared only for them selve might try to get away with. Wouldn't they be attracted to the areas of greatest possibility for personal gain and satisfaction? When you put that in the context the Big Picture gets a lot more clear, a lot more simple, and alot darker.
Popular Progressive Radio host Thom Hartmann has been talking about this for years-he is, in fact, the person who first put words to the ideas rattling around in my head. Thom uses the broader term of 'sociopath' which is often lumped into the same category with 'psycopath' and both, in medical terms, are then under the umbrella of 'anti-social personality disorder' and often considers many of the World's ills attributable to this disorder. Although far from being as experienced and credentialed as Mr. Hartmann, I concur. If you learn just a little about this, and then apply that knowledge just to your little corner of the planet alot of things start to pop out. Not to say that we can all just magically start diagnosing people on the spot, but some basic knowledge could do quite a bit to help us all steer clear of certain types of behaviors we see in those around us..
One of the most complicated ideas behind this theory of the effect of these people on society is potential solutions or how to mitigate their effects on the general population. There is always the question of how to handle this. Personally, I feel the two best Pop-Culture takes on this are this episode of Star Trek and the film Blade Runner. Especially in Blade Runner where the suspected Replicants are made to undergo a test to measure empathy (something lacking in psychopaths) we can see the complexities of how to deal with people with the problem of psychopathy. Are we to test everybody and then round up the 'sick' ones for imprisonment, or extermination (called 'retirement' in Blade Runner). Technically people with severe Anti-Social Personality Disorder are still human even if they lack our most human of traits, but if the theories about their effect on society prove true what are supposed to do with them? And, if we start singling them out for specific persecution can they then not begin to self-identify and demand civil rights as a group? Well, it is Thursday, your brain should be warmed up by now-and I did start you off with cute beagle-puppy videos, so, put this one in the old mental martini shaker and give it a go.
A Psychopath Walks Into A Room. Can You Tell? : NPR:
'Some psychologists have a theory that many of the world's ills can be blamed on psychopaths in high places.
'Robert Hare, the eminent Canadian psychologist who invented the psychopath checklist, ... recently announced that you're four times more likely to find a psychopath at the top of the corporate ladder than you are walking around in the janitor's office,' journalist Jon Ronson tells Guy Raz, host of weekends on All Things Considered.'
This has long been a subject of curiosity for me. I have long-held personal beliefs that this article seems to reinforce. If you think about it, and do the math, it all starts to make a little more sense when applied to the Big Picture and it makes a lot of unexplainable things much easier to understand.
If the estimate is that 1% of the population operates entirely without, guilt, conscious, remorse, or empathy and then multiply that by 7 billion you get 70 million. Think about that number and then think of what someone who cared only for them selve might try to get away with. Wouldn't they be attracted to the areas of greatest possibility for personal gain and satisfaction? When you put that in the context the Big Picture gets a lot more clear, a lot more simple, and alot darker.
Popular Progressive Radio host Thom Hartmann has been talking about this for years-he is, in fact, the person who first put words to the ideas rattling around in my head. Thom uses the broader term of 'sociopath' which is often lumped into the same category with 'psycopath' and both, in medical terms, are then under the umbrella of 'anti-social personality disorder' and often considers many of the World's ills attributable to this disorder. Although far from being as experienced and credentialed as Mr. Hartmann, I concur. If you learn just a little about this, and then apply that knowledge just to your little corner of the planet alot of things start to pop out. Not to say that we can all just magically start diagnosing people on the spot, but some basic knowledge could do quite a bit to help us all steer clear of certain types of behaviors we see in those around us..
One of the most complicated ideas behind this theory of the effect of these people on society is potential solutions or how to mitigate their effects on the general population. There is always the question of how to handle this. Personally, I feel the two best Pop-Culture takes on this are this episode of Star Trek and the film Blade Runner. Especially in Blade Runner where the suspected Replicants are made to undergo a test to measure empathy (something lacking in psychopaths) we can see the complexities of how to deal with people with the problem of psychopathy. Are we to test everybody and then round up the 'sick' ones for imprisonment, or extermination (called 'retirement' in Blade Runner). Technically people with severe Anti-Social Personality Disorder are still human even if they lack our most human of traits, but if the theories about their effect on society prove true what are supposed to do with them? And, if we start singling them out for specific persecution can they then not begin to self-identify and demand civil rights as a group? Well, it is Thursday, your brain should be warmed up by now-and I did start you off with cute beagle-puppy videos, so, put this one in the old mental martini shaker and give it a go.
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