Disgust

How psychopaths experience unpleasant things...

I have mentioned this a thousand times, at least I am sure, but my ex-brother-in-law tortured a child to death over months. This crime was so horrific it was deemed “the worst case of child abuse” seen by the police, coroner, and judges.

Why bring that up? It has to do with the emotional and physical experience of disgust, and how its differences can lend to different roles in society. My ex-brother-in-law’s case was so horrific that the jurors were offered therapy at the end of it. Several of them took the state up on that offer. Most people, when they hear the details of the case get angry, they become sad, and most often they are disgusted.

I understand that the reactions that people have are normal. They are the result of different things working together. One of course is the fundamental need to protect children and to be enraged at someone that would cause a child so much suffering.

Another is because of the type of suffering that was inflicted. I won’t go into details, as I have no interest in people trying to find this exact case. However, I can say that there was a good reason that those jurors needed to talk to someone about it. They were shown autopsy photographs of the toddler and were scarred for life.

This of course was a significant incident in our family as well. I come from a family of neurotypicals, including my sister who was his wife for a good while, producing him a daughter. I had a front row seat to how this case affected those around me, and I can say without question that the impact on me was minimal.

I consider what he did disgusting, but in a cognitive version of that word. I do not have an emotional response to it, but rather an intellectual one. My different response to what happened gives me a different response to the laws of society, which we will get into a little later. Right now, let’s explore disgust a bit.

Ever heard of Balut? It’s a delicacy that a lot of people really like. It is a fertilized bird egg, usually duck, that has been allowed to develop. I could put a picture in here, but I am fairly certain it would trigger for many of you the feeling that this post is about.

When you eat balut it can have a variety of textures of something similar to a mousse, but also partially developed duck in some circumstances. That means crunchy bones and beak. Not the most pleasant thing to imagine eating. Many people like balut, but I am a very texture-oriented person, and nothing about that description sounds the least bit interesting to me.

On Quora, I wrote a post speaking about what psychopaths can and cannot feel, and one of my readers made the comment that perhaps I was able to feel a turned down version of disgust, and referenced what I had said in the past about disgust:

“You once wrote that you do not like balut due to the texture. It sounds like a non-emotional disgust response. Probably tuned down like other emotions, where psychopathic disgust wouldn't be "EEEEEWWWWWW GETITAWAYYYYYYYYY" but, "No. I'd rather not."”

This is quite possible that this indeed is a disgust response, but it’s an unemotional one. I think that this is a good hypothesis.

That sounds about right. If you look at the graphic above you will see the scale that leads to the most extreme version of disgust. I can dislike things, I can have an aversion to something, and I can find something distasteful. Why these are all on a singular scale, I’m not sure. In my mind, something that I find distasteful doesn’t necessarily mean I dislike it. More often, I simply don’t care.

It is distasteful to make a joke about miscarriages to a person that just had one, but I don’t dislike that, I simply don’t care. It is drama I see no reason to involve myself in. I can acknowledge that it’s distasteful, but it isn’t my problem.

I will avoid something that I do not like, which is what I assume that is what the graphic means when it lists “aversion”, but I may be wrong about that. To me, aversion is not an emotional issue, it is just a logical conclusion. I dislike that thing, so I don’t involve myself in that thing. However, being that it is higher on the scale than dislike, it seems that there is an emotional aspect that I am missing.

I don’t think that there is an aspect of physical response to something that is disgusting. Or, if there is one, it is so minor I simply do not notice it. It is my understanding and my observation that disgust in neurotypicals is quite strong. That is very interesting to me. I wonder why it is turned down so much in psychopathy, but I imagine that it isn’t specifically. Rather it is due to the overall difference in the brain structure.

Disgust has a great deal of significance in terms of survival. If you come across something that poses a risk to you, a disgust response could save your life. Having that turned down does create potential problems for a psychopath, especially one that was in the earlier times of human evolution. At this point, we have a fairly well-established library of things that are very hazardous to our species. Fifty-thousand years ago, it was a little bit more of a gamble.

I believe that the disgust response is a valuable one. I think that it serves an excellent purpose, and it helps shape society regarding what is acceptable and what isn’t. However, there is a negative side to it, and that is that people tend to react based on their emotions without considering the implications of that action. In some cases, I can totally understand this. In others, it can cause some problems.

Prior to the world that we currently live in, one that has established government, laws, and expectations, that are universally applied, there was a society that required people to be judged by the tribe. This meant that their emotional responses to what was done may well dictate the punishment. This makes sense. You have personally offended the tribe, and their emotions are what are going to direct their behavior.

As humans advanced and grew, many different cultures and basis for laws developed. Many of them are, eye for an eye, type laws. If you kill, you should be killed. This is still somewhat true in the west today and it is why we have the death penalty in many states being practiced. This is where we are going to go back to the case involving my ex-brother-in-law.

Should he give his life for the one he took?

It seems reasonable to me. I don’t think that he has shown that he contributes in any meaningful way to society.

Do I think that he should be on death row?

No. I do not believe that the state should ever have the right to kill you. Once they have it, they will use it, and you may not be deserving of that punishment. A few weeks ago I was having a discussion with the others that live with me. Another, slightly less horrific event was being discussed, and I reiterated my point.

The state should never possess the right to end your life.

Neurotypicals are emotion-driven, and in this discussion, things were no different. The question posed to me regarding the death penalty, what about your ex-brother-in-law? Don’t you think that he should be executed?

No, and being associated with the crime doesn’t change my mind about that.

This argument does tend to work with NTs. Why? Because they are emotionally wired. It is one thing to philosophically disagree with something and decide a moralistic standard for yourself and what you are for and against, like the death penalty. It is quite another to stand by that standard when you are the one that is dealing directly with a horrifying crime. It is very easy to want to seek revenge for something awful. It is a natural response I think for most people.

I think that it is partially due to a disgust response. I know what happened was terrible, but it doesn’t make me change my mind about what I think is correct action. I am intellectually disgusted, but not emotionally. He should pay for what he did, and if he was killed by the relatives of that child, I would disagree with their actions, but I would understand them. It is the tribe punishing the tribe. When you have a disconnected third party, and you grant them the power over your life, and your death, that is an unsustainable situation in my mind.

Disgust does not override my reason, and I think that is a good thing for society. We cannot allow the state to be in the business of revenge. It will never work out well. Punishment should be weighed and come to with reason and logic. A clear goal must be in mind. With emotions speaking louder than logic there is no way to arrive at a reasonable conclusion.

Disgust is very valuable. It still keeps people alive and healthy to this day. However, I think that the intellectual disgust that I have is a good foil to the emotional disgust that neurotypicals have. It certainly does have its time and place, as does the version I have.