Teenagers...

and why psychopathy should never be considered in them

Teenagers are an interesting bunch. One of the things that they are doing on a constant basis is trying to define who they are, and in doing so are continually trekking the ground that has been traversed so many times that the ground is worn, and the trail is hard, but they never see that. They will inevitably believe that they are the first ones to choose this pathway.

There are many traps along the way that they can fall into, and many things that they will apply to themselves in order to feel unique, seen, and most importantly, powerful. There is a collection of teenagers who, without fail, will seek psychopathy as their identity, and they will do whatever they can to force psychopathy to suit their narrative.

However, let’s talk first about how they find psychopathy to begin with. They read about it, they see it in shows, they hear about it from friends, they see quizzes for it online, they see it in films, there are even songs about it. With the many different sources all speaking about one thing, but with many different tongues, it stands to reason that psychopathy can be a catchall for dark, and dangerous. This is an intoxicating mix for teenagers that don’t have a voice that they think is being heard. If they were a psychopath… things would be different.

If they were a psychopath, they would be the most powerful person in the room. Much like the notion of being able to light people on fire with their thoughts, it fills that need to have something that would make people listen to them, if they were so inclined to take the spotlight.

It makes them able to play out scenes in their minds with their bullies, or antagonizers that always have them coming out on top.

It makes them impervious to insults, cruelty, heartbreak, or loneliness.

It makes them the sleeping giant.

In reality, it is none of those things, but that is how it is perceived by those that use it as a way to define themselves in those years. I have dealt with many of these people, and dealt with one today. What started as me reading comments and responding to them with factual information, it lead me to read more of this person’s comments and seeing that psychopathy was not something that existed in reality for them, It was a nebulous term that could be molded to fit who they had decided that they were.

This post is meant to give an idea of how dangerous it is to think of psychopathy in relation to people that are far too young for it to be considered in. You can see through these comments the thought process involved, and that logic and reason will have no effect on a discussion with them.

It begins simply enough;

User

1h ago

If you live in America then you know that most people here do not care to spend any time or money researching antisocial personality disorder or sociopathy or psychopathy.

This is a factually correct statement, and I simply upvoted it. However, there were several more comments on my answers that I had yet to get to. The next was;

User

1h ago

Hare states similar things to your beliefs, has done extensive studies on it. Has visual proof using an MRI scans to support his theories and has an extensive knowledge and expertise in the field of psychopathy. To completely discredit all of his research is a bit extreme, in my opinion, as it support some of your claims.

Hare's contention that the pathology is likely due in large part to an inherited or 'hard wired' deficit in cerebral brain function.

To which I responded that once Hare stops suing people for disagreeing with him, then we would talk about him having credibility. The next one starts to show the thinking that this person has;

User
My mother would disagree with your assessment that psychopathy is only a born trait. She believes I have suffered from psychopathy since I was hit by a car at age 10. Where I was knocked unconscious and hit the front of my head (frontal lobe) on the windshield and shattered it. She said I showed no sign of psychopathy until after that accident at which time I showed severe signs of psychopathy. That’s what she says anyways. I’m not sure if I believe her or not. My teacher when I was about 12 years old called me an “Ice Man” said I showed no emotions at all. So I guess more than just my mother saw the signs. I still don’t know if I believe any of them. I am still researching psychopathy and have not determined yet if I suffer from it or not. My psychiatrist says I do not have it. Of course, I don’t tell her everything about myself. I don’t want her to know some things.

I informed him that traumatic brain injuries do not cause psychopathy. They are not remotely similar. This is where you can tell without a doubt that this person is a teenager based on where he is focused. He speaks about his mother, his teacher, and his psychiatrist. The psychiatrist aside, these would be unusual to speak about in such a manner for an adult.

However, it did not end there. Next was this one;

User

I beg to differ, I believe a psychopath is capable of love and most emotions, just not at all times. I believe that psychopathic behavior comes in waves of severity which vary depending on many factors. Empathy and remorse are the most common to not exist or to not be present, at least not in the same manor as a normal person would experience those emotions. The love is not the same as normal people as it is more likely an obsession with someone rather than being in love. So if you want to call it an obsession then I will agree. I call it love. You are making generalized statements about all psychopath’s which are not necessarily true for all psychopath’s, as everyone is different and everyone experiences different levels of all mental disorders. So what you should say is that you are not capable of any emotions of love, sadness, rage, remorse, empathy etc.

Now it is clear that he would like to remap psychopathy to fit his experience. Why? Because it justifies his claim to the title. I informed him that psychopathy does not bend to fit his fantasy. Yet, there were more comments. This individual was very busy on my answers to the point that he is editing his comments to add more content. He added this to the comment directly above;

To be honest, I don’t believe you suffer from typical psychopathy, based on what I have read about you. I do believe you do have antisocial personality disorder and very likely a sociopath. I believe there are distinct differences between antisocial behavior or traits, sociopathy and psychopathy behaviors and traits, which are categorized by a persons actions.

Now that the factual information is directly contrasting with what he would like to believe and proclaim, he has to now discredit me. He truly thinks that he is informed enough to do so, and does not stop there. Now we can start to see how he actually defines psychopathy, and who qualifies for it;

User

Question 1

It is generally excepted that almost all serial killers have antisocial personality disorders aka are psychopath’s. Almost every one of them obsess over a certain person or people who remind them of or look like someone they hate or love. They also commonly fall in a form of love with their victims, in some cases. I call it love but most people would call it becoming obsessed with their victims or a victim profile. Case in point number one is Ted Bundy, he was obsessed with and targeted women that had similar appearances to his ex girlfriend with long brown hair parted in the middle. Case two, Dahlmer, who was obsessed with young men and teenage boys. Case two, Edmond Kemper who was obsessed with killing people who reminded him of his mother.

Question 2

Do you or have you ever exhibited any psychopathic behaviors similar to those of serial killers? Examples would be inflicting pain upon another being, necrophilia, delusions of people loving you whom did not, other delusions, etc. Do you have “Hollywood” symptoms of psychopathy or are your symptoms strictly emotional and character traits?

However, this too was edited several times to redesign his fantasy. Edits are in italics;

Question 1

It is generally excepted that almost all serial killers have antisocial personality disorders aka are psychopath’s. Almost every one of them obsess over a certain person or people who remind them of or look like someone they hate or love. They also commonly fall in a form of love with their victims, in some cases. I call it love but most people would call it becoming obsessed with their victims or a victim profile. Case in point number one is Ted Bundy, he was obsessed with and targeted women that had similar appearances to his ex girlfriend with long brown hair parted in the middle. Case two, Dahlmer, who was obsessed with young men and teenage boys. Case two, Edmond Kemper who was obsessed with killing people who reminded him of his mother.

Question 2

Do you or have you ever exhibited any psychopathic behaviors similar to those of serial killers? Examples would be inflicting pain upon another being, necrophilia, delusions of people loving you whom did not, other delusions, obsessive behavior, etc. Do you have any “Hollywood” behavioral symptoms of psychopathy or are your symptoms strictly emotional and character traits?

Merriam Webster definition of obsess:

Definition of obsess

transitive verb : to haunt or excessively preoccupy the mind of

Find out how strong your vocabulary is and learn new words at Vocabulary.com. definition

An obsession with something is an unhealthy, extreme interest in it.

This comment was edited again, this time I am only including the relevant paragraphs, again, the edits are in italics;

Question 2

I noticed in one of your comments that you stated you had victims. Were you referring to psychologically manipulated victims or do you have physical victims? Do you or have you ever exhibited any psychopathic behaviors similar to those of serial killers? Examples would be inflicting pain upon another being, necrophilia, delusions of people loving you whom did not, other delusions, obsessive behavior, etc. Do you have any “Hollywood” behavioral symptoms of psychopathy or are your symptoms strictly emotional and character traits?

From this comment you can see that he believes serial killers are by default psychopathic, however, in a previous one he states, “I believe there are distinct differences between antisocial behavior or traits, sociopathy and psychopathy behaviors, and traits", you can see the shifting to suit. There is not a solid construct he is working with, rather a fluid one that will be what he needs it to be, and when he needs it to change.

Interestingly, he managed to pick three serial killers that were all decidedly not psychopathic.

Bundy was likely a Malignant Narcissist.

Dahmer had psychosis and borderline personality disorder.

I had thought Kemper to be psychopathic at one time, however, when I was able to speak to someone that knew about his young life, and how he developed, it was clear that the extreme abuse he suffered created who he became. Possibly a sociopath, but he seems to have something else going on in his speech, and thinking patterns.

At this point, I had decided that there was no chance of this person actually learning what psychopathy was. He had latched onto it, and was willing to ignore anything that contradicted his beliefs. This was made more evident in the comments he left for others;

User

Psychopaths suffer from the most severe form of delusions. They have delusions that their victims love them and want them to do things to them. They have delusions that their victims enjoy what they do to them and want to be with them. They also have delusion that they are justified in their behaviors and that they are normal just like other people. So your assessment that they don’t have delusions is not accurate, in all cases. It may apply to some psychopath’s but not to most. In my opinion. I’m no expert on psychopathy as I am not one of them. That’s what my Psychiatrist told me, I definitely do not suffer from antisocial personality disorder. That is the medical definition of sociopathy and psychopathy, antisocial personality disorder.

This was an earlier comment than those he left on my answers. You can see here that he does not claim psychopathy yet, but has already mapped out an idea of it that is not consistent with anything factual. As he shifts his thinking on psychopathy to meet his needs, he will continue to incorporate things that he finds necessary. As he adds more and more, it becomes a less recognizable construct, and is much like the Hollywood version of it. This version is the most desirable for him for a few reasons.

1. It is very malleable. It isn’t something that consistently relies on diagnostic criteria, and if it does, it will be the PCL-R which is overly reliant on criminal aspects.

2. It is the most dramatic. It is the Criminal Minds psychopath, that covers all unknown mental function and boils down to a dark deranged individual that kills without remorse, but has a slew of emotional problems that drives them. It is the multiple personality disorder, overlapped with schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, ASPD, psychopathy, and sociopathy all rolled into one. While it might make for some reasonable entertaining mindless television, it does not translate to reality so well.

Unfortunately, this person is not going to be interested in hearing contrary information. It would become a slog of responding to comments that were more meant for those who read them, than they would be meant for this person himself. Why? Because he isn’t interested in anything other than this version of himself that he has created.

That is the problem with psychopathy being thought of in teenagers. Provided I believe his story about the head injury, and frankly, I don’t because I have met people like this who make up origin stories out of whole cloth in the past, he has decided that this is what makes him a psychopath. In that identity, he finds comfort, power, and refuses to believe his psychiatrist (provided they even exist) when he is told he doesn’t fit the criteria.

So long as he has this image of himself, he is not growing. He is not exploring who he actually is, and he is settling into an identity that, based on how he has defined it, leaves him no ability to be anything else. He paints a rather grim picture. Serial killers, destroyed frontal lobe, psychiatrists, delusions, and obsession. Where do you go from there? It isn’t exactly something you can turn around overnight, and certainly, even if he does manage to do it, he has lost a lot of time.

Brain development is crucial, and his brain won’t be developed until he is twenty-five, at a minimum. However, if he stops himself from maturing now, regardless of what age he is currently, there is no guarantee that brain maturation is going to fix the stagnation he is miring himself in. It’s unfortunate, but a nearly textbook example of why people that argue about diagnosing psychopathy in teenagers are entirely incorrect.