10 Comments

“late stage bed wetting, animal abuse and torture, as well as fire setting”

I went thru a few pre-adolescent years manifesting the above behaviors, about age 8 to 12

With a childhood adversity/abuse scale of 9 out of 10

I am haunted by the memories of this still.

And yet I could always feel empathy and guilt

Expand full comment

It's unfortunate that these traits are misassigned to things, when in reality they are good indicators to pay attention to that child. As I said, I really do think this is one of the most damaging myths that is out there about psychopathy, and the damage isn't to the understanding of psychopathy (which of course it is), but far more damaging to abuse victims.

Expand full comment

I am constantly astounded by the numerous, completely illogical ideas or so-called studies (100 participants? Come on!) that somehow become “common knowledge” because they are repeated enough. The media has been known to report certain events with such erroneous spin (caused government control, money etc) that misinformation is repeated enough that it becomes fact. I even think of the Catholic Church who constantly refers to Mary Magdalene as a prostitute, when there is no evidence whatsoever that she was. I believed that “fact” for decades until I took some university courses which inspired me to review my Catholic school experience with more of an emphasis on critical thinking.

The public, in every country, should be encouraged to learn and apply this skill constantly- questioning everything using reason and evidence from all sides and sources, because so much is just taken for face value as truth.

I wonder if this kind of thing happens more in one field or subject than others?

(On a total aside, I noticed you used “it’s” incorrectly a few times in the beginning of your writing. You are more than competent in regards to written communication so I assume they are typos; I thought you’d appreciate the edit suggestion.)

Expand full comment

I always appreciate edit suggestions. I have noticed an annoying trend with Google in general with their spelling and grammar checks. I always put my posts into a document so I can see what I may have misspelled, or missed a word, and it does a fair job correcting errors.

However, there are times that it decides that it knows better than I do, and will automatically change something like the word 'its' to the other form, and does not tell me. Other times, when I use it incorrectly, which is not uncommon because I type fast and worry about editing after, it misses them completely, so if you see errors, pointing them out is not an issue with me.

As for the Macdonald Triad, it very much think that this is largely the fault of the BAU, and the media perpetuating it and giving it an artificially long life.

Expand full comment

I recall the BAU having egg on their face after the Beltway Sniper(s) were apprehended. It was a fail on such a scale that they should have lost all of their dubious credibility. Too much faith is quack theories like The McDonald Triad and I suspect the Dark Triad as well

Expand full comment

I would agree with that, and it is most unfortunate

Expand full comment

Well I've got a lot going on right now and my brain is mush, so I've nothing to contribute, the engagement backlog will have to wait, but I am happy, as always, that you are so prolific and putting it out there.

Expand full comment

When you're up to it, I look forward to your insight

Expand full comment

That was really good, thanks. Happy Turkey day

Expand full comment

Thank you, and Happy Thanksgiving to you as well.

Expand full comment