The Myth Of Psychopathic Suffering, Part Two

Is it dead yet? No? Damn...

Are we all ready to get back to it? No? Me either. Let’s do it anyway. For those of you just getting here, I suggest last week’s post, you can find it here:

Now that we’re all caught up, on with the show.

Emotional Pain and Violence

Social isolation, loneliness, and associated emotional pain in psychopaths may precede violent criminal acts.

Oh my god, please tell me you aren’t buying that nonsense. Seriously, please. This sounds like simping for psychopathy and trust me bro, we’re good. We don’t need the emo, dark horse, sad backstory. Are some psychopaths antisocial? Yes. Did they have a sh*tty childhood? Likely yes. Are they wounded little doves crying out for help? Good lord, no. They are taking the path of least resistance to get what they want. It isn’t because Daddy called them useless and Mommy didn’t hug them enough. Psychopaths learn behavior and incorporate it if it works to get what we want. That’s it. There is no underlying cry fest that is responsible.

They believe that the whole world is against them and eventually become convinced that they deserve special privileges or rights to satisfy their desires.

Even if the world was literally totally against us, we still wouldn’t have some crisis about it. We would find a way around it. It’s nothing more than an inconvenience. There is no rage at the world and all that dwell within it. Dude, you are way too dramatic. Even in text, this is a lot of drama. Also, we don’t feel that we deserve special privileges. We simply don’t feel the need to do things the way neurotypicals do. We do things as a means to an end, and whatever mean gets us to that end with the least number of stops and fewest negative consequences, that is what we are going to pay attention to. Also, also, we don’t “eventually” get to thinking this way. We are born with this as our default. You should already know that, being you apparently have a PhD… and an MD.

As psychopathic serial killers Jeffrey Dahmer and Dennis Nilsen expressed…

Neither of these men are psychopathic. Dahmer was psychotic, with BPD. BPD and psychopathy can never be comorbid.

Nilson had narcissistic personality disorder. NPD and psychopathy can never be comorbid, either. Both of these personality adaptations require emotional damage to be wrought on a person in childhood. Psychopaths cannot experience emotional damage. You cannot traumatize a psychopath.

…violent psychopaths ultimately reach a point of no return, where they feel they have cut through the last thin connection with the normal world.

In other words, they like murdering people, so they decide to do that instead of not doing that. Being a serial killer basically requires you to divorce yourself from society, but that sort of killing is something you work up to, not simply do. Every step is a choice, and they make those choices. That is a decided point of no return, and has nothing to do with anything other than their own personal responsibility. That also has nothing to do with psychopathy. Most serial killers are neurotypical, most antisocial people are neurotypical, and most psychopaths, are not. Stop conflating the two, it makes you appear to be unread.

Subsequently, their sadness and suffering increase, and their crimes become more and more bizarre.

I mean, maybe, in the case of the two murdery guys you listed, but as neither of them are psychopathic, what does that have to do with this article? Nothing? Yeah, kind of thought so.

Dahmer and Nilsen have stated that they killed simply for company.

Are you kidding me? My family can’t even get me to call them consistently. The only company a psychopath needs, is our own. If someone needs company, let alone pathologically need company, they are not a psychopath.

Both men had no friends and their only social contacts were occasional encounters in homosexual bars.

Can’t put my finger on it, but that sounds like you’re being pretty judgy in that paragraph. Hmm… there are like… a lot of serial killers. A lot. Many of which are still alive, but you picked two of them that are dead… and gay. Seems suss.

Nilsen watched television and talked for hours with the dead bodies of his victims; Dahmer consumed parts of his victims’ bodies in order to become one with them: he believed that in this way his victims lived further in his body.

Can we just call a spade a spade? Two guys, that had a lot of issues in childhood, and we not socially sound, decided to commit some pretty awful crimes, and in the shadow of those crimes there was a significant thread of loneliness. I mean, fair enough, but wouldn’t your time be better spent investigating the effect of childhood abuse and social isolation had on these people? They aren’t psychopaths, but they did have personality adaptations that came from abuse in the home. That’s important, but they weren’t psychopathic, and abuse contributed to their crimes in no small part. That’s the story with those two.

For the rest of us, it is unimaginable that these men were so lonely-yet they describe their loneliness and social failures as unbearably painful. Each created his own sadistic universe to avenge his experiences of rejection, abuse, humiliation, neglect, and emotional suffering.

Yeah, that sucks for them. That seems like a place to put some energy. Becoming serial killers is not the same thing as becoming a psychopath. One you can become, the other, unless you are born a psychopath, you’re not in the club. Sadism requires emotional empathy, and psychopaths lack that totally, and we don’t have any sort of impact from rejection, we can’t feel humiliation, we cannot emotionally suffer, and if we are neglected, oh well, we’ll figure it out or die. We don’t feel anything about that situation.

For those that do feel those things, I imagine that the effects are devastating. That is evident in the outcome, but I still maintain that the serial killing was a choice.

Dahmer and Nilsen claimed that they did not enjoy the killing act itself. Dahmer tried to make zombies of his victims by injecting acid into their brains after he had numbed them with sleeping pills. He wanted complete control over his victims, but when that failed, he killed them. Nilsen felt much more comfortable with dead bodies than with living people-the dead could not leave him. He wrote poems and spoke tender words to the dead bodies, using them as long as possible for company. In other violent psychopaths, a relationship has been found between the intensity of sadness and loneliness and the degree of violence, recklessness, and impulsivity

Cool story, bro, but he wasn’t a psychopath, so this is a moot point. Also, a psychopath would never do or think this way.

Self-Destruction

Violent psychopaths are at high risk for targeting their aggression toward themselves as much as toward others. A considerable number of psychopaths die a violent death a relatively short time after discharge from forensic psychiatric treatment as a result of their own behavior (for instance, as a consequence of risky driving or involvement in dangerous situations). Psychopaths may feel that all life is worthless, including their own

Oh, my goodness, this is actually getting physically painful. Is this what suffering is? Reading about your imaginary world? All right, I’m kidding, but what you just said, or should have said, is that criminals don’t tend to be particularly responsible when released from prison. That’s it. Not psychopaths. Criminals. I think your issue is that you ascribe psychopathy to every single person that does something that you don’t understand. You’re one of those people that tried to identify psychopathy in animals, aren’t you? I bet you are…

Psychopaths don’t feel that life is worthless. We really, really like living. I don’t know where the edgelord supreme garbage came from, but keep it to yourself. It’s embarrassing.

Treatment

In the past decade, neurobiological explanations have become available for many of the traits of psychopathy. For example, impulsivity, recklessness/irresponsibility, hostility, and aggressiveness may be determined by abnormal levels of neurochemicals, including monoamine oxidase (MAO), serotonin and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid, triiodothyronine, free thyroxine, testosterone, cortisol, adrenocorticotropic hormone, and hormones of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal and hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axes.

All of those traits relate to antisocial personality disorder. Not psychopathy. Are you even paying attention? There is a difference between them, and quite a large one. This is not something that I am asserting out of whole cloth, it is a fact that has been shown many times over in brain scans. Also, go f*cking figure, that criminals are impulsive, reckless, irresponsible, hostile, and aggressive. Have you considered that living in a prison might fundamentally change a person’s brain? That it might make the connections to those traits way more reinforced, thus making them behave that way all the time? No? Because you have the word psychopathy so far up your rear end that you see it behind your eyes, and therefore all things are psychopathic? Sounds about right.

Other features, such as sensation-seeking and an incapacity to learn from experiences, might be linked to cortical underarousal. Sensation-seeking could also be related to low levels of MAO and cortisol and high concentrations of gonadal hormones, as well as reduced prefrontal gray matter volume. Many psychopaths can thus be considered, at least to some degree, victims of neurobiologically determined behavioral abnormalities that, in turn, create a fixed gulf between them and the rest of the world.

Again, psychopaths can and do learn from experiences. Also, don’t try to turn psychopathy into a disability. It isn’t, and it isn’t something that we are seeking sympathy for. Keep your whole, “poor psychopaths can’t help themselves because “biology”, to yourself. If a psychopath commits a crime, they can sit in prison, just like everyone else. They get no excuse from being psychopathic. Don’t give them one.

It may be possible to diminish traits such as sensation-seeking, impulsivity, aggression, and related emotional pain with the help of psychotherapy, psychopharmacotherapy, and/or neurofeedback. Long-term psychotherapy (at least 5 years) seems effective in some categories of psychopaths, in so far as psychopathic personality traits may diminish.

Umm… no it isn’t possible, because that is not a thing that exists. Also, no, therapy has no effect on us. The only thing that therapy could ever provide for a psychopath is either learning how to better blend in, or explain to us the absolutely insane things that we do not get about neurotypicals. Y’all should come with a manual. Damn.

Psychotherapy alone may be insufficient to improve symptoms. Psychopharmacotherapy may help normalize neurobiological functions and related behavior/personality traits. Lithium is impressive in treating antisocial, aggressive, and assaultive behavior. Hollander found that mood stabilizers, such as divalproex, SSRIs, MAOIs, and neuroleptics, have documented efficacy in treating aggression and affective instability in impulsive patients. There have been no controlled studies of psychopharmacotherapy for other core features of psychopathy.

Psychotherapy isn’t going to do anything, and psychopathic brains do not process chemicals like neurotypical ones. Lithium isn’t going to do anything for us. Sorry, try again. Maybe it works on antisocial personality disordered individuals, but not us.

Cortical underarousal and low autonomic activity-reactivity can be substantially reduced with the help of adaptive neurofeedback techniques.

Kinda sounds like brain washing. That’s gonna be a hard pass from me, and likely the rest of us.

CASE VIGNETTE

Norman was raised by his aunt; his parents were divorced and neither was capable of or interested in caring for him. As a child and adolescent, he had numerous encounters with law enforcement for joyriding, theft, burglary, fraud, and assault and battery. He was sent to reform school twice. When he was 21, he was convicted of armed robbery and served 1½ years in jail. His only close friend was another violent criminal; he had many short-term relationships with girlfriends. At 29, he killed two strangers in a bar who had insulted him and was sentenced to forensic psychiatric treatment. The diagnosis was psychopathy, according to Hare’s psychopathy checklist.

Norman showed little improvement over the course of 7 years of behavioral psychotherapy and became less and less motivated. The staff of the forensic psychiatric hospital considered him untreatable and intended to stop all treatment attempts. Norman’s lawyer arranged for an examination by a forensic neurologist, who subsequently found that Norman suffered from severe cortical underarousal, serotonin and MAO abnormalities, and concentration problems.

Treatment with D,L-fenfluramine, a serotonin-releasing drug, was started. (Fenfluramine was voluntarily withdrawn from the US market in 1997.) Acute challenge doses (0.2 mg/kg to 0.4 mg/kg) produced significant dose-dependent decreases in impulsive and aggressive responses. After 1 month, an MAOI (pargyline, 10 mg/kg) and psychodynamic psychotherapy were added. Pargyline produced some normalization of his EEG pattern and was titrated to 20 mg/kg over 5 months. Neurofeedback was started after 2 months and continued for 15 months. His EEG pattern gradually normalized, and his capacity for concentration and attention increased.

Norman continued to receive D,L-fenfluramine and psychotherapy for 2 years, at which point he was discharged from forensic treatment. He voluntarily continued psychotherapy for an additional 3 years and, in the 4 years since his release, has not reoffended.

Cool cool cool cool… but the Hare checkliast is garbage, and isn’t meant to be a diagnostic tool, but a screening tool, so where is the acutal diagnosis? You know, the psychological work up, the brain scans, etc? Or, are we just deciding the PCL-R isn’t what Hare says it is, and are using outside of it’s expected parameters, despite the fact that it has been shown time and time again to be an exceptionally bad tool that doesn’t hold up to scrutiny when it is used properly, and then are relying on that as “evidence” of his “psychopathy”. Good on the dude for his recovery, but the PCL-R is not remotely a sufficent diagnosis. That is straight-up lazy, and his team should be reeducated.

Conclusions

It is extremely important to recognize hidden suffering, loneliness, and lack of self-esteem as risk factors for violent, criminal behavior in psychopaths. Studying the statements of violent criminal psychopaths sheds light on their striking and specific vulnerability and emotional pain. More experimental psychopharmacotherapy, neurofeedback, and combined psychotherapy research is needed to prevent and treat psychopathic behavior.

I don’t think I have pulled my head off my desk this entire time, but this paragraph has caused my head to begin to merge with the desks wood, making me a amalgum of psychopath and wood. I am not woodopath. You did this to me with this insane paragraph. You are literally trying to redefine psychopathy despite all evidence to the contrary of your claims, because what? It makes you feel important?

Psychopaths do not, because we cannot, suffer, feel lonely, or have lack of self-esteem. If you had written this about malignant narcissists, maybe it would be accurate, but it is pretty evident that you should never write about psychopathy again. Your are so woefully misinformed, its shocking. I would expect better from someone with the alphebet soup after your name.

The current picture of the psychopath is incomplete because emotional suffering and loneliness are ignored. When these aspects are considered, our conception of the psychopath goes beyond the heartless and becomes more human.

Wow. That tells me so much. You don’t think we’re human. That’s fascinating to me. Isn’t, “lack of empathy” the thing that you neurotypicals are so hard at work condemming us for? You not only lack it totally for us, you dehumanize us. Right there, you have demonstrated you have no place in any environment where you have control or access to people’s lives, mentally or physically. That is the kind of thinking that proceeds the worst kind of events in history. Events, by the way, that are created and carried out by neurotypicals against those that they have decided to dehumanize. You think that you’re being kind and empathetic by your assertion that we are lonely and suffering, which we are not, you are wrong. You are wrong on both counts.

1. We do not suffer emotionally, and are not lonely.

2. You aren’t kind. You aren’t trying to help us. All of the monster you project onto others is the one that lurks in your mirror.

Anyone that says, “our conception of the psychopath goes beyond the heartless and becomes more human”, says it all. No one would see psychopaths as less than human, if people like you didn’t keep telling them that we are serial killers, sadists, and criminals. Your concept of psychopathy is incorrect. You have conflated so much into psychopathy, it is an irredeemable mess.

You have tainted psychopathy by not accepting that most of the worst crimes in the world are committed by neurotypcials. You put your incorrect information out into the world. The world, fed a steady diet of this kind of thinking grows to hate psychopaths because they do not know what psychopathy is. The conception of psychopaths as less than human, comes from your own profession, and you think that you will correct that belief by putting out even more misinformation?

What you are doing is exactly what sites like Love Fraud do. Every negative trait, you assign it to psychopathy. You don’t bother addressing that psychopathy and ASPD are separate things, yet, I know that you know it is. It is not remotely an unknown fact. It has been widely studied and demonstrated. I have cited multiple studies in my years of writing, and I am not a psychologist. This is not an unknown fact, yet you ignore it, you hide it, and then start piling on unrelated things to do what? Take Hare’s place? To redefine psychopathy in your own image? I don’t know what your goal is, but I do know what the result is.

Drivel.

That’s it guys. You made it. You made it to the end. This is the sort of contribution that psychology is making to psychopathy. This is why I think psychology needs to back away with their hands up, admit they have no idea what they are talking about in regard to psychopathy, and they are just trying to co-opt it for their own stake in fame. They have done far more damage than good when it comes to this subject, and people like this guy are among the worst.

Keep in mind, psychopathy is just one construct that gets treated this way. They exist all over the place. People who have no idea what they are talking about, telling people who actually have something, be it a difference in how their brain works, an illness, a psychological issue, how they feel, think, and that if they disagree, they’re either lying, or just plain wrong. This is a constant thing in medicine as well. Have you any idea how many people are told, “it’s all in your head”, when they are truly ill. It tends to be a common thing to be told, and it’s incredibly dismissive.

People need to check their egos and realize that their insistence that they are right, is nothing more that their ego leaking out of their ears and all over the floor.