Via Damn Interesting:
“It’s like… at my first job,” he continues, “I was stealing maybe a thousand bucks a month from that place. And this kid, he was new, he got wise. And he was going to turn me in, but before he got the chance I went to the manager and pinned the whole thing on him.” Now he is grinning widely. “Kid lost his job, the cops got involved, I don’t know what happened to him. And I guess something like that is supposed to make me feel bad, right? It’s supposed to hurt, right? But instead, it’s like there’s nothing.” He smiles apologetically and shakes his head. “Nothing.”
His name is Frank, and he is a psychopath.
Wikipedia clarifies that the correct term is antisocial personality disorder and defines it a bit more precisely: “The essential feature for the diagnosis is a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood.” (That’s actually from the DSM).
The essay is a good one, and really made me re-think some of the people I’ve known. One tidbit that surprised me is the prevalence - 1% for men and .3% for women. So it’s a statistical near-certainty that we all know a few of ‘em. (Update: DSM via Wikipedia claims 3% for men and 1% for women…scary.) Makes you think, doesn’t it?
One thing noted in the article is that the qualities that make them are strongly selected for in management - ruthlessness, self-confidence, charisma. Yay. What he didn’t note was that these qualities are also expressed by corporations at times; see The Corporation (2003). So it’s even more likely you’ve worked for one. Explains a lot, doesn’t it?
For instance, while it may sound like a cynical joke, it’s a fact that psychopaths have a clear advantage in fields such as law, business, and politics. They have higher IQs on average than the general population. They take risks and aren’t fazed by failures. They know how to charm and manipulate. They’re ruthless. It could even be argued that the criteria used by corporations to find effective managers actually select specifically for psychopathic traits: characteristics such as charisma, self-centeredness, confidence, and dominance are highly correlated with the psychopathic personality, yet also highly sought after in potential leaders.
In reading something like this, where you’re really reading about predators evolved to prey on non-psycho humans, one early reaction is “How do I tell if I’m dealing with one?” The article says that
The psychopath does not merely repress feelings of anxiety and guilt or fail to experience them appropriately; instead, he or she lacks a fundamental understanding of what these things are. When asked a question such as “What does remorse feel like?” for instance, the typical psychopath will become irritated, deflect the question, or attempt to change the subject.
Which makes me wonder if something like an fMRI would spot one. Lack of blood flow to regions involving affect, perhaps? Indeed, a quick search finds a couple that look like they might be doing just that (1,2). Hard to tell since just the titles are available. (I’ve ranted about this before.) PLoS to the rescue!
Bingo! “Law, Responsibility and the Brain” by Mobbs et al. Here’s a picture from that paper showing the brain scan of a sociopathic patient, with a lesion in the orbital frontal cortex:
So there’s a lot of work on brain function and morphology correlating with anti-social behavior. How long until that becomes part of the hiring process, eh?
Update: For more info, “The Mask of Sanity” by Cleckley looks like a good place to start.
