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    Is the world run by Psychopaths?

    By David Seaton on Tue, 07/12/2011 - 1:40pm |

    Charming, materialistic, aggressive, self-centred, Machiavellian, thrill-seeking alpha males with little respect for rules who eat stress for breakfast – sound like a banker you know? If so, think again: it is a summary of the traits of psychopaths. Financial Times

    There is a class of individuals who have been around forever and who are found in every race, culture, society and walk of life. Everybody has met these people, been deceived and manipulated by them, and forced to live with or repair the damage they have wrought. These often charming—but always deadly—individuals have a clinical name: psychopaths. Their hallmark is a stunning lack of conscience; their game is self-gratification at the other person's expense. Many spend time in prison, but many do not. All take far more than they give. Robert Hare (the acknowledged authority on psychopathy)

    There is a quite plausible theory that the world is run by psychopaths: empathy-deficient, glib, manipulative, reckless swine... with apologies to our brother pig, who gives so much and gets so little in return.

    I am very skeptical of pop psychology and psychobabble in general and totally against putting a creature as complex as the human one into neat little boxes, however, the autistic and unrepentant behavior of the lords of finance in provoking so much pain on so many millions; the reckless, Harpo-Marxian rutting of Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Rupert Murdoch's looting the telephones of the dead, has me wondering if there might be some truth in the idea that our destiny has been delivered unto the hands of the clinically insane.

    The best, the most sensitive, video I have found on the subject features Frank Ochberg MD  one of the founding fathers of modern psychotraumatology who has helped to define and research Post-traumatic stress disorder. Doctor Ochberg's interest in psychopaths is directed toward helping their victims, which as far as the News Corporation, politicians or the financial sector is concerned, includes most of us.

    Perhaps the deregulated environment of the post-Cold War world is to blame for all of this. For example, basketball is a recent invention and the NBA as a huge business, very, very recent. Before basketball, if you had a son who was 7ft tall, he was simply a freak: you had to buy him a special bed and try to find huge shoes for his enormous feet.... Now, you are thinking that he is going to play for the Lakers and guarantee your old age.... Maybe the same thing has happened to psychopaths... maybe deregulation has created an "NBA" for psychopaths.

    Maybe this explains the strangeness of the period we live in.

    Crossposted from: http://seaton-newslinks.blogspot.com/

    Comments

    "Is the world run by psychopaths?"  Hard to say for sure without knowing them personally.   After all, running the world does require a degree of detachment, enough to think long term anyway.  

    Whatever.  Your post reminded me of something Vonnegut said a long time ago:

    ” To say somebody is a PP [psychopathic personality] is to make a perfectly respectable medical diagnosis, like saying he or she has appendicitis or athlete’s foot. The classic medical text on PPs is The Mask of Sanity by Dr. Hervey Cleckley. Read it! PPs are presentable, they know full well the suffering their actions may cause others, but they do not care. They cannot care because they are nuts. They have a screw loose! “ - Kurt Vonnegut

    Link to Mask of Sanity pdf

     


    by EmmaZahn on Tue, 07/12/2011 - 2:18pm

    Thanks Emma, really nice links...

    Perhaps the deregulated environment of the post-Cold War world is to blame for all of this. For example, Basketball is a recent invention and the NBA as a huge business, very, very recent. Before basketball, if you had a son who was 7ft tall, he was simply a freak: you had to buy him a special bed and try to find huge shoes for his enormous feet.... Now, you are thinking that he is going to play for the Lakers and guarantee your old age.... Maybe the same thing has happened to psychopaths... maybe deregulation has created an "NBA" for psychopaths.

     

    PS. I like this so much that I'm going to stick it in the post


    by David Seaton on Tue, 07/12/2011 - 3:01pm

    Not at all sure it is something new or even in greater proportions although it does seem like it.  True psychopaths cannot seem to comprehend the idea of 'us' and everyone else is 'them'.  They cannot belong because of a biological deficiency.  Yet, I cannot help but wonder how many quasi- or pseudo-psychopaths have been created in the past by demographic and technological changes.

    Personally I blame disappearing middle children and the global media village before post-Cold War deregulation.  'Little Emperors' are not exclusive to China and we all do seem to live in our own little virtual worlds.

     


    by EmmaZahn on Tue, 07/12/2011 - 3:27pm

    Yes!


    by Richard Day on Tue, 07/12/2011 - 3:46pm

    Ah don't be unkind, Dick and David.  Not that bad.  They're just pathological narcissists. 


    by anna am on Tue, 07/12/2011 - 7:20pm

    hahahhaahah

    n his 1941 book, Mask of Sanity, Hervey M. Cleckley introduced 16 behavioral characteristics of a psychopath: [42]

    1. Superficial charm and good "intelligence"
    2. Absence of delusions and other signs of irrational thinking
    3. Absence of nervousness or psychoneurotic manifestations
    4. Unreliability
    5. Untruthfulness and insincerity
    6. Lack of remorse and shame
    7. Inadequately motivated antisocial behavior
    8. Poor judgment and failure to learn by experience
    9. Pathologic egocentricity and incapacity for love
    10. General poverty in major affective reactions
    11. Specific loss of insight
    12. Unresponsiveness in general interpersonal relations
    13. Fantastic and uninviting behavior with drink and sometimes without
    14. Suicide threats rarely carried out
    15. Sex life impersonal, trivial, and poorly integrated
    16. Failure to follow any life plan.

    [edit]

    WIKI

    hahahahahaah

    Bachmann, McConnell, Boehner, Cantor, rush, Lonesome Roads Beck, Savage, Hannity, Murdoch, Cheney, Yoo, Frisk, Newt, ....

    Shall I go on?

    hahahaha


    by Richard Day on Tue, 07/12/2011 - 7:59pm

    I like the implication of #7 that there can be adequately motivated antisocial behavior. :D


    by EmmaZahn on Tue, 07/12/2011 - 8:34pm

    Regardless, I do think that this does apply.

    The major problem --- one of the major problems, for there are several --- one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.

    To summarize: it is a well known fact, that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.

     

    Or elected to congress either.


    by cmaukonen on Tue, 07/12/2011 - 8:45pm

    hahahahahahah


    by Richard Day on Tue, 07/12/2011 - 9:02pm

    But doncha know I actually agree?  

    For the record, though, I offer the wiki list for PN.  There's some light between.  It's a matter of degree -- which is why it's the kinder thing to say. 

    Or maybe not.  PN's a borderline schizophrenia, and maybe it's actually nastier not to give these people the out of being crazy. 

    1.  Has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)

    Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love

    Believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)

    Requires excessive admiration

    Has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations

    Is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends

    Lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others

    Is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him or her

    Shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes


    by anna am on Tue, 07/12/2011 - 9:04pm

    Oh Anna!

    Foe chrissakes do you own blog on this.

    The links are wonderful! hhahahahaah

    You already know that I have attempted on several different occasions to demonstrate that the fascist oligarchist pricks who own and run this country are sociopaths. hahahaha

    I laugh because I do not feel like cryin!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxqm5KD6eD8
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxqm5KD6eD8

    by Richard Day on Tue, 07/12/2011 - 9:06pm

    "The new world order emanates from a mandarin class that is neither left or right. Its members often are the sort of which it has been said that when they are alone in a room, there is no one there. In such a culture the marketplace of ideas essentially shuts down. There is no longer any real politics, only deals. No victories, only leveraged buyouts. No ideology; only brand loyalty. No conservative and liberal, only Coke and Pepsi.."- Sam Smith


    by cmaukonen on Tue, 07/12/2011 - 9:43pm

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