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RE: Speaking of Psychopaths

in #psychology7 years ago (edited)

Psychopaths drive people to suicides and cause severe suffering to many in their lives and commit a disproportionate number of horrific crimes. I do not agree with the takes-all-kinds argument and seriously question the humanity of psychopaths. Roughly speaking, the human mind can be thought of consisting of a primitive or "lizard" layer of base needs including sexual lust and power, a human level consisting of empathy and the ability to form genuine social bonds, and an intellectual level responsible for abstract thought. A psychopath is one who only has the lowest and the highest levels of the three. In my opinion, they are intra-species predators and parasites best eradicated or cured if possible. But I do realize the practical and ethical problems in any attempt at doing so however well thought-out.

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The actual estimate is around 4% of the population (spectrum remember) and most who do exhibit tendencies are not violent nor are they so manipulative. Some are highly driven though and do tend to do well in business and politics....

I think 1/25 is setting the bar quite low. A regular asshole is not a psychopath.

Yeah, I think this is the issue as to where to draw the line though. If you include regular assholes, it might be 3/10 :D