From: Dace (edace@earthlink.net)
Date: Sun 21 Mar 2004 - 20:21:35 GMT
> From: "Francesca S. Alcorn" <unicorn@greenepa.net>
>
> 3) Sociopathic tendencies. There is not a lot of hard research out
> there on empathy, but IIRC it is supposed to develop around the age
> of seven. The one kid I worked with who had no empathy floored me
> until I realized that he *was* *really confused* about why people
> wouldn't just let him do whatever he wanted to. People were
> instruments of fulfillment or frustration and nothing else. The
> definition of sociopath in the DSM-IV is not without it's critics.
> The search for a neurological underpinning is difficult because at
> this point it looks like it may actually be two different things
> lumped together. Sociopaths who don't have violent impulses often
> manage to avoid imprisonment/diagnosis (often synonymous) their whole
> lives. So the diagnostic criteria which include violence may be
> misleading. I think there's a genetic component - no known effective
> therapy - the only thing that these kids seem to learn is to keep
> their behavior "below the radar". Don't know what advantage it might
> confer in the population unless it is like sickle-cell anemia - a
> recessive trait that confers some advantage when paired with a
> dominant gene, but which can be dangerous when it is paired with
> another recessive.
>
> Or maybe this represents the same dilemma which we faced with the kid
> I worked with: we knew he was bad news, but you can't lock someone
> up until he's done something bad enough to warrant it (and done it to
> someone willing to press charges). Our own social prohibitions
> against being "unfair" create the niche which sociopaths exploit. So
> the $64,000 question is: will he be able to find some young thing he
> can bully or manipulate into having sex with him before he ends up in
> prison? Maybe sociopaths continue to exist because we haven't
> figured out a good way to deal with them. They represent a threat to
> the social fabric of a community because they create great stress and
> destroy trust/group cohesiveness. But they continue to exist so long
> as their number is small enough that they don't destroy the group.
> Social parasites who continue to exist as long as they don't kill
> their host. Maybe this is something which makes more sense at a
> group level than it does at any other level. Maybe *socio*path is a
> good name.
A psychiatrist by the name of Eric Altschuler pointed out a few years back
that the biblical hero, Samson, was a sociopath, at least according to the
description of him in the Bible. Of the seven criteria for diagnosis, he
fit six. Only three are required for diagnosis.
http://www.scienceblog.com/community/older/2001/D/200114497.html
Samson would have benefited his tribe as long as his violent tendencies were
unleashed primarily on a different tribe, the Philistines. But eventually
his behavior became intolerable, and his own people delivered him to the
Philistines, who were more than happy to execute him. The sociopathic
personality type is selected up to a point, beyond which it's more trouble
than it's worth.
I think we see a similar situation today in the case of large, predatory
corporations. Part of the strength of the US is that it encourages
sociopathic tendencies on a large scale. Every great corporation is a sort
of institutional Samson, slaying the Philistines, lying and cheating, and
taking no responsibility for its actions. What's striking about the DSM-IV
criteria for "antisocial personality disorder" is how perfectly they
describe large corporations:
1) repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest
2) deceitfulness, repeated lying, use of aliases, conning others for profit
3) impulsivity or failure to plan ahead
4) aggressiveness
5) reckless disregard for safety of self and others
6) consistent irresponsibility, repeated failure to honor obligations
7) lack of remorse, indifference to the suffering of others
Corporations produce immense amounts of wealth for US society, and despite
the horrific social and environmental costs, they are always rewarded for
their efforts and rarely reprimanded. They break laws at will, routinely
lie about their transgressions, never consider the future but remain fixed
on current profitability, are extremely aggressive in the face of
communities and other corporations, demonstrate no regard for the safety of
their own workers, of consumers of their products, or of people living near
their factories, feel no obligation to the communities that nurtured them in
their early years, and always deny wrongdoing of any kind, fighting to the
bitter end any lawsuit that would force them to pay a dime for the suffering
they've caused. What's really interesting is the "use of aliases" in
criterion two. A corporation is, in essence, an alias used by its directors
to shield them from responsibility for their actions. This is the meaning
of the term, "limited liability corporation." Commit a crime against
nature, and it's your alias that pays the penalty.
Corporations are treated as "natural persons" with the full array of rights
enjoyed by actual persons. Yet they are not individuals. So how can they
demonstrate, as groups, the same personality types displayed by individuals?
Let's say a corporation is founded by a sociopath. The corporation is
successful for the same reason the sociopath is successful. It lies,
steals, cheats, and attacks at every opportunity. The outlook of the
sociopath infects the people working for him. What is habitual for the
individual becomes habitual for the group. The bridge between the sociopath
and the corporation is the meme. An otherwise normal person becomes a
virtual sociopath when he enters the executive suites. He abides by a
normal set of memes on the outside and a pathological set of memes on the
inside. Ultimately, this schism must give way. Either society banishes its
Samsons, or it becomes them.
The success of sociopaths is a measure of the pathology of society.
Ted
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