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Originally Posted by melissa.recovering
Hi Michael,
I always find your posts to be interesting and thought provoking. I think that society has done a "great" job of glamourizing the psychopath - that is, making every psychopath appear to be a bloodthirsty killer/rapist/cannibal/whatever. So when people think psychopath, they think, major criminal. That being said, however, even those who don't commit big crimes, aren't the majority of psychopaths unlike you? By that I mean, they don't try to control their symptoms and live a normal life. I hope you don't mind me labelling them as "symptoms", just don't know how else to phrase it.
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Yeah. Most of the psychopaths who become the unfortunate guinea pigs of research were found in prisons. Most experts on the disorder contend that psychopaths lack impulse control. Well, so do most habitual criminals. So is the lack of impulse control truly a feature of psychopathy, or it a characteristic some psychopaths have that made them criminals?
True, not every psychopath is a criminal. And that goes both ways. Even those who do commit crimes, even some of the more heinous ones, aren't psychopaths. Point in case... Dahmer, Gein, and Chase.
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So while I completely agree that those comments are way too far, it doesn't really surprise me to see them. I mean, how many people have watched a tv show or movie about the psychopath who says "Hey, I may be a psychopath, but I'm going to resist my urges and live a decent life...free of crime!" And then the audience cheers, breaks into song and dance...OK, I'm letting my imagination run wild.
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Yeah, it doesn't surprise me either... But there was one movie...
Schindler's List. They didn't state he was a psychopath, and he cried at the end of the movie, but a few well-learned doctors and historians suspect the real Schindler was a psychopath. And I suppose you could count
Dexter, but he isn't a real psychopath. I admit, there are some instances in the show that make me smile in recognition of my own mentality. But starting into the second or third season, he started growing emotions, and it was just... sad...
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Also, how many psychopaths are so open with their diagnosis? I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but I wonder if some interpret that as someone who is not only proud of their label, but also someone who is proud to act on that label. So perhaps the assumption from others about you is that you are the classic, criminal psychopath. Just a thought I wanted to put out there.
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Perhaps. And I don't really mind that, because I understand most of that line of thinking comes from the media. It's the folks who blatantly disregard all reason and quickly resort to mudslinging that aggravate me. Imagine if most of the world was the Westboro Baptist Church and you were gay...