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Anonymous43089
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Trig Jun 09, 2019 at 05:58 PM
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by SilverTrees View Post
Brain function and behavior can't all be determined or predicted by a scan. It's too complicated. Any good neuroscientist will admit that they have not even come close to fully understanding how our brains actually work. And yes, not all psychopaths kill people. Some are doctors, CEOs etc. And not all murderers are psychopaths.
How did I miss this conversation?

Murder is a rather specific behavior, and it would be nearly impossible to determine if someone is going to commit the very specific behavior of murder merely from a brain scan. There's a whole lot you could do with a psychopath's brain that doesn't amount to killing somebody. Many of those things are even pro-social. I've only spoken with a few psychopaths, but most of them didn't seem all that interested in murder.

People seem to be afraid of psychopaths because they lack the "inhibitions" that prevent most people from committing the act of murder, inhibitions such as empathy or remorse or squeamishness, or whatever else it is that keeps you normal folk from strangling your neighbors. What they fail to see is that it's not inhibition which keeps psychopaths from murdering people, but lack of desire. And it amuses me endlessly when so-called non-psychopaths go on about "needing inhibitions" as if they'd go on murder spree if I put one too many beers in them.

In which case, I tend to look at the person's beliefs about violence, regardless of their psychopathic traits. People who tend to glorify violence, to equate violence with power, are more likely to commit violent acts. And maybe inhibitions keep most of these people from acting on these beliefs most of the time (until they get into a drunken bar fight or something). So, following the idea of nature and nurture, a psychopath who glorifies violence is indeed a very dangerous creature. For rehabilitation, I wouldn't try to change the psychopathy. That's likely not possible as it's a part of their nature. I would instead address their glorification of violence.

Or maybe I don't really understand inhibitions or morality at all because I'm a psychopath.

I should probably put a trigger warning on this...
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