Some years ago, I remember reading Jonathan Kellerman's
Savage Spawn, a book on sociopathic children, and how nearly impossible it is to treat them. The other day I heard about someone I know who is apparently going through this with their child, which prompted me to search for the term. It's truly
heartbreaking: a child who doesn't seem capable of loving its parents, or anyone else. It seems to be
mostly genetic, and nearly completely immune to any current treaments. I thought the story of the woman who inspired
The Changeling was the most heartbreaking thing I had read in a while, but I wonder if there aren't worse ways to lose a child.
If sociopathic is genetic, would that also apply to, say, sarcastic, neurotic, idiotic?
Also, isn't this meant to be a uninformed blog about economics, not an uninformed blog about genetics?
I had thought it was a fairly important day re the markets.
Fred, your parents must have been heartbroken.
I'm technically the same as yourself Mouse, being a bastard.
I'm surprised you would bring up such a sensitive issue.
If I ever meet my parents though, I will be doubly blessed, since I will be meeting not only my mother and father, but also my sister and grandfather.
First, the boy is evil. What he does is the definition of evil. Liberals just don't get this and never will. The disdainful comments about the Kellerman book are one indication here. Another is the way the kid latches on to a "co-dependent" counselor at eash school (although I don't know if that's the right term.) Until liberals grasp the problem of evil they will use all their power to put others to harm.
It makes one appreciate, however, just how unique human emotions really are. If this were the behavior of an animal, like a cat, would we even think it odd?
If this were the behavior of an animal, like a cat, would we even think it odd?
Or, for that matter, a baby. Little kids would be frightening psychopaths if not for the fact that they're relatively weak and dumb compared to adults.
I am trying to keep myself from making a remark about "the genetic origins of objectivism," and failing horribly.
Let me actually give some substance to my snark: if the ability to operate reasonably with other human beings depends on what we might crudely call an "empathy module" that can break, and uses things like emotions to work, then theories of human sociability based entirely on simple rationality (including objectivism) are invalid.
Shouldn't these children be destroyed? Don't we put down vicious dogs for the safety of society?
I have no basis for forming an opinion about this one way or another. But I am not willing to take Jonathan Kellerman's word for it -- trained and practicing psychologist he may be, but he is also a best-selling crime novelist who makes a living off of sensationalized violence. He also, judging by the reviews on the Amazon site, has an ideological ax to grind.
Read the 1983 book "People of the Lie" written by a psychiatrist who came to the conclusion that some people just did not fit the psychiatric definition of any illness, but were most accurately described by religious language "evil." He draws on his experience as part of the Army team that investigated the Mai Lai massacre, and in his dealings as a psychiatrist.
There is an element overlooked here and that is early brain injury. As early as birth in some cases, but not necessarily "clinical" in that physical and intellectual abilities are not affected. This is in addition to the inherited disability (which is almost assuredly an inheritance of some kind of brain disability.)
And some people are just mean. Most of us appreciate a practical joke occasionally, but there's a fine line between a practical joke and cruelty. What is it about most of us that makes us able to recognize it?
There is no "worse" way to loose a child, Megan. My mom lost two babies as infants from birth defects. One son from AIDS. One whom seems sociopathic, and we simply opt not to communicate with. A stepdaughter drank herself to death. Me, I may likely become a suicide if I can't get my migraines under control. They are all bad. Some are fast and shocking, some slow and waisting. But there's no worse.
And I know, none of these losses were any easier then the other on my mom; but then she's had a hard life, and it's taught me much about the world.
But there's also a deeper level. When a child us born they come with your dreams for them. With my own children, I learned that each new accomplishment, each new mistake becomes a letting-go of my dream, both a joy and a sorrow. The trick is to have each moment be a great joy and a small sorrow. From birth on, that's what it's all about, until the day that the it flips and the child learns to let go of the parent.
This touches on some adoption studies. Where infants have been adopted out from a sociopathic parent, the rate of sociopathy in the offspring varies with the social class of the adoptive parents. In an upper classs setting the adopted infants are less likely to grow up and be soicopathic than those adopted into a middle class setting. Any explanation for this is hypothetical. Empathy is the quality that makes a child capable of loving its parents, or anyone else. A useful element in developing that empathy is for the parent to feel and accept 'where the child is at.' Perhaps the upper class parents for whatever reason were more prepared to find 'where the infant/child was at' as eccentric at times as that might have been. This is not to comment on the efforts that may have gone into the individual case you refer to.
I would not get too carried away with calling some people "evil." The dividing line between good and evil runs down the middle of human heart. I have know some exceedingly manipulative people who were very successful lawyers, some people of very shallow affect who were responsible, if somewhat distant, parents, etc. Obviously, if you combine manipulativeness, dishonesty, shallow affect (i.e., lack of feelings), grandiose self-image, poor impulse control and a few other things in one person, you will end up with a socially dangerous individual, but not one who is different in kind from the other people we know.
A line through each human heart need not be a line through the middle of each human heart. It can be a long, long way to one side or the other.
Incidently, notice that Megan is using "treatment" to mean "brainwashing by the Good People".
In a twisted kind of way, I am reassured to hear that it is difficult.
Read Jennifer Roback Morse"s book Love and Economics for a discussion of eastern european orphanages and a high incidence of sociopathic children.