“Criminal Minds — Will testing the brain, even before birth, separate the good seeds from the bad?”

More Adrian Raine.

. . . a series of studies using magnetic resonance imaging, which reveals structures and shapes, showed that criminals and people who scored high on tests of antisocial disorders had a smaller than normal orbitofrontal region and amygdala. And the corpus callosum, the communications bridge between the brain’s two hemispheres, was abnormally large.

. . . [Adrian Raine] needed to go back even further and look for a defect that begins before birth and can still be detected in adults. Raine found it in a hole in the head. More precisely, a thin wall of brain tissue that separates a hole—all brains have these spaces—into two. The hole appears during the 12th week of a fetus’s development, and the wall—pushed forward by a normally developing amygdala and other brain areas—divides it by the 20th week. When the wall doesn’t form completely, a condition known by the jawbreaking name of cavum septum pellucidum, it’s usually a sign of abnormal development in the amygdala and other structures. Years later, in adults, the failed wall can be spotted in a brain scan.

In a 2010 paper, Raine and his colleagues compared people with and without the feature on several fronts. The groups were tested for antisocial personality disorder, psychopathy, and aggression. Their records were searched for criminal arrests and convictions. In every single one of those areas, there were a lot more men and women with the wall defect. Here, finally, was evidence tracing criminality back to the womb, before any head-banging could occur.

“I think there’s no longer any question, scientifically, that there’s an association between the brain and criminal behavior. We’re beyond the point of debating that,” says Raine. “Every study can be criticized on methodology. But when you look at the whole, at all the different designs, it’s just hard to deny there is something going on with biology.”

Read more: http://www.utne.com/Science-Technology/Neurodevelopmental-Criminology-Acquired-Sociopathy-Predict-Criminals.aspx?page=3#ixzz1f8IM8hNL

The Tucson tragedy — reopen the mental hospitals, require candidates to submit brain scans

Gerald Loughner obviously belonged in a mental hospital as a dangerous psychotic.  This post however will focus on the hate mongers and the destabilizing effort to destroy the American economy by our own elite (which is destabilizing psychologically, emotionally and economically).  It is my strong belief that the public should insist that those running for office submit brain scans to prove they are not sociopathic.  “Journalists” of course don’t have to.

Paradoxically, one of the reasons for the incivility of the Tea Party/Fox News (otherwise known as the Republican propaganda channel that went to court to establish its right to lie) is too much civility on our part.  Sociopaths and the corrupt have taken advantage of our good nature.

Where we should have/should still draw[n] the line against sociopathy/sociopathic modality:

• No, pathologically lying sociopath Ronald Reagan (i.e., a sufferer of pseudologia fantastica syndrome) is not fit for the presidency.  I am aware that he has his sincere admirers.  However there is no shame in being conned, but there is in not waking up.  His con was to present a folksy front for the destruction of the American way of life — the average person being middle class.  A garbage picker class was created specifically as economic terrorism, to terrorize Americans into working more hours for less pay.
• No, we will not accept NAFTA which cratered American manufacturing and destroyed Mexican farmers (by the millions).  There is no need to repeal NAFTA, the president could simply declare it null and void.  Its passage was absolutely unconstitutional, it never received the two thirds vote treaties require.  Through sociopathic lawyerese it was simply termed an agreement, requiring only a majority vote.
• No, Clinton, China will not be given most favored nation status. Through this and other means globalism was foisted on the world, before the U.S. and world realized what was happening, let alone voting on it.  China was to be the factory of the world and Americans the consumers of the world (hello . . . how can we be consumers without jobs?  ‘Government is the problem, markets are natural geniuses’ — Greenspan (or something like that).)
• No, there is no such thing as a service economy, where I work at McDonald’s and you work at Walmarts, there is no such thing as a FIRE economy (finance, insurance, real estate), and today, in a growing number of places, there is no such thing as garage sale or thrift shop economy.  An economy requires that value be created.
• No, Wall Street, we will tell you what “financial products” (hah) you can sell.  Do they further the interest of the greater economy?  And, by the way, Glass-Steagall will stay.
  
• No, Greenspan and Bernanke, you will not allow runaway economic bubbles. To those to say, ‘Well gee, how do we know when we’re in a bubble” (and many of them have Ph.D.s), I say ‘Shut up and grow up’.
• No, Wall Street, there is no such thing as riskless capitalisim -- selling worthless mortgages, distributing the risk through bundling (mortgage backed securities).  And then conning the world to buy them (and derivatives).  Capitalism 101:  those going for the profit, take the risk. Tell that to bankers.  Mortgage originators faced almost no risk.
• No, Bush, Obama, Geithner, Bernanke, Paulson, too big to fail means just that.  Going forward banks (and other companies) will no longer be so large that their failure would damage the entire economy. Instead, the exact opposite has happened, Wall Streets firms have become even bigger and more concentrated.  But don’t worry, Obama will retire from  the presidency wealthy just like Clinton (whose foundation is worth hundreds of millions).  Become president of the United States and become rich.  (To support these economic points please see Financial crisis of 2008 avoidable, says US inquiry.)
• No, you will not carry firearms to political rallies and town hall meetings. This is despite the fact that the entire Bill of Rights consists of restraints on government power and the recognition of individual (not collective) rights.  There are still common sense, comparable to no shouting fire falsely in crowded theaters, restrictions.  Threatening deadly force (in the absence of imminent danger) is a crime.
  
• No, Tea Party candidates and Fox hate-spewing-mouths, you will not incite violence. I don’t know where the line is, between free speech and the first amendment but it seems to me that Sharron Angle’s “second amendment remedies” is very close to inciting violence and the equivalent of needlessly shouting fire in a crowded theater (which is legally actionable).  But as individuals, we are certainly free to respond verbally how we wish, regardless of any possible criminality.
• Michele Bachmann, you are insane.  Glenn Beck, with his bizarre diagrams and his fake crying jags, seems insane also, but it’s not on the public dime.

These are very dangerous times.  Whenever there is a crime and tragedy, such as the the one Loughner carried out, it is important to ask exactly where the pathology lays — in the action, or in both the action and the motivation (i.e., was it the pathological expression of a common or understandable stress or the expression of an internal psychotic stress). In Loughner’s case it seems both are true, both his action and motivation were pathological (psychotic) but at the same time based on shared societal stressors.

Reopening the mental hospitals would do multiple things.  Paranoid schizophrenics would be taken care of , and the public protected.  “Over the edge” sociopaths would also be confined.  Sociopaths respond only to outside constraints.  I can’t prove this, but it is my firm belief that the very existence of mental hospitals was and could again be a great restraining factor regarding sociopaths.

The hospitals were closed through the confluence of the extreme end of Republicanism, the sociopathic greed and selfishness of the ‘whatever is for me is the good, and screw everybody else’ philosophy, and the narcissistic end of the Democratic party, ‘Lincoln freed the slaves, we’ll free the mental patients.’ The conservatives wanted to save money and the liberals pushed the model of community based treatment (that didn’t exist when mental patients started being dropped off at street corners).  After the recent tragedy, Tucson’s Sheriff Clarence Dupnik stated that the best mental health facility in the area is his county jail.  I think it’s clear which side won, the side anchored in sociopathic greed and selfishness, liberal narcissists once again played the part of useful fools.  But still too many liberals can’t see this, too many can’t see the mentally ill as being exploited prey on the streets, being too busy admiring their goodness in the mirror.

But back to politicians, Ronald Reagan seems to have opened the door to the weirdos.  Is Michele Bachmann a pseudologue?  Does she know that reality actually really is real?  She doesn’t seem to. See Founding fathers ‘worked tirelessly’ to end slavery, or PolitiFact’s Truth-o-meter, All statements involving Michele Bachmann, though I see she’s come up to “Half True” finally.

Chris Mathews has asked her, and other Tea Party leaders (such as Sal Russo) if they’re acting under hypnosis for their behavior during interviews.  They seem to just nod and smile and then, to any question, simply repeat the point they have to say.  It’s almost as though, on their home planet, Zatar, they had a conference on how to communicate with Earthlings and came up with this plan.  Oh, oh — to newbies, bizarre sociopathic groupthink is one of my suggested flags of possible sociopathy.  Sociopaths are permanent children, strangers in a strange land — they are always trying to figure out the behavior of the adult normal world.  In an echo chamber of a sociopaths only coffee klatch (I was going to say clown car but . . .) they can come up with some really bizarre ideas and interpretations.   For one of the interviews, see YouTube – Chris Matthews Rips Tea Party Express Co-Founder Sal Russo!.

A problem with attacking a movement’s leaders is that their followers usually feel they are attacked also.  This needs to be prevented.  Tea Party citizens are certainly fearful and anxious, as are probably most Americans.  The reasons for this are logical and understandable.  The America we have known is being destroyed in front of our eyes, as we are being reduced economically to third world conditions. Above I have expressed my own interpretation of recent history.

In closing let me urge again that all those running for public office be asked to submit brain scans proving they are not sociopathic, starting with those with runaway-bride eyes.  See Adrian Raine’s work: Abnormal Brain Region Characterizes Those With Psychopathy, Habitual Liar Brains Look Different On Scans.

It turns out I’m echoing Futurepundit on the brainscans (from link immediately above):

“Modest proposal:  Require politicians running for office to get brain scans and publish their gray matter to white matter ratio. If the public really wants more honest politicians (and I’m not entirely convinced that is the case) then the public could vote for candidates that have higher gray to white matter. Also, politicians should have to include any indications that they have brains shaped for psychopathy.”

Good questions and quandaries

I received this email that posts good quandaries and questions.  The author asked me to address them if I could.  On one hand that’s too big of a task, on the other that’s the purpose of this blog.  I posting the email because I think it raises very interesting and important questions.

Dear Pathwhisperer,

I just stumbled onto your blog and it raised a few issues I’d like to ask your opinions about.  Sorry if you’ve covered them before, I haven’t had time to go through all your archives.

Toxic parents / family members

Parents and older siblings that present a certain image publicly, but are absolutely malicious to a child or other member of the family.  Is this sociopathic behavior?  I often think of the mother in ‘A Boy Called It’, and from experiences where a parent, (usually the mother, but not always the case), chooses a child to be the emotional or physical punching bag when the problems in her life get overwhelming.

Is this a human case of wanting to have some amount of control or power by making someone else a victim so she feels better having someone under her?

You mentioned that sociopaths have a very underdeveloped emotional maturity level, does that mean they are ‘childlike’, in the sense that they fear abandonment or not having someone take care of them?

Interesting question.  I don’t know.  Some don’t seem to have enough emotions for abandonment to mean anything to them.  On the other hand they always seem to seek ‘mothering protection’.

Toxic parents will guilt trip, manipulate, and con a child, (even though a child is grown up), to stay with the parent.  As time passes, the toxic parent will revert to old patterns and habits.  Fear of the child leaving sometimes forces the parent to put on the ‘nice guy’ image to try to trick the child to stay.

Toxic parents may even resort to public humiliation in the form of telling everyone how bad the child is for leaving the parent to fend for herself, leading to society chastising the child, (peer pressure), into staying with the abuse.

I’m not sure if these parents were the result of abuse, environment, or was it always in them to be this way.

The toxic parents you refer to seem more emotionally needy (and corrupt) than sociopathic.  Sociopathic are toxic in other ways (and are always toxic, parenting is the great Achilles heel of the biological sociopath).

Soldiers

My friend is a teacher and she visited a juvenile detention center and always wondered why armed forces recruiters were always there.

Is it because recruiters believe that the best soldiers are socio / psychopaths?  They can kill ruthlessly and without regret?

There are some people that are like the kid with an ant and a magnifying glass.  He takes perverse pleasure in slowly killing his victim.  Does a sociopath / psychopath retain this, (is it fascination?  humor?  pleasure?), when he or she grows older and knows that in a military setting, he or she can ‘get away’ with such actions and may even be rewarded for them?

Absolutely.

In school our teacher told us about spies and undercover agents that have absolutely no conscience.

Is it possible for sociopaths to have no emotion, but have steadfast beliefs about right and wrong?  (I guess ‘Dexter’ and Hannibal Lector would be fictional examples.)

It seems they sometimes stick rigidly to a code perhaps in an effort to give their emptiness meaning.

Would such people be seen as able to serve a ‘purpose’ by the government, (or others), like soldiers given the most ruthless jobs?

So are religious zealots such people?  They believe in their ways and faith to the point that they’d be willing to kill their own family and believe they did right?  Is that sociopathic, or is it the result of the way they were raised or their ‘reasoning’, justifying their actions with what they believe is right?

Since sociopaths can still have emotions, though stunted, can they still be devoted to another, (person, rather than beliefs).  Pardon, I keep thinking of fictional examples.  Spike and Druscilla in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’.  Spike has absolutely no conscience or qualms about torture, manipulation, and murder.  In fact, he gets off on the games.  But he is utterly devoted and ‘in love’ with Druscilla, another sociopath.

Do sociopaths feel ‘love’ or ‘respect’ for each other?  Like they can ‘smell their own’ so they stick together?

Why do they stick together?  For love of the game?  Do they ever try to play each other as the ‘ultimate challenge’?

They do cluster or stick together.  But I believe the loyalty is only against the outside world (us).  In my experience they will lie and cheat each other depending on their own interest and their perception of where they fit on the food chain (this is a phrase they use themselves).  The concepts of love and respect are beyond them.

And the scariest question:  do we all have sociopathic tendencies?

A normal actor can play a sociopath but a socopathic actor cannot play a human of full depth.  They are not aliens, their emotions and drives are part of our repertoire and can come to the fore under certain stresses or developmental growth stages.

In a psych class our teacher told us about a test where people were told to press a button that would electrocute someone they couldn’t see.  It was only an actor, but with each press of the button the actor would scream louder and louder and beg for the person to stop pressing hte button.  The administrator told the tester to keep going.  The scary part was, very few people stood up and refused to continue.

Do human beings give in to sociopathic / psychopathic behavior because it is already in them and someone else, (usually an authority figure), gives them the ‘okay’ to allow that behavior to arise?

See comments below regarding the Milgram experiment and related issues. http://pathwhisperer.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/good-questions-and%C2%A0quandaries/#comments

Gertrude Baniszewski comes to mind when she ‘encouraged’ her children and neighborhood children to torture Sylvia Likens.

I’m not familiar with that story but I did a post earlier on Lori Drew who in a Myspace hoax committed the murder by suicide, imo, of a neighbor teen.  Apparently just for the hell of it, like tearing the wings off a fly. http://pathwhisperer.wordpress.com/2009/08/16/news-roundup/

History is full of examples of cruel mob mentality.

You also mentioned that sociopaths survived the best during harsh times because they had no empathy or sympathy for others.

Do sociopathic tendencies aid in the need for survival?

Or are sociopathic tendencies taught?

This is a fictional example, but there are a pair of twins in this series called, ‘The Black Lagoon’.  They were sold into sex slavery and did snuff films.  When a child was beaten to death their captors laughed, so the twins started to laugh.  They ‘learned’ that killing others was ‘right’ because their captors enjoyed it, so they ‘learned’ to enjoy it.  It was the most disturbing part of the series.  But I can’t help the question, did they ‘learn’ it?  Or was it always a ‘part’ of them?

Children are undeveloped morally that’s why sociopaths like to use them as child soldiers.  Sociopaths are morally undeveloped as part of the across-the-board arrested development.

I guess the only gleaming hope I see, are the people in the experiment I mentioned above, who took a stand right away and refused to be a part of what they believed was wrong.

And also, I think you mentioned a woman asking you if she was a sociopath.  Was the person asking for help?  Did she see something wrong with herself and want to change?

The woman you refer to didn’t mention sociopathy, she just said that she had never felt guilty in her life and wondered if there was something wrong with her.  My sense was that she knew she was the way she was born to be, though I don’t think she thought she was a sociopath.  Unfortunately she entered the orbit of a master level psychopath.  I’m sure he told her but I don’t know what term he used (I would simply love to know what sociopaths call themselves).  He seemed to think he was in a Mutant-X movie.

Thanks for any input or information.

Sincerely,

Chen

Modality of the age: NY Gov. Paterson victim of sociopathic gang stalking?

“Paterson Sex Scandal In The Works? Media Abuzz About Possible ‘Bombshell’ Story” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/05/paterson-sex-scandal-in-t_n_451681.html

It seems there is a gang stalking campaign against New York’s governor.  To sociopaths truth is of no value at all — there is no truth value to the truth.  What is of value is what can be made to stick, what can cause damage.

The campaign has taken place across multiple media outlets, in particular, the New York Times, the NY Daily News, the NY Post and the local Fox station, among others.  The campaign seems to have been built on rumors of a yet to be published New York Times article. The New York Times claims no involvement, no responsibility for what other media outlets are doing.  This is sociopathically outrageous and slimy.  The New York Times should have either shut down the rumors by denying the story existed or hurried the article to take the story out of the realm of steamrolling, backstabbing rumor. Then facts or purported facts could be ascertained and dealt with.  However, the accent here was on the steamrolling of a supposed scandal, which formed the basic method of this gang stalking strategy.  From the standpoint of the stalkers, this campaign was designed to gain strength and constantly get bigger over time, hopefully overwhelming the target, Gov. Paterson.

Simultaneously with the rumors of misbehavior there have been multiple stories of Paterson’s plans of imminent retirement.  First they pile on, then they offer a way out.  This is a pure sociopathic bullying strategy.

The other day I caught Fox 5 leading off with a story on “What is Gov. Paterson up to” (referring to his possible resignation in face of the supposed scandal).  This of course infers that Paterson was up to something — as opposed to his just standing there, saying ‘What the hell?!  Where are these brickbats coming from?”

I even came across a post on the DemocraticUnderground.com titled “Why the hell is Paterson so determined to stick it out?” http://www.democraticunderground.com//discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389×7687408.  Well maybe false charges don’t scare him?  Personally I wouldn’t cross a street in response to false charges.

However this gives us insight into the sociopathic mind. I have seen many times that sociopaths don’t hesitate at all to accept and take great pleasure in false honors.  The “deservedness”  is of no consequence to them. In addition words seem to have some tangible reality to them, in and of themselves — as opposed to the reality that words only have meaning in reference to what they are describing.  So the falsely gained praise or honor is of great value to individual sociopaths.  Similarly in this case, they seem to be demonstrating that a false attack is just as real to them as a false honor.  Both would apparently hold sway over them personally.  This attack on Paterson says much more about themselves than it does about Paterson.

On the Larry King show, Gov. Paterson made the plea for “simple human decency,” as I recall, in calling for the NY Times to say what they have to say — so he would know what he faced.  Indeed.  It is amazing to me how little simple human decency exists in sociopathic assaults on reputations.  The sociopaths and their corrupt allies have none at all.  If the consciences of the corrupt ever come to the fore, the corrupt look to the guidance of the sociopaths to beat that conscience back down.  This is the true value of the sociopath in corrupt enterprises — they blaze the conscienceless trail.

Strangely, third parties also seem to rarely exhibit this simple human decency, watching disinterestedly from the sidelines while the target writhes like an insect caught in a spider’s web, fighting to regain his feet, his equilibrium.  I don’t know why this is — anyone deserves to know the charges against them, in a court of law or in daily life. Perhaps it’s a combination of most people being unable to conceive of themselves being under this kind of assault, or the bigger the lie the easier it is to swallow, or people just assuming where’s there’s smoke there must be fire.

Here David Paterson did know some of the shadow charges against him.  In other varieties of sociopathic bullying campaigns the target may not know any of the charges and only see “friends” dropping away or feel like the solid earth underfoot has become brittle and hollow.  Or still another variety is invisible to third parties.  The diabolical nature of and effort put into these bullying campaigns can be extraordinary.

Updates with PW comments:

The New York Times’ Paterson story:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/16/new-york-times-paterson-b_n_464893.html?show_comment_id=40442659#comment_40442659

Paterson Bows Out of N.Y. Governor Race:  http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/paterson_bows_out_of_ny_governor_race_20100226/

Is sociopathy the modality of the age? Civilian casualties = Bugsplat

AP / Adem Hadei

An Iraqi woman takes her dead son into her arms. The 6-year-old was killed on the way home from enrolling for his first year of school.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_pictures_of_war_you_arent_supposed_to_see_20100104/

“BUGSPLAT” PREDICTS BOMBS’ IMPACT

U.S. military has developed new software that more accurately predicts the impact of a bomb . . . named “Bugsplat”

http://defensetech.org/2003/02/22/bugsplat-predicts-bombs-impact/

Incest Dad represents self in court, cross-examines daughter

Rabbi Israel Weingarten cross-examines daughter at molest trial

A rabbi charged with molesting his daughter subjected her to hours of cringe-worthy cross-examination Tuesday in Brooklyn Federal Court.

Israel Weingarten, 59, who chose to represent himself against charges that could send him to prison for 20 years, rambled on all afternoon as his daughter looked away, wiped tears and struggled to understand what he was asking.

“Do I have to answer?” the now-27-year-old asked Judge John Gleeson in a trembling voice before gathering the strength to shoot back when asked why she didn’t complain sooner.

“My feeling of your molesting me was at most fear and blackmail and years of torture,” she said, eyes widening as she wiped tears off her cheeks. “Fear because you hurt me because I told my mother. Didn’t I get hit enough?”

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/03/03/2009-03-03_rabbi_israel_weingarten_crossexamines_da.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Israel+Weingarten

Father Charged With Murder, Rape, Incest Arraigned

Cass County prosecutors on Friday announced charges against a man for allegedly raping his teenage daughter and killing at least one of the babies.

Danial M. Rinehart, 47, was charged with one count of second-degree murder, endangering the welfare of a child, statutory rape, two counts of incest and two counts of abandonment of a corpse.

Authorities allege Rineha More..rt fathered four children with his then 13-year-old daughter. The girl is now 19. Only one of the girl’s children is alive — a 3-year-old who is now in custody of the state.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=113_1232832702

Possible sociopathic elements of the above stories

Depravity of both crimes and/or situation, though to sociopaths incest is the equivalent of the sex games of childhood, though with dominance and orgasms added.

Rabbi Weingarten representing himself.  Their ego seems to drive them to testify or even represent themselves in court and it seems they can’t imagine losing.  I would say their optimism is often pathological.

A strangeness in reasoning.  After his wife testifies of her discovery of the incest, Weingarten “complained to Judge John Gleeson that the translator misunderstood Faige’s answer about his father’s ailing health at the time of the alleged sexual abuse.  Gleeson was incredulous. “And you think that was the important part?” he shot back.”  http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/03/05/2009-03-05_exwife_rabbi_israel_weingarten_halfnude_.html It seems that since the crime is of no real significance to them, they can’t sort out what’s truly significant or not.

Israel Weingarten is a rabbi.  The clergy, of all faiths, are an excellent hideout for those who excel at being wolves among sheep.

Danial Rinehart seemed to live as a drifter and freeloader.  His mother:  “Dolores Rinehart described her son as a drifter.  “They’ve been on the run. Dan’s run from Social Security — Dan’s run from everything,” she said. “He didn’t want to work.”"

Reflections on incest

Incest varies from rape to seduction, usually closer to seduction.  It is after all using the human body to be close to another that one wants very much to be close to and using the body in ways that it is designed to be close to another.  In a way, the young women in these cases are better off due to the crude and obvious criminal nature of their fathers’ actions — the evil of the vampire father is obvious and the element of self betrayal is nearly absent.  The element of self betrayal and the horribly conflicted emotions are what cause such psychic damage in incest situations, in my opinion.  A father who portrays the seduction of his daughter(s) as being “one of those wrong things that people just do” can be even more damaging to a daughter’s psyche than an incest closer to rape.

The focus on preventing incest must rest on appealing to the fathers, in my opinion.  No daughter can resist a father so inclined, the situation is too close to the normal and healthy “family romance” or so I’ve heard from incest victims and reports from incest group therapy.  Furthermore, incest is not going to occur in a healthy family with a healthy marriage so relying on the mother to protect the daughters is problematical.  For example, an abused wife who cannot protect herself certainly cannot protect the daughter.  Or a woman in a long marriage to a sociopath has had her own personality degraded.  Or the incest occurs at the same point where the wife feels she may be losing her sexual allure.  If the father’s sexual charge from the incest rebounds in the marriage the wife may be even more reluctant to peer behind closed doors.  The “club-over-the-head” to prevent incest by both sociopathic and nonsociopathic fathers must be the fear of discovery and subsequent destruction of reputation of the fathers in my opinion.  Cases such as these should receive prominent coverage.

[March 13 edit] Father too close to daughter is one of the searches that found this post.  Basically I’d say believe the hairs at the back of your neck.  If a situation feels wrong, say the observed physical contact, it probably is.  A family is such an inviolable unit that it is very hard for an outsider to have much influence and a “doting parent” is considered fine and acceptable.

Assuming the search was written by a mother I’d suggest paying a lot of attention to nonverbal cues.  For example, before normal accompanied errands or ferrying the child back and forth from activities (particularly at night), do the child and the father show a heightened state of excitedness?  If you insert yourself in such a trip is there a sudden change in mood or sudden irritability?  The same question if you arrange for the child and father never to be alone?  Does the father become and stay angry?

If the situation is as you fear, do not enter into a situation of “living with craziness,” which is sadly too easy to allow to happen.  Both of the mothers in the above news stories did, though fortunately Faige Weingarten is supporting her daughter now.  A child only knows that they are entitled to their emotions if an adult mirrors them (read Alice Miller, http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_3_12?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=alice+miller+prisoners+of+childhood&sprefix=alice+miller&sprefix=alice+miller&sprefix=alice+miller&sprefix=alice+miller).  The father has to be brought to justice to protect the child, even though this will mean destroying the facade of the  family (the family is actually already destroyed by the father’s actions).  Failure to do so will leave the child prey to evil manipulations throughout the child’s life.

Incest children (boys also, but most comments here are geared toward girls) grow up with an inability to judge trustworthiness in their relationships — both male and female relationships.  They’ll be taken advantage of over and over again, often by fake female friends.  Girls will sometimes go into prostitution — ‘Nothing wrong with my Dad.  See it’s just like shaking hands,’ and they will effectively Lucia di Lammermoor themselves (drive themselves insane by having sex against the wishes of the soul, effectively taking part in their own rape).  Or an incest victim/participant may go narcissistic — making the calculation that ‘If I didn’t have any emotions, I wouldn’t feel the shame’ and accept only the will and mind as being of the self, emotions then being split off as a manipulation from outside.

(Narcissism is a huge topic I should explore further.  In brief, rigid narcissism is frequently confused with sociopathy.  Both live in a universe of one, are incredibly selfish, have no concern for others’ feelings and can end relationships/marriages as though turning a page in a book.  However, narcissists actually have deep emotions and a soul, they just deny them — sociopaths have neither.  Narcissism is a deep psychological choice, sociopathy is genetically determined.)

Playing with the human mind — let’s erase memories

Scientists Erase Specific Memories in Mice

Joe Z. Tsien

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20081022/hl_hsn/scientistserasespecificmemoriesinmice

The Spotless Mind

Alain Brunet

http://www.popsci.com/category/tags/alain-brunet

Isn’t this a little backwards? Why not try to do something about psychopathic criminals rather than erase their tracks (not that it’s likely to work, IMO)? What’s the purpose here? To torture people for hours, get the desired information (the primitive and simplistic sociopathic mind just can’t get it that torture doesn’t work) and then erase the unpleasant memory from the victim’s mind? Don’t try to stop rape and murder rampages, but erase the survivors’ memories? Don’t stop sociopathic officers at checkpoints from ordering their men to fire on cars filled with families, just erase the shooters’ memories later?

Basically I’m with Startrek’s Captain Kirk:

“Damn it, Bones, you’re a doctor.  You know that pain and guilt can’t be taken away with a wave of a magic wand. They’re the things we carry with us, the things that make us who we are. If we lose them, we lose ourselves! I don’t want my pain taken away! I need my pain!”

http://www.startrekfans.net/lofiversion/index.php/t29330.html

This is just my gut feeling, but I’m not sure that sociopaths would even understand that view, they certainly wouldn’t care about others.

Also I believe that human nature is just too corrupt for this kind of power.  It’s been only about 150 years since we had organized slavery in the U.S.  Has human nature changed?  Slavery still exists here and there in the world or even occasionally here in the United States (usually with illegal immigrants — of course, even if not overt, they essentially live in a state of economic slavery).  Or look at corporations, they go overseas and revert to using child labor or near slavery conditions.  Give corporations sociopathic freedoms and they will follow sociopathic dictates.  Furthermore, otherwise decent (but weak) individuals will follow the companies’ interests and corrupt normals will continue to study at the feet of sociopaths for the secret of conscienceless corruption and evil.   There’s been no progress when it comes to who we are.

The Spotless Mind’s Alain Brunet works at McGill University.  That seems to ring a bell. . . .  let’s see . . . McGill . . . memory erasing . . . depatterning . . . Ewen Cameron!  Aha!  McGill was famous as the home of Ewen Cameron’s depatterning experiments.  He sought to take subjects (his fellow human beings) back to a white slate, erasing memories and even personalities through drugs, brainwashing and certain torture techniques.  I don’t think he was exactly successful, though he did create a number of vegetables and otherwise damaged human beings.  Being a monster psychopath, humans were no more than ants to him.

“McGill’s Psychiatry department was founded in 1943 by Dr. D. Ewen Cameron. Although Cameron continues to be a subject of controversy, there is no doubt that he was a great builder. In 1944, the Allan Memorial Institute opened. The site was Ravenscrag, a stately mansion located on the slopes of Mount Royal, which was renovated to house an institute of psychiatry.” Cameron then led both the Allan and the McGill department of psychiatry until 1963. [emphasis added.]

Ewen Cameron

http://www.medicine.mcgill.ca/Psychiatry/history.htm

“Continues to be a subject of controversy”?? Josef Mengele is still controversial too, I suppose.  It’s worth noting that Cameron led McGill’s psychiatry department for twenty years.  In addition he was served as president of both the American Psychiatric Association and the World Psychiatric Association.  For more info:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Ewen_Cameron, http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/resources/part1/chapter1.

So apparently Alain Brunet is following in the great man’s footsteps in a university that still has not seen fit to disown him. Further, I’m not tremendously reassured about Alain Brunet’s connections with the U.S. military: grants (http://www.douglasrecherche.qc.ca/profiles/details.asp?l=e&id=15) and work in military hospitals (http://www.dialogues-cns.org/htm/annuaire/b.asp). It seems his intent is to cure PTSD (post traumatic shock disorder) among soldiers by erasing memories.

When checkpoints fail

In 2006, Brian Palmer quoted a Marine officer as saying only 60 out of 1,000 deaths at Iraqi checkpoints were of “bad guys” (weapons or explosives were found in the vehicles later), the rest innocent victims.

“The corporal at Mojave Viper laid out a few more reasons why drivers don’t always stop. “Maybe his wife’s pregnant — he ‘s trying to get her to the hospital. That happens all the time. Maybe he’s just a fucking retard.” Marines make mistakes too, he allowed.”

http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2006/07/stop-and-kill.html (the late and lamented Steve Gilliard’s blogspot)

Absolutely, such actions will leave the soldiers and Marines with PTSD (sociopathic soldiers/Marines and officers on the other hand won’t be affected in the slightest). However, it seems to me, that for memory erasure to work against PTSD, the memories would have to be erased almost instantly (or extremely shortly), before the event percolated through the different layers of the psyche.  Children who have been abused or suffered a great loss (such as the death of a parent) under the age of three have no memory of it but it affects their lives profoundly.  One way of putting it is that a child won’t remember the parent or the death but will remember the loss.

So will these soldiers have their memories wiped clean everyday, after every engagement, what?  The movie Groundhog’s Day comes to mind.  Do they think Americans raise their children for this?

Suzy Bass — What is Pseudologia Fantastica?

She Said She Had Breast Cancer—But She Lied

Glamour

“Suzy Bass had less than a year to live. The Knoxville, Tennessee, high school math teacher was battling stage IV breast cancer, and it had spread to her shoulder and heel. . . . “Everyone just loved her immediately. We could tell her anything.” . . . Webb’s students dedicated their prom fund-raiser to her . . . A week before the big dance, though, the school received a series of troubling phone calls. Bass, they said, was making the whole thing up. . . . A week after getting exposed, Bass pulled down her Facebook account, changed her phone number and disappeared. In her wake, she left a community of angry, bewildered people with many unanswered questions: How did she do it? How could we not have known? And the biggest, most puzzling one of all: Why?”

I first learned of pseudologia fantastica from a Discovery Channel documentary, Why We Lie. The only reference to the documentary I can find is at a business ethics site (they are extremely harmful to the workplace): Why We Lie

Though the word wasn’t used, it was apparent that pseudologues were also sociopaths — guileless manipulative ability, inspiring pity, geniuses at making others feel sorry for them, the truth was of no concern, amoral, etc. Apparently some researchers agree, some don’t — but there’s very little material on pseudologues. Wikipedia entry

From the few (two to be exact) I believe I have known I would say they are definitely sociopathic, but with a twist. Most sociopaths are not impaired at all in terms of reality testing. Pseudologues however don’t seem to realize there is a difference between reality and the stating of it, apparently unaware that reality is actually real. Furthermore, apparently their brains are structurally different. Habitual Liar Brains Look Different On Scans

The ones I knew were extreme sociopaths, they might as well have been emotionless machines that could calculate the proper emotional response incredibly quickly. In acting terms, the reaction was however a beat off, a noticeable delay — but why notice if the sociopath is saying everything you want to hear or has drawn you into their fantasy or has captured your caring nature to take of them.

Latest pseudologue (9/10/10): One more cancer hoax story: Jessica Vega, http://www.aolhealth.com/2010/09/08/jessica-vegas-cancer-hoax/. While the article doesn’t mention pseudologia fantastica or sociopathy directly, it does mention antisocial personality disorder which is a great advance.

Commonalities between Wall Street speculators and/or Fed bankers and sociopaths

Inability to recognize predictable outcomes.

Belief that the party will never end.

Belief that facts don’t matter, only perception. (This is particularly true for pseudologues — simultaneously pathological liars and sociopaths.)

Overweening arrogance.

Inability to self-regulate or restrain the self.

Strange use of words. “We need oversight” when the very structure presented allows no oversight whatsoever by design. Sociopaths seem to think that words have a tangible realty in and of themselves, as opposed to having meaning only and as far they do in fact represent reality. But I forget, it’s perception that matters.

180 degree lying: “public service,” “taxpayers’ interests come first,” calling uncollectible debt assets, etc.

All that said, I’m not inclined to consider either Paulson or Bernanke to be actual sociopaths, at this point. Except for the arrogance and contempt I don’t see what I look for in attempting to ascertain sociopaths. Of course, both of them are polished public performers, so they are well masked. However, also, their lying just isn’t that smooth — think of burglars who convince law enforcement personnel to hold the ladder.  . . . Hmm . . . Or think of Charles Ponzi whose own victims asked for his release from jail to continue his magic. I do think of Bernanke and Paulson as conmen, but while all sociopaths are conmen, not all conmen are sociopaths.  I’m not dogmatic about this however, these two (or one of them) may very well be sociopaths.

Charles Ponzi, of course, reminds us of the long history of sociopaths in economic flim flammery. I have no doubt that this fiscal crisis is the direct result of not restraining sociopathic bankers. In prisons, sociopaths are often model prisoners because proper behaviors are clearly delineated and punishments for crossing same swift. The same needs to be true for investment banks, stockbrokers and investment bankers. If corporations are given the freedom to act sociopathically, sociopaths will climb to the top and/or corrupt individuals will follow the sociopathic example.

Further, it’s hard to imagine anyone else who would believe a serial bubble economy would be viable. All sociopaths are cause and effect disordered. This childish sense of cause and effect cause sociopathic inventors to invent and reinvent, over the ages, perpetual motion machines. A let’s-inflate-bubbles economy is the economic equivalent of perpetual motion. If the perpetrators and looters come across as “learned worthies,” all the better for their purposes.

I don’t believe the Paulson bailout plan is actually intended as a bailout plan, at all — it is merely a swindle to take care of themselves and their cohorts before worse happens (one last chance for the looters to have a go at it). In solitary investment bank bankruptcies you see this all the time, management will reward themselves great bonuses knowing that the house is going down and that ordinary employees will lose their jobs and much of their 401Ks.

I was at Drexel when it went bankrupt. Shortly before the denouement, the directors called a meeting to discuss what was happening. Many of the support staff showed up, after all their lives and livelihoods were being severely impacted. Also, to my experience, most of the foot soldiers of Wall Street are very proud to be working for Wall Street and Fortune 500 firms. Once seated, a chosen secretary informed the assembled group that it was for banker professionals only. Even in a lifeboat, the Drexel bankers would allow no thought of equality or that anyone else could matter.

Recent stories deserving of a closer look

“Chinese baby milk toll escalates”
BBC

A country whose corporate liars culture is even worse than ours — imagine that. Enforceable contract laws and public health regulations are an absolute necessity. Unrestrained sociopaths in business and commerce leads to disaster.

It seems Britney Spears has overcome likely sociopathic bullying
MTV

Her ex-husband, Kevin Federline, certainly fits the profile of a sociopathic conman who lives off of women (as did Thierry Roussel, Christina Onassis’ fourth husband). After her divorce, Britney was often described as having gone crazy or as having a breakdown. All I saw was someone who was very upset — just what you’d expect from a woman who discovered she’d been lying next to a mimic with only pretend emotions (except for the contempt). Furthermore, she was reported in the press as stating that her husband had slept with her mother. Just what you’d expect him to try if he were a sociopath.

I once had a long discussion with a sociopathic acquaintance about invisible-to-third-parties harassment campaigns. The aim is to make the victim appear crazy to the outside world with the harasser escaping any blame. This is what seemed to be going on here. So-called psychologists and therapists were even jumping in with “borderline” comments, with no or little first hand knowledge.

In no way should Kevin Federline be awarded sole custody of the children. A truly gigantic, but generally unknown problem are sociopathic jurists siding with sociopaths appearing before them. I’m not saying that is the case here — I know nothing about the judge. But at the very least he was initially taken in by KFed’s “innocent me and poor, pathetic Britney” routine.

“Monogamy gene found in people”
New Scientist

Hmm, this could be even more interesting.

“American Psychological Association Members Pass Historic Ban on Psychologist Participation in U.S. Detention Facilities”
Psyche, Science, and Society

Now if they could only get the sociopaths out of the torture supporting APA leadership. Sociopaths frequently go in to psychology fields in an effort to “join art with science.”