We have been learning about psychopaths and sociopaths in class for the last couple of days, and the topic has been very fascinating to me. Although I knew that I was supposed to associate psychopaths with the word "bad" in my head, I never really knew what they were. I was surprised to discover that psychopaths actually become psychopaths because of a different trait that their brain has, rather than their own personal desire to become psychopathic. Of course, as we have learned, these people must also experience environmental factors that cause them to what to do such horrible things, and there are a number of other factors that must line up for people with psychopathic tendencies to actually become psychopaths.
After learning these things, I started thinking about children who have psychopathic tendencies. I was wondering how these children perceive themselves. Do they understand that they are different than most? Or do they think that they are "normal"? Is there somewhere along the line that these children ultimately choose to follow their psychopathic tendencies and actually become psychopaths, or does the environment they are in choose for them? In addition to what these children think about themselves, how do their parents perceive their children? Do these children's parents know that they their children have these psychopathic tendencies or do they think they're children are just mischievous like many other kids their age?
It is very difficult for me to imagine a person that has absolutely no emotion for other people and does not understand reality. So to think that psychopaths' childhoods ultimately determine whether they fulfill their "psychopathic brains" or not, I'm am very curious as to what these people's childhoods actually looked like and how they acted as children.
I feel like the kids with psychopathic tendencies just view themselves as normal. I think that in their head they don't know that they are acting weird. Unless something traumatic happens, then they might see a shift. An example I can think of is the man in the video we were watching earlier. The guy there did not think himself as a psychopath until he found out about his past and his brain. Until he was labeled a psychopath that is when he finally started to think "maybe I am a psychopath".
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a lot of good questions. Just to speak to one of your questions about what psychopathic children's parents think of their children, I would say that the parents definitely know that their children are different. It may not be very obvious that they are psychopaths, but I think the parents would see that their children are a little colder and narcissistic as other children. They may just rationalize that their child will grow out of it or that they are just more independent. I think that if the parents were to suspect their child of being a psychopath, then they should try to give them the best childhood as they can. And maybe if they have a happy childhood, they won't become violent.
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