Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath?
Last edited Mon May 14, 2012, 09:04 AM - Edit history (2)
This is awesome and disturbing detailed article about one of the great mysteries of human behavior.
By JENNIFER KAHN
Published: May 11, 2012
For the past 10 years, Waschbusch has been studying callous-unemotional children those who exhibit a distinctive lack of affect, remorse or empathy and who are considered at risk of becoming psychopaths as adults. To evaluate Michael, Waschbusch used a combination of psychological exams and teacher- and family-rating scales, including the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits, the Child Psychopathy Scale and a modified version of the Antisocial Process Screening Device all tools designed to measure the cold, predatory conduct most closely associated with adult psychopathy. (The terms sociopath and psychopath are essentially identical.) A research assistant interviewed Michaels parents and teachers about his behavior at home and in school. When all the exams and reports were tabulated, Michael was almost two standard deviations outside the normal range for callous-unemotional behavior, which placed him on the severe end of the spectrum.
In some children, C.U. traits manifest in obvious ways. Paul Frick, a psychologist at the University of New Orleans who has studied risk factors for psychopathy in children for two decades, described one boy who used a knife to cut off the tail of the family cat bit by bit, over a period of weeks. The boy was proud of the serial amputations, which his parents initially failed to notice. When we talked about it, he was very straightforward, Frick recalls. He said: I want to be a scientist, and I was experimenting. I wanted to see how the cat would react.
In another famous case, a 9-year-old boy named Jeffrey Bailey pushed a toddler into the deep end of a motel swimming pool in Florida. As the boy struggled and sank to the bottom, Bailey pulled up a chair to watch. Questioned by the police afterward, Bailey explained that he was curious to see someone drown. When he was taken into custody, he seemed untroubled by the prospect of jail but was pleased to be the center of attention.
In many children, though, the signs are subtler. Callous-unemotional children tend to be highly manipulative, Frick notes. They also lie frequently not just to avoid punishment, as all children will, but for any reason, or none. Most kids, if you catch them stealing a cookie from the jar before dinner, theyll look guilty, Frick says. They want the cookie, but they also feel bad. Even kids with severe A.D.H.D.: they may have poor impulse control, but they still feel bad when they realize that their mom is mad at them. Callous-unemotional children are unrepentant. They dont care if someone is mad at them, Frick says. They dont care if they hurt someones feelings. Like adult psychopaths, they can seem to lack humanity. If they can get what they want without being cruel, thats often easier, Frick observes. But at the end of the day, theyll do whatever works best.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/magazine/can-you-call-a-9-year-old-a-psychopath.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&emc=eta1
LeftofObama
(4,243 posts)Just wow!
Douglas Carpenter
(20,226 posts)It may very well be that some people from birth simply do not possess the biological and neurological systems which enable someone to experience sympathy, empathy and remorse
Gman
(24,780 posts)RC
(25,592 posts)mental disorder and parts of DU will go nuts over that fact and get upset when Conservatives/Republicans are vilified here.
libodem
(19,288 posts)They won't care. Wonder if psycho will get a word ban. Seems it's the words that hit closest to home that are the most bothersome.
rocktivity
(44,583 posts)Last edited Mon May 10, 2021, 05:21 PM - Edit history (5)
The main early warning signs are kids who torture animals, set fires, or bed-wet past the age of twelve. Ted Bundy allegedly made his "debut" at the age of fifteen -- a nine-year-old girl on his paper route has been missing to this day. Jeffrey Dahmer was a teen when he turned to dissecting roadkill. And remember how young George Bush Jr. used to blow up frogs?
Body of missing Missouri girl found; juvenile in custody
Oklahoma Couple Want to Return Troubled Adopted Son to State: 11-year-old is Violent Towards Other Children, Has Killed Animals and Runs Away Regularly
rocktivity
Douglas Carpenter
(20,226 posts)Last edited Fri May 18, 2012, 02:07 PM - Edit history (2)
is indicative in any way, shape or form of sociopathic or psychopathic tendencies or any other psychological problem. There is some evidence based on what has been called the Macdonalds Triad that there is an increased likelihood of sociopathic or psychopathic tendencies only when all three factors are regular and routine behavior of a child; cruelty to animals, fire setting and bedwetting. But what truly separates a sociopathic or psychopathic child or adult for that matter from simply someone who is badly behaved is a complete and total lack of sympathy, empathy and remorse.
mainer
(12,037 posts)It makes me so grateful that I never had to struggle with such a child.
Honestly, the descriptions of that boy's behavior made my skin crawl.
Douglas Carpenter
(20,226 posts)an autistic child can help being an autistic child. Behavior modification techniques might in some circumstances be able to partially modify some of their most obnoxious behavior. But they will never be able to experience sympaythy, empathy or remorse. They simply are not wired for it. So even for the sociopath we are left saying, "there but for fortune - go you or I, you or I."
alarimer
(16,245 posts)They are being traumatized while this kid is being treated or whatever passes for treatment for him.
I think kids like this need to be institutionalized for the good of everyone else. All therapy does for them is teach them how to manipulate even better.