Is modern living a breeding ground for Psychopaths?...

Both the financial elite and their servants who maintain this system, appear to exhibit behavior that is consistent with symptoms associated with a medical disorder known as psychopathy.(*) Psychopaths, also called sociopaths, are categorized as those who exhibit superficial charm and intelligence, and are absent of delusions or nervousness. Their traits include:

• Unreliability Frequent lying
• Deceitful and manipulative behavior (either goal-oriented or for the delight of the act itself)
• Lack of remorse or shame
• Antisocial behavior
• Poor judgment and failure to learn by experience
• Incapacity for love
• Poverty of general emotions
• Loss of insight Unresponsiveness in personal relations
• A frequent need for excitement
• An inflated self-worth
• An ability to rationalize their behavior
• A need for complete power
• A need to dominate others

Psychopathy is basically an emotional disorder, although psychopaths don't feel emotion in a normal sense, they do experience boredom, envy, exhilaration, contempt, sadistic pleasure, anger, and hints of depression. Generally, those who believe it's caused by environmental factors use the term sociopath, and believers of the biological theory use the term psychopath. Psychopathy closely resembles Antisocial Personality Disorder. These character types, comprise about 4% of the population and span every level of society. Psychopaths can be found in every race, culture, profession and class.

Psychopathy is usually untreatable. Most therapists won't work with them because they often end up damaged in the process. Traditional therapeutic approaches actually make them, if not worse, then far more adept at manipulating others and concealing their behavior. They are generally considered to be not only incurable but also untreatable. Basically psychopaths are the way they are for life. In most legal jurisdictions they are considered sane. So technically, they're not mentally ill, just different.
Some researchers agree that the traits exhibited by these people produce a division stronger than age, race, and religion, which places them in a new category of people. In other words, these people are almost not human as we know it. The word antisocial does not describe someone who prefers to sit at home rather than attend gatherings. More accurately it means antihuman. Most people can't bring themselves to understand the mind-set of a psychopath.

Psychopaths tend to gravitate towards and thrive in professions that offer power and require cutthroat decision making, a new book has claimed.
‘The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success’ outlines the ten jobs psychopaths are most likely, and least likely, to be found in. In the workplace, psychopaths are characterized by their attempts to try to undermine and “mentally destroy” their co-workers to feed their need for a sense of power and domination over other human beings.
A leading psychotherapist recently warned Australian bosses that they need to implement strategies to manage workplace psychopaths because they exist in most large companies.
It’s been established for some time that genes play a significant role in the makeup of those individuals eventually diagnosed with such conditions as Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD, sometimes also now termed Dissocial Personality Disorder or DPD). And while the concepts of psychopathy and sociopathy have been around for a long time, neither has been recognized as an official disorder (although it’s likely that the upcoming revision of the official diagnostic manual will include the key aspects of psychopathy as a variant form of APD).

Historically, the evidence for a genetic predisposition to APD has come from studies of monozygotic (identical) twins reared apart. The fact that the twin of an individual with an antisocial behavior history is more likely to show the same kind of behaviors despite being raised in a different environment argues for a genetic predisposition to the disorder.


And it’s of particular interest that twin studies have shown that the key component of psychopathy (i.e. lack of guilt or remorse and callous use and abuse of others rooted in empathy deficits) also appears to be influenced by biological factors. The “concordance” rate between twins reared apart for the various traits associated with APD, DPD, psychopathy and sociopathy is not strong enough to confirm a strictly genetic basis, but there can be no doubting a strong biologically-based predisposition. And one fairly recent study on monozygotic twins reared apart demonstrated that the biological predisposition toward empathy deficiency shows up even in children as young as 7 years old.

According to Professor Essi Viding from University College London. Her group has carried out twin studies which suggest that psychopathic traits in children are largely genetic. "For the group which has callous-unemotional traits, there's a strong genetic vulnerability," said Prof Viding. "This does not mean these children are born anti-social or are destined to become anti-social. But in the same way that some of us are more susceptible to heart disease, these children are people who are more vulnerable to environmental influences that trigger the anti-social outcome."
Psychologists are only now starting to recognise that psychopathic children, described as callous-unemotional (CU), form a distinct sub-group. Prof Viding, said between a quarter and half of children with conduct problems may fall into the CU category. That amounts to slightly less than 1% of all children.
Stephen Scott is professor of child health and behaviour at the Institute of Psychiatry, based at the Maudsley Hospital in South London.
As director of the National Conduct Problems Clinic for children aged between three and eight who show disruptive, difficult and anti-social behaviour, he is able to identify those who exhibit the ‘combination of anti-social behaviours with an overlay of callous, unemotional traits’ that are typical of adult psychopathy, and refer them on to the department’s Tender Loving Care (TLC) Project. This research programme sees 100 children every year who have been referred by consultant psychiatrists, consultant paediatricians, social services, GPs, educational psychologists and teachers. Parents can also take along their own child if they are concerned, without a doctor’s referral. Professor Scott says: ‘Adult sociopaths are superficial and charming, but can also seem uncaring and heartless.’ He believes these characteristics can be identified in childhood. While Professor Scott is wary of ‘over-diagnosis’ and emphasises that many children and adults can possess the cold, unfeeling nature of the psychopath without actually being one (‘think boyfriends who couldn’t give a damn and some chiefs of big corporations’) there is little danger of confusing the average five-year-old scamp with the fledgling psychopath.

Modern living, which includes watching Tv and being aware of the media somehow filters in our sub consciousness.
The rewards for being successful or to accumulate wealth further promotes a cut throat behavior to our society. Considering that there are so many influences and that generates a selfish or narcissistic behavior pattern. I am developing a theory which points out the possible link of possible behavior to common genetic dominance. Although no single gene determines a particular behavior. Behaviors are complex traits involving multiple genes that are affected by a variety of other factors.

 This fact often gets overlooked in media reports hyping scientific breakthroughs on gene function, and, unfortunately, this can be very misleading to the public. Certain genetic markers in psychopaths can get passed down, about 50% of individual differences in psychopathic traits are genetic suggests that a fair amount of variance in psychopathic features is environmental. (It is worth noting that approximately 40-60% of the variance in many personality traits and in several other disorders also appears to reflect genetic factors. Thus, psychopathy is similar to other personality traits and disorders in which genetic factors are important, yet do not explain everything.) Although specific genes relevant to psychopathy have been identified, most people believe there are probably multiple genes which contribute to psychopathy, just as there are multiple genes involved in most clinical conditions which are partly heritable.
Also a working theory that a mothers environment can effect a child's brain. As a unborn baby is exposed to stress hormones and poor diet from, the mothers influences the child's brain development. In this case fear and negative emotions will stimulate the amygdala for fight or flight response. While a positive environment will stimulate the anterior cingulate cortex, a higher brain function for rational cognitive functions preventing violent action or arguments. The theory of which subtly suggest environment can effect behaviour maybe uncommon, but is worth while to consider during a child's development?.
While its is uncertain that behavior can not influence genetics, although it is important to notice that there is no current studies of links to disprove my theory of modern living having a negative influence our society in general...