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...

     

A modern Psychopath.

The word "psychopathy" is a joining of the Greek words psyche (mind, mental) and pathos (suffering, feeling). The first documented use is from 1847 in Germany as psychopatisch, and the noun psychopath has been traced to 1885. Psychopathy is a personality disorder that has been variously described as characterized by shallow emotions (in particular reduced fear), stress tolerance, lacking empathy, coldheartedness, lacking guilt, egocentricity, superficial charm, manipulativeness, irresponsibility, nonplanfulness, impulsivity, and antisocial behaviors such as parasitic lifestyle and criminality.
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The term is also used by the general public, in popular press, and in fictional portrayals. This popular usage does not necessarily conform to the clinical concept. According to the Scientific American, although psychopathy is associated with and in some cases is defined by conduct problems, criminality or violence, many psychopaths are not violent, and psychopaths are, despite the similar names, rarely psychotic.

Although there are behavioral similarities, psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) according to criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders are not synonymous. A diagnosis of ASPD is based on behavioral patterns, whereas psychopathy measurements also include more indirect personality characteristics. The diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder covers two to three times as many prisoners as are rated as psychopaths. Most offenders scoring high on the Psychopathy Checklist, also pass the ASPD criteria, but most of those with ASPD do not score high on the PCL-R (Psychopathy Checklist, Revised)


The theory of variable levels of psychopathic behavior in people could explain the reasons of certain human interactions. The Selfish Gene is a book on evolution by Richard Dawkins, published in 1976. It builds upon the principal theory of George C. Williams's first book Adaptation and Natural Selection. Dawkins coined the term "selfish gene" as a way of expressing the gene-centred view of evolution as opposed to the views focused on the organism and the group, popularizing ideas developed during the 1960s by W. D. Hamilton and others. From the gene-centred view follows that the more two individuals are genetically related, the more sense (at the level of the genes) it makes for them to behave selflessly with each other. Therefore the concept is especially good at explaining many forms of altruism, regardless of a common misuse of the term along the lines of a selfishness gene.

Dawkins proposes the idea of the "replicator," the initial molecule which first managed to reproduce itself and thus gained an advantage over other molecules within the primordial soup. Today, Dawkins postulates, the replicators are the genes within organisms, with each organism's body serving the purpose of a 'survival machine' for its genes. Dawkins writes that gene combinations which help an organism to survive and reproduce tend to also improve the gene's own chances of being passed on and, as a result, frequently "successful" genes will also be beneficial to the organism. An example of this might be a gene that protects the organism against a disease, which helps the gene spread and also helps the organism.

History is littered with elected leaders who, once they are in positions of power, end up being uncaring ego-maniacs who manipulate and do dirty deals for their own benefit. Famous psychopaths and evil leaders like Hitler, among many others, who were elected leaders, and were in their positions with the support of their people. On the face of it, psychopaths are often charming, outgoing people, who are eager to make a positive impression. But these behaviors are imitations of what they know to be socially acceptable: the so-called mask of sanity. The clinical checklist for psychopathy refers to "glib and superficial charm, grandiosity, need for stimulation, pathological lying, conning and manipulating, lack of remorse, callousness, poor behavior controls, impulsivity irresponsibility, failure to accept responsibility for one's own actions", et cetera.
High-functioning psychopaths can be very successful. They appear to be confident and calm and seem to have their act together. The defining characteristic is that they are insatiable liars and skilled manipulators. It's appropriate that we should be thinking about this right now because we are in a year where much of the leadership of the world will be changing gears. We can sense it in the air. Significantly, it's happening in the two most powerful countries in the world. China has already selected its next president. America will be doing so in November. Elections, uprisings and threats of removals are also happening from Syria to France and from Russia to Mali.

Evolution from one point of view states that competition, ensures the healthiest will survive and that it is evolved to modern day thinking for business survival. There are traders who would bet on the negative out come of the stock market to gain profit. But what if a complete collapse has rendered the whole world in a state of chaos?. There needs to be a balance of system checks and safeguards for organizations not to cause too much damage. My own theory suggests that if there is an abundance of psychopaths in business, then the whole finance structure will collapse flushing out the majority of weaker companies. As in evolution where by only the strongest will survive. Only that this constant cycle of growth and decay seems to have a fall out on the majority on the population. Recognizing a psychopaths personality helps make sense why people in business succeed. But when there seems to be an overflow of these people, in a given section of business or politics or general crime its seems to be best to brace for bad times ahead...