[Note to mods: this may be better in GQ, MPSIMS, or even the Pit]
Are psychopaths born such or made?
I ask because today I held a birthday party at which I was expecting 10-20 people. Only 2 turned up. This was an advance on all the other parties I’ve tried to hold this year when noone has accepted or turned up. A neighbour’s cat also graced the event and showed considerable affection.
It would be so easy for me to condemn the rest of the human race as being heartless bstrds and give up any unnecessary contact and become uncaring of my fellow man - after all, they don’t care for me, so why should I care for any of them?
Well, I did a report of serial killers in HS, if that’s what you mean by psychopath.
I came to the conclusion that it was both.
Like, one may be predisposed, but if not triggered via cruelty on the parts of other humans (usually family, in the SK I read about), they might never become a crazed killer. Kind of hard to test tho, don’t you think?
On the other hand, there are gobs of children who are abused every day by their parents, but never turn into a crazed killer.
I’ve wondered, on occasion, what would’ve happened to be if I’d been treated as cruelly as these people - It’s hard to know if you’d end up broken, be stronger for it, or figure that nothing anyone could do to you (such as jail) could ever be as bad as what’s already happened (and you’re pissed, so why not?).
But sometimes the things parents did to the SKs as kids makes what they did to their victims look like a walk in the park (aside from the death thing). Eugh.
It all boils down to that Nature vs. Nurture debate… which, as far as I can tell, is usually regarded as 50%/50% contributors to a person’s personality. There are some people who would argue that more influence comes from the genes, while others would argue that the person’s parents were at fault.
(Because of this, I’m not sure there is a general answer to this question… it might do better over in IMHO or something).
The Oxford Companion to the Mind says that theories for the cause of psychopathy have included: “brain damage in childhood, late maturation of the central nervous system, and adverse circumstances of ubringing, particularly diffcult relationships with parents and those in authority.” .
With all due respect if you’re expecting 20 and 2 show up, or none (usually) show up, and this has happened a few times now, this is likely to be less of a reflection on the perfidy your fellow man, and more an indication of bad party planning or coordinating skills on your part.
Now, you can blame an uncaring tide of heartless bastards and curl into a misanthropic ball of seething resentment… or you can look in the mirror and say “What the hell am I doing wrong party planning wise, and what can I do to correct this?” I suspect you might have more postive long term impact from latter than the former.
Why don’t you start a thread in IMHO stating “How can I give better parties that people really want to attend?” and outline your situation. I suspect you might get more useful information with that approach than wondering about how people become psychopaths.
To answer the OP a lot of current thinking is that sociopaths have distinctive differences in brain function even as infants. Some experts believe that testing of children who exhibit aberrant behaviour could enable authorities to “keep an eye” on potential serial killers. Here is some good reading.
don’t ask Are we not then infringing on the rights of people who are not yet criminals here? If we were to have the authorities keep an eye on anyone who might possibly commit a crime, are we not then a police state? Lock them up for the good of society! I do not mean to sound as id I am attacking you here, but I can see that being a very very slipery slope (and simply morally wrong).
Well if it was YOUR birthday party, QTS … HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Sweety.
I agree about the 50/50 Nature Nurture thing. But I’m in no way an expert. That’s just my opinion.
Astro’s right about the party thing … but I suspect even if you had the best party planned, you would get the same attendence. I think your friends probably suck. Not because it happened once, but because it seems to happen all the time.
I’d ditch them and make new ones. Start fresh. Did they at least call you to wish you happy birthday?
Happy birthday, qts. Sorry about the flubbed party. Maybe next time make it an informal SDope gathering, and you’ll get better attendance. (Couldn’t say if any potential psychos would be there to observe, though.) Hell, I’m game, if I could get there.
Ordinairly I might agree but my plans were good - it wasn’t an impromptu event, invitations were sent out well in advance etc. I suspect that CheekyMonkey613 may have the right of it - I’ll see how many cards and calls I get today.