# Does the US have more psychopaths than other countries?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-have-more-psychopaths-than-other-countries/967474
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [July 5, 2022, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-have-more-psychopaths-than-other-countries/967474 "2022-07-05T20:11:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 34

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2022, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-have-more-psychopaths-than-other-countries/967474/34 "2022-07-06T14:15:04Z")

</div>

> [@Crafter\_Man](#):
>
> Just because someone does something very bad doesn’t mean they’re mentally ill. Some people are just evil. Sane, but evil

My concern with this take – one heard often – is that it’s basically capitulatory. It’s almost like saying “Some people are just evil, and – aside from taking Jesus Christ as your/their lord and savior – whaddyagonna’ do ?”

It strikes me as a way of _ending_ a conversation that we _desperately_ need to begin and pursue (whether it was meant that way or not).

I don’t know whether, or how many, of these mass shooters have/had a DSM-V pathology. No idea.

I _do_ accept that some frankly mentally ill people are perfectly capable of the kind of forethought and planning seen in Highland Park, IL and Aurora, Colorado (to name just two). I also accept that not every mass shooter should automatically be assumed _to be_ frankly mentally ill.

We’re, apparently, failing quite a large number of young men. The reasons, I’m sure, are manifold. One that always stands out to me is the grind … the rat race … the treadmill. It’s a catalyst _for_ our individualist vs. collectivist values system. It’s a constant clarion call that ever reminds us: if you’re not getting (rapidly) ahead, then you’re falling behind. And you could lose everything in an instant. And ain’t _nobody_ got your back.

I’m always reminded of [**WalMart: the High Cost of Low Price**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wal-Mart:_The_High_Cost_of_Low_Price). We have relatively _low_ taxes in the US, relative to the other advanced economies. As I brought up in [**another thread**](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-rich-pay-their-fair-share/921817), I think we are being purposely mislead about who pays what, in Federal Income Taxes, in this country.

And “this is why we can’t have nice things” ties into that.

The near decimation of the middle class, and the constant threat of Stygian poverty that looms over so many Americans leads to productivity by panic, not of passion. One slip … one illness … one trauma … can land you at the bottom.

And think about _parents_ who are working in this scenario, and for whom survival is about all they can do. Think of the intensified difficulty of raising their children in any kind of thoughtful, proactive, engaged, and deliberate way. And think about what happens when a parent wakes up one day and _does realize_ (and admits to themselves) that their child is deeply troubled.

Then what ?

No. It doesn’t have to be psychopathy or sociopathy. It can just be leviathan chasms between what it _takes_ to succeed in our economy and the skills one does or does not have to make that happen.

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-us-have-more-psychopaths-than-other-countries/967474)._