# Raising a Psychopath (blog) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 25, 2010, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-psychopath-blog/551415 "2010-08-25T16:34:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-psychopath-blog/551415/41 "2010-09-18T01:04:07Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > > [@Miss\_Violaceous](#): > > > > I think it’s genuine. I work in the juvenile court system and the procedures and reports all ring true to me. > > But you don’t think that the blogger is reading a LOT into some pretty normal behavior? I read the whole thing, and I don’t think he necessarily is. Sure, some of the stuff wouldn’t be way far out of the range of normal adolescent behavior, IF it wasn’t taken in context, or was taken in a different context. But when you put it all together, yeah, the kid sounds like a sociopath to me. My ex is a classic narcissist (and was diagnosed as such) (and that personality disorder is in the same cluster as antisocial personality disorder, for good reason) and I could give a hundred million examples that, if isolated, could just describe your typical conceited-but-not-pathological person. But because I have a fair amount of knowledge about the subject (for a layperson), and a lot of knowledge about his patterns of behavior, I can put it in context and it’s extremely obvious what it means. COULD this guy be making the whole thing up? Sure. But I don’t see any reason to believe that he is. To me it looks like he’s trying to see and describe it from an objective point-of-view, which is very difficult to succeed at 100% when you’re that close to it. So if he sounds detached and clinical at times, I think he’s just trying–and not completely succeeding–at being objective. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-psychopath-blog/551415/42 "2010-09-18T05:16:09Z")
> [@](#): > > We don’t know how this will turn out, but one thing is for certain: Lucas is about to be reintegrated into the community. > > Maybe a community near you. I’m sorry, but my suspension of disbelief just flew out the window. “Maybe a community near you”? It sounds like a freaking _movie tagline_. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-psychopath-blog/551415/43 "2010-09-18T15:44:00Z")
> [@Kythereia](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > We don’t know how this will turn out, but one thing is for certain: Lucas is about to be reintegrated into the community. > > > > Maybe a community near you. > > I’m sorry, but my suspension of disbelief just flew out the window. “Maybe a community near you”? It sounds like a freaking _movie tagline_. Word. My suspension of disblief was cracking at the seams (especially with regard to his behavior in school and no IEP, as I previously posted). And then I noticed that Dad can spend months convincing a parade of doubtful mental health professionals that his son is a psychopath, but can’t spend 2 minutes googling up “hyperfocus” and learning it actually IS a symptom of ADD. But this last thing was just silly. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-psychopath-blog/551415/44 "2010-09-18T18:33:35Z")
> [@](#): > > We don’t know how this will turn out, but one thing is for certain: Lucas is about to be reintegrated into the community. > > Maybe a community near you. _Dun dun DAH!!!_ :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Rich\_Mann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@Rich\_Mann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rich_Mann)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-psychopath-blog/551415/45 "2010-09-20T11:01:59Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > He pretty much admits he’s being edited. At one point he says that he is a terrible speller, yet I see no spelling mistakes anywhere in the document. Sure, he could be laboriously checking every word, but with everything else combined, it seems fake and edited. I have to disagree. There are typos, misspellings, and missing words in almost every post. Believe me–I’m extremely OCD about these things. That said, I’m on the fence about the reality of the story. Many of the reasons given upthread that this may be fake sound reasonable, but it’s hard to credit that anyone would make up a lie so huge, so detailed, and so credulous. ---
**Author:** ![Rich\_Mann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@Rich\_Mann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rich_Mann)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-psychopath-blog/551415/46 "2010-09-20T11:22:09Z")
What’s the name of that law, again? **Credible** , not credulous. Also, about the line “Maybe a community near you”–it’s certainly overly dramatic, but not outside the bounds of real commentary. People sometimes say things that almost seem like parodies, but really mean them. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Violaceous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Miss\_Violaceous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Violaceous)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-psychopath-blog/551415/47 "2010-09-20T12:30:33Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > > [@Miss\_Violaceous](#): > > > > I think it’s genuine. I work in the juvenile court system and the procedures and reports all ring true to me. > > But you don’t think that the blogger is reading a LOT into some pretty normal behavior? I think the blog is genuine, not a fake. That doesn’t mean he’s correct with regard to his armchair psychiatrist routine. There’s a reason the diagnostic tools don’t cover children that young. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-psychopath-blog/551415/48 "2010-09-20T13:08:03Z")
That blog is absolute horseshit. It’s just too trite, too much of a perfect arc. And written with a dramatic intent from the outset. First entry: > [@](#): > > If it has been a few months since my last update, it’s probably because I have so much else to do here dealing with Lucas’s issues. I’m probably still alive. > > Probably. Someone read _We Need to Talk About Kevin_ and is trying to compete. Even the watching-the-mother-on-the-toilet bit seems lifted. Spooky CCTV courtesy _Paranormal Activity_. I predict: the blog will come up with a grisly murder implicating “Lucas”, someone in the Blogosphere will investigate, find such a murder never happened, blogger outs self, blog withdrawn, novel deal sealed, contrite appearance on Oprah, cha-ching. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Weird\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@The\_Weird\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Weird_One)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-psychopath-blog/551415/49 "2010-09-20T13:23:18Z")
I read it as real, but it may be fake, who knows? Doesn’t really matter. If it’s fake, though, the author has some dedication, to keep it going for two years. ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2010, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-psychopath-blog/551415/50 "2010-09-20T13:30:24Z")
I don’t think the guy is a good enough writer to get a novel deal. I think that’s why it’s reading fake to a lot of you; he’s trying to make it interesting and dramatic (with things like “a community near you”) but isn’t really pulling it off well, because he’s not a very good writer. I think if he was making this up, he could come up with some more compelling, interesting examples of why the kid is a psychopath, and he could be more consistent in his writing schedule. This is a smattering of posts over a few years. The bathroom door thing also isn’t really a problem for me. He was trying to look under the bathroom door–doesn’t mean he saw anything. Even if nothing was seen, it’s still creepy. I’m inclined to think it’s real, although I’m not convinced the kid is actually a psychopath based on the evidence presented. If the guy is trying to get a book deal or some such, he’s not doing a very good job. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-psychopath-blog/551415/51 "2010-09-21T04:09:37Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > And this guy lost me as soon as he “had to force” the kid to write a letter to Santa. If he’s going to set the bar for normal behavior that rigidly, I’m not sure the kid failing to reach it makes him broken. To me that just read like Harry (whether fictional or real) had some ideal of what a kid would be–some bright eyed eager youngster who believed in Santa and was more or less sweet and innocent. And Lucas clearly didn’t fit it. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-psychopath-blog/551415/52 "2010-09-21T04:43:34Z")
> [@Kythereia](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > We don’t know how this will turn out, but one thing is for certain: Lucas is about to be reintegrated into the community. > > > > Maybe a community near you. > > I’m sorry, but my suspension of disbelief just flew out the window. “Maybe a community near you”? It sounds like a freaking _movie tagline_. Yes. That’s got the old BS-O-Meter clanging. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-psychopath-blog/551415/53 "2010-09-21T04:47:29Z")
I meant he lost my sympathy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raising-a-psychopath-blog/551415.md?page=2)