# Umm... do I exhibit sociopathic tendencies?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umm-do-i-exhibit-sociopathic-tendencies/192828>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [August 4, 2003, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umm-do-i-exhibit-sociopathic-tendencies/192828 "2003-08-04T03:31:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Apoptosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba9def/32.png) [@Apoptosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apoptosis)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umm-do-i-exhibit-sociopathic-tendencies/192828/41 "2003-08-08T02:29:53Z")

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Hey **j\_kat\_251** ,

If **msmith537** is in on the joke, then s/he got the next line wrong. Here’s how it goes:

> [@](#):
>
> Leon: Tortoise, what’s that?
> 
> Holden: Know what a turtle is?
> 
> Leon: Of course.
> 
> Holden: Same thing.

-Apoptosis

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**Author:** ![Apoptosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba9def/32.png) [@Apoptosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apoptosis)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umm-do-i-exhibit-sociopathic-tendencies/192828/42 "2003-08-08T02:33:20Z")

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Dammit. Now I really look like an idiot.

Here’s the whole section:

> [@](#):
>
> Leon: Tortoise, what’s that?
> 
> Holden: Know what a turtle is?
> 
> Leon: Of course.
> 
> Holden: Same thing.
> 
> Leon: I’ve never seen a turtle. (pause) But I understand what you mean.
> 
> Holden: You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on its back Leon.
> 
> Leon: Do you make up these questions, Mr. Holden, or do they write them down for you?

Sorry **msmith537**.

-Apoptosis

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**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umm-do-i-exhibit-sociopathic-tendencies/192828/43 "2003-08-08T14:18:05Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> You’re in a desert, walking along when you look down and you see a tortoise. It’s crawling toward you. So you reach down and flip the tortoise over on its back. The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over but it can’t. Not without your help.
> 
> What do you do?

Since “Shoot the test-giver” is taken, I cut the turtle up, eat him, and wear his dried-out shell as a hat.

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**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/umm-do-i-exhibit-sociopathic-tendencies/192828/44 "2003-08-08T19:57:19Z")

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Let me tell you about my mother.

I really doubt if there’s a written test that reliably identifies psychopaths. I saw an HBO special consisting of a psychiatrist’s interviews with a serial killer in prison, a man who had killed dozens of people – first just because he felt like it, and later professionally, for the Mob. The shrink’s personal belief was that some people are just born without a normal “fear response”, and that if they’re then raised with love and positive human contact, they can be socialized enough to be decent people – rescue workers, SWAT officers, others in dangerous, risk-taking professions. If they’re brutally, horribly abused and neglected, like the guy in prison, they tend to become very dangerous people who kill without emotion.

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