Bad Men Do What Good Men Dream: A Forensic Psychiatrist Illuminates the Darker Side of Human Behavior (48 page)

Taught by time, my heart has learned to glow for other’s good, and melt at other’s woe. —
Homer

One difference between bad and good people may have to do with empathy. This is a core character trait that enables us to understand our fellow human beings and to feel compassion. It has something to do with an anatomical structure that has been found in monkey brains and human brains, called mirror neurons. The cells are located in the brain’s motor cortex, where muscle movement and control are initiated. The mirror neuron circuitry allows us to step into the shoes of others, to feel their pain. The more empathetic the person, the stronger is their mirror neuron response. Although science has discovered this neuronal basis for empathy, it can only be a foundation upon which personal experiences of love and caring build. Adverse life experiences can interfere with or disable the functioning of mirror neurons. Psychopaths, for instance, do not feel empathy. Presumably their mirror response is very weak or nonexistent.

The lack of empathy may be an important reason why psychopaths are untreatable. In previous chapters that have analyzed all sorts of “bad men,” from serial killers to heads of state, we have seen how spectacular failures in empathy drive the engines of evil.

For psychotherapists and other providers of health services to be effective, they must be empathetic. But excessive empathy may cause these providers to live too much in another’s shoes, and thus share the patient’s destiny. To be truly effective, the healthcare provider must also be able to step
out
of those shoes.

Empathy allows us to feel the pain of others, but also to experience their joy. As such, empathy can combat envy, a pernicious character flaw that can destroy relationships and make life miserable for everyone.

Are We Hard-Wired for Trouble?

What causes our destructive behaviors? Is it genetics, one’s family of origin, terrible experiences, bad brain chemistry, or all of these? Have our brains been hard-wired through the evolutionary process for inevitable trouble? Is dysfunctional behavior attributable to factors that are beyond our control? And how much of good mental health is the blind luck of the draw? For example, what does the future hold for children who are born addicted to cocaine and whose mothers are teenaged and unwed? What opportunities will these children have to learn how to channel or control their antisocial impulses?

What we do know is that the brain of every individual—his or her “computer hardware”—is genetically distinct from all others. The human genome (an organism’s complete set of DNA) contains 3.1 billion DNA pairs. The opportunities for genetic aberrations are great. J. D. Watson, the codiscoverer of the double helix structure of DNA, observed, “We used to think our fate was in our stars. Now we know, in large measure, our fate is in our genes.” Adding yet another level of complexity, environmental and other factors may also influence the gene expression. As in a computer, the brain’s capacity to process information correctly and to adequately perform various complex psychological tasks depends on the circuitry. It is estimated that the human brain contains approximately 30 billion neurons that have 100 trillion interconnections. Into this “hardware” goes important “software”—for instance, the individual’s personal experiences with caregivers and with the world in general. The possible combinations of a person’s unique hardware with the permutations of this software are infinite. We know this because even identical twins with identical brain hardware and the same parents have different software experiences. These twins appear identical on the surface, but their characters are not identical. Suffice it to say that malfunctions in either or both modalities, hardware and software, are what lead to psychological limitations and to trouble. With all this genetic and neuronal complexity, it is incredible that most of us come out reasonably whole.

Good computer hardware combined with good software allows good men to dream. But again there are no perfect computers, and there is no perfect software. In fact, even apart from our inherent limitations as human beings, there are too many places for things to go wrong, to even contemplate the possibility of a hypothetically “normal” person who has all of the attributes described in this chapter. Our dark side is a fundamental part of our personality—of our brain-computer hardware. In so many instances, it is the software of our personal experiences with our parents, family, and the world that fashions our character and our destiny. Many of the persons depicted in this book were destined for trouble by aberrations in both their brain-computer hardware and their software experiences. Many of us may escape a similar harsh fate because we have either good enough hardware or good enough software, but not necessarily both. For the troubled, modern psychiatry has developed a wide variety of beneficial treatments for mental disorders, which can help substantially in controlling destructive, antisocial ideas and impulses.

Fortunately, the majority of humankind does tolerably well in rising above the inherent limitations that we have as human beings. I find it truly remarkable that we have so many good people in this world, even if they are all limited in their goodness. Although, as Job says, we are all born unto trouble, we are not condemned to miserable lives. Good people are able to dream and to contain the impulses that bad people act out. Taming our demons and acknowledging our humanity with its attendant dark side can be empowering. Those who become psychologically resourceful may be able to put the demons to useful work, in the same way as humankind has learned how to tame and use fire, though the sparks inevitably fly upward. It is the essence of the human condition that we struggle against our dark demons, that our spirit strives to harness these demons in the pursuit and the fulfillment of our human destiny.

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