The Wisdom of Psychopaths (37 page)
Read The Wisdom of Psychopaths Online
Authors: Kevin Dutton
33
In 1993, in a book that bore their name …
See Andy McNab,
Bravo Two Zero: The Harrowing True Story of a Special Forces Patrol Behind the Lines in Iraq
(London: Bantam Press, 1993; New York: Dell, 1994).
34
The show is called
Extreme Persuasion … To listen to the show, go to
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p006dg3y
.
35
And like most things in the regiment, there’s a good reason for that …
For more on Andy McNab’s experiences in the Special Air Service, including its fearsome selection process and interrogation techniques, see Andy McNab,
Immediate Action: The Explosive True Story of the Toughest—and Most Highly Secretive—Strike Force in the World
(London: Bantam Press, 1995; New York: Dell, 1996).
1
after launching the Great British Psychopath Survey …
To listen to the show, go to
http://soundcloud.com/profkevindutton/great-british-psychopath
.
2
Participants were directed onto my website …
See Michael R. Levenson, Kent A. Kiehl, and Cory M. Fitzpatrick, “Assessing Psychopathic Attributes in a Noninstitutionalized Population,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
68, no. 1 (1995): 151–58. To take the test, go to
www.kevindutton.co.uk/
.
3
The Paddock Centre …
Psychopaths are notoriously difficult to treat, and their charm and persuasive skills often quite literally flatter to deceive—giving the impression that progress has been made, when, in fact, the psychopath is faking rehabilitation in order (in most cases) to gain parole. Recently, however, a
new treatment for intractable juvenile offenders with psychopathic tendencies has provided cause for optimism. Michael Caldwell, a psychologist at the Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center in Madison, Wisconsin, has had promising results with an intensive one-on-one therapeutic technique known as decompression: the aim of which is to end the vicious cycle in which punishment for bad behavior inspires more bad behavior, which is then, in turn, punished again … and so on, and so on … Over time, the behavior of the incarcerated youths treated by Caldwell became gradually more manageable, with the result that they were subsequently able to participate in more mainstream rehabilitation services. To illustrate, a group of more than 150 youths enrolled in Caldwell’s program were 50 percent less likely to engage in violent crime following treatment than a comparable group who underwent rehabilitation at regular juvenile correctional facilities.
For more information on decompression and the treatment of psychopaths in general, see Michael F. Caldwell, Michael Vitacco, and Gregory J. Van Rybroek, “Are Violent Delinquents Worth Treating? A Cost-Benefit Analysis,”
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency
43, no. 2 (2006): 148–68, doi:10.1177/0022427805280053.
4
Take Steve Jobs …
See: John Arlidge, “A World in Thrall to the iTyrant,” Sunday
Times
News Review, October 9, 2011.
5
James Rilling, associate professor of anthropology at Emory University …
See James K. Rilling, Andrea L. Glenn, Meeta R. Jairam, Giuseppe Pagnoni, David R. Goldsmith, Hanie A. Elfenbein, and Scott O. Lilienfeld, “Neural Correlates of Social Cooperation and Non-Cooperation as a Function of Psychopathy,”
Biological Psychiatry
61, no. 11 (2007): 1260–71.
6
Lee Crust and Richard Keegan, at the University of Lincoln …
See Crust and Keegan, “Mental Toughness and Attitudes to Risk-Taking,”
Personality and Individual Differences
49, no. 3 (2010): 164–68.
7
Mark Williams, professor of clinical psychology …
Williams and his team are based in the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, University of Oxford. Learn more about current research at the center by visiting its website:
http://oxfordmindfulness.org/
. For those interested in reading about mindfulness, see also Mark Williams and Danny Penman,
Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World
(London: Piatkus, 2011; New York: Rodale Books, 2011).
8
What, precisely, is it that makes a successful trader?
Reams have been written in answer to this question. For those who wish to keep things light, and inject a pinch of fantasy into the mix, I strongly recommend a novel by Robert Harris:
The Fear Index
(New York: Knopf, 2012).
9
… the “imagined” potential reality is significantly more discomfiting …
See Artur Z. Arthur, “Stress as a State of Anticipatory Vigilance,”
Perceptual and Motor Skills
64, no. 1 (1987): 75–85, doi:10.2466/pms.1987.64.1.75.
1
Harrington cites some examples …
See Alan Harrington,
Psychopaths
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972), 45.
2
“What he [the psychopath] believes he needs to protest against …”
See Cleckley,
The Mask of Sanity
(St. Louis, MO: C. V. Mosby, 1941, 1976), 391,
www.cassiopaea.org/cass/sanity_1.pdf
.
3
“[The psychopath] is an elite with the potential ruthlessness of an elite …”
See Norman Mailer,
The White Negro
, first published in
Dissent
(Fall 1957),
www.learntoquestion.com/resources/database/archives/003327.html
.
4
“whether we want to admit it or not …”
See Harrington,
Psychopaths
, 233.
5
Saint Paul, as we know him now …
For a detailed biography of Saint Paul and informed insights into his complex psychology, see A. N. Wilson,
Paul: The Mind of the Apostle
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1997).
6
“a total failure of political bravado …”
See L. Michael White,
From Jesus to Christianity: How Four Generations of Visionaries and Storytellers Created the New Testament and Christian Faith
(San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2004), 170.
7
“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster …”
“If—,” the poem by Rudyard Kipling from which these lines are taken, first appeared in his collection
Rewards and Fairies
(London: Macmillan, 1910).
8
Derek Mitchell at University College, London …
See Derek G. V. Mitchell, Rebecca A. Richell, Alan Leonard, and James R. Blair, R. “Emotion at the Expense of Cognition: Psychopathic Individuals Outperform Controls on an Operant Response Task,”
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
115, no. 3 (2006): 559–66.
9
In fact, this ability to concentrate purely on the task in hand …
For more on the concept of flow, see Mihály Csíkszentmihályi,
Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life
(New York: Basic Books, 1996).
10
In 2011, Martin Klasen at Aachen University discovered that moments of flow …
Martin Klasen, Rene Weber, Tilo T. J. Kircher, Krystyna A. Mathiak, and Klaus Mathiak, “Neural Contributions to Flow Experience During Video Game Playing,”
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
7, no. 4 (2012): 485–95, doi:10.1093/scan/nsr021.
11
In the same year that Klasen was playing video games …
See Elsa Ermer, Joshua D. Greene, Prashanth K. Nyalakanti, and Kent A. Kiehl, “Abnormal Moral Judgments in Psychopathy,” poster presented at the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy Conference, Montreal, Canada, May 2011.
12
The neuroscientist Richard Davidson, at the University of Wisconsin …
See Antoine Lutz, Lawrence L. Greischar, Nancy B. Rawlings, Matthieu Ricard, and Richard J. Davidson, “Long-Term Meditators Self-Induce High-Amplitude Gamma Synchrony During Mental Practice,”
PNAS
101, no. 46 (2004): 16369–73, doi:10.1073/pnas.0407401101.
Richard Davidson is the director of the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin. To find out more about his work, visit
the lab’s website at:
http://psyphz.psych.wisc.edu
. See also Richard J. Davidson and Sharon Begley,
The Emotional Life of Your Brain: How Its Unique Patterns Affect the Way You Think, Feel, and Live—And How You Can Change Them
(New York: Hudson Street Press, 2012).
13
“There is a lot of evidence [to suggest] that the best sportsmen and women …”
Quote taken from Steve Conner, “Psychology of Sport: How a Red Dot Swung It for Open Champion,”
The Independent
, July 20, 2010,
www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/psychology-of-sport-how-a-red-dot-swung-it-for-open-champion-2030349.html
.
14
“The mind is deliberately kept at the level of
bare attention
…”
See Bikkhu Bodhi, “Right Mindfulness (Samma Sati),” chapter 6 in
The Noble Eightfold Path: The Way to the End of Suffering
(Onalaska, WA: BPS Pariyatti Publishing, 2000).
15
According to the Mahasatipatthana Sutta …
See
Mahasatipatthana Sutta: The Great Discourse on the Establishing of Awareness
(Onalaska, WA: Vipassana Research Publications, 1996).
16
“The first component [of mindfulness] involves the self-regulation of attention …”
See Scott R. Bishop, Mark Lau, Shauna Shapiro, Linda Carlson, Nicole D. Anderson, James Carmody, Zindel V. Segal, et al., “Mindfulness: A Proposed Operational Definition,”
Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice
11, no. 3 (2004): 230–41, doi:10.1093/clipsy.bph077.
17
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities …”
See Shunryu Suzuki,
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Integrated Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
, Trudy Dixon and Richard Baker, eds. (New York and Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1970).
18
Psychopaths, it appears, far from being callous and unemotional …
Mehmet Mahmut and Louise Cridland, “Exploring the Relationship Between Psychopathy and Helping Behaviors,” poster presented at the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy Conference, Montreal, Canada, May 2011.
19
“It is pleasure that lurks in the practice of every one of your virtues …”
See W. Somerset Maugham,
Of Human Bondage
(London: George H. Doran and Company, 1915).
20
As a case in point, Diana Falkenbach and Maria Tsoukalas …
Falkenbach and Tsoukalas, “Can Adaptive Psychopathic Traits Be Observed in Hero Populations?” Poster presented at the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy Conference. Montreal, Canada, May 2011.
21
Philip Zimbardo, founder of the Heroic Imagination Project …
To find out more about the Heroic Imagination Project, visit its website at
http://heroicimagination.org/
.
22
In 1971, in an experiment which has long since been inaugurated …
Philip G. Zimbardo, “The Power and Pathology of Imprisonment,” Hearings before Subcommittee No. 3 of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Ninety-Second Congress, First Session on Corrections, Part II, Prisons,
Prison Reform and Prisoner’s Rights: California,
Congressional Record
, Serial No. 15, October 25, 1971. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1971,
www.prisonexp.org/pdf/congress.pdf
.
23
Rationalizations included …
See Irving L. Janis,
Groupthink: A Psychological Study of Policy Decisions and Fiascoes
, 2nd ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982).
24
Such a position would better align itself …
See Timothy A. Judge, Beth A. Livingston, and Charlice Hurst, “Do Nice Guys—and Gals—Really Finish Last? The Joint Effects of Sex and Agreeableness on Income,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
102, no. 2 (2012): 390–407, doi:10.1037/a0026021.
25
Studies have revealed that when psychopaths are shown distressing images …
See Uma Vaidyanathan, Jason R. Hall, Christopher J. Patrick, and Edward M. Bernat, “Clarifying the Role of Defensive Reactivity Deficits in Psychopathy and Antisocial Personality Using Startle Reflex Methodology,”
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
120, no. 1 (2011): 253–58, doi:10.1037/a0021224.
26
But neither of those two scenarios fitted this guy’s profile …
For those interested in finding out more about the science of criminal profiling, see Brent Turvey,
Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis
(San Diego: Academic Press, 1999); David V. Canter and Laurence J. Alison, eds.,
Criminal Detection and the Psychology of Crime
(Brookfield, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 1997).
27
“But
for another category of serial killer, those we call sadistic serial killers …
” See Andreas Mokros, Michael Osterheider, Stephen J. Hucker, and Joachim Nitschke, “Psychopathy and Sexual Sadism,”
Law and Human Behavior
35, no. 3 (2011): 188–99.
The Kelleher Typology for male serial killers differentiates such individuals into four discrete categories: Visionaries, Missionaries, Hedonists, and Power Seekers. Visionaries respond to psychic messages, divine communication, and/or influential alter egos commanding them to kill. Missionaries feel it incumbent upon themselves to “clean up” society, usually preying upon prostitutes or other selectively designated minority targets such as homosexuals, or particular ethnic or religious groups. Hedonists—the most common type of male serial killer—are predominantly pleasure-oriented, often getting a buzz from killing. They can be further subdivided into three distinct types: lust killers (who kill for sexual gratification), thrill killers (who kill purely for the pleasure of hunting and slaying their prey), and comfort killers (who kill for material gain). Finally, Power Seekers kill to exert control over their victims. Many such killers sexually abuse their victims, but differ from lust killers in that rape is used as a means of domination, as opposed to sexual gratification.
The Kelleher Typology for female serial killers comprises five different types: Black Widows, Angels of Death, Sexual Predators, Revenge Killers, and
Profit Killers. Black Widows kill family members, friends, and anyone with whom they have forged a close personal relationship, the primary aim being attention and sympathy. Angels of Death work in hospitals and nursing homes and are exhilarated by their own power over life and death, often bringing victims to the brink of death and then miraculously “curing” them. This type of killer is usually diagnosed with Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.
The motives of Sexual Predators, Revenge Killers, and Profit Killers, respectively, are fairly self-evident—though it should be noted that Sexual Predators are extremely rare (with Aileen Wuornos arguably being pretty much the only example of a female serial killer fitting this description). In contrast, Profit Killers constitute the most common type of female serial killer, with almost three-quarters of such women falling into this category.
For those who wish to find out more about serial killers, of both the male and female variety, see Michael D. Kelleher and C.L. Kelleher,
Murder Most Rare: The Female Serial Killer
(Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998); and Michael Newton,
The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers
, 2nd ed. (New York: Checkmark Books, 2006).