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Originally Posted by gidget529  Don't they say sociopaths are one of the hardest illnesses to treat bc they don't respond to therapy? (I think I remember something from my abnormal psych class...  maybe.) I thought they said they only respond to a monetary reward system bc there always has to be something in it for them. Am I remembering that right? |
Yes, and there's some evidence to suggest that their brains are difference. I can't remember all the details but there is a little something next to the pineal gland in the brain that they think has to do with the conscience. They've studied normal brains and people like Ted Bundy who would be considered a psychopath or sociopath. Not all psychopaths are kind enough to donate their brains to science, so there is not a lot of data, but there was a statistically significant difference in the psychopath’s brain and the normal brain. I don’t really know how you could teach a child not to ever feel guilt, even with lousy parenting. An extremely abused child may not have any feelings toward others, but most of the time psychopath’s childhoods aren’t really different than the norm. So I’m leaning towards “born that way”, but I still think they should be punished and controlled when caught. They can learn to behave, not because it’s better, but because they have more freedom. The sad thing about this is it's very hard to diagnose, and you can't do it before a child is 18 because so much of the psychopaths behavior is within the normal range of a teenager.