I read an article 4-5 years ago by someone who was peddling a social science concept called guilt challenge. Apparently, those afflicted are not able to counter with conscience, when it comes to filtering out intermittent bizarre thoughts shared by many if not most people. Seemingly, this guilt challenge is imprinted during that critical values development phase, that normally occurs between the ages of 8-12 years.

 

OK, here's a guy who advertised on Craiglist that he wanted to have sex with somebody and then kill her. I guess he was hoping for a response from someone who was suicidal. What he got was a response from the police.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/loca...igslist28m.html

 

I don't suppose you have a link do you? I'm sure it would be an interesting read. I've always been of the opinion that a lot of these folks either missed or got the wrong reinforcement somewhere in the developmental stage.

At least I hope so. If it's some sort of survival mutation then God help us.

 

Read the mindhunter.
it's about 10 -15 years old now but was written by the guy who started teh behavioral sciences dept at the FBI.
he personally interviewed over a 1,000 serial killers.

It's a real eye opener.
most times the behavior starts at a very early age.
typically they have histories of killing animals, cats dogs, etc.
at later ages they progress to people for more challenge.
And usually although sex may be involved it is not about the h sex but the dominance.

unfortunately it appears once they are "broken", no one seems to know how to put them back together.

 

^^ That's what I've read in several books and articles. Apparently these people are totally different from the norm in that they do not experience "thrills" the same way normal people experience them. They have a very high tolerance for loud noises (noises that would elicit a fright response in a normal person), their bp is generally a little lower than normal people and it requires more and more excitation to keep them happy. They are generally quite bored much of the time and generally seek out jobs that involve gore since that does not bother them in the least. (Craigslist dude was in the medical field).

 

they also tend to be very smart, well above average intelligence.
many derive pleasure out of the press their crimes receive, many even visit the crime scene after and volunteer to help with the search for the victim to watch the activity and derived attention.

 

All right. You people are starting to scare me now. The .38 goes under the pillow tonight.

 

hmmmm... ^ ^ ....sounds like S

 

Sounds like what you are talking about is basically your garden variety antisocial personality disorder. There is no reliable evidence I have ever seen that such people have been "broken" when they were young, in the sense that somehow their environment has damaged them or they failed to learn something or they developed improperly. (There are some old studies that claim they didn't get enough maternal attention when they were young, but back then that was the standard answer for everything.)

As far as I have ever seen, being a psychopath is just something you are born with. And it's not something people can be cured of, though many psychopaths learn to simulate normal behavior well enough to get by.

 

Raymo: Sorry I don't recall. Though, it's likely to have been either Time or Newsweek. Google offered no help.

I liked your blurp a lot, Val, it nails it pretty good.

You're probably right, Mike. However, this country seems to have an extraordinary abundance of these psychopaths/sociopaths. Either we are doing something wrong rearing children/young adults in this country, or our society is more enabling, or people in other countries are better able to supress such guilt challenging behavior. Genetics doesn't seem to offer an answer. It's certainly more than serial criminal behavior.