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Wisdom from Psychopaths?

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Wisdom from Psychopaths?

#31

Post by Millennium »

hayksaakian wrote: post #4
Xcelerate wrote: post #2

I find psychopaths incredibly interesting. Probably because I recognize that I am about the furthest thing from one. I incessantly worry about the future and the consequences of what I'm currently doing. I always wonder what people are thinking, what they are thinking about others, and what they are thinking about me. It takes me 50 minutes to type a short email because I'm constantly playing out the scenarios of how…

is there a term for the opposite of psychopaths? why is intense concern for what others think of you and how you react considered normal?

I think the article tried to put neuroticism on the other end of the spectrum from psychopathy.

Re: Wisdom from Psychopaths?

#33

Post by RyanMcGreal »

dkarl wrote: post #10

I was expecting to read an article about understanding human nature without morality and respect clouding your judgment. Instead I read that psychopaths are clever at thinking up nefarious schemes to get what they want. I don't buy it as "wisdom." Anyone can think of evil ways to get what they want, as long as the situation is hypothetical. Just yesterday I posted a comment describing how if I ran a dating site I wou…

The other part of the article is the psychopaths' "relative indifference to setbacks" and their fearlessness.

> “The thing about fear, or the way I understand fear, I suppose—because, to be honest, I don't think I've ever really felt it—is that most of the time it's completely unwarranted anyway. What is it they say? Ninety-nine percent of the things people worry about never happen. So what's the point?

> “I think the problem is that people spend so much time worrying about what might happen, what might go wrong, that they completely lose sight of the present. They completely overlook the fact that, actually, right now, everything's perfectly fine.

> “So the trick, whenever possible, I propose, is to stop your brain from running on ahead of you.”

Re: Wisdom from Psychopaths?

#34

Post by theorique »

jos3000 wrote: post #30
nnq wrote: post #22

How would the psychopath's lack of empathy differ from the autistic / asperger's lack of emapthy ? It reminded me of the axis of hypo-mentalist hyper-mentalism from here http://edge.org/conversation/the-imprinted-brain-theory (second figure, ignoring the genetics parts for this discussion) ...but I don't know where would autism and psychopathy would relate and differ. They are certainly very very different things, bu…

This is a very naive generalisation, but, as far as I understand, psychopaths can be very good at assessing other people's mental state, but do not /feel/ it like most people do. People on the autistic spectrum find it very difficult to recognise what other people are feeling.

That's a good and correct way of explaining it in a few words. Of course, there is nuance, but it gets the point across.

Psychopaths observe but don't feel or care.

Autistics are handicapped in their observations, although they may feel and/or care.

Re: Wisdom from Psychopaths?

#35

Post by theorique »

dkarl wrote: post #10

I was expecting to read an article about understanding human nature without morality and respect clouding your judgment. Instead I read that psychopaths are clever at thinking up nefarious schemes to get what they want. I don't buy it as "wisdom." Anyone can think of evil ways to get what they want, as long as the situation is hypothetical. Just yesterday I posted a comment describing how if I ran a dating site I wou…

half the internet seems to advocate being a psychopath as the best way to get laid

wat?

Re: Wisdom from Psychopaths?

#36

Post by theorique »

Xcelerate wrote: post #2

I find psychopaths incredibly interesting. Probably because I recognize that I am about the furthest thing from one. I incessantly worry about the future and the consequences of what I'm currently doing. I always wonder what people are thinking, what they are thinking about others, and what they are thinking about me. It takes me 50 minutes to type a short email because I'm constantly playing out the scenarios of how…

The author of the book (and OP article) writes about his experience with transcranial magnetic induction that is able to turn him into a temporary psychopath by effectively disabling the center of the brain associated with empathy. (The anecdote is in the full text of The Wisdom of Psychopaths - I don't think I've seen it online.)

Re: Wisdom from Psychopaths?

#37

Post by bengillies »

dmor wrote: post #11
dkarl wrote: post #10

I was expecting to read an article about understanding human nature without morality and respect clouding your judgment. Instead I read that psychopaths are clever at thinking up nefarious schemes to get what they want. I don't buy it as "wisdom." Anyone can think of evil ways to get what they want, as long as the situation is hypothetical. Just yesterday I posted a comment describing how if I ran a dating site I wou…

This was the problem I had with the article as well. It fails to point out, in conclusion, that these people are committed for life because they are extremely dangerous - and not just in theory, but because they have taken actions to achieve goals that have had damaging and terrifying outcomes in the real world. Despite being 5 pages long, the article feels unfinished - maybe that is the author's idea of a teaser for…

Well it states what Broadmoor is and says that it contains some of the most dangerous people in the country (and mentions the casual references to physical violence a couple of times). Does that not adequately describe how dangerous these people can be? It seemed fairly obvious to me at least.

It also points out that there's such a thing as going too far and that merely learning/using some of the techniques that psychopaths tend to exhibit (in a mild form) is potentially useful. It doesn't seem (to me at least) that he's directly advocating pretending to be a council inspector/whatever to kick people out of their home.

Re: Wisdom from Psychopaths?

#38

Post by gadders »

chmike wrote: post #27

This raise the question if the best entrepreneurs should be psychopaths. Investors seam to favor the psychopath personality characteristics (taking risks, focus, bent rules to reach goal = hack the system, etc.). It also seam that people with moderated psychopathy might be socially and professionally advantaged and might thus, in the long term, become the dominant humans and the future product or our on going evoluti…

New YCombinator Question: Tell us about a time you have tortured a pet/started a fire?

:-)

Re: Wisdom from Psychopaths?

#39

Post by gadders »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #33
dkarl wrote: post #10

I was expecting to read an article about understanding human nature without morality and respect clouding your judgment. Instead I read that psychopaths are clever at thinking up nefarious schemes to get what they want. I don't buy it as "wisdom." Anyone can think of evil ways to get what they want, as long as the situation is hypothetical. Just yesterday I posted a comment describing how if I ran a dating site I wou…

The other part of the article is the psychopaths' "relative indifference to setbacks" and their fearlessness. > “The thing about fear, or the way I understand fear, I suppose—because, to be honest, I don't think I've ever really felt it—is that most of the time it's completely unwarranted anyway. What is it they say? Ninety-nine percent of the things people worry about never happen. So what's the point? > “I think th…

They sound almost like Stoics - minimising fear of unknowns, living in the moment, muted emotional responses to setbacks.

Re: Wisdom from Psychopaths?

#40

Post by theorique »

barry-cotter wrote: post #3

The following review article by gwern gives a much better overview of psychopathy. http://lesswrong.com/lw/fzy/notes_on_psychopathy/ If the Scientific American article is representative of the book the world would probably have been better off had it never been written. For psychopaths other people are means, not ends. If wrecking your life will get them a more pleasant afternoon with no/small chance of danger to the…

You relate emotionally more like a dog than like a psychopath.

I don't think I understand what you mean here. What do you mean by this?

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