What is a Psychopath? Have you ever heard of a psychopath? ST has researched Psychopaths..........................................................................Ed.
What do the movies Black house, The Silence of The Lambs, Misery, and Goodfellas have in common? Thee answer is “psychopaths”. These days many books are published about psychopaths. Since Yoo Young-chul was diagnosed as a psychopath, this problem has become a hot issue in Korea. What is a psychopath?
The origin of the word : Psychiatrist, Phillippe Pinel first wrote a psychopathic symptoms in the 19th century. Currently a psychopath is considered to be a person who doesn’t sympathize with other people’s pain and sorrow. A psychopath is diagnosed by using PCL-R (Psychopathy Checklist-Revised), a standardized test for assessing psychopathy.
Characteristics of psychopaths: 1. They don’t feel any sympathy for the pain of others at all. It is not that they pretend not to feel sympathy. They really don’t. They cannot distinguish a smiling picture from a crying picture. Furthermore, they have no idea about the differences between the following word pairs: ‘death and sorrow’, ‘tree and paper’. 2. Psychopaths tend to be violent. They are genetically designed not to feel guilty or regretful at all. They don’t have any sympathy for the sadness of others, making their behavior more violent. 3. They speak well, but they don’t have in-depth knowledge about the subjects they are talking about. They do not make any sense. 4. They are very proud of themselves. They consider themselves to be the center of the world. In addition, they justify their cruel actions by saying that they are victims in society. Psychopaths are always prepared
to make others scapegoats for their own authority and money.
Interview with a psychopath
1. A man who threw a baby against the wall because the baby dirtied his diaper, explained the process with smile on face.
2. ”Do you regret your crime?” Hey, think about it. He is now taking a rest on a bed in the hospital. However, I am now confined. I did hurt him. However, if I had determined to kill him, I would have cut his throat. He should give thanks to me. I gave him a rest.
3. “When you get angry, can’t you control your emotion?” No. I just decide how severly to hurt him.
Are they crazy? No, they are neither mentally challenged nor insane. It’ not easy to understand psychopathy. It is a sort of personal pathology which occurs in a combination of personality traits and surrounding social environment. The symptoms of psychopathy appear in various forms and the nature of their crimes varies greatly among individuals. From time to time, they seem to regret about their behaviour. But it just a ploy to relieve their guilt.
What is the cause of psychopathy and treatment: Unfortunately, the original causes of psychopathy have not yet been discovered. However, according to Robert D. Hare, an authority on criminal psychology, psychopathy is innate but the symptoms are influenced by the environment. Because psychopathy is innate, there is no remedy for the disease and it’s also very hard to improve. That’s why the psychological treatment therapies of psychopathy should be different from those of general diseases. The psychotherapy used for psychopaths si different from that used for other patients. Regular psychotherapy appeals to the person’s conscience, but therapy for psychopaths teaches that they can’t get what they want by acting anti-socially. Likewise therapy teaches them other ways to satisfy their desire.
| The Psychopath Test This test was created by J. Hopkins. ( You should choose your answer quickly based on your first instinct. ) Imagine you stand in front of a temple surrounded by darkness and deep forest. Around the temple, there are a mountain and a field. You are just looking at the temple. All of a sudden, something passes by you. What is it? 1. Man or woman (the opposite sex) 2. fallen leaves 3. ghost 4. wild animal (ex. rabbit, fox, wolf...) 5. dog |
Three of the answers are considered to be normal but two of the answers are thought to be abnormal.
Ninety seven percent of the people who participated in this test selected normal answers.
Normal answer ; fallen leaves, wild animal, ghost
Abnormal answer ; the opposite sex, dog
J. Hopkins explained that those who chose the opposite sex are not humans. They could see a human because they don’t have a human’s soul. Those who chose a dog are a little crazy. We cannot say they have a human’s soul.
Considering that statistically, one per every 100 people is a psychopath. Also, so far there is no way of completely curing this disease. Psychotherapy for psychopaths is largely ineffective, and many psychiatrists prefer to lock psychopaths up rather than treat them. We need to quickly find a way to prevent psychopaths’ crimes to create a safer society.
