Eric Eckardt was dragged into a shameful crime: figure skater Tony Harding Eckardt's bodyguard staged a bandit attack on Nancy Carrigan, Harding's main rival in the fight for gold medal in women's figure skating Olympic Games 1994. During this attack, the Karrigan suffered a broken knee, making it impossible to train for several crucial months. But when Eckardt saw Karrigan sobbing on TV, he was suddenly seized with remorse, and he sought out a friend to reveal his secret to him; this set off a series of events leading to the arrest of the attackers. Such is the power of empathy.

However, it is, as a rule, sorely lacking for those who commit the lowest crimes. Rapists, child molesters, and many perpetrators of domestic violence have a common psychological defect: they are not capable of empathy. This inability to feel the pain and suffering of their victims allows them to tell themselves tall tales that inspire them to commit crime. Rapists use such fabrications: “Yes, women really want to be raped” or “If she resists, she just pretends to be touchy”; molesters lie to themselves like "I'm not hurting the baby, I'm just showing love" or "It's just a different kind of love." Parents who are quick to physical violence have this explanation ready: "It's just to get obedience." All these variants of self-justification are recorded from the words of people who were treated in connection with similar problems. They said this to themselves as they brutalized their victims or prepared for such treatment.

The complete "erasure" of empathy at the time when these people inflict damage on victims is almost always part of some kind of emotional cycle that stimulates their atrocities. Let's follow the sequence of emotional processes that typically leads to a sexual crime, such as attempted child molestation. This cycle begins with the molester feeling frustrated: irritated, depressed, alone. Perhaps these moods are caused, say, by the fact that he saw happy couples on TV, and then felt depressed from his loneliness. Next, the molester seeks solace in a favorite fantasy, usually on the theme of tender friendship with a child; this fantasy becomes sexually charged and ends in masturbation. Later, the molester experiences temporary relief from discouragement, but this relief does not last very long; and depression and loneliness return again and cover him with even greater force. The molester begins to consider acting out the fantasy, making up excuses for himself such as "I won't do any real harm if the child doesn't get physically hurt" or "If the little girl really didn't want to have sex with me, she could stop it" .

At this point, the molester looks at the child through the lens of a twisted fantasy, and not at all with compassion for what a living child would experience in a similar situation. Everything that follows - from the inception of a plan to take the child to a place where they will be alone, to careful rehearsal of what will happen, and then the implementation of the plan - is characterized by emotional detachment. All this is done as if the child involved in it has no feelings of its own; instead, the molester projects onto her the willingness to interact that the child reveals from his fantasy. Her feelings - a change in mood, fear, disgust - are simply not noticed. And if they made an impression, it would “spoil” everything for the molester.

The complete lack of compassion for their victims is one of the main problems, the solution of which served as the goal of the development of new methods of treatment for child molesters and similar criminals. In one of the most promising therapeutic programs, criminals are given heartbreaking narratives of crimes similar to their own, recorded from the words of the victim. In addition, they are shown videos of victims tearfully describing what it means to be abused. Then the perpetrators described the crime they had committed from the position of the victim, imagining what the victim of the attack felt at that time. They then read their notes to a group of doctors and tried to answer questions about the attack from the victim's point of view. In conclusion, the offender is placed in a situation that imitates a real crime, in which he already acts as a victim.

William Peters, the Vermont State Penitentiary psychologist who developed the promising therapy of putting oneself in another's shoes, told me: imagination, and thereby increases the motivation of people to fight their own perverted sexual urges. Sex offenders treated in prison under this program re-offended after release only half the time compared to those who did not receive such treatment. Conclusion: without developing an initial empathy-stimulated motivation, no treatment will give a positive result.

While there is still little hope of instilling a sense of empathy in offenders like child molesters, there is little hope left for another type of offender, the psychopath (in recent times more commonly referred to as a sociopath according to a psychiatric diagnosis). Psychopaths are notorious for both their ability to win over and their complete lack of remorse, even for acts committed with extreme cruelty. Psychopathy, that is, the inability to feel empathy, or compassion, or even the slightest remorse, is one of the most puzzling emotional disorders. The essence of the coldness of the psychopath seems to lie in the inability to create anything more than extremely limited emotional bonds. The most brutal criminals, such as sadistic serial killers who enjoy the agony of their victims, are the epitome of psychopathy.

In addition, psychopaths are smart liars, ready to say anything to get what they want; with the same cynicism they manipulate the emotions of their victims. Consider the behavior of Faro, a seventeen-year-old Los Angeles gang member who mutilated a mother and child by shooting from a passing car, and described it with pride rather than remorse. When Faro was driving around in a car with Leon Bing, who was writing a book about the Los Angeles Creeps (Wimps) and Bloods (Black Brothers), he wanted to show off, and he told Bing that he was “going to scare a psycho” two types in the nearest car. Here is how Bing recounted this exchange of views:

The driver, sensing that someone was looking at him, turned around and looked at my car. He met Faro's gaze and bulged his eyes for a moment, and then abruptly looked away, looking down and staring off to the side. It was impossible to be mistaken in what I saw in his eyes: it was fear.

Faro gave Bing a look that he shot at a nearby car.

He stared straight at me, and everything about his face moved and changed, like some kind of fast motion effect in a movie. It turned into a face from a nightmare, and it was a terrible sight. It let you know that if you stared back at him, if you challenged him, then stock up on the ability to stand firmly on your feet. His look says that he does not care about everything, including your life and his own.

Of course, for such complex behavior as crime, there are many plausible explanations that do not call for biology to help. Crime, for example, can be driven by some perverse kind of emotional skill—intimidating other people—that has survival value in areas where violence reigns; in such cases, too much empathy can only make matters worse. Indeed, the beneficial lack of empathy turns into a "dignity" for many roles in life - from the "bad cop" interrogating to the corporate raider. Men who have been executioners in states of terror, for example, describe how they learned to disassociate themselves from the feelings of the victims in order to do their “work.” There are many ways to fake the circumstances.

This lack of empathy can manifest itself in more sinister ways, one of which was accidentally discovered in the course of research into the most abusive wife beaters. This study revealed a psychological anomaly in many of the most violent husbands who regularly beat their wives or threaten them with knives or guns, and they do all this in a state of cold calculation, not in a fit of rage. As their anger intensifies, an anomaly manifests itself: the heart rate decreases instead of increasing, as it usually does when anger reaches a frenzy. This means that from a physiological point of view, they become calmer, even if they behave more aggressively and abusively. Their rampage gives the impression of a carefully calculated act of terrorism as a way to keep their wives in subjection, instilling fear in them.

Such cold-bloodedly cruel husbands belong to a distinct population from most other wife-beating men. By the way, they are much more likely to use violence against other people besides their wives, getting into fights in bars and quarreling with employees and family members. And while almost all men who beat their wives in a rage do so impulsively in a fit of rage, out of jealousy or feeling rejected, or out of fear of being abandoned, these calculating fighters attack their wives with their fists, apparently for no reason at all. - and once they rush into battle, none of her actions, even attempts to break out of the house, seem to curb his rampage.

Some researchers who have studied psychopathic criminals believe that the reason for their cold-blooded actions with a complete lack of empathy or sensitivity is often a defect. nervous system.

Important note: if certain types of crimes play a role biological features, such as, for example, a defect in the nervous system, expressed in the absence of empathy, this by no means proves that all criminals have biological defects or there is some biological marker of propensity to crime. This issue has long been the subject of heated debate, and largest number its participants are inclined to believe that there is no special biological marker and, of course, no "criminal gene". And even if in some cases there is a biological basis for lack of empathy, this does not mean at all that everyone who has this basis will show a tendency to criminality, on the contrary, the majority is not threatened. Lack of empathy should be considered as a factor, along with other psychological, economic and social factors that form the propensity to crime.

Two methods have been used to elucidate a possible physiological basis for violent psychopathy, but both involve the involvement of neural pathways leading to the limbic system. In one study, subjects' brainwaves were measured as they tried to decipher a "mess" of words that flashed before their eyes very quickly, within a tenth of a second. Most people respond differently to emotional words such as "murder" than they do to neutral ones such as "chair": they are able to quickly recognize whether an emotional word has flashed at the moment, and their EEG taken in response to emotional words , differs sharply from that obtained in the reaction to neutral words. However, psychopaths did not have any of these reactions: in the electroencephalograms taken from them, no characteristic features reactions to emotional words, and the speed of response to such words was no faster than to neutral ones, and this indicates a break in the circuits between the verbal cortex that recognizes the word and the limbic system that binds feeling to it.

Robert Hear, University psychologist British Columbia who conducted this study, interpreting its results, concluded that psychopaths have a limited understanding of emotional words - a reflection of their more general limitations in the field of emotional reactions. According to Hear, the heartlessness of psychopaths is based in part on a different physiological pattern he discovered in earlier research that also suggests an abnormality in the amygdala and its associated circuits: psychopaths preparing for electroshock treatment do not show any the slightest sign of the fear reaction that is normal for people who know that they will have to experience pain. Based on the fact that the expectation of pain does not cause a wave of anxiety, Hear argues that psychopaths are not at all worried about the future punishment for what they do. And because they don't feel fear themselves, they don't have empathy - or compassion - for the fear and pain of their victims.

Empathy is the ability to experience other people's emotions as vividly as your own. Despite the fact that in psychology the presence of such an ability is considered the norm, some people (empaths) are gifted with it to a greater extent. According to scientists, about 20% of the world's population can be attributed to this category.

The intensity of empathy varies among empaths. It can be expressed both in the usual ability to understand the state of the interlocutor, and in complete immersion in other people's emotions. Some empaths are so sensitive that other people's negative experiences make them physically unwell.

Today we will talk about those signs with which you can determine your ability to empathize.

Source: depositphotos.com

Sensitivity to incongruent behavior

Communicating with each other, people use not only words. The meaning of our speech is emphasized and confirmed by the tone of voice, volume, articulation, facial expressions, gestures and postures (the so-called body language). If a person is insincere, these signals do not correlate well with each other. This behavior is called incongruent.

Due to the peculiarities of perception, an empath extremely accurately, albeit unconsciously, reads such discrepancies and feels any falseness. In the company of a person who behaves incongruently, he experiences distinct discomfort. For people with strong empathy, dealing with liars, braggarts, envious people, or hypocrites can cause a rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, headaches, and feelings of anxiety.

Avoiding the company of negative people

Intolerance to aggression

Empaths do not tolerate any conflict situations. Deprives them peace of mind not only direct aggression of others, but also too noisy behavior, especially if it is dictated by such emotions as indignation, anger or anger.

A person with the ability to empathize is usually calm, friendly and considerate. He always tries to resolve conflicts peacefully and does not accept violence.

Emotional perception of other people's troubles

An empath takes other people's troubles to heart. He equally sharply reacts to the pain of a familiar person, the misfortune seen in a TV report, and the misfortunes of the characters in a feature film. Of course, he understands that these are different things, but all situations of this kind cause him a strong surge of negative emotions.

Discomfort with an excess of emotions

A person with a strong capacity for empathy can hardly tolerate any emotional excesses. He is traumatized not only by someone else's grief, but also by an excess of positive. For example, an empath may feel uncomfortable attending a noisy celebration, as loud noise, bright lights, and an abundance of people having fun quickly tire him.

Painful perception of criticism

Empaths are usually cautious and reserved in dealing with other people and in expressing their own feelings. They are afraid of hurting someone, creating a conflict or simply incomprehensible situation for others. In response to their own delicacy, they expect similar behavior from other people. Therefore, the tendency to empathy is often combined with excessive sensitivity to criticism: an empath is offended by any negative assessment, even if it is mildly expressed.

Empathy can be measured. Psychologists do this with the help of questionnaires, the most famous of which (“Empathy Level”) was developed by Sally Wheelwright and Simon Baron-Cohen in 2004.

It may seem that high level empathy is "uncomfortable" and can complicate a person's life. Fortunately, this is not the case. Most empaths eventually become accustomed to a particular perception of the world and develop a style of behavior that helps them maintain physical and mental health. Constantly feeling someone else's pain as your own, of course, is not very pleasant, but this is redeemed by the ability to understand other people, the ability to listen to them and provide the necessary assistance. A person with such talent usually enjoys universal respect. Those around him love and appreciate, although they do not always know how to protect him from unnecessary stress.

Empathy is very important for people who work as doctors, psychologists, teachers, social workers. It is this quality that creates the basis of emotional uplift, without which no creative activity is possible. A successful ad creator, insurance agent, or sales manager must be an empath. We can say that in a world based on close interaction between people, the ability to empathize has a positive effect on the social realization of a person.

Video from YouTube on the topic of the article:

PSYCHOPATHY, PROBLEMS OF DIAGNOSIS AND DETECTION

Exist simple tests and methods for detecting psychopathy, by which, even a non-specialist, can diagnose psychopathic deviations in oneself or another person. BUT, there is a huge problem in detecting psychopathy, even by specialists, for 4 reasons:

1. The manifestation of psychopathy in behavior
Psychopathy manifests itself ONLY in the behavior of the individual - it is impossible to identify it on the basis of analyzes and other obvious and unambiguous factors of the disease. And to judge that this or that behavior of a person, namely, a factor of psychopathic deviations, is faster subjective than objective.
For example, a person, having “became crazy” that he is being tested, in fact, is suspected of such a “bad” disease as psychopathy, can:
- begin to behave, under the influence of emotions, like a psychopath;
- pretend to be an adequate person, even “more than”, he knows perfectly well “how to behave normally”;
- behave like a psychopath, "for evil"; etc.

2. Long-term qualified supervision is needed
It is possible to determine psychopathy not only on the basis of knowledge of its signs and manifestations. BUT, ONLY after a long and all sorts of things, including close and personal communication, with a psychopath. In other words, a psychopath may not show his psychopathy for years in dealing with people at work, on the street, with friends - to hide it. BUT, only somewhere, sometime, in essential, extreme or, conversely, in habitually ordinary moments of relationships with other people, psychopathy can and should manifest itself.
For example, it appears most often in family relationships- with wives, husbands, children, in relations with parents, relatives. With close friends, "from whom there is nothing to hide." Or when a person finds himself in a situation where he must show his humanity. But a psychopath cannot do this, because humanity, just, is absent from him. For, by and large, in any case, in my opinion: it is the lack of empathy - the inability to sympathize, empathize with another person, that underlies the essence of psychopathy and the psychopathic behavior of a psychopath. For where there is no SINCERE, and not portrayed human empathy, there is no understanding, no pity, no help. No support in relationships with another person - there is no human relationship with him.

3. Not recognizing one's own psychopathy (Psychopathy can take you far)
Identify and recognize your own psychopathy. Or, even, the psychopathy of another person, it is very difficult, for a number of subjective mental, social and purely human aspects.
For example:
- It is difficult, or rather, impossible, to recognize one's own psychopathy, even if a person, in words, seems to agree with such a diagnosis. This is connected with the self-esteem of the individual, and with the protection and assertion of one's "I". And with a complex about oneself, and about the assessment of others and the environment. In general, in order to recognize oneself as a psychopath, a person needs to reconsider his worldview with its center in the form of self-awareness - his "I". Such reformatting of the personality can be practiced in the form of special programs of mass or private zombification of people. BUT, for now, such programs are just being launched to "produce" people with psychopathic deviations, and not to cure them of them.
- It is very difficult, paradoxical as it may seem at first glance, to recognize psychopathy in close people: husbands, wives, friends, and so on. For recognizing them as psychopaths does not only mean that the person made a mistake by "associating" with a psychopath. But, often, it means the collapse of life's hopes and aspirations of a person.
- A big role in determining psychopathy or its absence is also played by the banal and general tendency of people to subjectivism in their judgments and ideas. For example, most people know and seem to understand that it is impossible to re-educate an adult. However, a significant number of wives and husbands, relatives, and even just friends. Having found out and understood that they are dealing with psychopaths, in the form of partners in life, with torment and despair, they undertake to remake them and make them normal.

4. Psychopathic behavior is common to many people (The psychopath never considers himself as such)
Psychopathy, as mental deviations in the worldview, in the minds and self-awareness of people, is so widespread, especially in socio-economically unstable countries, that admitting this is tantamount to a complete collapse of society. For it turns out that psychopaths are "all around and everywhere."

PSYCHOPATHY, PROBLEMS OF CAUSE DETERMINATION

Due to the circumstances listed above, it is quite difficult to understand the causes of human psychopathy.

Most specialists and laymen quite rightly indicate one of the causes of psychopathy: heredity. Indeed, if we consider that psychopathy is based on some defects in the existence and development of the human nervous system. It is logical to assume that these defects can be inherited.

Such observations are not without foundation: the cause of psychopathy can be various traumas or traumatic factors that a person encounters, literally from his conception. For example, an established fact: prenatal, birth and postnatal health problems of a child, as a rule, affect the adequacy of the functioning of his nervous system for the rest of his life.

They can also affect the state of the psyche, and cause, in the future, pathologies in its work, various extreme events in a person's life. Even, only indirectly related to his behavior in this event. For example, pictures of the death of people, violence against them, and the like.

In other words, the belief that psychopathy exists and develops on the basis of congenital and acquired pathologies in the human nervous system itself seems correct and logical.

Psychopathy and upbringing (Psychopathy can seem innocent, sweet)

BUT, as shown by some studies of specialist scientists, and numerous, though disparate life observations of people, first of all, at least somehow connected with pedagogy and the upbringing of young people:

The main cause of psychopathy is the upbringing of a person as a psychopath.

If we, by education, understand a certain socialization of a child from birth, until the age of 14-18, when a person becomes an adult. Namely, the upbringing of a person - teaching him not only to live THIS way, but also to see the world and himself in it THIS way, forms THAT aphid ANOTHER personality. Including, socially adapted, adequate in relation to people and themselves among them. Or a psychopathic personality, which is a problem both in people's relationships with themselves and for themselves.
In other words, though, some people are born with pathologies of the nervous system, or acquire them in the course of their lives. But, for the most part and in the main, "a weak nervous system" is only the foundation, the foundation of psychopathy. And psychopathy is born and develops in the process of socialization of a person - the formation of his personality. Even simpler: psychopaths are not born, but become-brought up, having the prerequisites for this, in the form of pathologies or diseases of the nervous system.

LACK OF EMPATHY IS A SIGN OF PSYCHOPATHY AND THE MAIN PROPERTIES OF PSYCHOPATIC PERSONALITY

If we take as the cause and the main symptom of psychopathy, such a personality quality as a lack of empathy - in fact, the inability to treat another person as one's own kind, we will see the following:

1. It is the impossibility of a person to build his feelings, thoughts and behavior, based on the attitude towards other people, as to his own kind, and leads to psychopathy. For, by this very thing, it becomes impossible to build human, normal relations with people. It is impossible to build a relationship with a person without empathy, without sympathy. So, not understanding and not appreciating him, first of all, as a person - as a being like himself. Moreover, such an attitude towards other people deforms the very personality of a person, and so much so that on the basis of this, mental pathologies begin to develop - psychopathy. For, normally, empathy is inherent even in higher animals. And for a person it is the basis of his essence, both as a biological being, and as a person and his personality.

What replaces empathy (Psychopathy is hidden under the mask of normality)

2. The lack of empathy in the personality structure is easily replaced by its antagonists: contempt for a person, ruthlessness, hatred, anger, and the like. What further destroys the personality of the psychopath, and, accordingly, his nervous system. Therefore, it is easy to understand the feelings, thoughts, and behavior of a psychopath in relation to other people, in general, and individual ones, in particular.

3. The lack of empathy in a person, and, accordingly, his psychopathy, can, as I wrote above, be considered and defined only in close and intimate relationships with a psychopath. For, he, like all people, undergoes socialization - the ability to live and survive among people. That is, sometimes, even torn apart by his psychopathic essence, a person is FORCED and MAY not show his psychopathy. A psychopathic personality may, intentionally or, believing that “everyone does it,” not manifest himself as such while he is within the framework of generally accepted social existence. That is, psychopathy may not manifest itself not only in formal relationships with people, for example at work, but even in personal relationships. Until such time as the psychopath seems or sees that his personality, which is by no means considered abnormal by him, can be manifested openly - without hiding his essential properties.

LACK OF EMPATHY IS THE MAIN FACTOR FOR THE FORMATION OF PERSONAL PSYCHOPATHY

If we take the lack of empathy as the main property of a person's psychopathy, then the secondary properties and manifestations of a psychopathic personality are easily explained.

For example, such manifestations of psychopathy due to lack of empathy:

1. The ability to speak and be, outwardly, a charming person, as a need and desire to hide from people their negative attitude towards them and a sense of their superiority.
2. Or, on the contrary, gloom, lack of sociability, isolation, with psychopathy - a direct manifestation of a lack of empathy.
3. Hypertrophied ego, a sense of one's importance and superiority over others - mediated phenomena of the lack of empathy, through the "protrusion" of one's "I", considering it unique and unique.
4. Lack of empathy, on the one hand, gives rise to the boredom of a psychopath - he is bored with people. And, on the other hand, he has bouts of activity when he either wants to amuse himself, secretly or openly mocking others, or when he wants to "teach them life, unreasonable."
5. Psychopathy is a constant deceit. For a psychopath needs to hide his psychopathic essence - the lack of empathy in himself, or justify it in his own and other people's eyes.
6. Lack of empathy forces people to deceive, ruthlessly manipulating them in order to assert themselves and obtain their own benefits.
7. The psychopath is not "tormented by conscience" - a feeling of remorse and guilt. For he believes that he does not do anything special, causing pain and suffering to other people. For, “and who are they!?”.

Manifestations of lack of empathy (Psychopathy can be group)

Age development of psychopathy and its other manifestations

12. Psychopathy develops during the period of personality formation - from about 2-3 years to 14-20 years. For empathy or its absence is an essential, structure-forming, basic element of the human personality system.
13. Lack of empathy easily explains such signs of psychopathy as a refusal to take responsibility for the lives and well-being of other people. As well as an irresponsible attitude towards one's own life. Psychopaths, always, easily find guilty and guilty for their failures in their lives and for their own ugliness. In problems in relations with them, the reverse side is always to blame.
14. The lack of empathy explains many other overt and hidden properties, signs and manifestations of psychopathy. For example: impulsiveness or inhibition of thinking and behavior. Impulsively, when your own interests overshadow everything else. And it is inhibited when the interests of other people cannot be so easily ignored.
Or: the lack of long-term plans for relationships with another person, because, "why think about him?".
Or: propensity to various violations morality and law, for, "what do I care about people, and their rules and laws?".

PSYCHOPATHY - NEGATIVE SOCIALIZATION - INFLUENCE OF THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT
(Psychopathy comes from childhood)

I don’t know who this is news to, but messages like: Children raised outside the family are more prone to psychopathy periodically appear in our news sources. As a rule, as the achievements of Western sociology, psychology and psychiatry. Incorrect socialization of a child - incorrect formation and, literally, terrible conditions for the formation of a personality, can, and most often lead to a person's psychopathy. Is this news to anyone?

Psychopathy has obvious causes in the social disadvantage of the child's life and his improper upbringing. Because ONLY a child with a VERY strong and stable nervous system is able to withstand such pressure on her and on her fragile personality. And not become a psychopath - so that he does not develop psychopathy.

For example, when:

1. Psychopathy and family education
Psychopathy is likely when a child grows up and is brought up outside the family, in incomplete family or in a dysfunctional family. For, the conditions of upbringing in orphanages are the formation of a personality in a human flock and according to the laws of the flock. When a child has no privacy, no personal space and, as a rule, terrible living conditions, how can he develop empathy? If we add here feelings of deprivation, humiliation, inferiority, and other things that live firmly in the minds of children from orphanages, their psychopathy is guaranteed. It’s not even worth talking about the relationship of “good aunts and uncles” who, with rare exceptions, “teach how to live” the poor children of orphanages and, literally, manage their lives.

2. Family trouble and the development of psychopathy
Psychopathy is likely when the conditions of life and personality formation are a little better than in an orphanage, in incomplete, dysfunctional families. Even, often, outwardly - "quite prosperous." What, for example, is the absence of a father or mother for the psyche of a child. Even if there are nannies, grandparents, the best gymnasium schools and complete material carelessness? Yes, one feeling that my father and mother, or one of them, does not love me, can and often gives rise to hatred for everything human in a child. And it leads to shifts towards the development of a psychopathic personality. I repeat that it is worth considering that in many children, especially modern ones, the nervous system is weak and borderline with pathological conditions. Why be surprised that a psychopath grows up in the family of a teacher or “decent” parents? For, behind the external, formal moral and material well-being of such families, lies, for example: “my parents never stroked my head”, or “I hate my parents because they don’t love me!”. In other words, if the family does not have that very empathy - sympathy, empathy, pity, feelings for each other. When "every man for himself and every man for himself", isn't this what forms and will form a psychopathic personality in most children.

3. Psychopaths breed psychopaths (Psychopathy is massive and covers millions of people)
It is clear that the psychopathic atmosphere of life in the family or outside the family, the psychopathic ideology of morals and behavior, this is the upbringing of the personality of a psychopath and the formation of psychopathy in a child. How can a child not become a psychopath if he lives and is brought up in this psychopathy? Even, I repeat, if outwardly, for people and even for herself, she is covered either by life, “like everyone else, like people”, or a gloss of luxury and ostentatious decency.

4. Definitely, if a child is raised by a psychopath, then his chance to grow up as a normal person is reduced to 0. For, even if a child does not accept such a life: I will not be like that! - he is deformed, pathologies of the nervous system are acquired, and the foundations of a psychopathic personality are laid. For this personality is formed in an atmosphere of psychopathy and lack of empathy. And then, sooner or later, already in adulthood, unconsciously or consciously, this person begins to show the habitual, stereotypical behavior of the psychopath who raised her. Therefore, it often happens that psychopathy acts as a time bomb, exploding in a person's personality, as a reaction to the problems and difficulties of life. For if the foundations of psychopathy are laid in the mind of a person, then he always has the temptation and opportunity to become a psychopath. For this will be a manifestation of his psychopathic essence, and this is much easier than remaining a normal person.

Many features of psychopaths: self-centeredness, lack of regret, superficiality of emotions, cunning - are often complemented by a complete lack of empathy (the inability to imagine the state and feelings of another person). They cannot enter anyone's position. Psychopaths don't care about other people's feelings.

To some extent, they resemble soulless androids, science fiction characters who are not allowed to experience what a living person feels. One rapist (who scored high on the Psychopathy Checklist) noticed that he had difficulty empathizing with his victims. “Are they scared? Then, you know, I don't understand them. I was also scared, but for me it was not something unpleasant.

Psychopaths treat others as a means of satisfying their desires and needs. The weak and vulnerable, more often bullied than pitied by psychopaths, are their favorite victims. “In the universe of psychopaths, there is no such thing as just being weak,” writes psychologist Robert Rieber. - According to them, whoever is weak is stupid; i.e., he asks himself to be used.”9

“Oh, yes, he was terribly unlucky,” the young prisoner snapped, talking about the death of a guy he stabbed to death during a skirmish between two gangs. Don't even try to give me this nonsense. The little bastard got what he deserved, so I don't feel sorry for him. As you can see,” he waved towards the investigators, “now I have my own problems.”

In order to survive (both physically and mentally), some normal individuals have to develop a certain insensitivity towards certain categories of people. (So, for example, if a doctor is too empathetic towards his patients, he will soon become overwhelmed with emotions and his efficiency will decrease.) Their insensitivity is manifested only in relation to a particular target group. By the same principle, soldiers, mafiosi and terrorists are trained - very effectively, as life has proven again and again - to consider the enemy a soulless object, and not a living person.

But psychopaths show a general lack of empathy. They are indifferent to the rights and sufferings of both relatives and strangers. If they maintain a relationship with a spouse or children, it is only because they consider them their property, like a tape recorder or a car. In general, the state of the interior of the car worries some psychopaths more than the state of mind of their "beloved". One woman allowed her lover to molest her five-year-old daughter because “he exhausted me. That evening, I was no longer able to have sex.” Later, she could not understand why the authorities deprived her of parental rights. “She belongs to me. Her life is my business." Yet she did not protest too much - deprived of a car for the time of the hearing, she demanded much more insistently for compensation for travel in public transport.

Because of their inability to empathize, some psychopaths do things that normal people find not only terrible, but also incomprehensible. They may, for example, torture or mutilate the victim with the same feeling with which we butcher a Thanksgiving turkey.

Now Connie is fifteen years old, and she hovers between childhood and adulthood, plunging into one state after another. She is still a virgin, but her life is already adjusted to her burgeoning sexuality. One hot day, when the family leaves her at home alone, a stranger comes to the house, who says that he has been following her for a long time.

“I am your lover, dear,” [he tells her]. - You don't know what it is yet, but you will soon find out... I know everything about you... I'll tell you about it. The first time I'm always kind. For the first time. I will hold you so tight that you won't even think about leaving or hoping for something, because you will know that you can't. I will enter you and find out all your secrets, and you will surrender and love me ... "-" I'm calling the police ... "[From] his tongue broke a short curse, supposedly not addressed to her. But even that sounded forced. Then he tried to smile again. She watched as his lips twisted into a grimace that resembled a smile. His whole face, she thought with horror, was like a mask that descended to the very neck. “Listen, dear. We are leaving now. It will be a great trip. If not, we are waiting for your parents to come home and then you will see what I will do with them… my little blue-eyed girl,” he sang out, although it had nothing to do with her brown eyes…

Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been? ("Where are you going? Where have you been?")

Related information:

1. C) lack of comprehensive state control in society
2. Chapter 3. Theories explaining the mechanisms of the emergence of emotions. social needs. It's one thing - the initial lack of need, and hence the lack of a motivation process