The Neuroscientist Who Discovered He Was a Psychopath 241
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Joseph Stromberg writes at the Smithsonian that one afternoon in October 2005, neuroscientist James Fallon was sifting through thousands of PET scans to find anatomical patterns in the brain that correlated with psychopathic tendencies in the real world. 'Out of serendipity, I was also doing a study on Alzheimer's and as part of that, had brain scans from me and everyone in my family right on my desk,' writes Fallon. 'I got to the bottom of the stack, and saw this scan that was obviously pathological.' When he looked up the code, he was greeted by an unsettling revelation: the psychopathic brain pictured in the scan was his own. When he underwent a series of genetic tests, he got more bad news. 'I had all these high-risk alleles for aggression, violence and low empathy,' he says, such as a variant of the MAO-A gene that has been linked with aggressive behavior. It wasn't entirely a shock to Fallon, as he'd always been aware that he was someone especially motivated by power and manipulating others. Additionally, his family line included seven alleged murderers, including Lizzie Borden, infamously accused of killing her father and stepmother in 1892. Many of us would hide this discovery and never tell a soul, out of fear or embarrassment of being labeled a psychopath. Perhaps because boldness and disinhibition are noted psychopathic tendencies, Fallon has gone in the opposite direction, telling the world about his finding in a TED Talk, an NPR interview and now a new book published last month, The Psychopath Inside. 'Since finding all this out and looking into it, I've made an effort to try to change my behavior,' says Fallon. 'I've more consciously been doing things that are considered "the right thing to do," and thinking more about other people's feelings.'"
Lizzy Bordon (Score:5, Funny)
And gave her Mother forty wacks
And when the job was nicely done
She gave her Father forty-one
I suggest we conduct an experiment. (Score:5, Funny)
Let's take somebody from a privileged background with good breeding and then transpose his life with that of a common man. More specifically a petty thief with inferior parental lineage. We'll get the privileged individual brought up on charges, remove his access to money and his home and create false situations where he's accused of theft! At the same time we'll take the petty thief and give him all of the privileges, money and responsibilities in life. I assert that the man of good breeding will always conduct himself with dignity and honor regardless of the circumstance while the petty thief will always act like a common thug. That's because one's parents genetics determine what we become in life, forget education and opportunity if you're born from an oak tree you're strong, from a willow, soft.
I'll bet you a standard gentleman's wager, $1....
Re:Or, perhaps you just demonstrated a Catch 22 (Score:3, Funny)
IMHO, we, as a race, were created by God and anything that doesn't adhere to the most average standard representation of God's image (aka normal) is a pathology that represents an incursion of the forces of hell into our heavenly realm. Therefore, it must be cured and harnessed to prevent the spread of evil.
Re:Or, perhaps you just demonstrated a Catch 22 (Score:2, Funny)
That's very interesting. How should I interpret this averaging? Does God have one ball and one tit?
Re:Or, perhaps the test is not 100% selective (Score:2, Funny)
Law & Order