@...monkeybird02: Just some friendly advice. I really don’t advise that particular coping mechanism, however if you do choose to go that route, make sure it’s loaded with dumdums, you got one in the chamber, the safety off, and the hammer back. And don’t gnaw on it, your goal should be to scratch your uvula with the front sight. Things will go a lot smoother that way
Please, no need to thank me.

kthnxbai…

@...WistfulD: I dunno about it being fiction. It could be, but life is often stranger than fiction… I’m sure this scenario has actually been played out more times in the history of man you might like to think…

@...nyokki: I dunno about hiding ones feelings being *inherently* shallow per se. In general, I don’t believe it’s the right thing to do, however there are some scenarios where hiding them is the more honorable thing to do.

Not because you are scared of being hurt or anything like that, but because you know that putting it all out there may actually create conflicts and cause the people you love, including the target of your affections, severe emotional distress. In fact, in situations like these, ones own emotions might still be tested quite strenuously.

In the situation described above, however, the dude was really just being stupid…

@...nyokki: WRT normal emotions, yes, I agree that suppressing feelings is generally bad.

Psycopaths, and certain kinds of serial killers, on the other hand, are a mixed bag. Some of them aren’t actually suppressing their feelings. They don’t actually have the same emotions as everyone else, are are simply mimicking what emotions they do show in order to fit in and function within society, sometimes to much greater effect than the real thing…

They do not feel things like fear, sadness, and other similar emotions, the same way other people do, and therefore do not really have the emotional capacity to empathize. You cannot appeal to their emotions, because there is little there to bring to the surface to begin with. In fact, if you dig deeper, you may find less emotion, instead of more.

It seems counter intuitive, but psychopathic behavior is difficult to frame in relation to how regular peoples emotions work, and it is often misinterpreted. What I found rather intriguing was that with those serial killers who actually did have emotions, some also had a conscience, knew that what they were doing was wrong, knew that they were insane, and even wanted to get caught so they would be forced to stop killing, but could not stop themselves from murdering people.

I’d like to believe that those serial killers who have a conscience could be trained to stop killing by making them bring their emotions to bear, or by forcing them to endure the same psychological anguish they put their victims through. But the truth is that many studies have shown that, only a few might benefit from such a treatment. Left to their own devices, many would still go back to killing, even after therapy.

For this reason, psychopathy is clinically considered an untreatable condition, though I do not believe this to be always true. I think that, much like anything else, there are many causes, and varying degrees of psychopathic behavior. Depending on the root cause, some should be correctable, and for those cases, your observation should hold true…

@...Annarchy: I think the way that psychopathy has been studied in a clinical setting leaves something to be desired. The vast majority of psychopaths that are studied are usually extreme cases, murderers, serial killers, etc.

These people have deep seated issues, but because of their psychopathy, their homicidal tendencies are generally impossible to treat. However the point you raised about people with psychopathic tendencies also climbing the corporate ladder the fastest also indicates something else. Not all psychopaths are killers. And there are some who wouldn’t even be corporate back stabbers. Not because they couldn’t, but rather because they decided they didn’t want to.

I think the mistake people make is to confuse the lack of emotion with a psychopaths reasons for doing whatever it is they do. An absence of emotion does not automatically make a psychopath either good or bad. To some extent, both their genetic makeup, and the environment they developed in, can have a large effect on what kind of person they actually become.

I think that there are psychopaths walking around who, like their more violent counterparts, feel little emotion, but don’t have the desire to hurt people. Unfortunately these folks aren’t usually studied, because they don’t make the news, do not have bad enough habits to warrant them visiting a psychologist, and are adept enough at mimicking emotions that nobody would ever think for a second they were actually devoid of them.

So while it may be true that psychopathy itself is basically untreatable, I think it might be theoretically possible to employ some form of psychological brainwashing in order to remove the mental impetus that causes them to want to kill, or replace it with something else. Strangely enough, however, I have yet to see any studies on this…