What is a sociopath/psychopath?

[GePap]

Here is a quick quiz on what you have read: do you think of Nietzche as an anti-semite? Or a nationalist?

[Elok]

My impression was that Zarathustra was one of his last. The vague idea of the greater man remained with him for most of his life, but he only really fully developed and expressed it towards the end. That's what I read. And I know Ecce Homo was his *last* work, and that's undeniably nuckingfuts. I've read the genealogy of morals, and in fact I'm pretty sure that's where the blond beast line comes from. He has this weird literary orgasm over the idea of the "magnificent blond beast, returned from rape, slaughter, and other even more unmentionable deeds, and laughing at it all as though it were no more than a mad schoolboy's prank," or something like that. That's not a quote, but it's pretty close, and the general idea is clearly one he approves of, judging from context.
I'm afraid I don't recall the camel speech. Around where in TSZ was it? I have the Portable Nietzsche somewhere in my room, and this is as good a time as any to dig it back up.

[Az]

Psychopath has a very precise medical definition:

PSYCHOPATHIC PERSONALITY
WordNet Dictionary

Definition: [n] a personality disorder characterized by amorality and lack of affect; capable of violent acts without guilt feelings (`psychopathic personality' was once widely used but was superseded by `sociopathic personality' to indicate the social aspects of the disorder; `antisocial personality disorder' is currently the preferred term)

They're not crazy, and they're impossible to rehabilitate. They're poster boys for the death penalty.

[Elok]

Nietzsche is neither an anti-semite nor a nationalist. He referred to anti-semitism as "the German disease," and railed against Christianity for "so polluting the minds of men that it is possible, two thousand years later, for a Christian to despise the jews without realizing that he is himself the ultimate jewish consequence." Which is to say, the only crime of judaism is in establishing the moral code that led to the "weakness" of Christianity, for which he holds true animosity, and crazy as he is he isn't dumb enough to think people of today have anything to do with the actions of their ancestors.
He despised, or at least would have despised, nationalism, along with any other belief that touts a large group of people as superior in combination. Men are by his reckoning stupid cattle destined to follow the ubermensch, and for them to glorify themselves as a whole would be like the apes at the zoo dressing up in hats and coats and thinking it made them human. He did have some faith in the German race("the future of our race is in the sons and daughters of prussian officers"), but he wasn't a nationalist, nor did he subscribe to the kind of social darwinism espoused by Hitler, who built a museum in lip-service to him.

[GePap]

The thing is, the blond beast is NOT the overman. The blond beast is man before Good and Evil.

(on timelines, he wrote Zarathustra fater his first few books that dealt with things like Wagner and tragedy, and after Dawn, but before Ecce Homo, Beyond Good and Evil, and the Geneology)

What he approves of the blond beast is its complete devotion to fulfilling its life and making ful use of its power. the thing is, the blond beast can NOT create, at most it can only destroy. And it is creation that he seeks most of all. IN a sense, the priests which he despise, the ones that he says negate life and whihs to destory this realm for a fantasy other world in which their weaknees now becomes strength do create, they create the conscience by their attemots at self-enslavement, and that is a rpe-requisite for the overman.

[our_man]

The classic feature of a psychotic disorder, which distinguishes it from other neurological disorders, is impaired reality testing i.e. incorrect evaluation of accuracy of perception and thoughts; incorrect inferences about external reality.

Symptoms of psychotic behaviour include delusions, hallucinations and incoherent speech. Psychotic disorders include schizophrenia and some severe mood disorders.

AFAIK, being psychotic does not automatically infer that you are a psycopath, as psycopathy is considered to be violence associated with a sever mental disorder. It is quite common for psychotic patients to display psychopathic tendencies, but it's not universal.

By definition then, it is impossible for a psychotic person to deduce that they are suffering a mental disorder (due to the impaired reality testing). They do not realize they are ill and thus cannot seek help by themselves. Not to be mixed up with neurosis, where reality testing is intact and the patient can actively seek treatment.

[Az]

AFAIK, psychotic, and psychopath are two different things.

[:) Smiley]

OK, so now that we know what it is, do we know what causes it?

[DanielXY]

Ok, so what about if you are in doubt if you are crazy or not?

[Az]

what, psychotic, or psychopathic behavior?

[Kuciwalker]

Re: What is a sociopath/psychopath

dinner

[our_man]

Smiley, there are several different types of psychotic disorders, each with their own particular cause, but let's just take the most well known one, schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder that is characterized by both positive (overt, easier to treat) symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations and thought disorder, and negative symptoms, such as social withdrawal and the 'flattened affect' (lack of emotion in speech).

The human brain is of course, very complex, so current understanding of the cause of schizophrenia and other psychotic illnesses is basic. The main theory revolves around the fact that schizophrenia can successfully be treated with drugs that increase Dopamine activity in the brain (e.g. haloperidol, clozapine). This, and other observations in post-mortems led people to the conclusion that the primary cause of psychotic disorders are a decrease of Dopamine in the mesolimbic region of the brain.

[Elok]

Just as a sidenote, I'd like to dispel a myth that drives psych professors (like my mom) nuts:
Schizophrenia is NOT the same as Multiple Personality Disorder. Some schizophrenics, depending on the type they are, may hallucinate nonexistent people, animals, etc., but they do not view those hallucinations as extensions of themselves.
That aside, social withdrawal and flattened affect are also common in autistics(actually, they're two of the big symptoms), and from what I gather there may be a reason for that. Autistics have an extremely powerful visual imagination, to the point of near-photographic memory in some cases. It can be literally photographic too: normal people memorize words by remembering the words themselves, whereas autistics tend to remember the image of the page the words are written on and "read" the words off of the recalled image in their minds. I'm not quite that powerful so I can only remember scattered fragments of a page, but it's the same principle. Autism is, in a very limited sense, a low-grade and largely voluntary form of schizophrenia, by which the self-imposed constructions of your own imagination isolate you from the real world. This also explains the oversensitivity-because the senses are given less attention than in normal humans(the PC phrase is "neurotypical" but I think that sounds stupid), we have a much lower tolerance for sensory stimulation, and those senses can easily be pushed to the point of irritation in some of us. Hence I hate strong smells, loud noises, bright lights, and physical contact far more than a normal person would. It's a pretty whack-sounding theory, but it's gaining support in a few rare circles. O_M, you seem knowledgeable. Any speculation?

[our_man]

Hmmm... I haven't done that much on autism, mainly because I concentrate on the neuropsychopharmacology aspect; and from what you're suggesting Elok, autism would seem to be a form of schizophrenia with no underlying pathology. Of course, it could explain why behavioral therapy proves more effective in the case of autistics; there is no therapeutic target for drug action.

[Az]

Autists are described as having an extremely male brain, more inclined for cold calculation than for empathy.