Psychopathy

Pure Psychopath.

Psychopathy is short for psychological pathology, which might make you think it’s synonymous with ‘mental illness,’  but it’s not.    It’s pronounced sigh-cop-uhthee, so it’s got cop in it, but really you should be looking at the ‘chop.’   Psychopaths are sociopaths.   The terms are used interchangeably.  A sociopath is a person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior, and lack of conscience .  A psychopath is defined, alternatively, as having a chronic mental disorder involving abnormal or violent social behavior.  It is not someone who has traveled down some psychological path.   We all do that.   Anyone with a mind has a mindstream and a flow, like a creek (or river), that follows its own path to sea.  If this were the case, every book would be a psychopath.  Or song.  Or movie.  A path is not pathological.   I had a cousin named Patrick Hennessy (Pat H).  He was not synonymous with pathology, either.   In any case, psychopaths enjoy evil, have no remorse, don’t stop, and become adept at hiding it and blending in.  They comprise 1% of the population, and 15-25% of prisoners, and x% of politicians, etc.   They are cold, manipulative, impulsive, and lack remorse.  They thrive on pain and suffering and getting away with criminal abuse.  Wait, I'm confusing it with sadism.   There's obviously some overlap.    I guess its power, control, deception, attention, and admiration.   The "lay-definition" of evil.  You get the picture.  Mental illness is a larger category.   Mental disorders and psychiatric disabilities fill the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual), which enumerates over 450 distinct definitions of mental illnesses, in 11 categories.   Zooming out further, there are over 2500 known infectious diseases, and over 300 non-infectious diseases, like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.  So, you can get sick in, what?  Like 3250 ways??  (some sources cite 10,000+).   Psychopathy is just one.  

*The 11 categories of mental illness, per the APA (American Psychological Association), which publishes the DSM, are: 1. neurocognitive, 2. Schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic, 3. depressive, bipolar, and other related, 4. intellectual, 5. Anxiety and OCD, 6. Somatic symptom and related, 7. Personality and impulse control, 8. Autism spectrum, 9. Neuro-developmental, 10. Eating, and 11 Trauma and stressor-related.    I don’t know what the descending order of prevalence is.   Psychopathy belongs to 7.

Other psychology:   Synaesthesia.    Synesthetes blend senses.   So, like, "white noise".   Or cicadas make it "sound hot".    Or smells have shapes.   Or words have tastes.   Crazy!

Some more interesting psych:  Target sells body sprays ("Hair, Body, and Linen Mists") called "being frenshe" (I used to date an Ellen French) that come in 7 varieties, all of them trying to be therapeutic:  These include:  Empowered and confident, Joy and bliss, Soothe and comfort, Present and grounded, and Unwind and Rest.    What are we really buying, people??

How many diseases are there?  How many KINDS (categories) of diseases are there?   How many ways can you get Sick Ill and Diseased?  My Amazon Echo smart-speaker (Alexa) says:  30,000.   Google says there are "countless specific diseases within each category."    The NORD (national organization for rare diseases) lists over 10,000 rare diseases.   Diseases can be communicable (contagious) ('infectious' is slightly different) or non-communicable.    Hereditary (genetic or non-genetic).   Physiological (impaired functions, organs, or tissues).  Deficiency (lack of nutrients; i.e. vitamins and minerals).   Cardiovascular (heart and blood vessels).  Cancer (over 200 known types).  Mental Health Disorders.   All together?   Who the heck knows.   God save us all.   We're all gonna die!!!  Ahhhhh!

So I read 'The Psychopath Test' by Jon Ronson.   It's not a test.    It's about psychopathy (and madness in general), and is both funny and scary, with horror stories and humorous anecdotes.  He's a good writer.   The name Jon Ronson makes me think of Don Johnson and Charles Bronson.  He wrote 'The Men Who Stare at Goats', which I haven't read (or seen; it was made into a movie).  The test referred to is (Bob) Hare's checklist.   It's a 20 item inventory of personality traits.  (Wikipedia page about, link).   The scary thing is, if you pretend to be (or are misdiagnosed as) crazy (some guy quoted a bunch of movies to get out of prison), it can be very difficult to change your status (and get released).   I came up with something kinda fun: "violent antisocial mental psychopath in relation to everyone' (vampire).    An interesting description of a psychopath is, "a talking mask simply going through the motions of feeling deeply."    In other words, knowing the words but not the music.  One guy interviewed was described, comically, as probably having a grandiose sense of self- worth, sitting in front of a giant oil painting of himself.       Another guy held a press conference to announce himself as the messiah (lol).  

I am NOT announcing myself as a messiah (I'm not).   And I hear the music (and often not the lyrics).   I am what I am.   I am a deity and I am an ant's fart, like everybody else.   So there.    I consider myself grounded and realistic.   I am never bored.    I'm more of a pathological truth-teller.   I don't want to do the full 20 point run-down.   I'm just not.   I was voted "most kind" in grammar school.   I'm a good guy.   If life were a video game, maybe I'd off some bad guys - but it's not.  I imagine we all sometimes want to do horrible things to each other, which is normal.   I published a thousand reasons people kill - to nullify and overcome them.   This is probably an ongoing lifelong process for most of us.  Malice, hate, and resentment require loving-kindness meditation and equanimity.   I seek to espouse -and embody- compassionate service.  I don't know why my doctor recommended this book, but I enjoyed it, and maybe you will too.   Psychopaths are interesting.   Best to read about them, not suffer them.  

Interestingly, the head-shock thing was mentioned.   I've suffered them for years.  Ronson describes his own:   "Normal people definitely didn't feel like they were being electrocuted from the inside by an unborn child armed with a miniature Taser, that they were being prodded by a wire emitting the kind of electrical charge that stops cattle from going into the next field."    And then, also, he quotes L Ron Hubbard (founder of Scientology), "A person drugged and shocked can be ordered to kill and who to kill and how to do it and what to say afterwards.  Scientologists, being technically superior to psychiatrists, and about a hundred light years above him morally, object seriously to the official indifference to drug-electric-shock treatments...Someday the police will have to take the psychiatrist in hand.    The psychiatrist is being found out." (1969)