psychopathy is a pseudo-scientific theory useful for plugging the holes left by the categorical collapse of evil
― Mordy , Friday, 27 December 2013 13:58 (ten years ago) link
Or a concept to help people convince themselves that they're normal? "Of course I think about slashing the tyres of my boss's car, but I wouldn't actually do it, therefore I'm not really a psychopath"
― that's you, that is (snoball), Friday, 27 December 2013 14:01 (ten years ago) link
idk if anything it's too inclusionary, not exclusionary "for there is not a just man on earth, that does good, and sins not."
― Mordy , Friday, 27 December 2013 14:11 (ten years ago) link
has evil as a concept collapsed? obv not amongst people as a whole but i accept we're not thinking about that strictly. still, isn't evil still ascribed as a descriptor to actions even among people who wd shy away from describing other humans as evil in themselves?
i feel like the idea of psychopathy tries to plug a hole that isn't the shape we think it is
― turkey & stfuing (Noodle Vague), Friday, 27 December 2013 14:12 (ten years ago) link
it's just that post determinism, esp in psycho-pharmeceutical world, evil is no longer causal - maybe descriptive - and we still need (catharsis-like) an explanation for evil. if it isn't an evil person then it's a psychopathic mind. maybe.
― Mordy , Friday, 27 December 2013 14:15 (ten years ago) link
39% psycho
― millions now living will never kick out the jams (WilliamC), Friday, 27 December 2013 14:17 (ten years ago) link
eg 'how can a wealthy man steal from the widow + orphan?' if before it was due to the evil inclination now it is bc of neuro atypical brain chemistry.
― Mordy , Friday, 27 December 2013 14:17 (ten years ago) link
oh yeah i think many people crave explanations - wd bracket off the whole determinism argument, maybe too abstruse for general use - more importantly perhaps many people crave totalizing worldviews - psychopathy, like paedophilia, saves a little bit of hate for the sinner but disguises it as the limits of "treatability"
― turkey & stfuing (Noodle Vague), Friday, 27 December 2013 14:19 (ten years ago) link
Would people prefer a simple but incorrect explanation that allowed them to sleep at night, or a complex but as far as possible correct explanation that kept them awake with worry? I suspect that given enough stress and pressure, any one of us could become sociopathic, drawing a line in the sand where everyone else is on the other side and 'fair game' for abuse. On the other hand, there is still a degree of choice: that people choose to behave badly towards others. Or a least it would be nice to believe that, even if it couldn't be proved.
― that's you, that is (snoball), Friday, 27 December 2013 14:26 (ten years ago) link
which explanation allows one to sleep better at night?
― Mordy , Friday, 27 December 2013 14:27 (ten years ago) link
it's a problem to talk about "people" in that generalized way, i guess, as well as to distinguish between what we want to believe, choose to believe and happen to believe.
i think i choose to not believe in a scorecard approach to anticipating behaviour but that doesn't mean the scorecard mightn't have practical applications, i guess - altho what you do with the knowledge that Person A might commit crimes before they've committed them, well, i'm buggered if i know.
― turkey & stfuing (Noodle Vague), Friday, 27 December 2013 14:30 (ten years ago) link
psychopathy, like paedophilia, saves a little bit of hate for the sinner but disguises it as the limits of "treatability"
this sounds about right
― gbx, Friday, 27 December 2013 14:32 (ten years ago) link
12% but I lied my ass off ha ha!
― Iago Galdston, Friday, 27 December 2013 15:07 (ten years ago) link
waaay xpost but my blurb was the same as sarahel's and roz
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 27 December 2013 15:34 (ten years ago) link
Absolutely stunned to find out that I'm posting to a board filled with borderline psychopaths. Had no idea until this thread
― 乒乓, Friday, 27 December 2013 15:37 (ten years ago) link
me either! i am the least psychopathic among us if this quiz is to be believed! 3%!!
― mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Friday, 27 December 2013 15:51 (ten years ago) link
Manipulative lying is probably second nature to any adult psychopath with an IQ over 85. Seems to me any test for psychopathology would have to be pretty damn clever to disguise the 'socially unacceptable' responses and lure an adult psychopath into the self-revelation.
― Aimless, Friday, 27 December 2013 17:16 (ten years ago) link
aimless otm. i scored 56% but it was prob cuz i avoided the scale's extremities. yeah, that's the ticket.
― i want to say one word to you, just one word:buzzfeed (difficult listening hour), Friday, 27 December 2013 17:25 (ten years ago) link
"Oh, lawsy me! I would never dream of doing anything remotely like that!" probably correlates to zero psychopathic tendency, while "as a rational being I try to avoid absolutes, because it is impossible to foresee all the circumstances in advance" probably correlates to some higher percentage of psycho tendencies. Taking candy from a baby.
― Aimless, Friday, 27 December 2013 17:30 (ten years ago) link
wtf is this the antebellum south? who says "Oh, lawsy me! I would never dream of doing anything remotely like that!"
― mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Friday, 27 December 2013 17:36 (ten years ago) link
wah i do declare
― turkey & stfuing (Noodle Vague), Friday, 27 December 2013 17:37 (ten years ago) link
who says "Oh, lawsy me!...
Psychopaths taking multiple choice tests, obviously.
― Aimless, Friday, 27 December 2013 17:45 (ten years ago) link
http://shepherdspiehole.typepad.com/.a/6a0167621b7ded970b019103c4dba5970c-250wi
― flopson, Friday, 27 December 2013 17:47 (ten years ago) link
61% and i went soft tbh
― lorde othering (darraghmac), Friday, 27 December 2013 22:02 (ten years ago) link
did you say Lawsy me y/n
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 27 December 2013 22:19 (ten years ago) link
Never yet
― lorde othering (darraghmac), Friday, 27 December 2013 22:47 (ten years ago) link
36%
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 30 December 2013 07:10 (ten years ago) link
27%
― latebloomer, Monday, 30 December 2013 07:38 (ten years ago) link
But I cheated obv and my real score is like a million percent
― latebloomer, Monday, 30 December 2013 07:39 (ten years ago) link
Was King Leopold II a psychopath?
― people who care abt anti-hipster discourse (sarahell), Monday, 30 December 2013 11:18 (ten years ago) link
Same here. Popular score this.
― Eats like Elvis, shits like De Niro (Tom D.), Monday, 30 December 2013 11:42 (ten years ago) link
33%
lol people are so easy
― CANONICAL artists, etc., etc. (contenderizer), Monday, 30 December 2013 17:16 (ten years ago) link
21% http://i.imgur.com/zi7hd.gif
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Monday, 30 December 2013 17:23 (ten years ago) link
After careful study of these results, I note that people are never any percentage of psychopathic which is not divisible by three. I confidently conclude from this fact that it is impossible to be 100% psychopathic, but 99% is the most one can hope for.
― Aimless, Monday, 30 December 2013 20:04 (ten years ago) link
Nonsense! Just cut at thirty-three and a third.
― Le passé, non seulement n'est pas fugace, il reste sur place (Michael White), Monday, 30 December 2013 20:18 (ten years ago) link
Hit "agree" on everything and you get 100%
― Øystein, Monday, 30 December 2013 21:37 (ten years ago) link
which btw gives the text"You can play hardball with the best of them! You know what you want and are not afraid to go for it – even if it means bending the rules occasionally and putting a few noses out of joint on the way. Nothing fazes you. You are decisive, self-confident and pretty much up for anything. You are a ‘means-to-an-end’ person. For you, it’s not necessarily a matter of right or wrong, but of what gets the job done. ‘Bring it on’ is your mantra, but to help those around you keep their heads, you should learn some tricks to help you temper your self-satisfying tendencies..."
you get 100%
I am sorry. These results are anomalous and must be thrown out as suspect.
― Aimless, Monday, 30 December 2013 23:13 (ten years ago) link
Experiences have me suspecting that some of these parents might be plausibly described as psychopathic or sociopathic, or just burnt out, in denial, etc.---from Irrationally Angrier: This deserves its own thread, but right now I'm too depressed by latest incident: parents who let their children run wild in public.
― dow, Sunday, December 29, 2013 7:01 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
With the parent a few feet away in most cases, but also those who just fucking drop them off and leave (in malls where I'm working/consuming, libraries, etc)
― dow, Sunday, December 29, 2013 7:03 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
And the ones who are a few feet away may either flip put if anybody says anything, or get this really creepy smile (sometimes while leaving with kid, even). But mostly the former. A few do get seemingly sincerely apologetic and worried, like they suddenly realize what they've done, or not done. I would never ever ever say anything unless it's my job, which occasionally it has been (gently someone to take her child outside after child has puked all over store: not a good idea).
― dow, Sunday, December 29, 2013 7:08 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
gently *asking* someone, that is.
― dow, Sunday, December 29, 2013 7:09 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― dow, Tuesday, 31 December 2013 17:06 (ten years ago) link
those ppl are not sociopaths
― gbx, Tuesday, 31 December 2013 17:18 (ten years ago) link
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/01/life-as-a-nonviolent-psychopath/282271/
― Mordy , Wednesday, 22 January 2014 01:46 (ten years ago) link
he sure does self-diagnose as a lot of fucking things, im not surprised pyschopath happened to be one of em
― gelatinate mess (darraghmac), Wednesday, 22 January 2014 01:57 (ten years ago) link
has he taken the test for hypochondria has he
i'm interested in psychopaths like everyone else but they sure are trendy right now. "psychopathic" has basically replaced the word "selfish".
― tɹi.ʃɪp (Treeship), Wednesday, 22 January 2014 02:06 (ten years ago) link
whatever happened to plain old narcissism.
― ryan, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 02:09 (ten years ago) link
the average selfish person has a lot to answer for these days
― mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Wednesday, 22 January 2014 02:12 (ten years ago) link
good luck getting a narcissist to own up to being 'average'
― gelatinate mess (darraghmac), Wednesday, 22 January 2014 02:13 (ten years ago) link
sorry, the above-average selfish person
― mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Wednesday, 22 January 2014 02:19 (ten years ago) link
i'm interested in psychopaths like everyone else but they sure are trendy right now
feel the same about unicorns, wonder if they have similar ontological status
― can't believe people like things (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 22 January 2014 09:10 (ten years ago) link
I got 48%.Think I might retake and see if that's consistent. Mind on other things,
― Stevolende, Wednesday, 22 January 2014 13:07 (ten years ago) link