-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: March 22, 2007 12:19:42 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Full Prefrontal
The integrated prefrontal cortex is the human "crown of creation,"
the latest product of the evolution of Homo sapiens.
But since it's electrochemical brain-mass and not an outwardly
visible feature,
it's still possible for some people pass as "human" WITHOUT it.
MORALITY A SLAVE TO EMOTION
Certain brain damage can radically alter decisions of a moral
nature, highlighting the link between morality and emotion, say
U.S. researchers.
22 March 2007, Agençe France-Presse
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/1119
PARIS: Damage to one part of the brain can leave some types of
impersonal judgement intact, but cause surprising reactions when
emotional issues are at stake, say U.S. researchers.
The new findings shed light on how damage to the brain's emotion
centres can also affect our capacity for moral decision making,
highlighting the role of emotions in determining right and wrong.
Investigators led by Ralph Adolphs of the California Institute of
Technology recruited 30 men and women to answer 50 carefully
selected series of hypothetical questions.
The questions fell into three categories -- non-moral choices, for
instance about shopping; moral impersonal decisions such as, would
you keep money from a wallet you found on the pavement?; and
personal moral scenarios, such as: would you kill a single human if
it was the only way to save many others?
Six of the volunteers had sustained damage to the ventromedial
prefrontal cortex, or VMPC, a small brain region located just
behind the forehead, which is key to processing moral judgements.
Twelve had brain damage elsewhere, while the other 12 had no brain
damage.
There was no difference among the volunteers in their responses to
non-moral and moral impersonal decisions.
But the volunteers with VMPC damage stood out remarkably in the
personal moral scenarios.
They plumped swiftly and decisively for "utilitarian" decisions -
they had no problem with harming or sacrificing one individual for
the sake of the common good.
The other participants were less likely to do so, and if they did,
it was usually after a time was spent pondering the decision.
Normally, humans are blocked from harming each other by aversion, a
feeling that co-author Antonio Damasio describes as "rejection of
the act, but combined with the social emotion of compassion for
that particular person". Aversion, though, was absent among the
people with VMPC lesions.
"Because of their brain damage, they have abnormal social emotions
in real life. They lack empathy and compassion," said Adolphs.
The study, published online today in the British journal Nature,
not only pinpoints the VMPC as critical circuitry for processing
intuition and emotion. It also adds to philosophical debate as to
whether humans make moral judgements based on external rules, set
by society, or on their own emotions.
Humans, say the authors, may be neurologically unfit for strict
utilitarian thinking, because emotion and reason cannot be
separated. Indeed, they suggest that neuroscience may be able to
assess different philosophies to see how compatible these are with
the human brain.
------------
CORPORATE PSYCHOPATHS
ABC Online, 5 May 2005
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1360571.htm
Reporter: Jonica Newby
Producer: Louise Heywood
Researcher: Jonica Newby
Is your boss manipulative? Intimidating? Totally lacking in
remorse? Yet superficially charming? Then you could be working with
a workplace psychopath. The latest figures suggest 1 in 10 managers
are psychopaths, and this week Catalyst goes deep inside their
minds - what makes them tick, how do you spot them; and how do you
avoid being crushed by them. We’ll also run a handy test – tune in
to find out if your boss is an office psychopath.
Transcript
Narration: It begins as a phone call - and then a meeting - usually
late at night.
A corporation has a problem and they need Dr John Clarke's help.
They need a psychopath- buster.
Dr John Clarke: The common misconception with psychopaths is that
they're all violent extreme kind of criminals. The majority of them
are living and working around us in jobs psychologically destroying
the people that they work with.
Narration: There's a growing realisation psychopaths are thriving
in today's workplace. According to the textbooks, every large
company has them.
Jonica Newby, reporter: This is where I work. It's the ABC building
in Sydney. Now the figures are that 0.5% of women are psychopaths,
and 2% are men. So that means there are up to 25 corporate
psychopaths somewhere up there.
Narration: But who are they? What makes them tick? And how do you
avoid being the next victim of the workplace psychopath.
Psychologist John Clarke started out profiling criminal
psychopaths, but four years ago, he began to realise there was a
much bigger problem.
Dr John Clarke: I was giving a lecture on criminal psychopaths and
someone came down after that lecture and said that their boss had
the same characteristics as what I'd just described for a criminal
one.
Narration: "Annette" knows just what he's talking about. Like most
victims we contacted, she would only tell her story anonymously.
She was a confident, career minded public servant when she first
met her new boss.
Annette: I got a shock when he took me into his office and shut the
door - he just exploded. It was sort of like well what do we want
you for.
And then when he let me out again it was all smiles.
Dr John Clarke: There are 20 characteristics to define a
psychopath. Really the fundamental factor is an absolute lack of
remorse or guilt for their behaviour, pathological lying,
manipulative, callous, egotistical, very kind of self centred
individual, glib and superficial charm
Narration: The workplace psychopath's textbook strategies feature
in a new David Williamson play, Operator.
Psychopath: Francine. They tell me that you're the person who
really runs things here, so I thought I'd better say hello as
quickly as possible.
Francine: Now you're just trying to flatter me.
Psychopath: Not at all. Three different people have told me that
with your capabilities you could step straight out of a support
role into top management.
David Williamson: They are so devious. They're so good at saying
things you want to hear to your face at the same time they're
knifing you in the back.
Psychopath: Could you do me a big favour?
Francine: What?
Psychopath: Write me an email that sort of recounts what happened
here today.
Francine: I don't like putting things in writing.
Psychopath: I won't ever show it to anyone without getting your
permission first.
I know I shouldn't be showing it to you ...
Dr John Clarke: They steal other people's work. They spread rumours
about people, character assassination. A range of different
strategies they will use to move up through the company.
David Williamson: They are worrying. I mean, if you strike one you
may not realise it for quite a while until they do some devious act
that stabs you in the back and can quite psychologically crush you.
Narration: Annette's boss was typical - charming his superiors and
acolytes, while isolating and undermining his victims.
Annette: I wasn't allowed to have a phone when I was working, you
know, my phone calls were monitored just this constant wearing down
and harassment and you know, it was just awful.
Narration: By the time she complained, she'd been so discredited
behind her back, no one would support her.
Annette: They didn't believe me. They're going, "He's such a funny
guy, he's so nice"
In the end I had to go in and, and see him. And I was just crying
my eyes out and I was just tears running down my face. And he
walked me out through the chairs, through the desks, out through
the long way through the office in case anyone had missed the
spectacle of me just breaking down. I was devastated. I was just
broken.
Narration: But how can someone act in such a seemingly inhuman way?
The truth is, psychopaths are fundamentally different to the rest
of us.
Research is showing they're deficient in a crucial skill that
evolved to ensure we don't abandon our friends and family - empathy.
Dr John Clarke: Empathy really is the ability to feel what another
person is feeling. It's very very important in terms of survival of
the human species because if nobody really cared or understood what
other people were feeling it would just cause breakdown of society.
Narration: Empathy is not just an abstract idea ...
... it's something you can measure physiologically.
Jonica Newby, reporter: Well, I'm about to be tested for one of the
key characteristics of a psychopath.
Dr John Clarke: Now I'm just going to show you some pictures. Sit
back, relax, and we'll see what happens.
Narration: As I watch the pictures, probes are detecting whether I
release minute traces of sweat - whether I have an emotional
response - empathy.
Psychopaths generally don't react.
Jonica Newby, reporter: So how'd I go?
Dr John Clarke: Very well. What we can see as we scroll through is
for the non-emotional pictures there is no response. And when we
get to here with the pictures of people crying you can see an
involuntary physical emotional response.
Jonica Newby, reporter: So I'm not a psychopath.
Dr John Clarke: Definitely not.
Narration: Psychopaths generally don't react.
This lack of emotional response extends deep into the brain.
When most of us see another persons distress, our emotional centre,
the limbic system, is aroused. We feel a little of what others are
feeling.
But a 2001 US study revealed the psychopath has very little limbic
system response to emotional information.
John Clarke: And that's what allows them to manipulate and control
other people because they're able to do that on a very rational
logical level but at the same time they don't feel the emotion or
empathy for the other person.
Narration: No one knows how much of this deficit is genetic, and
how much shaped by childhood.
But by the time they are adults, psychopaths aren't simply
uncaring. They are physically incapable of feeling other people's
pain.
Annette: My hair was falling out, you know, and I uh.. you know, I
had diarrhoea, I couldn't sleep, my life got that awful and black
it seemed a better option to just be dead and stop it.
Man: Someone I like and respect a lot almost died last night.
Psychopath: Let's get real here. Melissa was reckless, incompetent
and stuffed up in a big way. And when you stuff up big time you get
depressed.
Man: She nearly died.
Psychopath: She's a loser. Who f...... cares?
Narration: But without a brain scan, how do we spot a psychopath
before its too late? One answer seems to be; look up.
John Clarke suspects corporations today aren't just failing to
screen for psychopaths, they're selecting them.
Dr John Clarke: You see this advertisement here. "An ability to do
whatever it takes to meet a deadline". So that would appeal to a
psychopath because they are prepared to do whatever it takes,
whatever the cost. If we look at this one - "The opportunities are
endless, you just need to know how to win" - well, they know how to
win everything, pretty much.
David Williamson: They present very confidently. They are full of
self-esteem. They have no doubts; no hesitations and so
interviewing panels often find them very attractive.
That's what many corporations see as being a good executive.
Narration: But some corporations are now realising they have a
problem. That's why they call secretly on criminal profiler, John
Clarke.
Dr John Clarke: The companies don't like to admit they have a
psychopath and so the first meeting, it's often on a Friday night
or late at night after the employees have gone home.
Narration: Issues range from fraud, to broken promises, to losing
staff.
Executive: I just can't seem to keep staff and it's all coming from
his section.
Dr John Clarke: Which is costing you money.
Executive: Exactly.
Dr John Clarke: The first thing I do is really get an assessment
from the people working below, at the same level and above the
individual. And so if there are huge discrepancies in opinion
that's reason to start delving deeper.
Narration: Dr Clarke then administers a standard psychopath
assessment. Remember those questions you answered earlier? They're
a modified, cut down version.
Here are the final two:
Is your boss opportunistic, ruthless, hating to lose and playing to
win?
Does your boss consider people they've outsmarted as dumb or stupid?
If your boss scored 5 out of 6 or more, you could be working with a
workplace psychopath.
Now for the bad news.
Dr John Clarke: It's almost impossible to rehabilitate the
psychopath. In fact, there are studies in the United States, which
suggest that rehabilitation in fact makes them worse because it
teaches them new social skills they can use to manipulate the
people around them more effectively.
Narration: Once identified, there are strategies to manage the
psychopath or move them on.
But what if you're the victim, and the corporation backs your boss?
Stay too long, and you risk a severe psychological breakdown.
That's what happened to Annette.
Annette: I loved my job but in the end I, I fell apart. I was just
so, so broken and you know, I just walked out and there was no
coming back.
I'm unemployable now, you know. I just, I can't take another knock
like that,
Dr John Clarke: When I tell them that one of the options is to
leave the company there's shock, and then they go on to how unfair
it is but then there's devastation when they do realise that that
might be the most appropriate option to take because the situation
is not going to change.
Narration: Far from getting their comeuppance, in these days of
short term goals and high staff turnover, psychopaths often rise to
the top.
In making this story, we spoke to many victims, none who could be
identified for fear of defamation or worse - all devastated - all
with a similar message.
Annette: I think you should run, you should run. There are some
bosses out there that are deadly.
Dr John Clarke: I want people to be aware that they're not going
crazy. It's the workplace psychopath that's the problem, not them.
David Williamson: That's not to say that every manager is like
that. But it's that one out of ten that has the potential to really
wreck a company, wreck the coherence of a company and wreck lives.
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