Matt said to Carl:
The psychopath, in fact, appears as Pirsig's insane brujo, outside the mythos
(which makes it easy, then, to apply Pirsigian insight as a restorative to
psychology). ... Dave's right: it would suck to have sociopaths. But we
shouldn't expect our pedagogy to wipe it out. In fact, we need a moral
philosophy that allows for their existence in society even while condemning the
pattern for pedagogical reasons. Okay, so _why_ would we do this? In case
some sociopath is the next brujo. That's the answer that Pirsig additionally
offers to typical Millian liberal morality, which just says that you should
leave people alone as long as they don't mess with other people. Pirsig helps
us to answer _why_ Mill was right: because leaving people alone to their own
devices might help everyone in the long run. Even though I doubt sociopathic
behavior would be essential to his or her brujoness, i.e. lack of compassion
would doubtfully be the next Dynamic leap forward, some sociopath m
ight have a great role to play (or rather, create).
dmb says:
The psychopathic Brujo? No way. I mean, psychopathology is a serious mental
illness that precludes morality whereas the culture bearers are extraordinarily
moral. These contrarians are known as "sacred" boundary crossers. Even though
they both break the rules, it's a whole different deal.
The wiki article on the "Hare Psychopathology Checklist" says, for example,
that "in addition to lifestyle and criminal behavior the checklist assesses
glib and superficial charm, grandiosity, need for stimulation, pathological
lying, conning and manipulating, lack of remorse, callousness, poor behavioral
controls, impulsivity, irresponsibility, failure to accept responsibility for
one's own actions and so forth. The scores are used to predict risk for
criminal re-offence and probability of rehabilitation."
Similarly, the wiki article on "Psychopathy" describes the basic
characteristics as follows. "The prototypical psychopath has deficits or
deviance in several areas: interpersonal relationships, emotion, and behavior.
Psychopaths gain satisfaction through antisocial behavior, and do not
experience shame, guilt, or remorse for their actions. Psychopaths lack a sense
of guilt or remorse for any harm they may have caused others, instead
rationalizing the behavior, blaming someone else, or denying it outright.
Psychopaths also lack empathy towards others in general, resulting in
tactlessness, insensitivity, and contemptuousness. Psychopaths can have a
superficial charm about them, enabled by a willingness to say anything to
anyone without concern for accuracy or truth. Shallow affect also describes the
psychopath's tendency for genuine emotion to be short-lived, glib and
egocentric, with an overall cold demeanor. They tend to be impulsive and
irresponsible, often failing to keep a
job or defaulting on debts.
Researcher Robert Hare, whose Hare Psychopathy Checklist is widely used,
describes psychopaths as "intraspecies predators". Also R.I. Simon uses the
word predator to describe psychopaths. Elsewhere Hare and others write that
psychopaths "use charisma, manipulation, intimidation, sexual intercourse and
violence" to control others and to satisfy their own needs. Hare states that:
"Lacking in conscience and empathy, they take what they want and do as they
please, violating social norms and expectations without guilt or remorse". He
previously stated that: "What is missing, in other words, are the very
qualities that allow a human being to live in social harmony".
According to Hare, many psychopaths are superficially charming, and can
excellently mimic normal human emotion;some psychopaths can blend in,
undetected, in a variety of surroundings, including corporate environments."
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