Can You Call a 9-Year Old a Psychopath?

[eric922]

I thought this article from the NYTimes was very interesting and I thought it might lead to some interesting discussion here.

I've heard that a lot of sociopaths go in to work in politics or business, so does capitalism enable sociopaths and how would a socialist society deal with these individuals if a cure can't be found.

I would have posted an excerpt, but I'm really bad at choosing what I feel is most important in articles, so I'll just link it here.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/magazine/can-you-call-a-9-year-old-a-psychopath.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

[Book O'Dead]

Capitalism is sociopathic.

[brigadista]

what a chilling article - i am not surprised that kid is so full of rage.

they sound like they have money to burn!!

maybe instead of looking for a diagnosis for their child they hugged him now and again -

think the prob is the behaviour of the parents... not a condition of some kind -

they are on a diversionary expedition looking for him to be diagnosed

[eric922]

what a chilling article - i am not surprised that kid is so full of rage.

they sound like they have money to burn!!

maybe instead of looking for a diagnosis for their child they hugged him now and again -

think the prob is the behaviour of the parents... not a condition of some kind -

they are on a diversionary expedition looking for him to be diagnosed
The parent's behavior does seem strange to me, especially the father. He seems to encourage Allen to bait Micheal, which is a bad move all around. If the child is just a normal kid then his dad is making him and his brother enemies. If Micheal is a sociopath( and I'm not convinced he is, though it is possible) then he definitely shouldn't be baited like this. There is something wrong with the parent's behavior and I think they should look at that before throwing around words like psychopath, because falsely accusing someone of something like that has to be damaging.

[Kenco Smooth]

I've heard that a lot of sociopaths go in to work in politics or business, so does capitalism enable sociopaths


Absolutely not. For every 'high-functioning' psychopath who manages to eek out an existence which appears to be enabled by the modern world there are twenty in prison or indefinitely detained in institutes.



and how would a socialist society deal with these individuals if a cure can't be found.


Same way they deal with them now. Continue trying out new methods of rehabilitation whilst effectively having thrown the key away for the most dangerous individuals.

[moulinrouge]

what a chilling article - i am not surprised that kid is so full of rage.

they sound like they have money to burn!!

maybe instead of looking for a diagnosis for their child they hugged him now and again -

think the prob is the behaviour of the parents... not a condition of some kind -

they are on a diversionary expedition looking for him to be diagnosed

People often can't accept that children can be dangerous and violent by their nature, so they use the parent as a scapegoat.

When a child has a mental disorder that does not result in this kind of behavior the parents are rarely blamed.

People need to accept that children can also have disfunctioning mirror neutrons and that they need treatment for that. Instead of looking for a scapegoat because of cognitive dissonance.

[Permanent Revolutionary]

One thing that is worthy to note here, is that psychopathy and sociopathy are not the same, according to some researchers.
Psychopathy is a mental illness caused by an physochologcal disorder, while sociopathy, is the onset of "physochopathic tendencies" because of sociological issues.

But I digress.... Maybe you could say that a 9-year old is on his/her way to becoming a psychopath, but it would be harsh to definitivey give someone that young such a diagnosis.