How to Recognize a Psychopath Lite

Note: This is part two on this subject. Please start by reading my January 13 post: This is Your Brain on Psychopathy: And For Some, a Cure.  It tells the background story on how James Fallon discovered that he had the brain scan of a psychopath.

Just finished reading James Fallon’s book, The Psychopath Inside: A Neuroscientist’s Personal Journey Into the Dark Side of the Brain. (2013, Penguin Group). This book, like Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work (Paul Babiak and Robert Hare, 2006, Harper) tells us the chilling tale of psychopaths living among us.

Turns out they’re not all murderers, thieves, and abusers. They could be your relatives, neighbors, church buddies, current or ex-spouses, your so-called friends, co-workers, or bosses. Rather than stealing your life or your property; they are more likely to steal your sense of self and your view of reality, maybe even your sanity.

James should know. He is one. Though he isn’t the murdering kind of psychopath, there are a number of murderers in his family tree. Among others: the infamous Lizzy Borden and the murdering King John of England, known as the most brutal and hated of the English monarchs (before he signed the Magna Carta). In his family are a number of folks who also seem to have the warrior gene; they are fearless, aggressive boxers and street fighters. They actually LIKE to fight.

James Fallon, it turns out, is a psychopath lite, and he has the brain scan to prove it.

Unlike what we originally thought, not all psychopaths are victims of childhood abuse or products of bad homes (although these settings can make it worse). It turns out it’s all in their heads. Not in the traditional sense of making it up, but in their heads as in: brain chemistry and structure, and that brain chemistry and structure shows up on a brain scan. Interesting, there is an absence of brain activity in the prefrontal cortex, and so the resulting scan looks like a lack of brain matter or darkness, hence, the subtitle: A Neuroscientist’s Personal Journey Into the Dark Side of the Brain.

I could relate to James’ family history. I am a descendant of the McCoys, as in the McCoy-Hatfield feud, and you just don’t go around killing, feuding, and dominating people (seemingly justified or not) unless you have some sort of brain abnormality (e.g. psychopathy). Rest assured, there are good guys in the McCoy family tree, as I’m sure there are in the Fallon tree.

James shows us the evidence of key brain abnormalities that cause a person to behave in ways that go against the norms of our society and that we have deemed unhealthy and dysfunctional.

James never committed a murder, a violent assault, or was convicted of a crime. However, he admits to such dysfunctional behaviors as: a narcissistic preoccupation with meeting his own needs rather than the needs of others, a constant seeking of external stimuli, a ginormous lack of empathy for others, wife cheating, and substance abusing. He also likes to party in a frenzied state of mania.

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James wants us to believe that he is on the other side of his hard-driving, risk taking, narcissistic, psychopathic-lite ways now that he has fully accepted that his brain scan has the markings of the psychopath. But forgive me if I withhold judgment until I see years, maybe even decades, of progress.

James, here are some ideas for book two: The Psychopath Delivered From Evil. Psychopath Reformed. Psychopath Interrupted. A Psychopath Uses Neuroplasticity to Get to the Light Side of the Brain. (Neuroplasticy, a blog post for the future.) Or maybe simply: Psychopath in Recovery.

While you’re at it, you could benefit from AA and working the steps. Looking forward to hearing about steps four and eight (made a searching and fearless moral inventory and made a list of all the persons we harmed and became willing to make amends to them). That gives me an idea: 12 steps for psychopaths. I think it could catch on.

At any rate, until then, I’ll keep watching my back to guard against my McCoy relatives, so-called friends, bosses, or co-workers who may share the traits you unmask in your autobiography.

An important note about my first blog (January 13) on James’ book:  Seeing only Anderson Cooper’s interview, and reading the reviews of the book caused me to be hopeful. At last, I surmised, here was hope for crazy people who are genetically programmed for violence and destruction.  After all, I thought, he had the brain of a full blown psychopath and yet, he did not become one.  Nurture had won out over nature.

But after reading his book and fully understanding the psychopath lite personality, I was sad. Sad because psychopath lites cause grave hurt too and leave victims and destruction in their wake. And I see now that there are many psychopath lites among us. I recognize in James a number of people I know. And though I am happy you guys aren’t murdering people, you still make me edgy, squeamish, and you’re no fun to be around (even in your manic phases). So in that sense, I’ve lost some hope.

Then again, I am grateful to James for his cutting edge work, his evidence that there really is a psychopath brain, his unabashed tell-all, and his insider’s description of the psychopath lite. I’m just glad I’m not his wife, his daughter, or his sister.

Sanity now!

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