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How should we treat psychopaths?
ClayTheScribe
Veteran
What does modern Buddhism have to say about how we should treat psycho/sociopaths?
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Prof. Simon Baron-Cohen has recently produced a book about psychopathy, as he is doing research in Cambridge, UK. But the book was 20 GBP, so I couldn't afford to read all of it (I've been in the bookshop taking sneaky peaks and so far, all I can say is "Interesting...").
One of my psych teachers described the antisocial as one who has the biologic disposition of fearlessness, with unusual amygdala processing. If they do not have a healthy upbringing with moral direction and boundries, there is little impetus for adhering to any kind of normal social morality. However, if given proper motivation, they can channel their biology into a socially acceptable outlet, such as working high steel, race car driver, jet pilot etc. If they have a lot of experience with abuse or social outcasting, then they move toward 'psychopath' behaviors.
I don't know if what was taught is exactly true, because as I said the causes and conditions are not well known, but it keeps with the Buddha's teaching on impermanence. Their behaviors are conditioned, and so they deserve all the compassion we would offer to any of our sick. If you want to get the chills, there is a documentary on youtube on The Iceman. It gives a pretty vibrant account, in a one on one interview with an antisocial hitman.
Caution means marking one's words and actions skilfully.
At arm's length means we can enable, but we cannot heal, and should not try.
Such attempts could be misinterpreted, and rejected in many ways, some not always pleasant.....
Of course having compassion for others doesn't simply mean wishing that they have an easy life filled with luxury and pleasure. We also look at a persons mental suffering and the negative mental states that cause them. So to have compassion for a psychopath means that we wish for them to be free of the negative mental states that cause them and others harm, and not a wish that they win a free vacation to the Bahamas or something.
respectfully, i think you don't understand what a psychopath is. if you did you would not think that keeping them at arms length is ignorant.
Some of them, Narcissists (NPD), borderline personality disorder, and psychopaths, well I can have my compassion from a distance. There is no 'what doesn't kill you will make you stonger' from these close experiences. It either makes you smarter so you can see them coming a mile away from then on or you just spend years recovering.
I know this sounds harsh, I have me and my 3 kids who still deal with the aftereffects of NPD father and grandparents on top of their own illness. We all need to take responsibility to the extent we are able, and my children and I need to take care of our own illness, but not take on what we can't heal from without. And boundaries! Whew, don't mess with those, I have now forbidden grandpa to be around my girls as long as he lives. It is warranted. And then I go to schools and work like crazy to keep our chalenged kids in programs.
As a side note, before we truly had secure facilities for the closest to humane treatment we can manage many cultures made the decision to put others to death. If the society was in danger and the person could not just be sent out I am not sure what else could be done. Now we separate the dangerous from the dangerous and ill. The ones that are ill would quickly be in danger in regular criminal faciliites.
Thank You
If we are rooted into our wisdom and sanity, then we see what is there, not what others wish us to see.
And yes, I have three family members with mental disorders. @Mountains, so I have some experience.
My comments (as I explained) were not through being unsympathetic.
One has to practice a measure of self-preservation around those who are mentally ill. As @Hubris points out, those with a mental illness are not all raving, wide-eyed self-evident individuals. Therefore, in any situation one has to look to one's own personal physical and emotional well-being, in order to be most effective.
How on earth can we be Wisely compassionate otherwise?
Schizophrenics have a lower rate of violence than the general population in every category except self violence, which they are much higher.
It's not even necessarily about violence. When I was managing a student dormitory, one student committed suicide. It turned out she had had symptoms of schizophrenia, but hadn't gotten help. A student in her dorm had tried to be kind and friendly towards her, but the ill student had told her parents by phone that an evil demon was after her, and gave the kind student's name. So when the parents arrived to sort out what had happened. we had to straighten all that out, and convince the parents that the friendly student couldn't harm a fly, and was only trying to be a friend to someone who was clearly troubled. Otherwise the compassionate person may have been implicated in some way. The parents were really out to get her, initially.
Anyway, Federica is a mental health professional, I think we can trust her judgment and advice on this score. This is not to stigmatize anyone, this is just to say that caution is warranted in certain types of cases, and we're unqualified to deal with some people skilfully. We should be mindful of our own limitations.
I second AHeerdt.
However i was really proud my son told me that the man who has the corner across from his school seems really nice. They say hi to each other and once my son gave him a little money. Now when we drive by in the car he waves to my son. He is just a real person, doesn't give us 'the vibe' (my son is very empathic like me) and needs some help.
I think it would be a good idea to become educated regarding mental illness. Have you seen the autism awareness campaign? That is a very good campaign and people are more aware and understanding of autism. There are as many schizophrenic people as autistic. Probably one out of every one hundred or two hundred is schizophrenic. At least that was given out in my pharmacy graduate school when we were learning about the therapeutics of mentally ill patients.
Schiz versus socio is like a difference between Luna and Malfoy. There is humanity in both, but there is a difference in manifestation.
What is this business of balancing a state or national budget by throwing people out on the street? What kind of economic policy is that?! :rant:
famous faces of schizophrenia
@Jeffrey :bowdown:
And that wasn't intended to be funny, either.
In any case I got out, healed a lot, and only sometimes still see the scars. I don't have to deal with that side of the family really but over the summer after my ex got remarried I called about his father. I think I am one pretty tough cookie because I made it clear that his father was not to be around the girls ever again, as long as he lives. On tam's last brithday her stepgrandmother came and not grandpa. Doing that with genearions of narcisissist is 'pretty bomb' as my kids would say.
How does this relate to buddhism, well with NPD and I am assuming some others, the person is very skilled at seeing you better than you see yourself and using personal ego issues to flatter and get into your personal space. So you are the most amazing person! waay better than anyone else makes you feel. So you don't need those others who think you are great but still human. Then once they are gone the switch flips and you are the worst, so bad that you can never even attempt to recover. But the great high feeling is so addictive that of course you want it back. And it does come back at times, followed by the lows that just make you want to disappear, stop breathing, anything to make it stop. But you ar the object and therefore necessary to the process, they cannot do it without you. for all their power you can survive without them much better than they can survive without you, but that does not mean recovery is overnight.
So dealing with your self, practicing self compassion, seeing reality for what it is, knowing you have buddha nature but probably not today in action, those things are all antidotes over time to this and other mental illnesses where the outsiders are more likely to seek help than the person with the disease.
Federica, does that sound about right?
Notice how your anger at psychopaths dissipates somewhat upon learning the cause of psychopathy? How can psychopaths be blamed for their para-limbic system malfunctioning? This is why blame and vengeance is not the way to treat psychopaths (or any criminal). The desire for vengeance is predicated on an ignorance of cause, which leads to a belief in 'free will', and therefore to blame. Think about it: If you learn that someone hacked five people to death with a shovel, you are inclined to treat them as a monster. But if you learn their behavior was caused by a tumor in their brain, you don't hold them responsible, but you do nevertheless want to treat the tumor, or if you can't, you at least want to prevent them from doing further harm. If free will is an illusion, and everything has causes, then ALL criminals and criminal behavior should be treated like the individual with the tumor: they should be treated as individuals who did not choose their own genes or upbringing, and so are not truly 'responsible', and therefore they should be treated with a regard for prevention and rehabilitation, not a free-will-based desire for punishment and vengeance.