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alomoes
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20 Jan 2015, 9:18 pm

As an aspie, just read through and confirmed it, it sometimes feels like I have no feelings, or seems like it, but then that really sad story makes me cry.

As a note, people who don't feel probably do exist. People who do feel, but feel "wrong" in a sense also likely exist.



Nebogipfel
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26 Jan 2015, 7:55 am

Whether a person feels pleasure, pain or indifference at the misfortunes they render onto others seems to be largely reliant on the narratives they operate under which justify, downplay or discourage that behaviour. Familiarity with a task also tends to mitigate the negative emotions associated with it. When thinking about psychopaths, I tend to wonder at the road that lead them there. If they were educated to that point, I don't think the label of psychopathy helps us to understand what's going on.

I personally don't think that psychopathy is a mental illness in the same way that epilepsy is a mental illness, but that it's probably just a pathologization of certain behaviours that society deems as undesirable (often for good reason).



heavenlyabyss
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26 Jan 2015, 10:09 am

I loved that show Dexter but he wasn't really a psychopath. Throughout the entire series who shows so much empathy it's almost laughable.

Psychopaths have differences in brain structure that can be detected with MRI's. I think it's safe to say that their sense of emotional empathy is highly dampened, but probably not nonexistent.



Nebogipfel
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26 Jan 2015, 2:51 pm

Yes, but isn't that structure partially determined by the things we do and the things that happen to us?

Pathologization often seems to act as a convenient way to avoid questions about the root causes of behaviour, that we don't want answered.



heavenlyabyss
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26 Jan 2015, 4:06 pm

The way I understand psychopaths are born that way. Sociopaths are products of their environment.

That doesn't mean they don't have conscious control over their behavior.