Within this essay I will reflect upon the statement “The psychopath is not mentally ill; he is evil.
“By corresponding this with my understanding of mental illnesses and its repercussions and secondly my understanding of Evil by applying the Christian values I witness when I was little, and secondly the philosophical thought of Thomas Hobbes.
The statement “ the psychopaths is not mentally ill” made me realize that I didn’t truly understand what it meant to be mentally ill was, however I thought that a good starting place would be to firstly understand what it meant to be “healthy”. The first place I looked at was what it meant to be ‘mentally healthy’. according to the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, being mentally ‘healthy’ is a “state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully” producing an interesting idea that being ‘healthy’ implying a deep connection with firstly acting sociable and secondly rationally. Mental illness on the other hand was as expected, the complete opposite to being ‘healthy’. It is described to be “health conditions that are characterized by alterations in thinking, mood, or behaviour (or some combination thereof) associated with distress and/or impaired functioning” inferring that to be mentally unwell is to gain an issue with you mind that causes changes to you personality relative to how you were perceived while ‘healthy’, therefore causing changes in your rational and also you sociability, the information also dictated that mental illness are a developing factor, that derive from social or environmental stressor at any time and to anyone.
With this information consider...
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...Essay I have identified within the confines of my understanding firstly, what it means to be mentally ill and secondly what it means to be ‘Evil’. Therefore I would like to amend the original statement from “The psychopath is not mentally ill; he is evil.” To, Psychopathy is a biological difference and therefore cannot be defined as a mental illness; however that is not to say that psychopathic people cannot develop mental illnesses. Secondly, while psychopathic can be defined under both Hobbesian and Christian theology as generically evil, there label is dependent on how a society deems them to be.
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A society ruled by a single commander who possessed total power can be a daunting phenomenon. Political philosopher Thomas Hobbes’ believed in this system of government control, advocating that a supreme leader was the most effective mechanism to create an absolute sovereign system of government and remove civil war within society.. Hobbes believed in the social contract, the hypothetical idea founded in the state of nature that asserts that individuals must renounce their common laws, and agree to the ideals of the social contract (Reid, Jeffrey) . The graphic novel V for Vendetta, written by Allen Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd, presents a society ruled by
The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry is a book by Jon Ronson, where he investigates the idea of psychopathy and the many individuals involved. Psychopathy is defined as “a person who is mentally ill, who does not care about other people, and who is usually dangerous or violent.” Ronson visited mental health professionals and psychopaths in order to determine the right way to control the diagnosis of mental health disorders. Throughout the novel, Ronson focuses on three main themes, which are the definition of madness, unnecessary mental diagnoses and the problem with confirmation bias.
For my book report, I have read and evaluated Dr. Hales book titled Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of Psychopaths Among Us, published by The Guilford Press. The purpose of the book was to bring awareness to psychopaths that live among us and will be describe in farther details in the paper. I will evaluated the purpose, strengths, weakness of the book and include a summarized portion for others to understand.
Psychopath and Sociopath are so closely related that many don’t know they are different illness. Both psychopath and sociopath have similar illness but their factors are completely different. Study’s shows this may be a product of nature vs nurture. Secondly, Psychopath behavior is shown to be controlled while sociopath is shown to have uncontrollable behavior. Thirdly, there violence outburst is different, psychopath usually plan out their crimes while sociopaths are erratic and careless with their crimes. Fourthly, Psychopaths don’t feel any type emotion towards others but they can be in relationships when it comes beneficial to them. Sociopaths often don’t have relationships, they don’t become attached to others. Lastly, Psychopath are actually
Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher who lived from 1588-1679. He attended Oxford University where he studied classics. His occupation was a tutor, but he also traveled around Europe to meet with scientists and to study different forms of government. He became interested in why people allowed themselves to be ruled, and what would be the best form of government for England. Thomas Hobbes was the first great figure in modern moral philosophy.
However, Glenn and Raine (2014) argue that the emotional deficits characteristic of psychopaths diminish their rational capacity, making them unable to be held accountable for the rash and harmful decisions. Additionally, psychopaths may display knowledge of right and wrong, however their understanding is substantially compromised (Maibom 2005). Therefore, because they cannot understand moral emotions, moral transgressions fail to motivate them and they cannot be held morally responsible for their actions. They treat moral transgressions as equal to conventional transgressions (Levy 2008); to them, they are merely breaking the rules. And although breaking the rules begets consequences, a short attention span prevents psychopaths from anticipating consequences. Nevertheless, say, for example, a psychopath on a different portion of the spectrum is aware of the consequences. In this case, they would be still be indifferent because their feelings of grandeur lead them to believe that they are removed from punishment (Gao, Glenn, Schug, Yang, Raine 2009). For these reasons, many argue that psychopaths should not be held responsible for their behaviors.
The type of crimes that these offenders commit can either be minor or violent crimes. It has been an issue on how people think that having a mental illness leads to violent crimes, when in reality not all of them commit violent crimes. An example of an offender committing these type of crimes would be Johnnie Baxstrom. Johnnie Baxstrom was a mentally ill offender who had committed numerous crimes throughout his life like drinking and property offenses. It wasn’t until October 21, 1958 where he committed a violent act by attacking and stabbing a police officer with a knife. In essence, according to studies people with severe psychological illnesses are more than 10 times more likely to be victims of violent crimes than the general
Those who admired Machiavelli’s “might is right” concept and ruled with an iron fist along with a nation behind them. Examples being Adolf Hitler and Julius Caesar who felt no empathy or regret for their cruel actions. The political and social leaders, such as William Shakespeare who convinced the world to believe in his work without anybody being aware of the messages. What makes a psychopath unique is what distinguishes him from non-psychopaths. The lack of the feelings that make us all human, truly making them nothing but exceptional. When a psychopath is given power and the right to leadership the abnormal-astonishing mind has the capability to either force great things happen, or the destroy these great things. After living in a world that these great figures have ruled, it seems any average mind in power can not fulfill the legacy left from the supreme psychopathic minds in history. The average mind will never be able to achieve the level of knowledge reached by a psychopath in power, because knowledge is power. With the ability to block out human emotion, and use your natural mind in ways that are impossible for others makes psychopaths the true superman race in society. A psychopathic leader, is the strongest type of
In prehistory, the idea of a mental illness was challenging to comprehend. The people of these ancient times thought it was magical spirits o...
Are psychopaths like Alice, “mad or bad?” (page 21). The question whether psychopaths are mentally ill or just a bad seed has caused much debate. Dr. Hare explains that the problem is not only labeling them mad or bad, but who deals with them. “Does the treatment or control of the psychopath rightly fall to mental health professionals or to the correctional system?” (page 21). Not only are professionals confused on how to classify psychopaths, but the media also creates confusion. Psychopath means mental illness and the media uses the word to classify someone as, “insane or crazy”, (page 22). Dr. Hare explains that even though psychopaths, “cannot be understood in terms of traditional views of mental illness”, they, “are not disoriented or out of touch with reality, nor do they experience the delusions, hallucinations, or intense subjective distress that characterize most other mental disorders…psychopaths are rational and aware of what they are doing and why.” (page 22). Most professionals use the term psychopath and sociopath as one in the same. Since DSM-III, antisocial personality disorder has been used in place of psychopath and sociopath. Philippe Pinel was the first psychiatrist describe a psychopath and Harvey Cleckley was one of the first successful publish a book describing a psychopath to the general public . Pinel used the term, “insanity without delirium”, (page 25). Cleckley wrote The Mask of Sanity, which influenced researchers in North America. Dr. Robert Hare explained that WWII was the first time clinicians felt a need to diagnosis people with psychopathy. Due to the draft, there was a need to weed out the people could disrupt or harm the military structure. Dr. Robert Hare realized how hard it was to identify a true psychopaths from rule breakers and developed the Psychopathy Checklist. This checklist is used world wide to help clinicians identify true
“Without Conscience" by Robert D. Hare is one aimed towards making the general public aware of the many psychopaths that inhabit the world we live in. Throughout the book Hare exposes the reader to a number of short stories; all with an emphasis on a characteristic of psychopaths. Hare makes the claim that close monitoring of psychopathy are vital if we ever hope to gain a hold over Psychopathy- A disorder that affects not only the individual but also society itself. He also indicates one of the reasons for this book is order to correctly treat these individuals we have to be able to correctly identify who meets the criteria. His ultimate goal with the text is to alleviate some of the confusion in the increase in criminal activity by determining how my of this is a result of Psychopathy.
Thomas Hobbes thoughts on human nature derive from his childhood. According to Jean Hampton who wrote, “She brought twins to birth, myself and fear at the same time” (282) Hobbes believed that fear...
He started out on with philosophy of political science while on his trips and visits to other countries outside of England to listen to other scientists and learn different forms of government. While studying, Thomas Hobbes wondered about why people were allowing themselves to be ruled and what would a great form of government for England. He reasoned that people were naturally wicked and shouldn’t be trusted to govern themselves because they were selfish creatures and would do anything to better their position and social status. These people, when left alone will go back to their evil impulses to get a better advantage over others. So Thomas Hobbes concluded that the best form of government would an absolute monarchy, which is a government
What is a psychopath? What type of person can be characterized by this and how do they come to be? But first before we can answer these questions we must first know what a psychopath is. Psychopaths are people suffering from chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behaviors; clinically it is a person who has a lack of what we would consider a conscience. Psychopaths are seen to suffer from a lack of empathy because of psychological, genetic and environmental factors. Scientists have many theories concerning psychopaths. Scientist do not have a definite clear cut answer on what is the cause for psychopathy but they have many ideas; nature and the nurture of the person. Nature is the genes that the person carries. The nurture of the person when they were a child is simply means how they were treated when they were growing up and/or how they were raised. Some scientists even consider it a possibility that it could be a mixture of the two.
The media most often showcases psychopaths as individuals who are inherently evil and dangerous towards themselves and others. Yet, this concept of psychopathy goes far beyond this idea of pure evil and instead necessitates a needed psychological understanding. These individuals, psychopaths, are generally characterized by a lack of empathy and conscience. Indeed, psychopath’s indifference to the repercussions of their actions combined with other characteristics such as hostility and aggression make for a potentially dangerous personality (Lyken, 1996, p.30). In order to identify a psychopath’s recidivism, it is important to differentiate them from sociopaths who, instead of having a psychological impairment that makes it difficult for them to socialize, have been systematically under socialized (Lyken, 1996, p.30). In accordance. psychologists have developed the methods such as the Psychopathy Checklist- Revised (PCL-R) to help identify those with psychopathic tendencies (Walters, 2012, p.409). That is why predictions of recidivism among psychopaths is most efficient when done