Weeding Out the Psychopathic 1%

Posted by Good German on November 27, 2011

Mitchell Anderson writes in the Toronto Star:

Given the state of the global economy, it might not surprise you to learn that psychopaths may be controlling the world. Not violent criminals, but corporate psychopaths who nonetheless have a genetically inherited biochemical condition that prevents them from feeling normal human empathy.

Scientific research is revealing that 21st century financial institutions with a high rate of turnover and expanding global power have become highly attractive to psychopathic individuals to enrich themselves at the expense of others, and the companies they work for.

A peer-reviewed theoretical paper titled “The Corporate Psychopaths Theory of the Global Financial Crisis” details how highly placed psychopaths in the banking sector may have nearly brought down the world economy through their own inherent inability to care about the consequences of their actions …

Read more here.

Posted in: Banksters, Economics, Empathy, Ethics, Inequality, Occupy Movement, Plunder, Power, Psychology, Psychopathy, Society

DeepCough

Oh, no, no, it wasn’t the lack of regulation, oversight, or enforcement for finance law that caused the bankers to not give a shit about the consequences of their actions, it was a “biochemical inability” to feel empathy, which is scientifically impossible to define, never mind prove.
DeepCough

Oh, no, no, it wasn’t the lack of regulation, oversight, or enforcement for finance law that caused the bankers to not give a shit about the consequences of their actions, it was a “biochemical inability” to feel empathy, which is scientifically impossible to define, never mind prove.
DeepCough

Oh, no, no, it wasn’t the lack of regulation, oversight, or enforcement for finance law that caused the bankers to not give a shit about the consequences of their actions, it was a “biochemical inability” to feel empathy, which is scientifically impossible to define, never mind prove.
http://hormeticminds.blogspot.com/ Chaorder Gradient

thank you
DeepCough

You’re welcome.
DeepCough

You’re welcome.
justagirl

“psychopathy should not be confused with insanity. it is best described by Robert Hare, global expert and psychologist, as “emotional deafness” — a biochemical inability to experience normal feelings of empathy for others.” …so psychopaths are like retarded or something? i wonder if he ever ran biochemical examinations on truly insane people or if those subjects are just hearsay to him..
http://hormeticminds.blogspot.com/ Chaorder Gradient

How can we tell the difference between someone who is “biologically incapable” of feeling empathy, and those who were taught, or chose to treat empathy as an inherent weakness that gets in the way getting more stuff. Correlation not proving causation etc. etc.

how do we know that a belief that reduces the usage of these abilities such as empathy, does not cause the abilities to atrophy. in other words, the biochemistry of a person’s mind can still have cultural causes…
BlindingLight

There will never be wisdom in leadership, because wise people have no desire to lead. They see all as equal. Only those that feel weak and powerless seek power. This world rewards bad behavior. In the end, though, who wants to be King Shit of Turd Island? You dark souls can have this world. It isn’t good enough for me. There are other worlds where the light is known, but this one, not so much. Thank god for eternity and infinity.
Andrew

I don’t see why a neurological cause for psychopathology should be categorically impossible to even define. The article indicates that brain scans are indeed closing in on the areas of the brain involved in empathy.

Furthermore, it seems obvious to me that the lack of financial regulation and oversight might well have been caused by psychopaths in the first place. I see no contradiction.
Arden

What other worlds? Take me to them, please.
DeepCough

What neurological cause could you possibly attribute to these evil, evil “Corporate Psychopaths” when the motive is obviously greed?
Mr Willow

That’s all fine and dandy, but it is ultimately meaningless unless the owners of businesses, political hopefuls, and generally anyone who wishes any amount of authority or control over socio-politico-economic devices are required to have psychiatric evaluations every month/six months/year/two years, which, should it determined that they have some manner of empathetic or emotional retardation, would give grounds for having their position of authority stripped from them.
Anonymous

corporate psychopaths having too many girlfriends
Anonymous

Beam me up, Scottie!
Anonymous

George Soros fits the profile.
Anonymous

Come to think of it – so do The Obamas.
Jin Onikoroshi

greed cannot solely account for their malevolent nature- a greedy person may hurt people because they do not CARE enough to re-direct their actions, or hurt someone whom is in their “way”- but generally do not rampage about deliberately TRYING to be destructive. i can appreciate greed because it has a “goal” - accumulation, but psychopathy is broadly ‘murderous intent’. greed is myopic, evil is not.
patrick

i think he is talking about a belief in reincarnation, being born different time/era/place other than this one. It’s okay to believe in this or anything you want for that matter. Believe in only death if you want to because that will surely come and you will leave this life and never have any memory of it.
“Our lives our made of fictions, what matters most is which ones you choose to believe in.” – Valentine Wiggin
Camron Wiltshire

Very well said. I agree. I’ve heard that most psychological exams given by government agencies seek to cultivate those with psychopathic tendencies and also through indoctrination and cultural conditioning can be led to see that the lens of psychopathy is ‘normal’ and of course anytime you reward a behavior that is detrimental it can enable the worst forms of depravity. What was the experiment agian? oh Yes Millgram experiments. As long as someone is wearing a lab coat or has perceived authority people (sheeple truly) can be lead to commit atrocious acts as long as they are fed and their heads are petted for being a ‘good boy’. Gnosticmedia.com, and Triviumeducation.org go far to examine the psychopathic reality of the engineers of our collective disease through state controlled and monied interest mandated dumbing down via compulsory education. Please check them out and share with anyone you feel wants to enhance their mental fire walls.
JESU JOY OF BACH’S BUTTCHEEKS

A lack of oxytocin….
Anonymous

Well isn’t that just a great big fat lie. There is in fact an infallible test already out there for psychopathy, can’t cheat on it. It measure brain waves and emotional reactions to images and the effort required to control the emotional reactions. The autonomic empathic response is quite real and is the true basis for human co-operation.
So the test exist, the real question is when to apply it and of course when to enforce it’s. The immediately obvious first implementation would be a compulsory test when running for public office beyond that, well, exactly what proportion of school bullies are psychopaths.
Andrew

In my view greed is a neurological condition.
Andrew

Actually you summarize it pretty well. The brain develops its hardwiring over time and this development is greatly affected by events, experiences, and environment (such as culture and family life). Child abuse, for example, alters brain chemistry and even brain architecture. Neurology is learning how to detect these changes.
Andrew

Actually you summarize it pretty well. The brain develops its hardwiring over time and this development is greatly affected by events, experiences, and environment (such as culture and family life). Child abuse, for example, alters brain chemistry and even brain architecture. Neurology is learning how to detect these changes.
Andrew

Actually you summarize it pretty well. The brain develops its hardwiring over time and this development is greatly affected by events, experiences, and environment (such as culture and family life). Child abuse, for example, alters brain chemistry and even brain architecture. Neurology is learning how to detect these changes.
Andrew

When I think about it, the body language of both Barak Obama and George W. Bush rarely seem to match their words, so you may well be right.
Andrew

When I think about it, the body language of both Barak Obama and George W. Bush rarely seem to match their words, so you may well be right.
Andrew

When I think about it, the body language of both Barak Obama and George W. Bush rarely seem to match their words, so you may well be right.
http://blog.mikebrowne.com/ Mike Browne

Great doc about this topic:
http://www.fisheadmovie.com/watch-the-movie
DeepCough

Maybe if they did more methyldioxylenemethamphetamine instead of, say, cocaine, they might have some empathy, huh?
DeepCough

Look, boys and girls, sugarcoat the issue with saccharine arguments all you want, it don’t change the very simple fact that the evil, evil “Corporate Psychopaths” don’t give a shit because they have no incentive to give a shit. If you want a biological argument for the “evil” of the financial industry, then why aren’t “Corporate Psychopaths” likened to an organism without a natural enemy or predator, which can compromise the availability resources to the other lifeforms in the environment? Not good enough for you? Okay, how about the known fact that Wall Street is renowned for cocaine use, a drug that is known to not elicit very empathic responses at all–why isn’t that mentioned in the article or the abstract of the paper? See, I’m not saying you can’t make a biological argument for the Global Financial Crisis, I’m just saying if you’re going to make a biological argument, it should be, y’know, not stupid.
DeepCough

Look, boys and girls, sugarcoat the issue with saccharine arguments all you want, it don’t change the very simple fact that the evil, evil “Corporate Psychopaths” don’t give a shit because they have no incentive to give a shit. If you want a biological argument for the “evil” of the financial industry, then why aren’t “Corporate Psychopaths” likened to an organism without a natural enemy or predator, which can compromise the availability resources to the other lifeforms in the environment? Not good enough for you? Okay, how about the known fact that Wall Street is renowned for cocaine use, a drug that is known to not elicit very empathic responses at all–why isn’t that mentioned in the article or the abstract of the paper? See, I’m not saying you can’t make a biological argument for the Global Financial Crisis, I’m just saying if you’re going to make a biological argument, it should be, y’know, not stupid.
DeepCough

Look, boys and girls, sugarcoat the issue with saccharine arguments all you want, it don’t change the very simple fact that the evil, evil “Corporate Psychopaths” don’t give a shit because they have no incentive to give a shit. If you want a biological argument for the “evil” of the financial industry, then why aren’t “Corporate Psychopaths” likened to an organism without a natural enemy or predator, which can compromise the availability resources to the other lifeforms in the environment? Not good enough for you? Okay, how about the known fact that Wall Street is renowned for cocaine use, a drug that is known to not elicit very empathic responses at all–why isn’t that mentioned in the article or the abstract of the paper? See, I’m not saying you can’t make a biological argument for the Global Financial Crisis, I’m just saying if you’re going to make a biological argument, it should be, y’know, not stupid.
DeepCough

Look, boys and girls, sugarcoat the issue with saccharine arguments all you want, it don’t change the very simple fact that the evil, evil “Corporate Psychopaths” don’t give a shit because they have no incentive to give a shit. If you want a biological argument for the “evil” of the financial industry, then why aren’t “Corporate Psychopaths” likened to an organism without a natural enemy or predator, which can compromise the availability resources to the other lifeforms in the environment? Not good enough for you? Okay, how about the known fact that Wall Street is renowned for cocaine use, a drug that is known to not elicit very empathic responses at all–why isn’t that mentioned in the article or the abstract of the paper? See, I’m not saying you can’t make a biological argument for the Global Financial Crisis, I’m just saying if you’re going to make a biological argument, it should be, y’know, not stupid.
DeepCough

What’s that you say? Politicians lie? NO! It just can’t BE!
DeepCough

What’s that you say? Politicians lie? NO! It just can’t BE!
DeepCough

What’s that you say? Politicians lie? NO! It just can’t BE!
DeepCough

What’s that you say? Politicians lie? NO! It just can’t BE!
Andrew

So you’re saying the fact that they lie is evidence they don’t have a lack of empathy?
http://hormeticminds.blogspot.com/ Chaorder Gradient

Interesting stuff, quote from one of your links seemed to be quite applicable here too

For if you [the rulers] suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves [and outlaws] and then punish them.
-Sir Thomas More (1478-1535), Utopia, Book 1
http://hormeticminds.blogspot.com/ Chaorder Gradient

Wise people never want to lead, this is why the best leaders are the reluctant leaders
http://www.facebook.com/people/Calvin-Cory-Hocker/1097574743 Calvin Cory Hocker

the fact that they lie simply makes them human. that they are politicians shows they are very comfortable with lying.
chubby

the term psychopath is no longer in the DSM though it was the first recognized disorder, too negative for the 1 % ?
guest

The trouble is how to make tests that are disimilar enough to be genius proof. What I’m saying is the tests would have to be made by a psychologist capable of outwitting anyone. In an ideal world we could just cousel them & help them learn empathy.

Weeding Out the Psychopathic 1%

more disinformation

more disinformation