Psychopathy: A Misunderstood Personality Disorder
Via ScienceDaily:
Psychopathic personalities are some of the most memorable characters portrayed in popular media today. These characters, like Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, Frank Abagnale Jr. from Catch Me If You Can and Alex from A Clockwork Orange, are typically depicted as charming, intriguing, dishonest, guiltless, and in some cases, downright terrifying.
But scientific research suggests that psychopathy is a personality disorder that is widely misunderstood.”Psychopathy tends to be used as a label for people we do not like, cannot understand, or construe as evil,” notes Jennifer Skeem, Professor of Psychology and Social Behavior at the University of California, Irvine. Skeem, Devon Polaschek of Victoria University of Wellington, Christopher Patrick of Florida State University, and Scott Lilienfeld of Emory University are the authors of a new monograph focused on understanding the psychopathic personality that will appear in the December issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a journal of the Association…
You Don’t Want to Know
Tōshōgū shrine, Nikkō, Japan. Photo: David Monniaux (CC)
Via ScienceDaily:
The less people know about important complex issues such as the economy, energy consumption and the environment, the more they want to avoid becoming well-informed, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.
And the more urgent the issue, the more people want to remain unaware, according to a paper published online in APA’s Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
“These studies were designed to help understand the so-called ‘ignorance is bliss’ approach to social issues,” said author Steven Shepherd, a graduate student with the University of Waterloo in Ontario. “The findings can assist educators in addressing significant barriers to getting people involved and engaged in social issues.”
Through a series of five studies conducted in 2010 and 2011 with 511 adults in the United States and Canada, the researchers described “a chain reaction from ignorance about a subject to dependence on and…
Has Neuroscience Disproven Evil?
Via Modern Mythology:
In “Is Myth Dead?” in The Immanence of Myth, I talked about some of the misconceptions that exist between what falls under the purview of science, and what belongs instead to myth, or as it is more commonly known, narrative. And it is a direct result of misconceptions discussed there that we see a constant glut of so-called “science” articles making claims such as “neuro scientists say that evil no longer exists,” (Slate article) or “neuroscience versus philosophy, taking aim at free well.” (Nature.com article). Let me use these two articles as an example of what is actually an epidemic issue that needs immediate and complete overhaul.
The Slate article is considerably more egregious than the latter, as it presents a singular interpretation as the only possible answer to a very complicated question that has challenged the best humans minds throughout our sordid history.
However, both are unified in this particular…
Discover The Lost History of ‘Hidden Wisdom’
Here’s author and Freemason Tim Wallace-Murphy speaking at the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library of the Grand Lodge of New York in May 2010. This presentation is based on his book Hidden Wisdom: Secrets of the Western Esoteric Tradition.
That Old Black Magick
The Infinite and the Beyond — Podcast: Episode #008 — That Old Black Magick
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In this episode of The Infinite and the Beyond, we eplore the darker aspects of occult history by tracing the origins of the black magick tradition to the ancient grimoires and the early years of the Catholic Church in A Corner in the Occult.
We take a personal stab and hopefully kill the concepts of good and evil as we study how they are understood and often applied in one’s life. We have some fun with a capital W which addresses a long standing concern of mine.
In our journey through The Kybalion, we look into the Principle of Polarity which addresses polaric concepts and their empty dependence on each other and their illusionary, if not typically superficial, professed separatness.
I read listener email and announce a contest for this episode. I play a variety of show promos in support of the podkin and other podcasts I enjoy. All this and more as we address the controversial idea and existence of black magick from a traditional as well as from a philosophical perspective throughout the entirety of the show.
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