Psychopathy is a personality disorder, like depression or bipolar, in which a person has different personality traits and behavior than what society views as normal due to damages in the brain. Psychopathy comes from one’s genetic makeup or otherwise known as the nature of the person. Have you ever lied or done something wrong and felt guilty about it? Psychopaths do not get this feeling. These people tend to disregard laws and social mores, don’t think much about others, feel no remorse for their actions, are very good at manipulation and can be violent. Someone may begin to wonder what is it that causes someone to believe that this behavior is correct.
The brains of psychopaths have damage to them that can be seen through brain scans. In an interview James Fallon, described damage to the orbital frontal cortex, a shrunken amygdala, and a damaged insular cortex. All these damages to the brain had remained constant throughout different pet scans he looked at for brains of psychopaths. Also in a study done by the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health images of the brains twenty prisoners who committed crimes and were diagnosed with psychopathy were compared to twenty prisoners who committed similar crimes and were not diagnosed with psychopathy. The study shows that psychopaths have reduced connection between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. Both parts of the brain which are associated with feelings like guilt or fear. Prisoners diagnosed with psychopathy showed less coordinated activity and reduced structural integrity in their brain. Damages to the brain is why they feel no remorse. These prisoners diagnosed, don’t realize the crime was wrong and view this as normal behavior.
Although, some people who have the same damages to the brain of a psychopath and the characteristics they may not act out in violent ways and can function in a society. James Fallon, neuroscientist mentioned before, was looking at brain scans of serial killers to find patterns in the brain that correlated to psychopathic behavior. What he found was that his brain scan, which he had for a different study, showed that he fit the brain of a psychopath. Fallon then noticed that he fit some of the traits described for psychopaths. He discovered that not all psychopaths use their traits for harm, some can put it to exceed in the real world. Fallon’s discovery shows that this behavior has to be triggered in their childhood.
If people can have the same brain damage as psychopaths, why is it that only some psychopaths act out in violence, like Charles Manson and Adolf Hitler. This is because they experience a traumatic event early on in their childhood. This could be abuse or neglect from a parent or involvement with drugs. Although nature may cause the characteristics of the brain of a psychopath, the nurture or environment growing up is what can bring them out. A positive or negative childhood is the cause of violent behavior. Psychopaths develop their brain from the nature of their makeup, but won’t act out unless the nurture is negative.
It is interesting to know that being a psychopath is a disease. Although you said it is “like depression or bipolar” being bipolar or depressed seems to affect the individual person with the disease as opposed to psychopaths, who seem to harm others as well. However interesting this post is, the study done was only done on 40 people. Are there more studies like this? If there is not, then how can we be sure that there is a correlation between the two? Perhaps there is a third factor involved. Also, unfortunately, unlike depression and bipolar disorder, two things that can be managed pretty well with the right medication, there is no cure for psychopathy . It can be treated if caught at a young age or in a minor form, but for the most part, psychopaths will always be psychopaths, which is a very scary thought.