Google Zeitgeist is a collection of talks by people who are changing the world. Hear entrepreneurs, CEOs, storytellers, scientists, and dreamers share their visions of how we can shape tomorrow.
Fascinating. I wonder how many people in the world live their lives unaware that they're psychopathic. We only really hear about the criminal psychopaths.
@@Laura-bq4um Well they're really good at not being affected by job performance. Which ironically helps them to better focus and perform better. Their carelessness helps them in that regard. But this is only a positive as long as they care enough to do their job. These personality traits have both positives and negatives, like any personality traits. Psychopaths might be good at handling highly stressful situations, but they struggle with social connection. It's one thing is to create relationships. It's another to actually maintain those relationships. The mask tend to slip, and you'll realize how little they actually care about you.
Have you ever dealt with a narcissist often times they have a lot of similarities sing with borderline personality disorder and a lot of others it doesn’t mean they’re violent or dangerous or bad to society it’s just the way the brain works 😌
Speaking first hand it's very easy to hide when you aren't violent/a killer. You can understand really well what someone wants and just give it to them. Specifically, you can say the right things or convey the right emotions to move the conversation how you want it, and it usually avoids conflict while getting what you want. I have my family, and a bunch of friends and with all of them no clue. I don't want to kill anyone, but I do find myself leeching and using people to get what I personally want. I try not to lie although it's pathological, simply to avoid being caught in a lie. I know I'm not alone and have encountered at least 2 others in my life and we did not get along. I do appreciate the things people do for me but I also don't have an emotional connection to them. I've been in what I thought was love but simply was a sexual attraction on a deep scale. I do find the idea of a wife and kids to be a goal if I'm honest because I'd like someone to myself, and the ability to mold my child into what I believe could be near perfect, or could continue my lineage as I have accepted I am not god and will die (for some reason 16y/o me thought I was basically god) . I nearly confessed to a friend but decided against it simply to avoid problems. All in all, though, I consider myself a good man who will do right by the people around me the best I can, as to hopefully build a close tribe of my own people.
As a lecturer in developmental psychology I find it fascinating that an individual with 9 or more of the symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder would be able to self regulate and stop to reorganize his intended reactions.
@@brightpage1020 i believe what is occurring is a self actualization by Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder, a compulsion to organize what looks like a diagnosis but is a repetition of a diagnosis.
I understand why people are drawn to him, even in full disclosure of his psychopathy, he is outwardly charming, likeable, funny, interesting and keenly intelligent. Love the tongue in cheek humour.
@@ciobalina7445 That’s the whole ruse. If the wheels are turning in his head, that he knows what he’s doing is working, he’ll keep at it, not because he enjoys socializing with everyone, but because it makes him feel important. It would be on the spectrum of “evil” but a very mild form, and one that doesn’t spiral out into criminal activity.
@@ciobalina7445 that term evil is not rightly used. If a person is born with a defect in the brain which affects his empathy/behaviour/emotions, it shouldn't be termed as evil.
@@manavchowdhury1337 Actually, it is used properly. Evil is about a person’s character. By your logic, we wouldn’t be able to call anyone evil. It should be clear that almost everyone who is trully evil has something wrong in their brain.
@@magicunclefergaloreilly6699 Northern Europe, very homogenous, very environmentally harsh, and therefore high trust. That is until they started importing the third world en masse.
Exactly what I was thinking. How many psychopaths are walking around undetected because they simply didn’t have the environment growing up that would lead to an expression of the negative behavior we so commonly associate with psychopaths.
Well, I guess it's unsettling to have someone who openly describes himself as a psychopath standing there in front of you, even if he's not a violent one. The thing is, he comes across as quite charming and funny, and that's a psychopathic trait. So I think the uncomfortable ones were thinking "is he manipulating us into liking him?"
Good Golly Miss Molly My mother and I decided we have a few psychopaths in our family. Through educating myself, I think I've become more sensitive to spotting them but who can be so sure. I do appreciate his honesty. I don't know if you watched the series: Person of Interest. The character Shaw appeared to be a psychopath.
Kasnar Burns you and your mother *decided* you have a few psychopaths in your family??? Uh... you do realize it doesn’t work like that, right???? Psychopathy is a complex diagnosis. Just because someone is careless, reckless, violent, an asshole, etc., doesn’t mean they’re a psychopath..
@@beautifulexplosives259 I would say most of those behaviors you mentioned do spring from people who have psychopathy. They don't care about the feelings of others, do not have empathy, otherwise they wouldn't be capable of the behaviors you mentioned.
This entire good and bad traits reminds me of a Star Trek episode where James Kirk has a transporter malfunction that creates 2 Captain Kirk where one is "evil" which is characterized by impulsiveness but is strong and one is "good" which is characterized by compassion but is weak. Both are required for a strong leader. I think it's called the Enemy Within. Serial killers are missing the compassion and empathy.
don't be childish. psychopaths extremely rarely turn into serial killers. most of them turn into world leaders. kings, presidents, generals, bankers, stock brokers, venture capitalists, politicians and CEOs, nobody calls them KILLERS. monsters whose orders were genocidal or borderline inhumane, whose actions incited wars, coups, murders, and/or ended up in environmental catastrophes through which children actively grew up into damaged people, incapable of compassion for a reason. they give them medals and Nobel piece prizes instead.
@@milanstevic8424 "nobody calls them killers" dude we are living in 2021, they're saying "eat the rich" now. Black Sabbath wrote war pigs in 1970 plenty of people have been calling kings, presidents, generals, bankers, stock brokers, venture capitalists, politicians, CEOS, etc. for decades
He got it. It is not who you are inside, what you feel, how you are described or how you identify yourself. You are what you act out in the world. "Ye shall know them by their deeds". If only everyone realized that...
@@BeardLAD When dealing with psychopaths you truly need to stop looping into the lymbic system... wake up, you are dealing with a monster inside a human body!!!!!!! Beware!!! This is no joke... we truly feel compassion towards these monsters inevitably because of that. It's the normal way for human beings to think.
Inefficient for what? As the lecturer pointed out, it depends on what the objectives are. Most psychopaths wouldn't have survived in a tribal society unless they became ruthless leaders, like some tribes of chimps. Nobody in their sane minds would want to be lead by such people, so it is mostly through force and manipulation they can achieve it.
They do have feelings though, hence the terrible persecution and revenge for hurts real or imaginative. I once heard a well-known Autist claim that she has no feelings and therefore is good with troubled people. She said she feels light or dark at different situations and people though, - which means feelings, I claim.Only because we aren't aware of our feelings and are too much up in our heads instead, doesn't mean that we don't have feelings.
Psychopathy is a defence mechanism. Either they, or their ancestors, were severely damaged and they are the result. I say ancestors, as I'm referring to those born with primary Psychopathy, which is genetic.
Great mental floss regarding nature and nurture. I'd like to see his brain scans while he was engaged in those tasks of behavioral self-moderation. If it lit up the dead areas, that would be fairly revolutionary in the growing scientific field of neural plasticity and in turn cognitive-behavioral efficacy for supposed psychological diseases that we have previously written off as ''incurable'' in modern society.
This is what is known as the "one truth". Before the modern era that truth was found in religion, now many people find it in science. But science is not a body of knowledge, it is a method for testing our knowledge. Yet still many are confused by what it means to "trust the science". A published research paper is not "science", science is the toolset used to produce such paper. Invoking the toolset to justify what is has created is asinine. Consider a carpetener with the very best tools, but all the works he produces are garbage, should you still pay him top dollar because he uses the best tools? My point im trying to reach is, don't have absolute trust in medicine. Nor do I think you should automatically reject medicine, but the pharma corps want to write into the history books that everything is fixable via pill, using science as a trojan horse.
@Shimmy Shai The point about behavior in psychopaths vs other lets say 'neurodivergent' people, is that of MOTIVATION. It is very hard to get a totally self-interested person motivated to help someone else in a non-(also)-self-serving way. In fact it might be impossible, but then again we have records of criminals who learn a lot about law etc in prison and get out, and are able to have enough self-discipline to lead a reasonably law-abiding life, without doing anything to land them back in jail again. So it *must* be possible for some psychopaths if not for all of them. If they don't get the same emotional 'reward' that most other people do in helping someone else, I think they may fail to see the point of this behavior, unless they are capable of imagining how all the pieces (of various people helping each other) fit together to complete the entire beautiful whole of a functioning society. The thing is: by their entire orientation / life philosophy being one of self-interest, they are automatically not interested in other people, other than 'what the others can do for _them_', and by not being able to empathize OR sympathize with others, they are not seeing others in a true way as fully human individuals but more like as non-real characters in a video game or else as objects/meat puppets. This includes other family members, although some psychopaths are able to see family members as being 'extensions of themselves' which is both good and bad, meaning they may hesitate more to hurt them in the sense of like, say, if they see a sibling or parent as being 'their arm', they don't want to smash their own arm with a hammer or saw it off, but also, this means, they may see smashing it or sawing it off (if they perceive it as 'gangrenous') as being a hard but necessary means to an end in their own view. So family members are a bit _safer_, but they are not SAFE.
@Shimmy Shai (part 2) It's a form of emotional blindness that also extends deeply into the foundation of one's character. The fact that there is generally no true self-reflectivity or worry about one's own character, or drive to change or improve (at least traditionally, or at the beginning), is really a major problem especially in terms of changing / getting therapy. They can SAY they're doing anything/everything to change, but actually doing the thing in their own head / when no one else is looking (which is more important than just claiming to do it), is an entirely different story. It's not like other people who have character flaws and outwardly cover them up while secretly worrying about them / trying to fix them, and who are being honest with themselves... AFAIK psychopaths, at least in the earlier part of their lives, cannot see themselves as anything less than perfect and the center of the universe. At least, I have a very hard time believing that they can. If they _can_ try to see this, they will have achieved the first major step in self improvement. They don't need to see the me-vs-you situation as a 'black and white' or 'all or nothing' thing as in 'you suck and I'm great' or 'I suck and you're great'... really it's more like a sliding scale of KIND and DEGREE rather than of merely "one or the other" thing. It's more like, many other people _do_not_ see life 'as a contest' or a race, and thus do not act accordingly. This doesn't mean people of that philosophy/brain type(s) (non-psychopaths who more naturally care about / help others) are 'stupid' or 'easily left in the dust' but rather that for their own personal life philosophy, that kind of thing (life being a gigantic pissing contest / race to the top) is not _important_ to them. It is not really what makes them happy, and they are able to derive a great deal of satisfaction / happiness with life through other means. It is also situational, in that some individuals will act better / more ethically / more usefully both to themselves AND others in a given situation than others will, in other situations, but different can be true of the SAME individuals, in different situations, as people have different personal strengths. These are probably the most fundamental reasons why they either can't change or have a very hard time changing: 1. they don't trust others, not in an emotional / variable sort of way like in 'broken/damaged' or otherwise neurodivergent way, but in a fixed, unchanging and unemotional way, as they see life as a sort of ladder to the top or a sort of dog-eat-dog world, and naturally assume everyone is lying to them about nearly everything, including trying to help them, (EVEN WHEN it makes no logical sense for the other person to be lying to them about something!!!). Thus, true sincerity is probably a concept which they naturally cannot understand from the *inside* or intuitively, or only learn about thru caring enough to learn about it / lots of self-motivation and study. I have seen presumed psychopaths laugh at sincere and caring individuals and call them 'fools', 'gullible', 'easily manipulated', and 'sheeple', not realizing the real complexity that actually underlies these behaviors. They seem to genuinely believe people like that are actually simpler than they are and somehow functioning on a lower level, probably by themselves not actually experiencing this kind of functioning from within and so understanding what makes it work, which actually makes it very high-level behavior.
(Part 3) Their own totally-self-interested, completely-self-serving, me-against-the-world life philosophy seems to be OK for them and work for them, since they (at least in the beginning) continually don't care about others or see them as in any way equal, and so due to this overriding philosophy / mentality, it is really hard or impossible (depending upon the individual, their age, their life experiences etc) for them to do anything for anyone else in a non-self-serving way, as mentioned above, as not only do they not get an emotional reward, but they see it as merely slowing down their own drive towards their goals. So they don't have a PROBLEM with being completely self-interested, and not having a _problem_ with it means they're unlikely to do anything to try to _fix_ it. I am not at all sure how to get people to care who are physically missing the brain structures necessary to enable them to care, but I will put some theories below, based on stuff I've read / people I've met. Now it sounds like I'm being very harsh towards psychopaths, and I am, but it is not to provoke some rise out of them (since I don't know who reading this is / isn't a psychopath and so I don't intend any of this PERSONALLY towards any specific individual) but rather to COMMUNICATE MORE EFFECTIVELY to non-psychopaths reading this thread, what it is probably like, so that they can hopefully make more informed decisions in dealing with these kinds of people, instead of assuming things about them that probably aren't true. I do hope that some real psychopaths read it, and even if they laugh at me / the philosophy, that as the years pass, they will realize there is a great deal of truth and reality in it, in the way most people are / most of the world works, and that perhaps it can help them improve, if they've gone up against the world and realized that society doesn't function properly when populated by people entirely like them, or really function at all. This is, unfortunately, why most people would rather just cut off a psychopath from contact entirely than deal with them, as it's not only dangerous, but also exhausting due to the predatory/parasitic behavior. Hopefully after being cut off enough by enough people, a typical psychopath will realize that they DO need to work with others a little bit in order to achieve more of their own personal (law abiding) goals, and will adjust their behavior accordingly. Hopefully that, even if they are unwilling or unable to see others as total equals, they will still see that others want to be treated with some _respect_ and will hopefully try to discover what 'respect' means to the average person in order to give them at least a basic modicum of respect 'as a social lubricant'. That doesn't mean I'm advising, like therapists to 'never try to psychologically etc help a psychopath' but more like 'know what you're getting into, treat them with respect but never trust them, and don't expect real or continued improvement, unless they happen to see/understand some form of improvement as also a benefit to them'. I realize that trust is a form of respect, so therapists/others need to show them a modified form of respect absent of trust, and they(the psychopaths themselves) need to realize that the absence of trust is not intended to 'diss' them (as it might 'diss' a non psychopath), but rather is a self-preservation move on the part of the therapist/other person helping, due to the very nature of their character, and is supposed to be a smart and good thing. They also realize that a savvy therapist will be looking at changes in their behavior / day to day life rather than listening to much self-reporting, due to the absence of trust / presumption of continual lying, and so they need to put in the work to actually show some improvement or else the therapist won't want to waste their time with that person, as they have many other people to help. Of course I'm making the therapist sound a bit mean, but given the danger and/or timewasting involved when dealing with a true psychopath, they most likely will need to adopt some sort of different attitude than with dealing with most other clients, and the psychopath must realize it's not _intended_ to be mean, again as mentioned in the previous paragraph. The psychopath (and this may be hard) needs to _not_take_that_personally_ and realize that again, the real world does not revolve totally around them, and that there are so many other people needing help, and only so many therapists to go around to help all those other people. If they truly want help on some level, they need to _demonstrate_ their capability / willingness to change, because given the nature of psychopathy, once another person finds out they are a psychopath, that other person will understandably just assume that the psychopath is or could be lying all or most of the time, or at least manipulating if not outright lying, let's say due to the historical behavior of SO MANY OTHER psychopaths. But this is first presuming that the psychopath wants help / wants to go to therapy unbidden as opposed to say court ordered / family ordered therapy they may be trying to get out of, (as they don't see the point). This is one reason (besides bad behavior) which is why the unfortunate brush-up / dust-up of they vs the law / law enforcement sometimes DOES work, in that by understanding more and more of the law, etc etc as spelled out in books etc in black and white, they start being able to better adjust to the norms of society, if never 100%, as MANY of these norms have by now been written into laws, with some explanation behind them. Unfortunately, for some individuals this only happens AFTER going to jail/prison, and for still others, they completely have no desire whatsoever to fit into society or follow ANY rules / treat ANY other people with respect and thus might be doomed to stay in prison etc forever, if they are already there.
toodleloo I reckon he has a natural curiosity to find the truth about stuff... which has led him here. It is indeed great as it debunks so many myths about psychopaths.
@@tamna5044 I got a notification but it didn't reach here. So, maybe normal for you may not be normal for me or normal for me may not be normal for you. Everyone sees normal differently.
@@andina5269 You think atheists have no compassion? Think again. It's just atheists don't need a religious dogma to have that. By the way, buddists monks try to distance themselves from emotion. But they're not atheists (or yes, in a way they are, they don't believe in a god). Are you saying they're not compassionate? It's making decisions through emotions that make you easily misled and indoctrinated.
@@carpetclimber4027 I don't mean to say or insinuate that atheists have no compassion. I'm pretty sure there are atheists out there who have better character than a religious person. I am just saying that majority of the scientists I see at least in the Western world are atheists.
Interesting how this guy's whole family thought his psychopathy was obvious, but he neglected to provide any examples of his behavior. I wonder what he's not telling us?
Could be anything. He even could be a killer and we wouldn´t know unless he wanted us to. He is smart and extremely charming. Im rarely intimidated, but this guy is dangerous. If he acts like this in normal conversations I probably wouldn´t have come across the thought of him being a psychopath.
psychopathy doesn't mean he's hiding a dead body in the basement, it could simple things like lack of empathy, lack of anxiety, a stone cold reaction to catastrophic events or otherwise zero emotional to what most people would react to etc. Doesn't mean they are not charming or humorous these are not emotion more logic personas
He spend 20+ minutes talking about himself instead of explaining the last (most important) part of the talk, I guess narcissistic habits die hard! hahaha
Narcissistic side of a psychopath inhibits(usually like is in Fallons case) to admit to the fact, that our current state of affairs in general is in a huge risk to lead all the complex life of the planet to go extinct. This is due to characteristics of psychopaths. In the big picture, we are in a huge risk to destroy such a huge portion of our habitat, that we do not have the capacity for ex. secure all the nuclear power plants(resent findings from ocean floor sediments near Antarctica shows us, that the sea level will most likely rise abruptly & not by any "smooth" exponential rate..), methane from Laptev Sea is going to come up(nobody knows exactly how much, but posses a huge risk of Earths average temperature to rise several degrees Celsius in just few years, AI coming self aware i.e. conscious and operating in a way that humans are not able to control "it"(can be Ai created by Ai and so on, thus ") etc. Human hubris and specially psychopaths arrogance(special kind of hubris) might be a leading factor to our species utter and complete die out. Very important topic and also want to Thank You James Fallon to address this issue, even he lacks the part of the brain to really understand the risk he 7 his appears cause to all living things , or maybe better put just doesn't care, thus doesn't cross his mind.
When it comes to metacognition, they just can't do it well,to put it mildly. The last part of the talk was just jibber-jabber left for us to figure out the meaning and the morals of this whole story for ourselves..since,let's face it ,and he also knows it too well (due to his cognitive empathy) ,nobody really wants to hear his own egocentric opinion on this subject and be reminded that he is,indeed, a psycho :) After all,only those empathetic and prosocial beliefs are the ones that are popular in public :)
ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_BIgIDAcY3g.html Is telling the personal truth in the end of the talk a good idea... xD I think narcissists would beg to differ..
@@ST-yc7uj Too much superficiality when it comes down to empathy. That's how they are and they will never do it better because you need to really feel the emotions to think and act better than just understanding them a little bit. Psychopaths will never truly understand emotions because they will never feel them as deeply as a normal person. When a person sees a child crying, a psychopath will never understand the feeling as well nor as deeply as a normal person can. They are truly blind when it comes to put on someone else's shoes. No matter how hard they try, they will never get as good as a normal person.
@@darthtroller If you see someone in emotional distress, what reaction do you have? Do you ever have a visceral reaction and maybe even tear up a bit imagining how tough their situation is and feel emotional at all? Or, do you just think, “ Yeah, that would be bad. I’m glad I’m not them!”, with not much or any emotion?
@@paddlefar9175 I only felt sad when I related to their problem, if it was something stupid they were trying to cry over, I tried to make light of the situation by making light jokes which sometimes could sound a bit insensitive
@@darthtroller It's fairly normal to take your parents for granted in everyday life. I think a better question might simply be if you have ever cried simply because you realized you have been a jerk to someone who didn't deserve it. I had a moment like this in my late teens after seeing how my girlfriend at the time's parents treated her, and I realized just how much my mother cared for me. I had a moment alone where I balled my eyes out, and decided to write her a letter thanking her, essentially, for being a good mother. Needless to say, our relationship improved a lot after that. In any case, this is just one example, but the suffering of others, and even just thinking about environmental destruction, has brought me to tears. Are there experiences in your life like this? Not necessarily to the point of producing tears, but where you recall having a deep emotional response to the suffering of others? Perhaps an impulse to hug and to hold them as a result. Not just a recognition of "Oh that looks painful. Here have some ice."
It’s interesting how charming and likable he is. He really does seem genuinely caring on some level. This is why I think there’s a scale of psychopathy.
He himself has said that the basis of his psycopathy is that he does not care (he doesnt feel it). The motivation behind why he acts caringly, as he explained, is selfish. He said, at some point he realized that people dont really care weather treating people nicely is based on a feeling or not...people just want to be treated nicely.
He doesn't care. I get it. He's just so used to be charming that he probably does it automatically without even noticing any more. I'm really glad his mother treated him well... Even in the talk he described what happened to his family members who weren't treated well...
I liked the comments on this video the best. He labels himself a psychopath because of the scans and now all of a sudden people have so many opinions about who he is. Before his test he was an average man with an average life who was also a neurologist. He has spent years working on brains and his own was included in that work. How he can be called anything but brilliant is beyond me. A lot of you should really read and research more. This is about way more than him being "crazy". He's self-centered and boring... He's talking about his life and using words for those who aren't scientists. He's trying to help people understand. Why click on this is you're not interested in it...
Everyone thinks they know so much about us and think we're all terrible people. I don't even back our government when it goes to war, our cops, or any other violence, but I'm a problem in society? Not the religious fucks that hate people and want them dead just because they don't follow the same religion as them? Bush invaded Iraq because he said God told him to do it, but I'm the problem in society? The way I think? Too funny.
@motivational vibes I don't know about all that. I get social anxiety often and stops me from doing things. I don't like failure or failing in front of people. I don't like going into places and not sure whats going to happen either. I missed a class one semester just because I was anxious about what we would be doing.
Oh I love it when science meets storytelling meets a compelling narrative meets old wisdom meets art meets transhumanism meets intrinsic theatre knowledge meets ... etc!
Google named their segment zeitgeist to distract from the real zeitgeist series. The mainstream has done this with many movie titles as well, so that only the movie will come up on a search, and not any news stories about the actual event.
@ 19:21 "I told my wife and I told my close friends I said, 'This is not sincere. I'm just doing it because I think I can do it.' ...And they said, 'No, just the fact that you're trying and you're doing this is enough.' And I said, 'You don't care if I'm being sincere?' They go, 'No.' I have never understood this about people, they all just want to be treated well. This is a big surprise to me..." Reminded me of the ex. Good on you for actually trying. The ex didn't. Keep it up, it's worth it.
Given the rise of LGBTQ+ rights and protests against discrimination on racial and sexual identity, this seems almost inevitable. Minorities don't want to be treated differently than the rest. Psychopaths are a minority, pro-social ones are even smaller in number.
A psycopath would advocate because they struggle to understand the life and death consequences their actions lead to in social relationships. To them "who cares"
It definitely takes a psychopath to survive working in academia. I got a nice job in a university department and didn't even last a semester - so many of my colleagues, the deans, the professors, etc were supremely toxic. For all my life, I've never worked in such a terrible place.
No, it doesn't. You can be mentally/emotionally strong enough and have a healthy enough psyche to do well in academia. That's not being a psychopath. For instance, all three of my sisters, none of whom is a psychopath or even comes close to it, have completed advanced academic studies and continued to work in more or less academic fields, and two of them have continued to thrive. The one who's been broken down by her career is too emotionally fragile while the other two aren't. I myself didn't even make it through my studies before my vulnerability forced me to drop out. It's a question of being strong enough or not; not about your levels of empathy etc. Oh, by the way, I've personally come across only a handful of unpleasant persons among the many, many academics I've known. That world isn't necessarily as toxic as you make it sound - at least not in my country, Denmark. Admittedly, now that I think about it, I can't rule out the possibility that it may be different in other countries. :D
@@malovela exactly. U have to adapt and build up that mental fortitude. If u know u are a very sensitive person u need to develope a counter side to balance it out or u won't survive in these environments
The fact that he does not feel emotional empathy in an average way actually might be the reason he denied the influence of nurture on human development. For him, in his personal experience, this is not a comprehensible influence.
I don't think that's neccesserily the explanation for his apprehension, the entire field of neurology has almost ubiquitously disregarded Freudian ways of analyzing human behavior; his apprehension regarding the role of environmental factors (i.e. experience) in neurological development was (and still widely is) the norm.
@@lancewalker2595 I know that very well. In my oppinion neuropsychoanalysis (see Marc Solms) delivers the most comprehensive nature+nurture results that are hard to dispute. Nevertheless, the thought might be entertained nonethless that there might be a connection to individual personality that someone (or many, as you pointed out) takes on such an extreme nature over nurture stance as the lecturer in the clip (not saying neurologists are all psychpaths, of course). Many neurologists are aware that their angle is just that - an angle to look at a problem, and does not deliver a comprehensive explanation.
and it goes very handy with the whole libertarianism ideology (which goes well with social darwinism) And yes, his point of view is rather the mainstream one. So the question is, do we really need to endorse massive narcissism/psychopathy-shaped view on neuroscience or do we need to finally reform the field by including attention to emotional intelligence and experience?
Not sure if there's any relationship to the Neanderthal carved lines, but there are other cave carvings at archaeological sites that feature "fill in" lines, and one hypothesis is that the viewer is meant to view the art in the dark cave by holding a torch, and by moving the torch around, the viewer (or maybe presenter/storyteller) could make certain lines more or less pronounced. For example, if you have a bunch of parallel horizontal carved lines, they will not be particularly visible if the torch is at the same height as the lines. Even moving the torch side to side wouldn't significantly alter the shading. But if they were to move the torch up and down, the lines would appear softer or harsher as the torch goes in and out of alignment with them.
I honestly think this is why there are fewer female psychopaths recognized. They tend to get socialized with the expectation that they should be behavior controlled and emotionally aware in situations, whereas boys tend to get a pass "boys will be boys". Learning to fake emotions or use emotional terms is more beneficial to the female psychopath. My own behavior modification started young due to religion. I accepted the existence of God therefore God's expectations of my behavior informed my baseline of behavior, but I lacked the social skills because I didn't have that emotional empathy. I read people much better now, but a LOT of work went into that.
Interesting thought! I agree that early and consistent behavior modification and regulation of girls could explain why there seem to be fewer psychopathic women than men -- they've purposefully been taught to act prosocially, at least in public.
@@MM-jf1me Stoicism, lack of fear, aggressiveness etc. tends to be rewarded more in men than women. From what I understand autism tends to be harder to spot in girls as well since it tends to present differently.
@@hamerugumiandthevocaloidfa8654 Not sure I'd say I was completely immune, but definitely more resistant to it. I was lucky to be raised by people who rarely said girls or boys shouldn't do things for gender reasons. I tend to test more masculine on personality tests, so I think double down on some aspects of femininity like keeping my hair long and refusing to use handshakes to show off my physical strength. But I'm not "girly" in the stereotypical sense. I have at least as many male as female friends, etc. I suspect female psychopaths are a bit harder to spot, because general society tends to see stoicism as a masculine trait. So boys are praised for not showing emotion and/or penalized for showing emotion. Girls can get negative feedback for not showing emotion and positive feedback for showing it. So they learn to fake it earlier. I know I occasionally cried in elementary just to get a break from bullying/ostracizing more than a real need to cry. It hit me more how weird it was in high school. My art teacher was yelling at me and I knew crying was the only way to make her stop yelling long enough to listen... Not sure if that would have worked as well if I was a guy. I struggled with that moment, because I didn't want to be manipulative, but I did need to communicate in that moment in a way she would understand... and it did calm her down, so I could explain/apologize. I had done a small thing wrong, but she was accusing me of a lot of other things that I had not done.
@@strikergk4558 So be aware. Be aware that they use it as a tool to manipulate others, usually against everyone else’s best interests, except theirs of course.
I saw a Confession Bear post on Imgur years ago where the poster admitted to being a sociopath. They fit the diagnostic criteria (I believe for Antisocial Personality Disorder as sociopathy was not recognized as a diagnosis, at least at the time) and identified with the description. They also - apparently - led a pretty normal life with a wife and kids who were aware of their condition. They acknowledged that they seemed to be missing certain components other people had but said they also thought their condition gave them certain advantages. For instance, there are a number of jobs where in it's much better if the person does not have emotional reactions to situations because it lets them think with a clear head. Anyways cases like that one and this guy tell me that sociopathy or psychopathy - whichever is the correct term - is not inherently a terrible thing that means the person is going to become a stone cold killer. It seems like there can totally be places for them in society, provided they follow enough rules to not become a threat to others.
In some sense our sanity isn´t kept in check internally, but through our external environment. People tell other people how to behave through conscious and unconscious ques. We were evolved in this way because it meant the difference between live and death in ancient times.
you don't need ancient times. nature is a constant process, and not every feature of it is vestigial, contrary to what science wants us to believe. in other words, we're still living in the ancient times, and we still have life and death situations, it's just not as obvious as it once was, but oh boy it sure got more confusing, which we see reflected in the artificial balance of mortality through cancer and immune diseases that are skyrocketing.
@@milanstevic8424 On emotional level our society has not moved @ all. But I am not sure if you are taking into account our current average life span (vs some 50 years only couple of centuries ago). In early time, if an individual developed cancer/immune disease, no one would have been able to detect it, never mind run a record of a certain decease population accumulation for our assessment. Many of these deceases also occur later in life, so 200 years ago an individual with predispositions may have died due a simple infection/cholera etc. much earlier in life.
I think Ascendrio is spot on. I firmly believe that when humans first evolved, we were much like psychopaths, and it was only through evolution that it became apparent that this type of behavior was/is destructive and harmful towards society and humanity, and that if it continued in this way, humanity would totally die out, and thus we evolved higher-level additional brain structures to enable us to self-regulate, think ahead, and empathize/sympathize with other people (and eventually, other creatures) which has enabled societies to grow and flourish, and if we use them properly, we can also maybe also save the planet from ourselves as well as saving each other from each other.
@@andrewbarrett1537 The early humans psychopaths hypothesis heats a snag if we take into consideration social structures of our closest cousins, primates and even some monkeys where cases of caring for the injured and general empathetic behaviour is present. Also early human tribal groups relied heavily on all members cooperation to survive, these type people can not work/contribute effectively within a group, thus tribes made up mainly of such individuals would find it difficult to survive and pass on their genetic code. It is the modern social structure that gives a greater facility for such individuals, where accumulation of power/wealth appears to give greater survival outcomes over all.
People might say that psychopaths are immoral but it takes real character to do the right thing despite not having empathy which is arguably more "moral" than any empath could be
What a ignorant , idealizing psychopath the one who are successful doing that will be just this guy and maybe other one, so the 0.00000000000000000000000001% percent in the world DO NOT BE SO NAIVE, he is complete BIAS, obviously … cant not you see that?
And being an empath doesn't make a person moral either. Being over-sympathetic can lead to passive-aggression or even overt violence against imaginary enemies in the people around you over trivial offenses that are inflated to justify the excessive expression of nurture. Much like over-possessive mothers, Munchausin syndrome (spelling?), or the types of group targeting and violence 2020 & 2021 saw, all in the name of safety and "protecting" people. The balanced, middle road is always best. Going too far to either side of the empathy spectrum is very destructive.
He was born to do this. He is a great public speaker. He has great tonal projection and emotional vocal range and he connects to the audience with a natural charisma - a skill which is supported by his data.
It’s a very good idea to inform yourself about how a psychopath or sociopath thinks and never be confused about how they really think. Also learn about narcissism. You can learn to avoid them and if you can’t entirely avoid them, learn how to properly deal with them, in my opinion.
This presentation was riveting. The speaker kept me interested and intrigued through the entire rapid-fire talk. I agree with the sentiment of an earlier comment, that I could have listened to him for hours. Brilliant man👨🔬
Very applicable teaching and learning Observations, but mostly can relate to retrospectively after an unhappy encounter. Great lecture. A year later one might be calm enough to make an observation, ..that these people are us we're talking about, and the reaction to a confrontation with someone of a very different disposition to your own is as challenging to one as it should be to the other, and a consensus optimised? It is very difficult not to react in the reciprocal manner in which you are attacked, but that is the reason why we study Psychology in general.
Ask yourself this dear person going through the comments - Would a psychopath ever admit who they truly are? A psychopath's ability to manipulate people, situations and engineer the outcomes they want depends on people trusting that they are like everyone else. The information of their psychopathy is power, and they would lose that power by revealing it. People love to think of psychopaths as these hyper efficient humans that transcend the fickleness of emotions and irrationality. This aspiration pushes many people to think of themselves as psychopaths, coldly calculating and manoeuvring their way through life like some sort of terminator. It's appealing, I agree. This guy never made another scan of his brain and didn't ever bother get other neuroscientists in his field to take a look at the scan, or do some sort double blind tests. This guy also admitted to failing to score high enough on the standard psychopathy test. He also never tried getting himself formally diagnosed. All this sounds contrary to the nature of a scientist. Scientists try hard to falsify their findings and subject them to rigorous and objective scrutiny. This guy's lack of self scrutiny and objectivity would warrant a fail on a undergraduate paper. And in discussions where he faces experts in psychopathy, he always gets rather embarrassingly torn to pieces. So be careful about what people are selling you, especially when they are hopping from place to place, getting paid tens of thousands of dollars to sell the story at each one of their stops.
I think it's because psychopathy can be epigenetically influenced. He had a general predisposition to it due to his lineage but his good upbringing changed the way those genes were expressed which can explain why he doesn't have full fledged and therefore clinical (behaviorally maladaptive) psychopathy. He probably still has that psychopathic brain (which isn't enough to confirm a psychopathy diagnosis) but he's able to utilize the positive aspects of it.
So you're saying he's manipulating the data to win fame and fortune from the media through a not-so-carefully crafted lie, and that somehow makes him NOT a psychopath? ;) Lol I know what you mean, but it is ironic
did michael jordan tell everyone on the court he was black Jesus? yes. yes he did. Fallon also just convinced a bunch of people that psychopaths aren't that bad.
wow. cool. I almost did't watch this because the title sounded like clickbait. Glad I clicked!--even though it was 7 years ago, it still feel excitingly new.
Fascinating! I am so grateful to my professors at VCU for introducing me to Jim Fellon. On the more dark note, it helps me understand better the shooting in my elementary school in Belgrade that shook the nation and the world,
I think this also begs the question: Are these people really psychopaths? Or is it that some people’s personalities are just closely related to/ share traits similar to psychopaths. From a Jungian perspective it becomes really easy to see why certain types (The NT types specifically) can be easily confused for psychopaths when in actuality they DO feel emotion, just not nearly as much as “the normal person”.
Psychopaths do have emotions. It's specific types of emotions that are reduced. And it's the combination of these seperate reduced emotions that results in their behavioral patterns. Two parts of their brain have reduced neural activity. The first region of the brain, that has reduced activity, results in them having reduced empathy, guilt, etc. And, on top of that, they have reduced anxiety, fear, etc...due to that second region with reduced neural activity. It's the combination of no empathy and no fear that makes them psycopaths. The "no fear" part is why they're so confident and charming...but it can also result in impulsive behavior that can get them into trouble. But that same "no fear" part it why they make such great brain surgeons, politicians, etc. The no empathy part makes them great CEO's, journalists, etc. They understand empathy. They can emulate it cognitively. Because they spend their entire lives learning that skill in order to blend in. But they dont actually feel it. It's why they are so good at manipulating the emotions of normal people...and have no problem doing it.
Forget Jung ... psychopaths are evil, manipulative, destructive Liars ACTing however the situation requires for them to "win" by deceiving. That IS the evil brain so epidemic now. No need to split hairs, because it IS what it is.
He is a psychopath. A pet wolf doesn't cease being a wolf just because it doesn't eat the household cat. It's been TAUGHT since childhood to not be violent and view the humans and other pets as himself and his family. BUT if you starve the wolf or mistreat it then that WILD side could come back out. In reality he's a psychoCAP, as he's CAPABLE of being a full-blown psychopath of life circumstances were to become tragic.
12:01 "So it was kind of a heroic story, especially for a Norwegian to admit this." At the venue: ~Dead silence~ Meanwhile, in a house, far, far way: *BrÄH!* An unexpected, sharp, whip-cracking bleat thrusts out from the deep, hitting the air, the walls, the windows... in less than the blink of an eye, the world quakes, and stops. I look around. ... Yeaps, there are no Swedes in that audience, that's for sure.
We also have a very extreme saint and sinner family and I suspect there is a similar psychopathic brain some family and relatives unfortunately got throughout the generations. As much as he is funny, it was sad to listen to the fact there is an authentic lack of caring about others. I’ve observed it and thought there could be a realization among a few, but that is clearly not possible. Truly tragic.
Not his fault though. I think it's good he except his condition, however, I'm curious about motivation as to why he *consciously changes his behavior from what he really wants to do.
I don’t want psychopaths leading anything. Not my country. Not my knitting group. I’m glad so much research is being done that uncovers what leads to these abusive traits. I’m glad he and others define characteristics we can avoid to maintain progress for humanity.
If every single school had a teacher like him then there would be no more tardiness or absences from class because the mere possibility of having to go meet with him afterschool would be enough.
The 'head of discipline' at my old school, my chemistry teacher, is currently serving nine and a half years for acts of sexual sadism against the boys in his charge. You may be half-joking with your suggestion, but most sociopathy has a far uglier face.
You would want children educated by a psychopath? You clearly have no understanding of what this man has just related. He is a very dark and dangerous individual who should not have been a parent. See what he says his friends and wife told him when he asked them. Psychopaths should never be close to children. The damage is lasting and always very serious.
@@MrDblStopthat is absolutely terrifying! Nobody should ever have to deal with monsters like your former teacher. What I meant to say is that not all psycho- and sociopaths turn into violent criminals. That scientist chose to research and to discover WHY he is the way he is and so far he has been very effective in his methods. DNA does not determine destiny.
@@reformerx667neither I nor anyone else in their right mind would ever want to see their children educated by psychopaths. The reality is that we all have already been taught by psychopaths unawares given the odds.
He is amazing in the sense that he devotes his discovery about himself into science and he has no shame of it. Also, he has turned it into the world's greatest knowledge, with the hope that we can improve our biological elements and environmental factors to create a better version of our human society👍 Although, I pray for how narcissistic traits may keep on spreading in our new modern world, as our lifestyle is now completely proned for that, the charming characteristic, lies and etc. That is when the world would be truly a community with no emotional empathy and that we are no better than any other mammals in terms of loving and caring for each other.
Anthropomorphising can go too far. Mammals certainly do 'love and care', just not with your particular and particularly set of wooly ethics. Of course yer man feels no shame. Do you know what a psychopath even is? Duh...
Interesting he says he is related to Jimmy Carter! While in high school Jeffery Daumer and his classmates met Jimmy Carter's wife during the Carter administration while on a tour. Jeffery Daumer arranged the meeting with his slick speech. That's what got them in.
very interesting .....read the book Without Conscience by the FBI profiler about 30 years ago... amazing and important... met a few thru business and cost me a bunch....
My father is a psychopath, the biggest problem is he have really zero emphatie. Shows no emotions, lies manipulatie, to get his way. Can het aggressive when things doesn’t go his way. Not perse physical but mentally. When my brother passed away, He couldn’t see he was dying. He didn’t show any emotions, and he couldn’t support us and we couldn’t support him. It’s very damaging and lonely when you grow up with a psychopath. The reaction of my father of the passing of my brother his son, was just as damaging to me as his dead. But he can’t help it, It’s like a blind person can’t see, he can’t feel.
@@reallifevegeta552 not at all, his parents also weren’t that way. And he didn’t had a traumatic life. I don’t know how this developed. In contact with him you always have to be on guard. You can’t show any weakness
Perfect description. We just dealt with a psychopath in court. It was painful to lose to their lies and manipulation. I hope you are okay. I wish you the best. By the way, I have to ask because it worries me that this psychopath we dealt with may cause her children and grandchildren to grown up like her. Any thoughts on why some people don't become a psychopath even if they are brought up by one?
@@gemum4219 thanks 🙏 I wish I could answer that question, I think it’s a rare genetic component why they become that way. I have asked this many times to professionals. It was always a fear of me, the only answer they could give you also have your mothers genes. I don’t see it in my daughter or any other relatives of me, i think because it’s a rare disorder. So i should not worry to much.
He says anormal guy and loving family… but how can his family love him if he did not love them, was callous, selfish, mean etc which I think, he is saying he is or was. On the surface all this is funny etc, but underneath, it would be interesting to hear from his wife and children to understand the real situation of living with a benevolent psychopath.
Well he actually is being sincere since he’s thinking about it and trying at all, that’s the most sincere thing you can do is consciously change your behavior to make others feel better. He just doesn’t feel it.
This is a really interesting subject. James Fallon is clearly experiencing joy from the love and respect that he is getting from the audience,which is a powerful motivator. I think a proper psychopath would not emotionally respond to it and would only respond to any objective gains that he might get.
Psychopaths can have successful relationships but I wonder about his wife. It must be hard and unfulfilling to be with an unaware psychopath. I feel bad for her
Wait, I just realized this is Aynn Rand with neurobiology aesthetics. Telling CEOs they're a different breed, that it's ok to they be narcissists with no empathy
James Fallon does a great job, as most all psychopaths do, at convincing us that they are empathetic, and emotionally warm, just like everyone else, however, this isnt true. All psychopaths exist in separation from their emotions and empathy, and only use emotions and fake empathy to manipulate others into seeing them as emotionally well regulated, stable people. James admits that his family members "know about him" and "know to keep their distance because of the games that he plays." In other words, James likely derived pleasure by manipulating the emotions of his family, and he has admitted to exactly that in other videos.
I'm pretty sick of hearing how great psychopaths are because their decisions aren't influenced by morals or ethics. That does not make for better decision making or more progress.
This! And I am sick of how everybody here seem to essentially forget that the world, which is indeed made by psychopaths, is not a nice and fair place and we need a change.
A lack of empathy makes one better at some decisions and worse at others - that's why it's important to identify people experiencing this disorder and direct them towards using their unique psychological profile in the most prosocial way possible
18:54 From my perspective I think that would be just fine. My perspective is that of a person who changed the end of that sentence from "would be great" to "would be just fine" because even in this relatively anonymous forum I want to take the few readers of this comment into consideration and not appear too zealous.
Он классно оправдал психопатов, классные лидеры, выбирайте в президенты психопатов. Не ребят, рисково, в любой момент вы получите тоталитарного лидера. Семьи им заводить не рекомендуется, а в природе нет ничего полезного, чему бы рекомендовали не размножаться. Его семье просто повезло, что он задумался об их благе и старается делать им хорошо, большинство психопатов не задумаются об этом никогда, этот человек редкое исключение. И говорить, прощайте психопатов, они хорошие ребята, просто им не повезло генетически, и любите их, чтобы они не испортились - манипуляция чувствами других типичного психопата). Если у вас на работе или в семье или среди друзей есть психопат - дистанцируйтесь как можно дальше. Единственное, с чем очень сильно согласна- нужно понижать агрессию в мире, с любовью растить детей, всех детей, чтобы этот ген исчез со временем.
His family and wife kept him from tapping into his psychopathic genes. He has had a fruitful, loyal relationship with his wife since 12 yo. These long term relationships is what keeps many psychopathic tendencies from over taking. Strong roots keep one grounded
After 30 years of civil war in Afghanistan, women get treated as badly as ever.. A teenage girl runs away from home because of the constant heavy beatings from her mom and her brother over small mistakes and she gets accused of shaming the family. She wants to come home, but her brother threatens to kill her if she does and her mother doesn't want her back either ,but instead, tries to shame her and make her feel guilty for running away in the first place, offering her an explanaition as follows : your friend's brother beat her with kalashnikov and she did not run away, another friend of yours got heavily beaten by her brother and she is still home.. Talk about the societal influence on the behaviour of individuals!
It’s religion that is behind it often but in the case of the young Afghan girl, her mother is also an awful person on top of the damaging and immoral teachings of her religion ( which says rubbish like, women are worth less than men, etc.)
André Armenni Sometimes I can be pro-social, sometimes anti-social, its whatever and whenever I feel like. For me though its just a lack of empathy and emotions. Have you ever noticed a difficulty making a choice when emotions should be involved and not logical emotion ? Like I have more trouble deciding what to get from a mcdonalds menu than lying on whim
woah jeez calm down I'm only pointing out psychopathy and aspergers can be quite similar and to just out and say you have psychopathy isn't going to cut it unless you actually get a brain scan
What did James Fallon score on Hare's psychopathy checklist? I did the online, scientifically validated version and even when ensuring that I'd answered as mildly as possible - I scored 26/40. I can cry and have formed lifetime bonds with a few people though.
Mine has since elevated four points to exactly 30/40 - after the final revelation. Being that, I had previously been experiencing a ‘significant loss of insight,’ which Cleckley’s ‘mischievous’ psychopathic manifestation included in his original insight. Which then later, had been removed by Hare - which whether accurate, inaccurate - or depending on Hare’s ‘specific loss of insight’, regarding his own financial motives, in creating his revised PCL checklist - unless of course he was acting with ‘a grandiose sense of self worth,’ ‘being cunning and manipulative,’ and experiencing ‘shallow effect,’ is neither here nor there. 😅
Funny to listen to, can tell that wasn't easy facing those scientists knowing him to 'be a psychopath'. Guess having been with his woman since his childhood played out really well for him. Assume sensuality is especially important for this type of people? And cognitive insights into ongoing life. Ability to 'enjoy freedom of emotions'...at least not become depressed on not having them.
I got to concur that Nature vs Nurture could postpone delay or hinder the unfolding of certain Genes from unfolding. The right circumstances could Trigger the Levels of Self vs Group interests since in Most Nature people of Self Interest or Alpha / Warrior / Silverback Genes get passed on Similar to Professional Athletes passing on Genes vs Standard regular Male. Hence until Nurture comes into play that Lesser Genes are chosen for instead due to in Group and Family Cultures. Hope this guy and Dr. Professor Edward Dutton do a Collab Video.
This also explains all the R vs K dynamic and ability for certain Females to poach High Value Males Genes vs other Females for an in group Tribe Benefit down the Road. Equivalent to dynamic of Neanderthals going extinct due to Cro-Magnons interbred in Europe or Asia. Where poaching Neanderthal Quality Genes lead to extinction due to assimilation into the modern human genome (bred into extinction), great climatic change, disease, or a combination of these factors. Where some Males and Females will not mate inside the Tribe due to Hormones and Genetic Diversification which could lead to recessive Genes. Next 10-20 Years should be interesting seeing what happens to the West due to Feminism as Most Males are going MGTOW and Venturing to Asia / South America / Eastern Europe for Female Surrogates vs getting Married due to extra Taxes / Risk breeding the United States.
Psychopaths are basically robots. Without emotions they can maintain a high level of efficiency and consistency on their work output. But without empathy they won’t know how to respond in situations where emotional reward is the only gain. Ex: “Your mom died? Why should I care to say something comforting, she is dead already”
What if they were to say something like "I'm sorry to hear that. I'm not going to pity you because I don't want you to remember the pain" through text? Would u personally consider that lack of empathy as well?
I saw this guy interviewed on an Australian talk show and there were psychiatrists and psychologists chiming in and they were saying he's not meeting the guidelines for psychopathy because he has such a high morality complex but this psychologist was saying that his brain scans were like 9 years old and so in that time span he had time to adapt to society because he knew his results. I guess he is a psychopath since he's famous everywhere?
