Reply #142: "there should be a way to diagnose sociopaths in an exact way" [View All]

[bean fidhleir]

Unfortunately, I don't think that's ever going to be possible. Quantum uncertainty will get in the way, if nothing else.

The problem is that, like all other disorders, it's a smooth continuum from the acceptable (surgeons need a little bit of it in order not to be disabled by fear when they go to cut someone open) to the inhuman.

We can easily detect someone who's down at the low end of the scale for cognitive ability, but it's harder to detect someone at the high end because their difference doesn't stand out in everyday life. It's the same with psychopaths. The worst ones are down near the bottom - far below cats and dogs, maybe around the fish or reptile level - in their ability to have empathy for other living creatures. But that doesn't necessarily stand out in everyday life. And the ones nearer to normal are even harder to detect.

We've known about the "psychopathic triad" in boys for a long time --bedwetting, fire-starting, and cruelty to non-humans-- but we don't seem to do anything about it. Yet I think that might be the closest we ever get to diagnosing someone before they commit an atrocity against a human.