The Dark Side of Oxytocin, the Hormone of Love - Ethnocentrism Yes, you knew there had to be a catch. As oxytocin comes into sharper focus, its social radius of action turns out to have definite limits. The love and trust it promotes are not toward the world in general, just toward a person’s in-group. Oxytocin turns out to be the hormone of the clan, not of universal brotherhood. Psychologists trying to specify its role have now concluded it is the agent of ethnocentrism. A principal author of the new take on oxytocin is Carsten K. In a report published last year in Science, based on experiments in which subjects distributed money, he and colleagues showed that doses of oxytocin made people more likely to favor the in-group at the expense of an out-group. These nationalities were chosen because of a 2005 poll that showed that 51 percent of Dutch citizens held unfavorable opinions about Muslims, and other surveys that Germans, although seen by the Dutch as less threatening, were nevertheless regarded as “aggressive, arrogant and cold.” In Dr. Dr.
Psychopathic Traits Linked to Brain Reward System - NIH Research Matters March 29, 2010 People who scored high on a test that measures impulsive and antisocial traits had exaggerated brain responses to certain “rewards,” like winning money or taking stimulant drugs. The new study provides evidence that a dysfunctional brain reward system may underlie vulnerability to a personality disorder known as psychopathy. Impulsive and antisocial personality traits correlate with amphetamine-induced dopamine release (red and yellow) in the brain. Image by Buckholtz et al. Psychopathy is characterized by a combination of superficial charm, manipulative and antisocial behavior, impulsivity, blunted empathy and shallow emotional experiences. Many studies of psychopathy have focused on the emotional and interpersonal aspects of the disorder, like lack of fear and empathy. In one experiment, the researchers used positron emission tomography (PET) to image the brain’s dopamine response when participants received a low oral dose of amphetamine.
Thoughts Towards a Better World » 2014 » January » 13 Brief Personal Thoughts are at the end of this post. Years ago, a Kansas friend was on my network, and just out of curiosity, to go along with a Christmas letter to her (which I think will probably be returned as an obsolete address), I looked back to see if there was any file folder reference to her name, and indeed there was, as part of a Post 9-11/Iraq War network of over 110 people in December, 2003. The contents of the e-mail she and many others received follows. It is very long, but provides a great deal of food for thought; and ideas for action. The friend in London who sent it to me is of Syrian Christian background, who’s still on the network, though I haven’t heard from for awhile. The essay by Albert Camus which follows, which I inadvertently discovered, seems very pertinent to this time in our history. When Camus wrote his piece, WWII had just ended, and the United Nations was in process of being born. Neither Victims nor Executioner’s Albert Camus, 1946
Du panoptique aux prisons déterritorialisées en réseaux Le conseil de l’Union européenne [Correction] Conseil de l'Europe a demandé à l’ancien procureur suisse Dick Marty, connu pour sa lutte contre la mafia, de réunir des informations sur les prisons secrètes de la CIA en territoire européen. Celui-ci a demandé au centre européen de Torrejón en Espagne des photos des sites où de telles prisons pourraient avoir été construites. Il a également demandé à Eurocontrol, l’autorité pour l’aviation européenne de suivre les mouvements des 31 avions suspectés d’avoir servi au transport des prisonniers accusés de terrorisme par la CIA. Des informations sur ces vols ont commencé à apparaître sur certains sites européens d’information. Le problème est plus compliqué qu’il n’y paraît. Marty aurait en effet déclaré (voir cet article de El País) qu’il ne se fait guère d’illusions sur les prisons. « Tout indique plutôt une méthodologie et une logistique qui consiste à transporter les prisonniers d’un point à un autre où ils ne restent qu’un jour où deux ».
Narcissism, Psychopathy, and Evil « mind.expressions DELANY DEAN, JD, PhD delanydean.com KC Mindfulness crimlawdoc@gmail.com Introduction: During both my professional careers (criminal law and psychology), two areas of particular interest to me have been psychopathy and narcissism. Underneath the superficial charm, the narcissist/psychopath always has a “me-first” mentality. A good non-technical book about this phenomenon is: The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout [the term “sociopath” is closely related to the term “psychopath”]. Some good web resources about the phenomenon known as “narcissistic rage” are in my “del.icio.us” links (click over in the side column on this blog, where it says “And, Check Out…”). Recently, Nature magazine published a great article [pdf] on the neuroscience of psychopaths, as investigated by an ingenious study being run by a group of Dutch researchers. “Although there is a higher number of psychopaths among violent criminals, a psychopath is not necessarily someone who is violent. Authoritarianism and Psychopathy
How narcissism got to be a thing. | Lucky Otters Haven This article was originally posted on October 7 and 11, 2015 in two parts. It has been updated and merged. Disclaimer: It was pointed out to me that this post may seem overly critical or stereotyping of Baby Boomers. I’m aware that the selfishness and lack of empathy we see today extends across ALL generations. When I was compiling my lists of songs about narcissism, it didn’t pass my notice how few songs there were prior to the 1980s that focused on it. I think the reason for this is because it wasn’t until the 1980s that narcissism became so dominant in western (especially American) culture that it became a new virtue–something to aspire to if you wanted to be financially and professionally successful. But I think the problem really started long before that, back in the post-WWII days when the Baby Boomers started being born. Ripeness for the rise of a culture of narcissism. As a nation, we have always adhered to principles of “rugged individualism” and the “Protestant work ethic.”
Hare Psychopathy Checklist - define, person, people, used, personality, score, traits, Definition, Purpose Definition The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) is a diagnostic tool used to rate a person's psychopathic or antisocial tendencies. People who are psychopathic prey ruthlessly on others using charm, deceit, violence or other methods that allow them to get with they want. The symptoms of psychopathy include: lack of a conscience or sense of guilt, lack of empathy, egocentricity, pathological lying, repeated violations of social norms, disregard for the law, shallow emotions, and a history of victimizing others. Originally designed to assess people accused or convicted of crimes, the PCL-R consists of a 20-item symptom rating scale that allows qualified examiners to compare a subject's degree of psychopathy with that of a prototypical psychopath. Purpose The PCL-R is used for diagnosing psychopathy in individuals for clinical, legal or research purposes. Precautions Obviously, diagnosing someone as a psychopath is a very serious step. Description Results Resources Hare, Robert D.
Neither Victim nor Executioner CAMUS two answers The seventeenth century was the century of mathematics, the eighteenth that of the physical sciences, and the nineteenth that of biology. Our twentieth century is the century of fear. I will be told that fear is not a science. But science must be somewhat involved since its latest theoretical advances have brought it to the point of negating itself while its perfected technology threatens the globe itself with destruction. The most striking feature of the world we live in is that most of its inhabitants - with the exception of pietists of various kinds - are cut off from the future. True - and the men of my generation, those who are going into the factories and the colleges, have lived and are living more and more like dogs. This is not the first time, of course, that men have confronted a future materially closed to them. Mankind's dialogue has just come to an end. To emerge from this terror, we must be able to reflect and to act accordingly.
"The measure of a civilization is how it treats its weakest members." Who said this? And is this an acc The quote, and variations of it, have been said by a lot of different people. For the purposes of a speech, you don't have to track down the original; you only need to cite one particular phrasing and attribute it reliably to somebody admirable. (For all I know Osama bin Laden said it, too, but I don't think you'll gain a lot of points by attributing it to him.) Bartlett's Familiar Quotations doesn't list it or any of the usual variants (I usually hear it with "society" rather than "civilization"), so I suspect that the original origin is lost. So there's a good version by Gandhi in there, and everybody loves Gandhi, so I'd go with that one. Some variants, collected from various sources: Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members. The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.
Speech patterns give away psychopaths NEW YORK — Psychopaths are known to be wily and manipulative, but even so, they unconsciously betray themselves, according to scientists who have looked for patterns in convicted murderers' speech as they described their crimes. The researchers interviewed 52 convicted murderers, 14 of them ranked as psychopaths according to the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, a 20-item assessment, and asked them to describe their crimes in detail. Using computer programs to analyze what the men said, the researchers found that those with psychopathic scores showed a lack of emotion, spoke in terms of cause-and-effect when describing their crimes, and focused their attention on basic needs, such as food, drink and money. [10 Contested Death Penalty Cases] "The beautiful thing about them is they are unconsciously produced," Hancock said. These unconscious actions can reveal the psychological dynamics in a speaker's mind even though he or she is unaware of it, Hancock said. What it means to be a psychopath
The Place of "Cognitive Dissonance" in Narcissistic Victim Syndrome Understanding Cognitive Dissonance in relation to narcissistic abuse: Stockholm syndrome involves the victim paradoxically forming a positive relationship with their oppressor; this is called “Trauma Bonding”. When victims of narcissistic are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, they are often seen by outsiders as somehow having participated in some bizarre way that seems to support their abuse. If therapists are to understand the behaviour of clients who have been victims of narcissistic abuse, then it is crucial for them to appreciate why the victim combines the two unhealthy conditions of Stockholm Syndrome and Cognitive Dissonance as part of their survival strategy. Get an in-depth understanding of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) What is Cognitive Dissonance? What part does Cognitive Dissonance play with victims of narcissistic abuse? Social Investment: The biggest social investment the victim makes is to the person nearest to them, their narcissistic abuser.