The Psychopath’s Inability for Comprehension

A psychopathy is defined as a person who suffers from a chronic mental disorder and exhibits abnormal and violent behavior in social situations. According to Fallon, psychopathy is not considered a disease because it is currently too difficult to specifically define. There are no obvious, crucial, or physical characteristics about a person that lead others to distinguish them as a psychopath. As a result, psychopathy is categorized by DSM as a disorder or a syndrome.

            Brain scans are able to identify psychopaths as they show depleted tissue regions within the brain that are characteristic of psychopathy. An experiment conducted by the University of Montreal attempted to analysis the difference between psychopathic offenders, violent offenders, and non-offenders. The experiment examined the brain activity in each group while preforming a series of tasks. The violent or non-psychopathic offenders and non-offenders showed similar brain functioning when they completed the tasks during the experiment. The psychopath participants had a different response.

Psychopaths exhibit no response to threats, are extremely emotionless and their behavior is often deliberate upon beforehand. Fallon contemplates his previous experiences when he is identified as a psychopath through a brain scan. He recalls numerous violent events in his past that did not strike to him as having potential resulting problems. For example, he was enamored with explosions as a children and eventually began building pipe bombs. He says that there were times when he and friends almost burned down houses, but this did not deter him from the excitement and obsession with explosives. 

Data from this experiment suggested that the triggers of the psychopath lay in the organization of the brain’s network. Specifically, researchers found that psychopaths did not respond to the concepts of rewards and punishments in the same way as the other participants. There was “abnormal responding to punishment within the posterior cingulate and insula when a preciously rewarded response was punished.” Psychopaths are not able to weigh out potential positive and negative outcomes of their actions and only foresee the positive outcomes. As a result, they do not anticipate the negative outcomes or punishments and consequently commonly act out in unnatural ways.

            The researchers concluded that there may be specific intervention, that when administered during childhood, can prevent the social distortions endured by the psychopath. Most violent individuals exhibited criminal predispositions starting at an early age. As a result these habits are reinforced within their brains for long periods of time. From this experiment, researchers hope that by use of interventions from early ages, these behaviors can be reduced and criminal activity can be limited.

            Research continues to grow on the topic of psychopathy. Hopefully as more knowledge is gained about the disorder, there will be remedies developed to help the people ailed with it. Fallon did not find out he had the brain of a psychopath until later on in his life and consequently questioned the meaning of many of the events of his life. For this disorder to be remedied, psychopathy needs to be thoroughly defined and comprehended. With more research about how these brain patterns occurs, we can understand how and why psychopaths functions the way they do.

University of Montreal. (2015, January 27). Psychopathic violent offenders’ brains can’t understand punishment. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 25, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150127212158.htm

Fallon, J. (2013). The psychopath inside: A neuroscientist's personal journey into the dark side of the brain. New York: Penguin Group.