Can a kid be a psychopath?

[Jade]

I thought this was a really interesting article. Just wondering what other people think about it.

http://ca.shine.yahoo.com/blogs/pare...221400341.html

In 1989, the groundbreaking HBO documentary "Child of Rage" showed how horrific abuse and neglect could leave a child unable to bond with other people, turning them into children "without conscience, who can hurt or even kill without remorse." In other words: the child becomes a psychopath.
But what about the kids who aren't abused? What about the ones who, for no discernible reason, do horrible things to other people?

"I've always said that Michael will grow up to be either a Nobel Prize winner or a serial killer," his mother, Anne, tells Jennifer Kahn in a shocking New York Times Magazine article. At age 9, her son has an extreme temper, lashing out violently and deliberately and showing no empathy or remorse. He's intelligent, cold, calculating, and explosive. "It takes a toll," she says, explaining her comment. "There's not a lot of joy and happiness in raising Michael."

Experts are divided about whether it's right to label a child as a psychopath. On the one hand, their brains are still developing; since psychopathy is largely considered untreatable, such a label would carry a heavy, life-altering stigma. On the other hand, identifying "callous-unemotional" children early could allow for successful treatment -- or at least a heads-up to society.

But reaching such a diagnosis can be tricky. Certain tendencies, like narcissism and impulsiveness, that are obvious signs of a psychopath are also part and parcel of childhood. And callous-unemotional kids are often extremely intelligent; they're able to lie and manipulate without remorse, making it harder to understand what they're doing and why. "They don't care if someone is mad at them," Paul Frick, a psychologist at the University of New Orleans, told the New York Times. "They don't care if they hurt someone's feelings."

"If they can get what they want without being cruel, that's often easier," adds Frick, who has spent 20 years studying risk factors for psychopathy in children. "But at the end of the day, they'll do whatever works best."

The New York Times article mentions the case of 9-year-old Jeffrey Bailey Jr., who in 1986 pushed a 3-year-old into the deep end of a Florida swimming pool and then pulled up a chair to watch the child drown; after the toddler died, Bailey got up and went home. It's a disturbing crime -- and there are other equally disturbing cases of young kids committing cold-blooded murder.

• In 1993, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, both 10 years old, took 2-year-old James Bulger by the hand and led the trusting toddler out of a shopping mall in Liverpool, England. Once away from the mall, they spent hours torturing him before beating him to death, reports said.
• In 1984, Joshua Phillips' mother was cleaning his room when she discovered the dead body of their 8-year-old neighbor, Maddie Clifton, under his bed. The 14-year-old Phillips says he accidentally hit the girl in the eye with a baseball bat and then panicked when she screamed, so he took her to his room and beat and then stabbed her until she stopped.
• Alyssa Bustamente was 15 when she confessed to luring her 9-year-old neighbor Elizabeth Olten, into a nearby forest and killing in 2009. "I strangled them and slit their throat and stabbed them now they're dead," Bustamante wrote in her diary at the time. "It was ahmazing. As soon as you get over the 'ohmygawd I can't do this' feeling, it's pretty enjoyable. I'm kinda nervous and shaky though right now. Kay, I gotta go to church now...lol." In February, she was sentenced to life in prison.
• Eric Harris -- who, with his friend Dylan Klebold, killed 13 people and injured 24 others when theyopened fire at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999 -- had several of the hallmarks of being a psychopath. As ABC News points out, he was described as "controlling, manipulative, and sadistic, but very much in touch with reality."

"Psychopaths don't feel guilty because they are blind to guilt," Frank Ochberg, a former FBI psychiatrist who led the counseling team after Columbine, told ABC News. And, unlike with psychosis (when people are delusional or out-of-touch with reality), psychopaths know exactly what they're doing -- they just don't care how it affects others.

It's not as if these kids simply lack a moral compass. In "Child of Rage," 6-year-old Beth opens her blue eyes wide and calmly tells her psychiatrist how she'd like to hurt, and even kill, her adoptive parents -- a Baptist preacher and his wife -- and her biological brother. She's calm and conversational as she describes how she has deliberately harmed and killed animals, how she drives pins into her brother and sexually molests him, how she repeatedly slammed his head into a cement floor and only stopped because someone caught her.



Beth suffered extreme physical and sexual abuse and neglect by her biological parents, which experts say could explain her detached, calculating demeanor and her lack of "a sense of conscience." (She now claims that she was "healed" by the time she was 7 or 8, thanks to intensive therapy.) But Michael, in the New York Times Magazine article, seems to have grown up surrounded by love and affection.

So if nurture (or a lack of it) isn't the only way a person becomes a psychopath, how much does nature have to do with it? Some experts say that psychopathy, like other mental illnesses, may have a genetic component. "You're not born a psychopath but the foundation is there," Robert Hare, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of British Columbia and author of "Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us," told MSNBC. He has developed specialized checklists to determine whether people age 12 and older show psychopathic tendencies. "We're all born with temperaments that can be shaped by the environment."

What do you think? Can a young, seemingly innocent child be a psychopath -- and are they just born that way?

[Aldo Moreno]

Maybe their parents didn't give them the attention they wanted and ended up like that. Or they were raised in a bad enviorment.

[de_nhoj]

Yes, today we like to blame how criminals and delinquents act on how they were raised (it may have a lot to do with it but certainly not most of it) but the truth is not every criminal lived in a bad household many lived under normal conditions the same as most of us, but their minds were destined to be FUBAR from the day they were born.

[YungQ94]

I believe they can become a psychopath but they aren't born with it. My theory is that the environment effects their actions. Even if the child wasn't abused or neglected certain factors like controlling people from an early age may occur.

[FlawlessVictor]

Environmental factors such as parenting can have a strong influence on a child's behavior. However, just like genetics can determine how a child's potential for physical growth or resistance/vulnerability to diseases, the mind can be affected as well. A child can be born with chemical imbalances in the brain that makes him/her behave abnormally, sometimes having destructive tendencies.

In conclusion, yes some of them are born that way. The question is, what should we do about those people to prevent them from harming themselves or others?

[Love Cowboy]

I don't think the question of whether they're born that way or if it's a product of their environment is black and white. I think in most cases it's a combination of the two. However, that presents a real problem. The fact that it's not JUST environment means that doing what would be a perfect parenting job with a normal kid still won't be enough with these kids. The fact that they have this issue must be identified and dealt with. But like the article says, it's not the easiest thing to diagnose, especially with children.

[Kzaoo]

There usually is a lot more behind it. I remember doing the James Bulger case back in school. (This was back in about 2006) They grew up in a pretty bad place and they got held back a year at school and there was more stuff, but I can't really remember. They showed a lot of remorse for their crime and didn't re offend, welll Jon Venables did, but Robert Thompson didn't, I think.

[Noob Saibot 2011]

Only if he/she turns out like chucky.

[back,back,back,low punch]

Didn't read the article, will when I get out of work. But I was totally a psychopath as a kid. Raised in a loving environment and everything, I was batshit crazy and sadistic.

[CryHavok]

In Europe there are two terms - sociopath and psychopath. Those who are sociopaths have become so through their environment. Those who are psychopaths have a genetic predisposition and are likely to turn out that way even with a good environment, however a poor environment obviously would not help. So yes a child can be a psychopath. A child can also be a sociopath if he or she has suffered abuse or neglect in their few years.

[Eks]

In Europe there are two terms - sociopath and psychopath. Those who are sociopaths have become so through their environment. Those who are psychopaths have a genetic predisposition and are likely to turn out that way even with a good environment, however a poor environment obviously would not help. So yes a child can be a psychopath. A child can also be a sociopath if he or she has suffered abuse or neglect in their few years.

Sociopathy isn't just acquired from one's environment. Both disorders heavily influenced by, genetics and development (which includes everything from their growth in the womb to how they're raised). A sociopath is, for the most part, a mild psychopath. There are some key differences, but it's sort of outside of this topic, so I don't see the point in getting into it.

On topic:
I would think labeling a developing human as a psychopath (or sociopath) is a bad idea because they're likely to play into the role rather than to combat it. Sure, their behavior will make it apparent that they have a sociological issue, and they will likely always be unstable, but labeling them is a bad idea.

[Freyith]

Sociopathy and psychopathy are both disqualified by age in the diagnostic standards of the APA in the US. By the diagnostic guidelines in the DSM-5, a patient has to be near adulthood to even begin to assess that, otherwise diagnosis is deferred to other pervasive developmental disorders. Why? Because largely guilt, emotive connection, cognitive reasoning (being able to suss out why something is wrong as opposed to just being TOLD it is--though, some people never learn that) are not all fully actualized.

That said, yeah, kids can do some seriously demented, mental things, and are indeed good candidates for diagnosis.

[InterestingMK]

I know there are plenty of stories like this you could find on the ID channel. It's probably my favorite real TV show to ever watch.

[back,back,back,low punch]

When I was a youngster (around 2nd to 5th grade) there was this man I'd see all the time. I never saw his whole body, only parts of him usually moving around a corner. I called him Shadow Man because he was all black. Now I know there wasn't anything actually there, but it was something that I truly would see. Just small glimpses of him that would make me freeze up with fright. After 5th grade I saw it a few more times but never again after that.

[Eks]

When I was a youngster (around 2nd to 5th grade) there was this man I'd see all the time. I never saw his whole body, only parts of him usually moving around a corner. I called him Shadow Man because he was all black. Now I know there wasn't anything actually there, but it was something that I truly would see. Just small glimpses of him that would make me freeze up with fright. After 5th grade I saw it a few more times but never again after that.

Sounds like schizophrenia, not psychopathy.

[Freyith]

Sounds like schizophrenia, not psychopathy.

+1. That's a schizoid delusion, and pretty classic at that, as opposed to even a temporary psychotic break with reality or dissociation, the latter being the hallmark of true psychopathy (dissociation from society, emotions, and guilt/remorse).

Incidentally, your story reminds me of the Slenderman.

[back,back,back,low punch]

Makes sense. I've always thought I was a, what I like to call, undiagnosed Schizo. Not to sound like some attention hounding tool, but I did always have this voice in my head. Did a lot of funked up shit in my mind. I remember having an imaginary friend when I was a lil one, was a fat cat with a purple bandana (don't hate playa). Dude killed it in my mind. And now that I think about it more it was the same blacked out figure I saw before.


Seeing him has completely stopped as I said, but I still hear the voice in my head from time to time. I just tone it out during day. But going to sleep its hard to ignore.

[CryHavok]

At Eks - I have a Masters in Psychology. A sociopath is a person that through their environment has learned to mimic the behaviour of a psychopath. That is the textbook definition in the EU. A psychopath is one who has the genetic predisposition towards psychopathic behaviour. In America they are considered to be close to the same thing, which is what I think you are basing your response on. I only brought up sociopathy to answer the initial question the only way I know how, which is to define the two different but similar conditions. A child could be a sociopath if he or she were to be raised in a particularly bad environment, but it is probably more likely that a child that is displaying the symptoms from a young age is probably a psychopath.