Posted by JohnX2 on April 4, 2002, at 21:39:32
In reply to Re: Prey are the best people! » JohnX2, posted by Zo on April 4, 2002, at 20:05:52
> 1. More and more I tend think sociopathy is most often something a person is born with, or should I say, without. Without human empathy, remorse, the moral capacity. Clearly, a brutal childhood can make for a brutal adult--but look how often it doesn't!
>
> I think it's a brain glitch. (That's the scientific term.)
>I'm going to agree that it is biological. But I believe the goof-up in the wiring occurs as a result of some repeated traumatic event. The person develops a "jungle warefare" mindset in order to cope with an unreasonable amount of stress. This I belive may require short cirtuiting "tender feelings" to protect the individual from being overwhelmed by what is happening to them. This doesn't imply that anyone who is tramautized will develop sociopathic traits however, but people with PTSD (the core symptom) in general will most always complain of a "loss of affect". I believe that these people can function as upstanding , caring people, despite this loss of affect. This would require leaning on psychological q's and less on emotional q's. Almost a "robotic" or "cyborg" type of exist. Quite sad.
> 2. As an inner process only. Why? Because in most cases, the perpetrator? There ain't nobody home. . . and even if there were, he sure as hell wouldn't feel the need to be forgiven!
>My observation is that the perpetrator depends on the prey for their existance. Without the prey, the meaning of the perpetrator's existance is void. Should the prey gather the intellegence to stop being victimized, the perpetrator may feel a compulsion to be forgiven in order to reestablish the relationship.
> 3. Not in the manner in which one forgives another actual person--in whom, no matter how deluded or out to lunch, still, there is the capacity to *hear* it.
>
> (Maybe you've had to have had a sociopath in your life, to really understand this, it's hard for normal, feeling people to "get.")
>I am familiar with this concept. My mother was "prey".
> 4. The evidence seems to be coming down on the hopeless side. What would hope and change consist of, in a person without conscience? Why would they think there's any reason to change? I think they do notice some difference in the rest of us--besides that we are easy prey, we do seem to be having some sort of fun--and that they are excellent imitators of normal. . .unless you look closely, which no one but their chewed-up, spat-out prey has any motivation to do. Which helps predators continue to operate undeterred; who the hell takes seriously the ravings of chewed-up prey.
>It would be a pity if these people, "sociopaths" or what not , and I think others with PTSD may fall into the same category, had their wiring messed up so that they could never experience the joy of tender feelings. Perhaps these people rememeber what this was like before they lost it. This would be motivation for them to reaquire those feelings.
> It *is* sad, their existence. But not equally sad. This inequality of course being the immense moral distinction between predator and prey.
>
> ZoNo argument here. However, I will not throw away the perpetrators. I think it is important to understand them, as ugly as that may sound, in order to break viscous cycles of perpetrator/prey interaction. Maybe if we can cure the perpetrators, then there will be fewer prey.
Just a thought.John
poster:JohnX2
thread:21405
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20020403/msgs/21456.html