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Psychopaths, Too Successful for Their Own Good

Jan 08, 2013
by Caroline Miller
Kevin Dutton, The Wisdom of Psychopaths
4 Comments

I wrote a blog a while ago that said psychopaths are so prevalent in society some psychiatrist were suggesting the behavior no longer be listed as a mental illness. What’s more, a recent survey of the disorder revealed that those afflicted with the impairment turned out to have some admirable traits: charm, focus and an eye toward long term goals. Also, psychopaths tend to thrive in highly competitive or stressful occupations. For example, they make great CEOs of companies, lawyers, journalists, police officers, clerics and civil servants. The professions where psychopaths are found least are among case workers, nurses, teachers artists, doctors and accountants. (“Wisdom from Psychopaths? By Kevin Dutton, Scientific American Mind, Jan/Feb 2013 pg. 42)

To test his findings, Kevin Dutton, a research psychologist in Oxford, went to Broadmoor, England’s largest psychiatric hospital. His book on that encounter and his subsequent research will soon be published in, The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success.

 During Dutton’s visit with some of the most dangerous psychopaths on the planet, he was surprised to discover these in-mates were capable of an almost Zen-like attitude toward life. As one of them advised him, “give tomorrow the slip and take today on a joy ride.” (Ibid, pg. 43)

So, what is the difference between a psychopath and the rest of us? Well, for one thing, given the psychopath’s ability to focus on a goal without distraction or conscience, he or she is more likely to become a success than the rest of us, even at the cost of becoming a violent predator. As another inmate expressed it, the talents that mark his disorder may simply be “too much of a good thing?”

Jack Nicholson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Courtesy of www.fanpop.com) 

 

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4 Comments
  1. Pete January 8, 2013 at 12:27 pm Reply
    I also happened on this article (online in RealClear Science), and was disappointed to find the author mentions artists but not writers, hehe, and also to be reminded that as a visual artist, I share none of the redeeming qualities of the average psychopath, and probably more than a few of the unredeeming ones... ps Stephen King's observations on why horror appeals include the idea that we all of us are insane, a special challenge I suppose for the authors of the recently revised DSM...
    • Caroline Miller January 8, 2013 at 4:47 pm Reply
      Well, if you look at the list of those most likely to be psychopaths and least likely, you'll see that artists are relatively sane. I suppose that's because we live in our heads and don't have much contact with the real world. But I do agree with King. It's a mad, mad,world.
  2. Pete January 8, 2013 at 8:18 pm Reply
    Well, it's a welcome suggestion, that those who live in their heads can be thought of as sane, even relatively so, especially since I have tried to arrange my life in answer to Yeats's semi-rhetorical question, Why should not old men be mad?, but in this I don't follow Oedipus or Lear, or Narcissus and Goldmund, instead I choose the path of the "liberated old man" of Chinese descent, or of the average mountain recluse, devoted to nature and the changing seasons, mindful of the mountains behind me and the waterfall before me ...
    • Caroline Miller January 9, 2013 at 11:03 am Reply
      Again, a beautiful thought and close to poetry. You have me on Goldmund, however. Not familiar. Will look it up.

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Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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