I just watched an episode of "House" (love that guy) and there was this patient who was diagnosed as a "psychopath" who had no conscience or emotions.

It was discovered that the condition was the result of a physical disorder. It was also causing a problem for her heart.

They treated her, and it cured her heart problem and it also cured her from being a person with no conscience or feelings.

Okay this brings into question:

What is conscience, compassion, emotions and love?

What about some heartless psychopaths who appear to have been born that way? Is this a physical problem?

Have you ever watched the series "Dexter?" He is a serial killer psychopath who works for the police department. He goes around killing other serial killers to quench his 'need to kill.'

Shall we regard emotionless psychopathic killers as people with a disease now? Is there actually a cure maybe? Is there a common cause? Are some children born that way, or does it have something to do with chemicals in the brain?

Children who were not held or loved as babies tend to lean towards psychopathic symptoms.

Basic question is: Is love, conscience and compassion nothing more than brain chemistry?

Now, ya testing my brain

I have studied alot of these people that are killers. I always find different interesting.

A lot of them just get knocked down the wrong path. They are usually highly sensitive people. And they either know love really well, or not well enough.

Compassion - One with out it, usually can't give it, until it is shown, in a considerate way.

Conscience - In most cases, has to be taught. Some people just don't listen to theirs. I'd say this is always based on stability.

Emotions - Haha, a good one I lost all my emotions a few years ago. You just feel dead inside without them. You have to slowly relearn them, by self re-abilitation. The best emotion is joy, I'd say, one without joy, is one without much.

Love - another good one. Where is Love?, What is Love in this cold, cold world? Who, really knows what love is?, and how powerful it is? No-one can fall in love by choice, who can say who one really loves? :) If you rush life, you will trip. Maybe that's why so many fall into holes so quickly. Take life on step at a time, with an open mind, and a heart ready to love anyone :)

If one of cold, has not been shown the warmth, then they unfairly freeze.

I am more interested in the subject of whether being a psychopath with no feelings or conscience is a physical illness.

Or where does one draw a line between so-called "mental illness" and physical illness?

Are all illnesses physical illnesses? How much of a roll do our minds (and thoughts) play in what some people call "mental illness?"

Is mental illness just a case of "wrong thinking" or trauma, or can it be treated medically? (Like with drugs.)

(I wouldn't want it to go back to shock treatment and creepy stuff like that...)

If the girl in the "House" episode was cured with medical treatment, and suddenly started having normal feelings and a got her conscience back, then isn't it feasible that drugs can work in reverse, and be given to people to change them into unfeeling psychopathic killers with no conscience?

This seems to be a chilling possibility.

How much do you think our thoughts have to do with the over-all state of our health?

Or How much does the over-all state of our health effect our thinking?

Brain Anomaly Leaves Woman Completely without Fear

http://news.healingwell.com/index.php?p=news1&id=647562

I don't know...

You could say, what makes an engine faulty?

That's all I'm sayin'!!!

Yes - it looks very much like love and compassion and everything we experience is nothing more than a consequence of the brain and body's activity, which includes brain chemistry.

What you seem to be driving at here is the question of whether all psychopaths have so simple a physical cause as the woman in the show. I'm pretty sure the answer is a no. Assuming this work of fiction was even scientifically accurate in the case of that woman, I'm pretty sure that particular form of physical cause of psychopathy would be a rare case.

In the sense of having a single simple, diagnose-able physical cause - no. I'm pretty sure that not all mental illness can be traced back to recognizable physical causes.



I believe there is some evidence that physical brain damage to the parts of the brain that deal with empathy can induce psychopathy. I don't know if there is any evidence that drugs can have the same effect.

You planning to build an army?

Of course not. But I'm thinking that if I thought of it, I'm sure there is someone(a mad scientist) out there who is probably already working on it. Perhaps they have already succeeded.

Mk-ultra mind control project springs to mind.

Also, my first X-husband was a victim of experimental drugs (similar to LSD) while in Viet Nam given to him without his knowledge. What these drugs did to him is unknown. His memory of things that happened were horrific but he was also hallucinating so one cannot tell what really happened. He simply refused to go into details. (and I didn't really want to know.. it was pretty scary.)

(I think soldiers became so paranoid that they started killing each other, but I can't be sure if that is true.) These men were diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia when they got out of the service. I know at least three cases of this personally.

E motions = Electronic motions.

Rapid flow of unvisible electrons occupying the holes(empty spaces in brain)

usually negatively charged.

That really makes sense too.

hmmmm...thats the only thing which can give us severe SHOCK too!!

Brain tumor causes Pedophilia

http://mentalhealth.about.com/b/2003/07/29/frontal-lobe-tumor-causes-pedophilia-in-a-man.htm

Then do you think that all pedophiles should have their brains examined? Could there be a cure for this vile disease?

emotion and everything else is just an expression of the BIG EXPRESSION that must express...whether the expresser understands IT or not. so why kill yaself trying to figure it out? MUST U STRESS YASELF JUST TO EXPRESS YASELF

Learned responses, character and personality traits, versus innate responses?


I was born this way.....I was raised in a loveless abusive house, the only physical contact was harm...the only verbal communication was abuse.


A psychopath without emotion or compassion, I am not....if anything I always knew what it was I needed, required, an almost inherant encryption...I wanted connection, to feel love from another....I could feel it from the world outside my family, in the natural world...

I can't reconcile all responses are merely brain activity...it doesn't fit me.

This reminds me of when i met the boy next door to me, after me and my mum moved into a new area. He was two year younger than me. Me and the boy got on like a house on fire, but that kinda changed forever when he offed my hamster. Man. What a silly thing to do. As far as people with no feelings are concerned, i'd rather stay away. I was only a child at the time, so i wouldn't have known damn all about phsycho's back then.

I really think there is something terribly wrong with people who are heartless and uncaring of others, possibly physical and or brain chemistry.

We all know ( i hope) that it isn't natural to want to hurt another, yet so many do it. Some have regrets, some don't. I think a total disconnection from self and source must be present.

Those who have violent backgrounds like myself (as Jess mentioned) still come out of it all with maybe more compassion and empathy for others. Siblings can grow up in the same environment and one end up a heartless bastard in and and another be just fine..as I said, maybe able to show more compassion because of the lack of caring shown while growing up.

I can't imagine that some are born without the 'caring gene'. How unfair would that be? Maybe is possible, I hope not.

Any personality trait, or personality disorder is a result of brain chemistry AND learned responses.

I know that didn't imply otherwise, and that you are only asking a reasonable question, but I think this idea of multiple possible influences leading to similar end results is important enough to repeat, for the sake of the overall dialog (not directed at you):

Just because one person suffers from pedophilia (or psychopathy or...) as a result of a tumor (or blood clot or tissue damage or...), it doesn't follow that other pedophiles (or ...) have overt, curable, singular physical causes of their behavior (symptons, ...).


I hold that all feelings and thoughts are the result of chemical events in the body (primarily the brain), but it does't mean that we can simply 'fix' problems with our feelings and thoughts by taking a chemical or mechanical approach to 'fixing' the brain. The brain's complexity is staggering, and we aren't there yet.

Maybe one day we will be able to. It might even bring us back full circle to a more precise and humane variation of the shock therapies people use to use. If I suffered from one of those conditions, and the careful, selective destruction of less than 1% of my brain could cure me of it completely, with no noticeable side effects, I would probably opt for treatment. A epileptic friend of mine has suffered some brain damage, as she's still perceptive, intelligent, capable...

Scientists Decode the Brain of the Pedophiles

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Scientists-Decode-the-Brain-of-the-Pedophiles-66441.shtml