Posted by Cindy W on April 18, 2000, at 23:28:45
In reply to Re: Sociopathy - a mental illness?, posted by Lunatic on April 17, 2000, at 3:22:11
> Mental illness, to a court, is the inability to perceive or anticipate the consequences of
> ones actions, and a lack of moral judgement. Sociopathy is the choice to make the
> wrong moral decision.
>
> It might be constructive to consider sociopathy a mental illness. The system as is isn't working very well is it? Maybe these undesirable behaviors could be controlled with psychotropic drugs? How many criminals do you know of who have been rehabilitated by the present system? When the courts declared that Jeffrey Dalmer was sane this struck me as absolute stupidity. He is sane?! I think he should represent one of the worst possible cases of insanity. What the courts say is irrelevant to psychology anyway, isn't it? What if you have different groups of people who don't share a common morality? What do the courts say, except our morality and our interests or you'll be sorry? Is this likely to work?Having worked at a prison for three years now, I am starting to think that sociopathy is almost like a different breed. They just aren't "wired" like most people. Somehow, where their feelings and empathy should be, there's something missing, if that makes sense. I don't think it is a mental illness, so much as a form of "alien species" or something. That probably sounds cold, but the calculated, cold-blooded lack of moral judgment i have seen makes me feel this way.
poster:Cindy W
thread:30106
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000411/msgs/30518.html