Comments on: Relentless Bullies and Psychopaths Aren’t Stopped by Politeness http://www.bloggernews.net/121197 High-quality English language analysis and editorial writing on the news. Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:39:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Ben Leichtling http://www.bloggernews.net/121197#comment-1313814 Ben Leichtling Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:54:01 +0000 http://www.bloggernews.net/121197#comment-1313814 Hi Sharon, Thanks for the comment – but I don’t buy the causality implied in the fMRI reference. Of course, there are always a few people who have brain functioning abnormalities for any function imaginable. But for the rest of us, for every state of mind or activities there will be functional changes in the brain as well as different hormones released and other biochemical changes. Also there will be tremendous gender differences in most activities. But if we accept causality, we’re going down a legal slippery slope. My experience is that almost all kids at some point early in life try to get what they want by taking it and not caring about the other person. They also hurt other kids. Adults have to socialize them into empathizing and trying other ways of behaving. Some kids persist in destructive behavior because they can’t think of any other way to get what they want. But all that is talk-talk. The important point is to remove people who bully or show psychopathic behavior ASAP to protect the rest of us. An age old problem is how to use necessary aggression to protect the tribe from outsiders but turn it off when dealing with members of the tribe. Many methods have been used with great, but never 100%, success. Best wishes, Ben Hi Sharon,

Thanks for the comment – but I don’t buy the causality implied in the fMRI reference. Of course, there are always a few people who have brain functioning abnormalities for any function imaginable. But for the rest of us, for every state of mind or activities there will be functional changes in the brain as well as different hormones released and other biochemical changes. Also there will be tremendous gender differences in most activities. But if we accept causality, we’re going down a legal slippery slope.

My experience is that almost all kids at some point early in life try to get what they want by taking it and not caring about the other person. They also hurt other kids. Adults have to socialize them into empathizing and trying other ways of behaving. Some kids persist in destructive behavior because they can’t think of any other way to get what they want.

But all that is talk-talk. The important point is to remove people who bully or show psychopathic behavior ASAP to protect the rest of us.

An age old problem is how to use necessary aggression to protect the tribe from outsiders but turn it off when dealing with members of the tribe. Many methods have been used with great, but never 100%, success.

Best wishes,
Ben

]]> By: Sharon McEachern http://www.bloggernews.net/121197#comment-1286102 Sharon McEachern Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:43:48 +0000 http://www.bloggernews.net/121197#comment-1286102 Recent imaging research suggests that bullies' brains may be hardwired for sadism. Using function Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), images of bullies' brains showed that inflicting pain stimulated the brain pleasure centers of males who are unusually aggressive, but showed no activity in brains of normal males. Ethic Soup blog has a good article on this research at: http://www.ethicsoup.com/2008/11/bullies-may-be-wired-in-brain-to-enjoy-others-pain.html#more Recent imaging research suggests that bullies’ brains may be hardwired for sadism. Using function Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), images of bullies’ brains showed that inflicting pain stimulated the brain pleasure centers of males who are unusually aggressive, but showed no activity in brains of normal males.

Ethic Soup blog has a good article on this research at:

http://www.ethicsoup.com/2008/11/bullies-may-be-wired-in-brain-to-enjoy-others-pain.html#more

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