well i didnt mean only people with avoidant disorder have empathy normal people have empathy too, its just that people with avoidant disorder always need to know they are liked, so they develop insane empathy to "read" it. they read body language, tone, everything but yes, if they think something will hurt the other person, they tend to avoid the situation

and yeah, psychopaths have a low tolerance of frustration and have those "short-circuit" reactions where they want something immediately (antisocial, narcissistic, histrionic disorder), pretty much acting like little kids: if you say you dont wanna buy the kid a toy, it starts to cry, lie if needed, break other toys, rage like that crazy warcraft kid etc. they rarely say sorry though, because of a lack of compassion. when they get what they want, their anger ends abruptly and thats why it doesnt seem real, as you noticed

yes sure others have empathy too. if I said it's only dependent people than I made a mistake.

yes they act like kids. they are also regarded as having difficulties planning ahead. However I think most of them are aware or they can anticipate the possible negative consequences of their behavior. but they still do it because the negative consequences are just understood in a rational way. (e.g. the psychopath knows the words but not the music). this means while they think of the negative consequences of ending up in prison they experience no or little anxiety and therefore are not motivated enough to change their behavior. i think they can think of the future but they don't bother to do so. perhaps this is the case because of an insufficient ability to produce stress hormones/neurotransmitters. gluccocorticoids (cortisol), noradrenaline.. when they anticipate punishment.

With most people u can say that they might not remember the words you have said to them after a while (e.g. asshole), but surely they remember how u made them feel. I think the psychopath is more likely to remember the words.


y those other cluster C personalities (antisocial, narc. hist, borderline...) I think need immediate gratification because of strong impulsive characteristics.

This post was edited by YaC on Apr 19 2013 07:50am

well, since i notice you prefer looking at psychiatry mainly from the neurological approach (i personally prefer behaviorist approach but thats a matter of preference really), maybe it would help to note of a study that was done a long time ago, that proved permanent NEUROLOGICAL consequences in kids who were abused by parents (and im talking only verbal abuse here), visible on MRI. so if that is true, then why couldnt the same thing be induced by drug use (especially at a young age)? so...idk...it seems that even a slight imbalance such as that can trigger some neurologic manifestations and that your original question might be a lot more complex than it seems

yes, an example is smoking during pregnancy. this increases the risk of developing adhd in the newborn.
adhd is associated with a higher rate of conduct disorder, oppossitional defiant disorder and psychopathy.
so in this case smoking of pregnancy could influence the persons personality.

ofc im aware that there are endless people with adhd who do not have psychopathic symptoms. it's just that there is a slight positive correlation between adhd and psychopathy. if it's just a correlation or a causal link, i don't know.


in Terms of behavioral or neurological Approach i'm pretty sure both Play a role. still there are many children who have been heavily abused during an early childhood and they don't lack a sense of empathy or develope psychopathy. also there are a lot of psychopathic people born into a good and supportive family environment. i think it depends on the genetic predisposition. if there is a genetic predisposition i think than abuse can increase the risk for the disorder. i think that perhaps the environment alone or genes alone can be responsible for a disorder, but in that case the environment or genes should be very extreme. usually the interaction with the environment and a genetic predisposition is needed i think.


(ignore my strange Keyboard Auto correction)

This post was edited by YaC on Apr 22 2013 05:12am

in my experience adderall can be associated with psychopathy. years ago i wanted to destroy all nature, and I am a native american.
In my defense, I wanted to preserve the status quo. Which is a world with an infinite population which keeps expanding.
I find it difficult to think in terms of more than 7, 13, or 42.

I feel as if drugs that elicit extreme paranoia would be causal.

Long term use of meth, pcp, crack, etc. Less so LSD/shrooms.

y that makes sense. also paranoia is often associated with psychopathic tendencies.

The definition of psychopathy you guys are throwing out is so nebulous that it's no wonder that the DSM-V threw it out.