Excerpt from Telegraph.co.uk:
Researchers found that around one in three people actually feel physical discomfort when they see someone else in agony.
The findings could explain why some people are more empathetic to other people’s misery.
Archives for 2010
Brain Activity Exposes Those Who Break Promises
August 1, 2010 by
Excerpt from Science Daily:
Scientists from the University of Zurich have discovered the physiological mechanisms in the brain that underlie broken promises. Patterns of brain activity even enable predicting whether someone will break a promise.
Suffering Souls – The Search for the Roots of Psychopathy
August 1, 2010 by
Excerpt from The New Yorker:
The Western New Mexico Correctional Facility sits in high-desert country about seventy miles west of Albuquerque. Grants, a former uranium boomtown that depends heavily on prison work, is a few miles down the road. There’s a glassed-in room at the top of the prison tower, with louvred windows and, on the ceiling, a big crank that operates a searchlight. In a box on the floor are some tear-gas shells that can be fired down into the yard should there be a riot. Below is the prison complex—a series of low six-sided buildings, divided by high hurricane fences topped with razor wire that glitters fiercely in the desert sun. To the east is the snow-covered peak of Mt. Taylor, the highest in the region; to the west, the Zuni Mountains are visible in the blue distance.
Psychopaths’ Brains Wired to Seek Rewards
August 1, 2010 by
Excerpt from Science Daily:
The brains of psychopaths appear to be wired to keep seeking a reward at any cost, new research from Vanderbilt University finds. The research uncovers the role of the brain’s reward system in psychopathy and opens a new area of study for understanding what drives these individuals.
“This study underscores the importance of neurological research as it relates to behavior,” Dr. Francis S. Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said. “The findings may help us find new ways to intervene before a personality trait becomes antisocial behavior.”
A Neuroscientist Uncovers a Dark Secret
August 1, 2010 by
Excerpt from NPR:
The criminal brain has always held a fascination for James Fallon. For nearly 20 years, the neuroscientist at the University of California Irvine has studied the brains of psychopaths. He studies the biological basis for behavior, and one of his specialties is to try to figure out how a killer’s brain differs from yours and mine.
About four years ago, Fallon made a startling discovery. It happened during a conversation with his then 88-year-old mother, Jenny at a family barbecue.
“And I said, ‘Jim, why don’t you find out about your father’s relatives?'” Jenny Fallon recalls. “I think there were some cuckoos back there.”
The Lasting Effects of Psychological Trauma on Memory and the Hippocampus
August 1, 2010 by
Excerpt from a research paper written by J. Douglas Bremner, M.D.:
The invisible epidemic of childhood abuse and other psychological traumas and stressors represents a major public health problem in our society today. Childhood sexual abuse alone affects 16% of women (about 40 million) in the U.S.A. (including rape, attempted rape, or molestation) at some time before their 18th birthday.
Childhood abuse is the most common cause of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in women, which affects 8% of the population at some time in their lives, although there are a range of other types of psychological trauma that can also lead to symptoms of chronic PTSD, including car accidents, combat, rape and assault. Some of the symptoms of PTSD, which include intrusive memories, nightmares, flashbacks, increased startle and vigilance, social impairment and problems with memory and concentration, may be related to the effects of extreme stress on the brain.
Opportunities to deal with sociopaths in American politics
August 1, 2010 by
by Gene Messick
December 11, 2008 at 14:51:24
Frequent arrest of Senators and Congressmen, and now arrest of the Illinois Governor, forces a question that has been far too long ignored: How do we
deal with sociopaths in our government?
Most Americans have a mistaken belief that sociopaths in America are a rare breed, that they are wild eyed, murderous lunatics who are regularly
recognized, put away or executed. Most unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.
What’s a sociopath? Why do we not recognize them for what they are? How do we protect ourselves from them?
Illinois gov unanimously convicted
August 1, 2010 by
‘He failed the test of character,’ Illinois state senator says
By CHRISTOPHER WILLS, Associated Press Writer
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Gov. Rod Blagojevich was bounced from office Thursday without a single lawmaker rising in his defense, ending a nearly two-month crisis that erupted with his arrest on charges he tried to sell Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat.
Blagojevich becomes the first U.S. governor in more than 20 years to be removed by impeachment.
After a four-day trial, the Illinois Senate voted 59-0 to convict him of abuse of power, automatically ousting the second-term Democrat. In a second, identical vote, lawmakers further barred Blagojevich from ever holding public office in the state again.
The Case for Giving Eli Lilly the Corporate Death Penalty
August 1, 2010 by
By Bruce E. Levine
Excerpt:
At this point, the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly is basically a public
menace.
Eli Lilly & Company’s rap sheet as a public menace is so long that for Lilly
watchers to overcome the “banality-of- Lilly-sleaziness ” phenomenon, the drug
company must break some type of record measuring egregiousness. Lilly
obliged earlier this year, receiving the largest criminal fine ever imposed
on a corporation.
Madoff pleads guilty and goes to jail in handcuffs
August 1, 2010 by
By LARRY NEUMEISTER and TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writers
Excerpt:
Saying he was “deeply sorry and ashamed,” Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty Thursday to pulling off perhaps the biggest swindle in Wall Street history and was immediately led off to jail in handcuffs to the applause of his seething victims in the courtroom.
U.S. District Judge Denny Chin denied bail for Madoff, 70, and ordered him to jail, noting that he had the means to flee and an incentive to do so because of his age.
Madoff earlier spoke softly but firmly to the judge as he pleaded guilty to 11 charges in his first public comments about his crimes since the scandal broke in early December.
“I am actually grateful for this opportunity to publicly comment about my crimes, for which I am deeply sorry and ashamed,” he said.
But Enough About You…
August 1, 2010 by
But Enough About You …What is narcissistic personality disorder,
and why does everyone seem to have it?
By Emily Yoffe Posted Wednesday, March 18, 2009, at 7:05 AM ET
Excerpt:
The narcissists did it. Some commentators are fingering them as the culprits of the financial meltdown. A Bloomberg columnist blamed the conceited for our financial troubles in a piece titled “Harvard Narcissists With MBAs Killed Wall Street.” A Wall Street Journal op-ed on California’s economy suggested that Gov. Schwarzenegger’s desire for voter’s love (“It’s classic narcissism”) helped cause the state’s budget debacle. A forthcoming book, The Narcissism Epidemic, says we went on a national binge of I-deserve-it consumption that’s now resulting in our economic purging.
Evangelist Tony Alamo convicted of child sex crimes
August 1, 2010 by
July 24, 6:10 PM
Excerpt:
Remember Tony Alamo? He’s the founder of Arkansas’ Alamo Christian Ministries and, if you read his tracts, a persecuted Christ-like figure who has been victimized by everyone from Ronald Reagan and the federal government to the Pope. Today he’s been convicted in a Texarkana courtroom of 10 counts of sex abuse against girls as young as 9. The victims, who currently range in age from 17 to 33, testified that Alamo “married” them in private ceremonies while they were still minors and transported them across state lines for sexual gratification. He could receive a sentence of up to 175 years in prison as well as a $250,000 fine for each count.
Dimitri The Lover’s History Of Sexual Assault, Weapons Stockpiling And Psychiatric Evaluations
August 1, 2010 by
by Moe, 5:40 PM on Fri Jun 27 2008
Excerpt:
Oh god, here goes. You know how we sort of stopped wanting to hear about Paul Janka when he officially became an accused sex assailant (or actually, come to think of it, when he assaulted me a few months before that?) Well, over the course of a day Dimitri the creep behind a couple fake-seemingly funny voicemails revealed himself to be Dimitri the douchebag with disciples, who revealed himself to be Dmitri a.k.a. James Sears. And yeah, if all the “there’s nothing wrong with me” talk on his voicemail wasn’t a red enough flag for you, maybe the 1986 concern of the military psychiatrist who evaluated him during his enlistment in the Canadian Army that there was “something seriously wrong” with him is? But don’t take it from those shrinks; his psychiatric evaluation when he went to med school states that he got drunk and high on call, made “numerous random and obsessive telephone calls” to women during which he would (only sometimes) jerk off, and was generally immature and narcissistic — but not enough to deny him a medical license.
Maybe they didn’t know about the mace, stun gun and EMPTY HAND GRENADE CANISTERS cops reported finding in his room after he tried to enter a female officer’s dorm? Anyway, he failed to “grow up” much, spending his residency masturbating six or seven times a day at work and garnering complaints from female patients, one of whom finally pressed sexual assault charges, to which he pled guilty and got out of practicing medicine. So he could work as a “medical investigator” offering a second opinion on… SEXUAL HARRASSMENT SUITS.
FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List – Semion Mogilevich
August 1, 2010 by
Excerpt:
“A Ukrainian businessman charged with more than 40 counts of racketeering, wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, and other economic crimes carried out in dozens of countries around the world is the newest addition to our Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.
Semion Mogilevich is wanted for his alleged participation in a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud investors in the stock of YBM Magnex International, a company he controlled—which had its world headquarters just outside Philadelphia—that was supposed to manufacture magnets but instead bilked investors out of $150 million.” –
Review of New Movie Prince of the City
August 1, 2010 by
Excerpt:
EDITOR’S NOTE: Rarely do readers get the real story on cops and courts. When the public focuses on corruption in the so-called justice system, virtually all the weight falls on the cops. The lawyers and judges are much more adept at evading justice. Author and former NYPD Detective Bob Leuci knows the score. He lived it. Leuci will be appearing in Connecticut Jan. 15, 2010 as part of the CT Young Writers Triple Knockout event at the Hartford Club. Following are some video excerpts of Prince of the City and links to Leuci books and details about the upcoming event.
