You freaked me out in text format.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/magazine/can-you-call-a-9-year-old-a-psychopath.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2

It's a long read, but worth reading.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Sad. I have a family member that has a similiar story. Lots of dxs not sure what they settled on. As young as 3 or 4 I can remember her displaying really abnormal and by the time she was 8 it was scary.

The question has always been what can we do about her or for her and how do we protect ourselves in the process? Even now, I want to help in some way but when it comes down to it I know that I am not really able and I am putting myself in jeopardy to do it. There is a lot of guilt but the tough part is accepting the hopelessness that comes with it. There is really no place for her and there never has been.

Why is this a shoutout? The Dr from Purdue?

I will take the boy and teach him the ways of the forest.

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My Mother was a witch...she was burned alive
Thankless little bitch, for the tears I cried
Take her down now, don't wanna see her face.
All blistered and burnt, can't hide my disgrace.
Am I evil? Yes. I am.

Completely unrelated, but do you give back rubs?

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Kid Cairo's Boers & Bernstein YouTube Channel

Kid Cairo: 2013 March Madness Tournament Winner!

"Cowabunga? Cowa fucking piece of dog shit! This game is diarrhea coming out of my dick!"

another one of these things we know are true but everyone's afraid to say. i don't feel bad for them, they'll wind up as managers in the corporate world.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Just took the time. Agreed, it's worth reading. I'd be curious to hear Psychory's take.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Very creepy stuff. This exhange really made me cringe.

From the bedroom, Michael called out: “He knows the consequences, so I don’t know why he does it. I will hurt him.”

Miguel: “No you won’t.”

Michael: “I’m coming for you, Allan.”

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One of the creepiest excerpts I thought was this...

By the time he turned 5, Michael had developed an uncanny ability to switch from full-blown anger to moments of pure rationality or calculated charm — a facility that Anne describes as deeply unsettling. “You never know when you’re going to see a proper emotion,” she said. She recalled one argument, over a homework assignment, when Michael shrieked and wept as she tried to reason with him. “I said: ‘Michael, remember the brainstorming we did yesterday? All you have to do is take your thoughts from that and turn them into sentences, and you’re done!’ He’s still screaming bloody murder, so I say, ‘Michael, I thought we brainstormed so we could avoid all this drama today.’ He stopped dead, in the middle of the screaming, turned to me and said in this flat, adult voice, ‘Well, you didn’t think that through very clearly then, did you?’ ”

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

It was also sad that the Mom said he is going to win a Nobel Prize or be a serial killer. I mean seriously what do you do with a kid like that? He hasnt done anything wrong yet but if this kid grows up and kills 9 people, wouldnt you be pretty pissed off to read a comment like that written in 2012?

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Sounds like a sociopath as well....

they typically go hand in hand. he also sounds like a narcissist.

this is very odd...usually there's something between the ages of 0-3 that determine what a child's development will be like.

there was a great america undercover decades ago called "child of rage" about a girl who was about 8 i think who wanted to kill her younger brother and would bash his head against cement and kill insects. she would also masturbate publicly and rub herself raw. the parents of her at the time were adoptive parents, the dad was a minister at a church. the birth father of the girl, they found through therapy, would sexually abuse her and gave her the detachment she had.

it took years of therapy and being put in some sort of institution to "re-educate" her on how to feel for someone or something. by the end of the documentary, when she spoke of the same things she did when they showed her first in therapy, she started crying.

this kid needs to be shown that he is not able to manipulate. that is the key to any sociopath. they know they're in control, they know they have power. once you take that away, they wilt. they will feign humility but if you don't fall for it and continue to challenge them, especially at his young age, there's a chance he could turn out all right.

Thats kinda touching on what I thought was one of the more interesting points in the article. About how callous-unemotional kids are very intelligent but very cold and how they are now trying to reprogram some of them with what they were calling intellectual morality.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

i didn't read the whole article but it wouldn't surprise me if he has a very high IQ. many geniuses have these kinds of personalities. but it's the pattern of behavior that needs to change. he needs to know he can't control people the way he wants to. at 9, it's still possible for him to be helped. i mean, you'd hope...

Bear in mind, I'm not a clinical or child psychologist, but I do think this field is interesting and have read a bit about it. What's interesting about psychopathology is that psychopaths do not feel remorse, or empathy. It's not by choice, but rather like a disability. It's like being blind, but specifically to emotional understanding of others. I've taken a psychopathology test (don't worry, I'm not a psychopath) and I have a few clinical friends and they all say that's the key. Psychopaths do bad things and do not feel remorse or guilt about it (they may feel guilt about getting caught but not about doing the task). When normal people think about something bad they did, they feel remorse (here's a boredom thread topic: something bad you did that you feel remorse about; then we can figure out who's a psychopath by who doesn't answer). Do I think a nine year old could be down this road ? Absolutely. Do I think they can be rehabilitated? Yes I do, I do not think that's past the point of the critical period for learning about empathy.

What makes me a bad person is that we have friends here who have a five year old that we call 'The Psychopath' because he has odd behavior that the parents refuse to acknowledge to the point that we do not want our children playing with their children (for example, he laughs at inappropriate times, like when being scolded; or he lays on the ground and thrashes his head from side to side...oh and he is a bully). However, this shows I'm not one because I feel some remorse about giving a five year old the nickname; but I'll still call him that.

Not to get all hippie/college professor on you, but 'This American Life's" episode this week is all about psychopathology, very interesting.

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when is that on, psy? i'm drawn to stuff like that.

I listened to the podcast, it's on itunes right now.

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