OF THE
TIMES
When the human mind comes into contact with [the psychopathic] reality, so different from any experiences encountered by a person raised in a society dominated by normal people, it releases psychophysiological shock symptoms in the human brain with a higher tonus of cortex inhibition and a stifling of feelings, which then sometimes gush forth uncontrollably. Human minds work more slowly and less keenly, since the associative mechanisms have become inefficient. Especially when a person has direct contact with [a psychopath] who uses their specific experience so as to traumatize the minds of the others with their own personalities, his mind succumbs to a state of short-term catatonia. Their humiliating and arrogant techniques, brutal paramoralizations, deaden his thought processes and his self-defense capabilities, and their divergent experiential method anchors in his mind.Laura commented as follows:
"The other clinical observation that supports the hypothesis of a reptilian state among certain primitive psychopathic characters is the absence of perceived emotion in their eyes. Although this information is only intuitive and anecdotal, it is my experience in forensic treatment and custody settings to hear descriptions of certain patients' or inmates' eyes as cold, staring, harsh, empty, vacant, and absent of feeling. Reactions from staff to this percetion of the psychopath's eyes have included, "I was frightened... he's very eerie; I felt as if he was staring right through me; when he looked at me the hair stood up on my neck." This last comment is particularly telling since it captures the primitive, autonomic, and fearful response to a predator.As long as you can be shocked and "frozen in the headlights" by them, they can control you. And it very well may be that smoking is a major defense. As the C's remarked recently:
"I have rarely heard such comments as these from the same experienced inpatient staff during highly arousing, threatening, and violent outbursts by other angry, combative patients. It is as if they sense the absence of a capacity for emotional relatedness and empathy in the psychopathic individual, despite his lack of actual physical violence at the moment. ...
"I have found little in the research literature, either theoretical or empirical, that attempts to understand this act of visual predation in the psychopathic process. ... The fixated stare of the psychopath is a prelude to instinctual gratification rather than empathic caring. The interaction is socially defined by parameters of power rather than attachment."
Some people are born to serve, others are born to be served...
[6 August 05]
Comment: The article's subject identifies it to be about the risks of smoking by the French face-transplant recipient. But is it really?
But note the not-so-subtle message about smokers, achieved by the transition of subjects over these three brief paragraphs: There you have it. Smoking = psychologically unfit.
Why bother with such an article? They warn every patient about this risk of smoking after surgery, don't they?
Last year, my wife was gravely warned not to smoke after removal of her impacted wisdom teeth. After all, the wounds were right inside the mouth! The doctor also warned of the high level of pain she'd likely feel during healing, and he wrote two prescriptions for pain killers (one an addictive narcotic), one of which we filled right away, fearing the worst. She not only ignored the advice not to smoke, but didn't feel any pain whatsoever throughout the healing process. She actually became worried that something was wrong because there was no pain. Obviously, we wasted the prescription, didn't fill the other one, and threw away the free samples of Vioxx that the pharmacy graciously provided us with. There's so much wrong with the whole episode that I wouldn't know where to begin...