Everyone is shocked the first time they encounter a true psychopath in their lives. I know I was concerned, and questioned where there evil comes from. In my research, I found a surprising fact about psychopaths.
Are psychopaths born or made? Psychopaths must have both certain genes and a suitable environment to develop anti-social (ASPD) traits. Psychopaths have measurable brain differences compared to the average person, but do not necessarily have to develop negative personality traits.
Getting to know what creates psychopath is essential if you have have a troubled child in your life. Or, if you are trying to deal with an adult psychopath. Knowing what makes them tick gives you an advantage and makes you less likely to be taken advantage of.
What We Know About Where Psychopaths Comes From
Research has clearly shown that psychopaths have both genetic components and links to trauma in childhood.
In the science of psychology, psychopaths are considered to be a form of anti-social personality disorder (ASPD), along with narcissism and others.
While we still don’t have the complete picture of exactly what it takes to activate a psychopath, we do know quite a bit of what tends to happen in a child’s life to make them a psychopath:
- Poor parental bonding or overprotective parenting
- Physical abuse
- Children separated from parents in the first 3 years of life
- Lack of maternal care
In one study of Italian inmates, prisoners with high psychopathy scores tended to have childhood experiences of neglect and abuse.
The link here seems to be that failure of a potentially psychopathic child to develop emotional bonds at a young age with their parents further exacerbates their inability to empathize or relate to other people’ emotions.
Can A Child Be A Psychopath?
Experts are able to spot psychopathic tendencies in children from a young age.
In one case, a 6 year old attempted to strangle her 2 year old sister. When questioned, the psychopathic child said, “I want to kill all of you.” This little girl the went on to write a book about how to hurt people.
While not all potentially psychopathic children express as much overtly dark tendencies as this little girl, such children do tend to be prone to discipline problems and acts of violence.
Other potentially problem children may not directly attack their parents, but express their emotions through torturing animals or destruction of dolls or toys.
In general, with violent children, the older the become, the more difficult it is to correct. This can been seen in the widespread failure of juvenile correction programs and school disciplinary system. Most problem children never leave the system once they enter it, despite varied attempts by experts to reverse their violent behavior.
Psychologist believe that violent children must be socialized by the age of 2, or they may never fully fit in to society.
Given the fact that most psychopaths have abusive or neglect in their family history, it makes sense that a potentially psychopathic child raised with love and care may never develop the virulent anti-social personality disorder.
Do You Have To Have Psychopath Genetics to be a Psychopath?
There are a variety of genes that have been shown to be related to psychopathic tendencies:
- MAOA-L
- 5HTTLPR
- COMT
- DRD4
- DRD2
In particular tho MAOA-L gene — known as the warrior gene — is found thought to be found in all psychopaths. Just having this gene does not make you anti-social or indicate a psychological condition. But, it is linked to to aggressive behavior. Based on these DNA findings, as well as studies of psychopathy in twins, genetics do play a strong roll in the development of a psychopathic personality type. And, certain genetics may be required for psychopathy to develop.
The Surprising Origins of Psychopaths
What makes psychopaths so interesting and dangerous is the fact that the condition is so multi-faceted.
There is no one gene, mental condition, element of upbringing, or family history that definitively makes a psychopath. Instead, it takes a large number of, generally acceptable, personality traits to perfectly align to make a virulent psychopath.
One research remarked that —
Specifically, in the general population, psychopathy may consist of independently derived maladaptive personality traits that in certain individuals may combine to form a particularly virulent phenotype.
The ultimate take away is that psychopaths are a combination of aggressive and violent personality types linked with a psychological inability to emotionally relate with the people around them. Their innate ability to feel bad about harming others is gone or never existed. Yet, they have the urge to violence almost as a form of play.
