Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath?

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Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath?

This article gives me creeps.....

But it is quite interesting how deficit in one sphere of thinking (empathy) can produce such a different results in behavior (comparing autism and psychopathy)....

I used to babysit a child sociopath....at age 8 years old, he was seriously creepy and calculating and very manipultive...and yes tortured animals. I cant get into specifics due to his privacy, and probably my safety since now he is grown and is probably a serial killer by now.
But lets just say that he was the stuff of horror movies involving some evil child. We used to call him Chuckie. Some people thought he was possesed by the devil as he claimed the devil talked to him alot. His mother was very religious and did not know what to do with him. He did get intensive therapy for a few years, and seemed "cured", but there is no cure for personality disorders....they can fake being cured quite well.
A sociopathic child can go through a dormant period in adolescence where they learn more about social rules and mannerisms and learn to mimic them very well, then when they become a young adult the sociopathic behaviors return but with their finesse they learned in adolescence, they can seem super normal to most people, until suddenly their true self comes out in a flash, by then the damage is done.
Some of these sociopaths can become the Jeffery Dauhmers of the world, but most just become that crazy boss or ex boyfriend from hell.
Many do well in the corperate world, our culture seems to reward sociopathic rationale in the buisness and government realms of our society.

So my advice to mother in the article is to teach him some buisness skills and dont let him play with dead animals, he might be a millionaire someday.

btw....there is a school of thought that believes child onset antisocial personality disorder is caused by a chromosomal disorder.
Others think it is genetic, but one thing is for sure, modern psychology cannot even touch most personality disorders because as a group, they should be called perceptional disorders rather than personality disorders to be more correct. No one to this day can agree, in psychology circles, what elements make up the personality, so how can they say it is disordered? However personality disorders are really disorders of one's view of the world and of one's self.

With antisocial personality disorder, removing empathy, and consequencal thinking...a person is unable to think beyond themselves. This majorly effecst their view of others which they see as more of pawns for their own purpose. They fail to see that others have any value at all besides what they can provide for them. They do not see others as sentient beings.

I feel bad for this mother cause, when all is said and done...she is going to wonder what she gave birth to.
If he is a little sociopath, there is likely no happy ending to this story.


Jojo

That's... very unfortunate. I wish the best for that child.

Sadly enough, adult psychopaths start out as child psychopaths.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Psychiatrists have been essentially coddling child psychopaths for a long time now which makes me wonder if their labeling system is designed for punishment and not help. Maybe perhaps there are alot of psychopaths who take on psychiatry.

I think doctors are too hesitant to label a child as such because kids are naturally seen as innocent and they can be taught stuff and how to act because their minds are still developing so it's easier to teach them than it is to teach an adult.

that makes little sense. Then why are children diagnosed with adhd, autism amongst other things yet child psychopaths who threaten and can end up worse as adults get no help or recognition because psychiatrists claim it would be best not to do so but then they turn around and encourage getting your child diagnosed as early as possible for autism.

There's another thread on this in the parents' discussion. http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt198401.html I didn't want to merge them as the replies are coming from a different angle from the ones here, It might be of interest to the contributors on here.

I think we are both on the same page here because we both seem to be in agreement about doctors and their labels for kids.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 55ELIT02U#!
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Before I met my wife, I had dated a girl with Borderline Personality Disorder, though I think she could fit the definition of a psychopath.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Yeah, I am currently with a man who has a lot of qualities of NPD. But sometimes he talks like a psychopath.

One night he was talking about his co-workers. He was so angry because they "never worked" and just "had fun." Including his boss. Then he said, "it's OK. I'll just act like them. They're so easy to read--like an open book. It's not hard if you have the ability."

He often talks of wearing a "mask" all the time. Or being an "actor."

To everyone else we know he seems like this super-nice, charming guy. He's the first one to offer you help, compliment you, or give you a big smile. If you share a belief he disagrees with, he will agree with you and compliment you on how you are right.

Then, when he's alone with me he will become emotionally abusive. Sometimes he starts yelling about how he wants to shoot people for doing minor things.

And it's amazing to watch him switch. He'll go from degrading me, sulking, and refusing to speak to me, and then if an other acquaintance calls him, he immediately changes everything about his tone of voice and becomes this layed back, charming man. He laughs, makes light jokes--EVERYTHING about him changes. It's pretty creepy.

And the other creepy thing is that all these friends of his think he's so amazing and nice--the most helpful man in the world....but when they aren't around he complains and attacks them all...for little slights. Like one night he was yelling, because his friend hadn't called him--he was yelling at me as if I was his friend, "You f-ing a-----! I hope you die in the street! I'll f*** shoot you myself. I'll dance over your body!" And then he did a little dance.

I sometimes wonder if he is a psychopath.

I know this isn't the thread to go off on psychopaths--and I don't want to get into a "you should leave him" discussion--I'm all on top of that. But I think about that a lot--I wonder if he's a mild psychopath.

As for child psychopaths--can't they find psychopathy by brain imaging? Does it not work for children? What about giving them injections of cortisol. I know that we don't want to mess with kids biology, but I really do dislike psychopaths. It must be terrible for the mother.

I went to school and had speech therapy classes with two nine year olds who murdered their father together and tried to kill their mom and sister, so yeah.

An equally comforting thought is that they both joined the marines (they did the murder as minors) and have tattoos that say "Brothers in arms"

There's a guy at my school who meets every criteria for a sociopath. I'm not sure if the two things are synonymous or not.

I don't hope for the kid; I hope for the parents. I can't exlpain why, they are people and maybe I should feel something for the kid, but he doesn't really seem to be suffering. I hope the kid doesn't end up hurting anyone, but that may be asking a bit much.

i do wonder how things (i mean treatments) heave come on for sociopaths* (the psycological phenomonon previously known as psycopathy*)?
surely, it is easier to physically detect than autism for instance and the physiological problems presenting are fairly consistent. is there not an early years intervention program akin to that of autism but involving redressing chemical imbalances rather than teaching social skills (since there is no problem there, that's for sure)!

i am not sure what can be done for damaged frontal lobes (whether congenital or through accident), because a damaged capacity for emotional feeling possibly is unteachable and if you teach someone to fake empathic response, then are you not just arming them to be more manipulative than before. but the faulty pleasure and reward centres (which can result in perpetual and esculating thrill seeking, at any cost to self or others) to be worked on either chemically (i know, drugs are a dangerous territory), or just helping them find legal and possibly useful roles in life that utilise that drive: fire fighting; reporting from war zones; extreme sports etc.

there was a really good documentary recently where this guy was investigating psychopathics and doing various investigations to see if they were born or made. I wish i could find the link because the beautiful irony was that he scanned himself as a test and by chance found out that he was predisposed (via his brain make up) to be a psychopath. i think at the end he surmised that he didn't go that route because he had a loving and intellectually stimulating upbringing.

i hear, from a reliable source (an ex, naturally) that psycopathy (now reclassified as sociopathy) is a severely unpleasant condition: with a fluxation of physical and psychological pain and being driven to take completely crazy life risks just to feel something or a promise of feeling 'normal'. mind you, it is difficult to feel that sorry for someone who has tried to kill you or your family... i do feel for his mother however because she is effectively stuck with him and his perpetual lies and drama until one of them dies.

you can call a 9 year old that because it is a medical term like flu or chickenpox. it is just most people use it in a derogatory way and that is why everyone thinks it is a mean word.the same thing with the word ret*d.