Adventures With Cassiopaea

Chapter 36

What do John Nash and Ira Einhorn have in common besides brilliant minds and a fascination with the game "Go?"

Well, they both had "dominating mothers," who constantly sought to push them forward in the world through assiduous training of their minds, pride in their accomplishments, and a serious lack of allowing them to experience the consequences of their behavior - IF their mothers were even aware of their "glitches." It actually seems to be so that very good psychopaths learn VERY early to conceal their true nature.

But, coming back to the issue: psychopathy and schizophrenia: In all the research I have done on the subjects, there are two things that keep coming up in both conditions: the lack of emotional "connection," and unusual word usage.

Psychopaths, however, seem to seek to "engage" others for the purpose of getting what they want - to materially fulfill their fantasies. Schizophrenics, on the other hand, withdraw from others, into their fantasies as though the fantasy was more real than the outside world. To quote the punchline of an old joke: psychopaths build castles in the air and try to sell them to others; schizophrenics build castles in the air and move into them.

Over and over again, in reading cases of both disorders, we find that "disharmony between the content of patient's words and his emotional expression was striking." However, in the case of the schizophrenic, it has gone to an extreme that there is no longer any attempt to fake anything for the sake of deceiving other people. For example, one patient giggled constantly while describing, in sympathetic words, an acute illness suffered by his mother. One schizophrenic talked about his child's death with a broad smile on his face. Another patient reacted with rage to a simple question about how he slept at night. Clinically, the degree of emotional inappropriateness is often used to indicate the severity of the schizophrenic's condition. But, far from being able to consciously "pretend" appropriate emotions as the psychopath does for the purposes of deception, the schizophrenic exhibits a huge discrepancy between what he says and the emotional tone associated with his verbal communications. The emotions attached to what they talk about are inappropriate and arbitrary, and rarely - if ever - concealed.

Nevertheless, it is clear that both schizophrenics and psychopaths operate largely based on fantasy or delusion.

Does this suggest that psychopathy is a variation of schizophrenia that is outwardly directed in some sense, and which manifests certain coping mechanisms in order to obtain "satisfaction?" Are schizophrenics individuals who have somehow shifted into a mode of being wherein outside stimulation or sources of satisfaction are not only no longer needed, but perceived as completely undesirable? If we think of psychopaths in terms of upright predators on others, is it appropriate to think of schizophrenics in terms of upright "prey" even if the predator is in their own mind?

The curious thing about the two cases, Nash and Einhorn, is that both of them exhibited very similar "independence" and "antisocial" behaviors when they were growing up. There was similar aggression and resistance to authority. However, there are most certainly schizophrenics who have been described by their families as very "together" and outgoing and dutiful and giving, before the onset of their symptoms. Many, if not most, of them are shy and introverted as children - seemingly "too sensitive." But that is not always true, and it certainly wasn't true in the case of John Nash.

Mealey [Mealey, L. (1995). The sociobiology of sociopathy: an integrated evolutionary model. Behavioral & Brain Sciences. 18: 523-599.] has proposed two different aetiologies for sociopathy, but in her framework those displaying chronic antisocial behaviour are placed in the same functional category. This implies that they have similar or identical psychological mechanisms. On the other hand, Blair [Blair, R.J.R. (1995). A cognitive developmental approach to morality: investigating the psychopath. Cognition. 57: 1-29.] concentrates on the mechanisms subserving psychopathic behaviour, but concludes that psychopaths have a dysfunctional psychological/neurological mechanism and are disordered in comparison to other members of society.[...]

In one significant study it was found that the Psychotherapy Checklist could not distinguish between psychopathic and schizophrenic offenders in 50 consecutive male admissions to an English Special Hospital. [Howard, R.C. (1990). Psychopathy Checklist scores in mentally abnormal offenders: A re-examination. Personality & Individual Differences. 11: 1087-1091.] This may indicate that some schizophrenics with a history of antisocial behaviour are suffering from what could be called state-dependent psychopathy. […]

What is most outstanding about psychopaths is that they appear extremely at ease with themselves. They can be articulate, are often highly intelligent, and are regularly described as ‘charming’, and ‘convincing’. Psychopathy is not associated with low birth weight, obstetric complications, poor parenting, poverty, early psychological trauma or adverse experiences, and indeed Robert Hare remarks ‘I can find no convincing evidence that psychopathy is the direct result of early social or environmental factors.’ [Hare, R.D. (1993). Without conscience: The disturbing world of the psychopaths among us. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.]

No sound evidence of neuroanatomical correlates for psychopathic behavior has been found, though an interesting (and highly significant) negative correlation has been found in 18 psychopaths between the degree of psychopathy as assessed by the Checklist and the size of the posterior half of the hippocampi bilaterally. [Laakso, M.P., Vaurio, O., Koivisto, E., Savolainen, L., Eronen, M., Aronen, H.J., Hakola, P., Repo, E., Soininen, H., & Tiihonen, J. (2001). Psychopathy and the posterior hippocampus. Behavioural Brain Research. 118: 187-93.] Lesions of the dorsal hippocampus have been found to impair acquisition of conditioned fear, a notable feature of psychopathy, but it is not clear whether this neuroanatomical feature is the cause of, or is caused by, psychopathy. A study of 69 male psychopaths identified by the revised edition of Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist found no support for the hypothesis that psychopaths are characterized by verbal or left hemisphere dysfunction. [Smith, S.S., Arnett, P.A., & Newman, J.P. (1992). Neuropsychological differentiation of psychopathic and nonpsychopathic criminal offenders. Personality & Individual Differences. 13: 1233-1243.]

One particularly striking feature of psychopathy is that extremely violent and antisocial behaviour appears at a very early age, often including casual and thoughtless lying, petty theft, a pattern of killing animals, early experimentation with sex, and stealing. [Hare, op. cit.] In a study of 653 serious offenders by Harris, Rice, and Quinsey childhood problem behaviors provided convergent evidence for the existence of psychopathy as a discrete class, but ‘adult criminal history variables were continuously distributed and were insufficient in themselves to detect the taxon’. [Harris, G.T., Rice, M.E., & Quinsey, V.L. (1994). Psychopathy as a taxon: evidence that psychopaths are a discrete class. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 62: 387-97.]

In a recent study psychopathic male offenders were found to score lower than nonpsychopathic offenders on obstetrical problems and fluctuating asymmetry, and in fact the offenders meeting the most stringent criteria for psychopathy had the lowest asymmetry scores amongst offenders. [Lalumière, M.L., Harris, G.T., & Rice, M.E. (2001). Psychopathy and developmental instability. Evolution and Human Behavior. 22: 75-92.] As the authors note this study provides no support for the idea that psychopathy results from developmental instability of some kind, but does give partial support for life-history strategy models.

An evolutionary game-theoretic explanation for the low but stable prevalence of psychopathy has been modeled successfully [Colman, A.M., & Wilson, J.C. (1997). Antisocial personality disorder: An evolutionary game theory analysis. Legal & Criminological Psychology. 2: 23-34.], and though this provides some tentative support for Mealey’s suggestion that psychopathy is a frequency-dependent strategy, cross-cultural work using reliable measures will be needed to establish whether there is a stable proportion of sociopaths in traditional societies. [Archer, J. (1995). Testing Mealey's model: The need to demonstrate an ESS and to establish the role of testosterone. Behavioural & Brain Sciences. 18: 541-542.] Given the paucity of evidence in favour of developmental instability and brain damage in psychopaths the suggestion that psychopathy is an adaptation is worthy of further exploration. Particular attention should also be paid to the probability that child psychopaths are mislabeled as suffering from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Conduct Disorder, or Oppositional Defiant Disorder. [American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV) (4th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.] According to Hare ‘none of these diagnostic categories quite hits the mark with young psychopaths. Conduct disorder comes closest, but it fails to capture the emotional, cognitive, and interpersonal personality traits… that are so important in the diagnosis of psychopathy.’ [Hare, op. cit.]..[Pitchford, I. (2001). The Origins of Violence: Is Psychopathy an Adaptation? Human Nature Review. 1: 28-36.]

As noted above, we have an interesting problem before us: there seems to be some extraordinary correlation between psychopathy and schizophrenia that is, as yet, quite mysterious to researchers. Ian Pitchford has proposed that some schizophrenics with a history of antisocial behaviour are suffering from what could be called state-dependent psychopathy.

Now notice: this is not saying that schizophrenics are psychopaths. I am personally aware of several people suffering from the horrors of schizophrenia who have never, ever, manifested any psychopathic characteristics. On the contrary, they were gentle, loving, shy and giving until the disease manifested. And, even after, such natures still manifest through the fog of the delusions in numerous ways.

No, indeed, we are talking about something else altogether. In fact, it may be so that psychopathy is really a variation of schizophrenia - the STS-dominator version of it. It could even be thought of as the difference between the predatory styles of the crocodile and the boa constrictor.

As I have noted earlier, when I read the biography of John Nash, it was with a sickening sense of horror that I realized I was reading a vivid description of Frank Scott's life, as he had recounted himself - only without the "pity poor me" spin he had put on it. He had spent so much time lambasting his parents for abusing him, that I was quite shocked to meet them and to immediately sense that there was no way possible that these people had ever abused anyone. At a later point in time, I closely questioned his sister about these things and she assured me that Frank had never been abused. She did acknowledge that he had repeatedly claimed that he had suffered at their hands, and even at her own hands, and that perhaps, since he was so "sensitive," he may have been handled too "roughly" for his delicate sensibilities. The best psychopaths are able to convince another person that they have done something bad, even when they are the one who did it, and they know it wasn't bad - or certainly not as bad as portrayed! As it happened, Frank's sister's versions of events he had recounted as being horrible and violent were just simply not convincing enough to support his claims. It should also be noted that, because she was not "in agreement" with him over many issues, Frank viewed his sister as morally deficient. He also spent a great deal of time interpreting her behavior to his parents as such, even though it was obvious that she was simply an individual who had ideas about living her life that were different from theirs. Frank assiduously "fed" this difference of opinions, ultimately achieving his goal of convincing his parents that his sister was, if not morally deficient, at least psychologically impaired to the point of being incompetent. Heck, until I met her, I was convinced, too! And even after, for a long period of time, Frank managed to interpret everything she had said and done in my presence in the worst light so that I was left with nothing but confusion about her.

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