That time a neuroscientist accidently discovered he's a psychopath...

[DetlefK]

http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2495-6-scary-realities-working-with-actual-psychopaths.html

In 2006, Fallon was finishing a study on Alzheimer's. Poring over countless brain scans, including one of his own, which he'd submitted as a control subject. Fair enough; he doesn't have Alzheimer's. But he did know an abnormal limbic system when he saw one -- and he knew that low levels of activity in the part of the brain that governs emotional life and social interaction are ... less than ideal.

"I got to the last scan, I looked at it and chuckled. I called the technicians in, and said, 'You mixed the files? This is a dangerous person who shouldn't be walking around, a psychopath!' I had to peel back the name (on the scan). Of course it was me."

...

But others had taken notice of Fallon's probable diagnosis long before he did -- be they family, or the top psychiatrists in Norway. See, Fallon was asked to give a talk on bipolar disorder at the University of Oslo in 2010, and for ethical reasons, he used his own brain scans for the PowerPoint presentation. Some of the country's top psychiatric minds invited him to a friendly, hours-long chat after -- nothing fancy, understand; just a "thanks for participating! We think you're probably a borderline psychopath" kind of affair.

...

So what's it like to be a psychopath?

Fallon puts it this way:

"I don't get anxious about things, and if I've done something wrong, I'm challenged by somebody catching me." He also says his pain threshold is very high, consistent with psychopathy. "I drove my dentist crazy, root canals with no anesthesia ... I think it's just a kick. The way I feed that particular monkey is being around danger."

...

[Nitram]

1. Fascinating.

Not all psychopaths are murderous.

[hunter]

2. It's interesting how abuse and punishment play a role in this.

It seems to me that people who are declared mentally ill and dysfunctional in one community, often to the point they are imprisoned, might be functional in another community as Fallon is.

We seem to be living in a society that manufactures criminals, addicts, and other dysfunctional people, and it can almost always be traced back to abusive, punitive conditions in childhood and adolescence.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Startling article. Gives a person so much to consider.

This would have been a lot for the man to absorb all at once.

Thanks for the article.