Abigail Marsh has found that many psychopaths don’t want to be cruel and uncaring, and argues that they deserve support to help them get there

We found several who sort of hacked their way into long-term behaviour change. In some cases, this was because of a relationship they didn’t want to lose. One very memorable person told us he just faked it until he made it. He acted like he thought a nice person would act. After about a year and a half, it started to feel natural and even enjoyable. I found that very encouraging. That’s exactly what clinical psychologists recommend: practise the behaviours you want to adopt until habit kicks in. Several people we talked to had also cobbled together their own moral codes, not out of remorse or shame, but because they wanted to become a certain kind of person.

  • ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world
    5·
    2 months ago

    As a diagnosed sociopath this is very accurate to how I altered my own behaviors and thought processes. Don’t get me wrong I still think of some really horrible shit and have to check myself a lot but overall I’m much better than I used to be.

    Also psychopathy and sociopathy are now considered a part of aspd (antisocial personality disorder) kinda like add and adhd.

    • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyzOP
      2·
      2 months ago

      I think about some of the plot lines around Data from Star Trek about this in that the series spends a bunch of time wondering “can Data really love?” and it is kind of absurd, he is constantly showing up for people, constantly doing the right thing and always curious of those different than him, Data is the very embodiment of love how could it matter whether a particular cascade of chemicals happens in him just right?

      I know this is kind of the point, at least in the better written parts of Star Trek but even still we miss it in our need to locate everything in a sense of materialism including most desperately emotion itself.

      An adult is a good person because they understand society and how they impact others around them, not because they experience the correct emotions or thoughts.