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Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath?
The New York Times ^ | May 13th, 2012 | Jennifer Khan

Posted on 05/13/2012 12:12:29 PM PDT by KantianBurke

One day last summer, Anne and her husband, Miguel, took their 9-year-old son, Michael, to a Florida elementary school for the first day of what the family chose to call “summer camp.” For years, Anne and Miguel have struggled to understand their eldest son, an elegant boy with high-planed cheeks, wide eyes and curly light brown hair, whose periodic rages alternate with moments of chilly detachment. Michael’s eight-week program was, in reality, a highly structured psychological study — less summer camp than camp of last resort.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Front Page News
KEYWORDS: 2ndamendment; child; psycho
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To: taxcontrol

Little FYI, applying the switch at the slightest provocation can be bad for a child as well. My father would spank me (and I’m talking a volley of hard spanks meant to hurt for hours, not a simple swat) for the slightest cross (hell, he spanked me once because I was backing my tricycle into the drain pipe on our house. Please, explain to me what harm I was doing), and there was never any explanation of why what I had done was wrong or what harm it had caused.

Essentially, I grew up almost afraid of my own shadow, because I never knew what would get me spanked or yelled at due to never knowing what my father considered wrong, and while I wasn’t always scared of my father, I was never comfortable around him (part of the drive to get out on my own was to finally get out from under his control). I believe in discipling a child at an early age, but there has to be logic and reason behind it so the child understands what’s going on, and doesn’t end up scared to death of the very people who are supposed to protect him.


21 posted on 05/13/2012 1:18:59 PM PDT by RWB Patriot ("My ability is a value that must be purchased and I don't recognize anyone's need as a claim on me.")
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To: Cvengr
Oh, indeed.

Let's not ignore our search for the Medieval diagnosis to explain Psychopathy: A mother who consorted with the devil.

22 posted on 05/13/2012 1:21:31 PM PDT by The KG9 Kid (Semper Fi)
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To: KantianBurke

Some people are just plain evil. Witch doctors and psychologists (same thing really) try to come up with reasonable explanations like possession by a demon or brain chemicals out-of-balance, but these are just attempts to pretend that evil doesn’t exist. Some people are just plain evil from their earliest years. I’ve known a couple of kids like that. None of their brothers or sisters were troublemakers. The parents did their best. The kids were just plain vicious and cruel and destructive. No amount of discipline or love or anything made the slightest difference. Fortunately they are fairly rare. They invariably end up dead or in prison or more rarely become President or Speaker of the House.


23 posted on 05/13/2012 1:23:00 PM PDT by Seruzawa (Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for good a blaster kid.)
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To: KantianBurke

Best book on the subject is Robert Hare’s “Without Conscience”. What you’re dealing with is a birth defect entirely like Down Syndrome, basically a modeling facility which all normal people have, but psychopaths don’t. And it’s very obvious at a very early age. Hare says there is no such thing as a parent of a psychopathic child who wouldn’t gladly hand the kid over to some government agency at age seven or eight.


24 posted on 05/13/2012 1:26:02 PM PDT by varmintman
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To: KantianBurke

Good luck with any castle doctrine, stand you grand law, make my day law, etc etc, should you ever gun down a 9 year old. Hint: Things will not go well for you.


25 posted on 05/13/2012 1:26:26 PM PDT by Melas (u)
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To: cripplecreek
One source of trouble can be something as simple as Scandinavian intermittent porphyria. This is a seasonal problem for most victims.

There are several versions of one gene that can create all sorts of problems ~ including iron deficiency anemia, or pernicious anemia.

Gene A simply gives you anomalous heme ~ with the result that you end up dumping half your iron intake down the toilet as urine. You will invariably have a Vitamin B-12 deficiency unless you consume enormous quantities of meat or sublingual Vitamin B 12 pills (available at Wal-Mart $5.00 a bottle). Remember crazy old aunt Betty who got those shots once a month? They don't do the shots anymore.

Gene B is a bit more serious and you will have the same iron loss, and skin problems, and possibly some psychological problems. This one is fortunately far less common.

Then there's Gene C and it has a sort of psychotic behavior. Only 500 individuals with this gene have been found in Scandinavia. SImple injections of carbohydrates (sugar) will alleviate most psychotic episodes ~ assuming you can catch them as they run off across the tundra.

However, when it comes to shedding iron in the urine, these guys shed it in photoreactive form and it can turn PURPLE or VIOLET.

26 posted on 05/13/2012 1:31:00 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: Cvengr
Makes one wonder if some haven’t dabbled in the occult and some children might be demon possessed.

Modern science is finding murders and violent people have the same brain structure-missing key chemical areas in the brain normal people have.

I'm not giving these people a pass just saying what is being found.

27 posted on 05/13/2012 1:34:53 PM PDT by trailhkr1 (All you need to know about Zimmerman, innocent = riots, manslaughter = riots, guilty = riots)
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To: rabidralph

One thing that is consistent in the liberal personality is a lack of real shame and remorse on a personal level.

It’s all fake group emotion, based on “narratives” where political correctness dictates when to feel rage and hate and when to feel at ease or even elated as a group think process. The ends justifies the means.

This is why crazy rules like “zero tolerance” where the innocent are punished equally to the guilty or wealth redistribution, which is theft from one to “give” to another, or p.c. diversity denial of equal rights, which is race hate and discrimination, make sense to liberals and makes them feel good.

They have no empathy, shame or remorse for the lives they wrecked but feel good because they are told to feel good about wrecking one in the name of another. Liberals who are leaders of the pack are manipulators like L in the story we read. That creepy homo guy Savage comes to mind. He can stand up against bullying and then, without an emotional clue, bully Christians who he hates.


28 posted on 05/13/2012 1:42:16 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: KantianBurke
...high planed cheeks...?

Must be a native American. He should run for Congress.
29 posted on 05/13/2012 1:48:18 PM PDT by AD from SpringBay (We deserve the government we allow.)
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To: KantianBurke

This is a case way beyond “normal” child misbehavior. If they punished the dickens out of him for it, it probably wouldn’t make a dent. I don’t know all the technical terms, but the kid is off his rational bean and ought to be in an asylum before he does something that puts him on a gurney.


30 posted on 05/13/2012 1:52:40 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Mitt! You're going to have to try harder than that to be "severely conservative" my friend.)
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To: rabidralph

One of them is POTUS.


31 posted on 05/13/2012 1:52:40 PM PDT by Eleutheria5 (End the occupation. Annex today.)
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To: jocon307

When My Son was small ( about 7 or 8 )..we lived next to a family with 3 sons who played with my son...next to them was a boy I can only describe as “weird”...His father was
a strict recluse and didnt allow His wife to talk to the neighbors..She was just as strange...
One day my son was playing with the 3 boys next door and 2 of the neighbor boys had som disagreement, and one boy chased His brother with a small stick..as they ran down the sidewalk the weird boy jumped up with his fist in the air and Yelled “Kill your Brother” “Kill your Brother”...
I thought that this kid will grow up and do someone great Harm...


32 posted on 05/13/2012 2:01:22 PM PDT by LtKerst
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To: KantianBurke
I don't know how I feel about this article. I worry about putting labels on kids, especially per-pubescent kids. I agree with this quote here.

But to take the attitude that psychopathy is untreatable because it’s genetic” — he shook his head — “that’s not accurate. There’s a stigma that psychopaths are the hardest of the hardened criminals. My fear is that if we call these kids ‘prepsychopathic,’ people are going to draw that inference: that this is a quality that can’t be changed, that it’s immutable. I don’t believe that. Physiology isn’t destiny.”

Psychopath and sociopath = monster. One you have that label, you have it for life, and you will become exactly as you are expected to be as an adult. That and on psychological drugs to boot.

Kids are quite capable of having a real mean streak to them. Their sizes maturing brains often keep them in check. They need guidance and people who can read them properly. The most important way is by example. Living by example.

On the same note, people grow up. I was an a-hole at 9 years old. Major league. And at 10, 11, 12, and 13. It wasn't the parent's fault. If they pushed harder against me, I would been even worse because I always had to win under any circumstance. Maybe not immediately, but eventually. I could almost have been this guy.

I grew up. Maybe Michael here grows up. His dad said he was a problem and grew up. Sometimes the best thing possible is for the kid to have a chance to be a man. Most boys genetically deep down want to be men.

33 posted on 05/13/2012 2:01:56 PM PDT by Darren McCarty (The Republican Party is bigger than the presidency.)
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To: KantianBurke

Very sad. Imagine what it’s like to be the parents of a little monster like that. Clearly these people are doing their best with a kid whose brain is wired up wrong.

Not all kids who have this wiring problem give you a warning by (for instance) barbecuing kittens. I had friends who were nearly beggared by a girl they adopted in infancy. They adopted three other children, another girl and two boys, and the kids grew up to be terrific people, just like the parents. But the girl was a terror. She never raised her voice, never misbehaved in school, always acted perfectly, but she was sweetly, politely evil. And she had the acting skills of the greatest actress on the stage. You would believe anything she said. She had cops, doctors, psychiatrists, and judges—hardened, experienced people—wrapped around her little finger.

I’ve known a couple of other people like that. One was a real bad seed, a beautiful girl who as a teen enjoyed accusing innocent men of child abuse and wrecking their lives.

A lot of psychopaths start behaving better when they get into their thirties. Some don’t.

Yes, there’s evil in the world. There is a devil in hell. Often he uses sickness to cause suffering, whether it’s through cancer or through a person whose brain hasn’t been wired up properly and then goes on to cause misery. But we can’t put a bad nine-year-old child down as we would a dog whose brain was faulty. We have to try to do something to fix these kids.


34 posted on 05/13/2012 2:01:56 PM PDT by ottbmare (The OTTB Mare)
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To: Joe 6-pack
it makes you wonder how much spiritual structure there is for some of these kids

EXACTLY. You never hear of this crap from Christian families. Spare the rod, spoil the child. Period.

35 posted on 05/13/2012 2:04:10 PM PDT by Waywardson (Carry on! Nothing equals the splendor!)
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To: KantianBurke

That boy needs some extended psychiatric help, starting with a comprehensive examination searching for neurological defects. There is a whole collection of such things he *might* have, which quite commonly can be “dead before they hit the ground” lethal is untreated. If they *can* be treated.

It could be the equivalent of a precise epilepsy, juvenile strokes, a tumor, any number of congenital problems, you name it. He needs a CAT scan right from the start.

What this doesn’t sound like is psychopathy or sociopathy. “Sitting him down and talking to him” at this point is just a time waster, and could get him killed.


36 posted on 05/13/2012 2:04:56 PM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy
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To: KantianBurke

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048977/


37 posted on 05/13/2012 2:08:06 PM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: KantianBurke
He might do well in business, not all psychopaths are in jail


38 posted on 05/13/2012 2:10:19 PM PDT by KosmicKitty (WARNING: Hormonally crazed woman ahead!!)
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To: RWB Patriot

Make the kid keep doing it until they get it right without telling them what it is they are doing wrong. That is so Zen. Zen educational theory is whack, Zen parenting is just scary.


39 posted on 05/13/2012 2:20:07 PM PDT by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
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To: KantianBurke

I thought Ubama was older than nine?


40 posted on 05/13/2012 2:37:52 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Do I really need a sarcasm tag? Seriously? You're that dense?)
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