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Comment by RobertRoberts | Hacker News Reader

I can't possibly know for any certainty, but is it possible this girl was abused? I know first hand normal and reasonable children will go crazy (simplified description) after trauma. And it doesn't just go away after time, some effects stick around forever or until they are faced and overcome. And even then it's hard to behave normally. (ie, massive amounts of anger and frustration but no way to relieve the pain)

It may do a great disservice to someone who is really suffering to get the label sociopath or psychopath undeservedly. But I also know there are people (I personally have dealt with) that just want to destroy you, and hate everyone...

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My guess is a psychopath is somebody has gone through mental anguish in youth and has overcome it with the result that he can't be shamed by others any more than a hardened soldier can be frightened of a wasp. That mental anguish might have been the result of abuse but it might just be the product of an intelligent but mistaken understanding of life generally -- plenty of people are capable of mentally torturing themselves.

> My guess is a psychopath is somebody has gone through mental anguish in youth

That's an interesting theory. How long have you been working in the field, how many psychopaths have you met, and what is the strongest evidence for your theory?

Relax a little, the poster outright said it was a guess. They were just offering a POSSIBLE explanation based off of their personal views, no need to pull out your Empiricism 101 textbook.

My guess, actually, is that people who have done the work would not view this as a "possible explanation". It seems about as useful as speculating that "hey, maybe the earth is flat?"

But you never know, that's why I asked, hoping that someone OP or otherwise who has experience in the field would comment.

TFA is specifically taking about genetics and brain scans, which makes me curious as to how that would be reconciled with this "theory" about bad experiences, if indeed the OP was aware of the content of the article at all.

Is this girl a psychopath, or just traumatised though? The comment was made in the context of a story about psychopaths, so it seems to be intended implication that she is.

The grandmother and grandfather have seemed to see her as a psychopath. She can do crazy things without emotional response, without warning.

Unless they are trained psychiatrists/psycologists, that actually tested her, shouldn't this diagnose be suspect? Especially since it's likely to be biased by personal experience?

I'm guessing trauma which causes disassociation and can be somewhat reversed or healed because of the neuroplasticity of the brain. But a psychopath might be inherently wired to have disassociation between rational/logic part of his/her and brain and his/her emotions.

My impression is that the grandparents were a little scared of having their granddaughter visit. She is now in high school, if that was not clear.

I think that's a reasonable assessment of the comment, but to evaluate the girl's behavior as psychopathic (strongly implied by context?) seems unproven. What if she is just a spoiled brat?

sometimes, just being branded "sociopath" or "psychopath" is just another form of abuse or victim-blaming.

The learned abusive-behavior, can also be how they relieve their frustration, and abusers themselves often started out as abuse victims. This is inheritable behavior; unrelated to genetics even.

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