A Scientist's Journey Through Psychopathy | Google Zeitgeist

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[MartyWoodcock]

Lectures like this never go long enough in my opinion. I could listen to this for another 2 or 3 hours and I'd pay attention through it all.

[GamesCooky]

Fascinating. I wonder how many people in the world live their lives unaware that they're psychopathic. We only really hear about the criminal psychopaths.

[eastafrika]

As a lecturer in developmental psychology I find it fascinating that an individual with 9 or more of the symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder would be able to self regulate and stop to reorganize his intended reactions.

[MichaelHarrisIreland]

This guy is making a great effort to advance our understanding of ourselves.

[stoneroses]

I understand why people are drawn to him, even in full disclosure of his psychopathy, he is outwardly charming, likeable, funny, interesting and keenly intelligent. Love the tongue in cheek humour.

[tmmash]

"A harsh physical environment is conducive to peace" Wow! That was succint!

[CatoptricCistula]

Epigenetics is key to behavior, and is essentially why society is responsible for what characteristics we express. "No man is an island."

[ksan]

I found the audience reactions pretty interesting; some folks seemed amused, but some appeared uncomfortable and slightly unhinged.

[hondovortex]

So many women have saved their children with love. I'm one.

[kadajj]

People might say that psychopaths are immoral but it takes real character to do the right thing despite not having empathy which is arguably more "moral" than any empath could be

[toodleloo]

It's good that he's directed his tendencies into Science, which often does require a lack of emotion. :)

[dannynyman]

@ 19:21 "I told my wife and I told my close friends I said, 'This is not sincere. I'm just doing it because I think I can do it.' ...And they said, 'No, just the fact that you're trying and you're doing this is enough.' And I said, 'You don't care if I'm being sincere?' They go, 'No.' I have never understood this about people, they all just want to be treated well. This is a big surprise to me..."

Reminded me of the ex.

Good on you for actually trying. The ex didn't. Keep it up, it's worth it.

[hawkiebaby]

He got it. It is not who you are inside, what you feel, how you are described or how you identify yourself. You are what you act out in the world. "Ye shall know them by their deeds". If only everyone realized that...

[givemethemusicd]

Great mental floss regarding nature and nurture. I'd like to see his brain scans while he was engaged in those tasks of behavioral self-moderation. If it lit up the dead areas, that would be fairly revolutionary in the growing scientific field of neural plasticity and in turn cognitive-behavioral efficacy for supposed psychological diseases that we have previously written off as ''incurable'' in modern society.

[plmd]

This entire good and bad traits reminds me of a Star Trek episode where James Kirk has a transporter malfunction that creates 2 Captain Kirk where one is "evil" which is characterized by impulsiveness but is strong and one is "good" which is characterized by compassion but is weak. Both are required for a strong leader. I think it's called the Enemy Within. Serial killers are missing the compassion and empathy.

[yolandaponkers]

It’s interesting how charming and likable he is. He really does seem genuinely caring on some level. This is why I think there’s a scale of psychopathy.

[RGBEAT]

I love how he’s advocating for pro-social psychopathy in the developing world. Definitely an original goal!

[avrilduck]

Oh I love it when science meets storytelling meets a compelling narrative meets old wisdom meets art meets transhumanism meets intrinsic theatre knowledge meets ... etc!

[mos]

I liked the comments on this video the best. He labels himself a psychopath because of the scans and now all of a sudden people have so many opinions about who he is. Before his test he was an average man with an average life who was also a neurologist. He has spent years working on brains and his own was included in that work. How he can be called anything but brilliant is beyond me. A lot of you should really read and research more. This is about way more than him being "crazy". He's self-centered and boring... He's talking about his life and using words for those who aren't scientists. He's trying to help people understand. Why click on this is you're not interested in it...

[ascendrio]

In some sense our sanity isn´t kept in check internally, but through our external environment. People tell other people how to behave through conscious and unconscious ques. We were evolved in this way because it meant the difference between live and death in ancient times.