The Making of a Psychopath
on October 24, 2010 in Psychology by Brian CombsIn light of the David Russell Williams case in Canada, The Globe and Mail in Toronto is looking at how a psychopath is made.
He discussed the work of Dr. Kent Kiehl, a neuroscientist at the University of New Mexico. Kiehl is researching the brain scans of convicted criminals, both young and old, and seeing how they differ. It appears the psychopaths show clear brain deficits.
This opens real questions for the criminal justice system.
Clearly men like Williams are very very sick. I know that people think he is evil and maybe he is but the fact that he was willing to risk everything he had to commit his crimes shows he had an obsession that could not be denied. It looks like he fought it as long as he could. Alcoholics Anonymous has experts in dealing with mental obsessions. They wrote the book on it, literally. I think Williams would benefit from a 12-step program even in prison and most certainly before he acted out his fantasies. People with dangerous obsessions like that should run not walk to the nearest 12-step program.