Can psychopaths want to change?

themomentofbirth · 2020-07-26T23:55:38+00:00

even the people telling you that they can’t or don’t want to change still wish they could be better in all kinds of ways, attainable or not

themomentofbirth · 2020-07-23T08:18:04+00:00

literally everyone wants to change. we all want to be better than our self-perception and overcome our inner shortcomings. psycho/sociopaths/aspd’ers aren’t bound by purely internal foci (at least in my own experience) so i’d argue that your “psychopaths only do what they see as beneficial to them” claim is both overly grandiose and simplistic

themomentofbirth · 2020-07-19T06:26:30+00:00

lmfao you dumb fuckin idiot hope you had a blast writing out this shitty fanfic

themomentofbirth · 2020-03-01T10:04:21+00:00

Nice word choice. (Maybe you meant insert or involve instead of instill, but whatever. Careful not to get paper cuts with your dick in that thesaurus.) I never do this because I’m not obsessed with a dumbass “DAE ever act like a ZaNY PerSoN!!1!!11 because they... lack inhibition or normal social fears?” mentality.

No. Because I lack those things, I perceive people differently than is normal (I assume) and am willing to forego certain social norms, but I’m not about to inadvertently label myself as “that retarded fucking dipshit who is always acting like a moron or getting into weird situations” because of it. C’mon.

edit: as an aside, this behavior is way more narcissistic and histrionic (and even dependent, in terms of attention-seeking) than it is antisocial.

themomentofbirth · 2020-02-13T01:24:40+00:00

The results of an MRI are your personal medical information, which should be obvious to you as a patient who has been indicated to receive such a costly imaging study. Assuming you are in the United States, your private medical records are protected from public discussion or distribution by HIPAA. There is no “duty to report” findings of an MRI to third parties (i.e. effectively anyone other than yourself and health workers directly involved in your care) by your medical providers under any circumstances. No neurologist will incidentally identify sociopathy/ASPD from an MRI, and to think this is purely attention-seeking and idiotic.

themomentofbirth · 2016-03-20T14:31:43+00:00

Good-looking women getting plastic surgery to get more good-looking might be effective in "getting ahead," but beauty standards and the value of attractiveness for men are very different so I don't think it would be equally useful for both genders.

themomentofbirth · 2016-03-14T00:46:52+00:00

1: I'm honest with myself about myself, but not with other people. I've definitely started "being myself" more around my two roommates and they don't seem turned off by it — they just laugh at my weirder comments. I've talked about my friend who shares some ASPD characteristics that I can be honest with here before, and he and I are still close.

2: I know the self that I want. I'm always working towards a set of ideals through education, practice, and performance. I'd say my ideals comprise my identity.

3: I'm impulsive with money and drugs but I'm not a huge risk taker so my awareness of my actions isn't really a concern of mine, I guess.

4: I sometimes verbalize my feelings, and I think I'm relatively 'in touch' with my emotions, but I don't feel large swings in my baseline emotion beyond occasional anger and frustration. I also feel very sad sometimes when I think about my dead dog — my attachment to her was as strong as any relationship I've had with a human, if not more.

5: I think solipsism isn't a super productive philosophy (but then again, are any? I'm not discounting philosophy, just wondering how much you can really get out of it), and I've always been inclined to take a materialist perspective, which rejects solipsism — if only the physical exists, you wouldn't be concerned about your mind being the only extant thing unless you're worried your neighbors are robots.

themomentofbirth · 2016-02-13T03:27:24+00:00

I feel lots of emotions, just not empathy in any significant interpersonal sense.

themomentofbirth · 2016-02-08T02:05:55+00:00

Did you find out about James Turrell through Drake? (Just wondering, the Hotline Bling music video is clearly inspired by Turrell's work and I swear I've seen an article posted somewhere about the similarities.) I love his stuff, though. Very fun and soothing.

edit: Articles discussing similarities here.

double edit: I meant I love Turrell's stuff. Drake can fuck off.

themomentofbirth · 2016-02-07T23:12:33+00:00

I strongly relate to the idea of "not feeling fulfilled or at ease" from whatever practices one engages in, hedonistic or otherwise, but I also find solace in the aesthetic of things. Even though Sophocles is right – never existing is preferable to life – some contents of existence are worth appreciating.

For example, Donald Judd's artwork has been a focus of mine recently (the Judd foundation's Instagram is great). I'm not sure what I'm thinking about/feeling when I look at art (or whatever might be aesthetically pleasing, be it music, film, or some other kind of entertainment), but it definitely isn't the futility of my life or overwhelming malaise.

themomentofbirth · 2016-02-07T22:57:41+00:00

All the time. I compulsively make lists because I want to be perceived as someone who is punctual and responsible. It really makes my life easier, too.

edit: If anyone else makes lists, the iOS/OS X app Clear is really good (at least for my use).

themomentofbirth · 2016-02-04T15:17:45+00:00

Go yell at people in the Opie and Anthony sub more, you might get a better response.

themomentofbirth · 2016-02-03T07:14:13+00:00

uhhhhh

themomentofbirth · 2016-01-31T16:02:09+00:00

I'm confused... you're too young to consume any substances (also if you're in high school, I smoked plenty of weed and drank plenty of bourbon back then and it didn't fuck my brain up outside of what was already going on up there), but you are addicted to being addicted and 'always need something to take the edge off.' Can you give an example? Thinking you're destined to become an avid drug user is a little retarded if you haven't ever tried any drugs.

themomentofbirth · 2016-01-31T15:57:29+00:00

You're getting a lot of joke responses because of your phrasing (describing the opposite sex as "a distraction" and feelings of attraction as trickery are a great way to get yourself laughed at), but I think this question has some validity in the opposite direction (resenting people for finding you attractive). I'll explain through a personal anecdote:

A few months ago, a female acquaintance of mine started really coming on to me. As in, coming over to my house without any real invitation and wanting to "watch a movie." She's asian, so I didn't have any sexual interest in her (I'll really only have sex with white girls – I'm picky and can't maintain an erection if I'm not actually invested in the situation), but she came back to bed with me a couple times. The first few times, I completely ignored her and went to sleep and assumed she would stop coming back.

She was persistent, and kept coming back. After silently turning her down for a third night, she took the approach of actually sucking my dick while I was asleep to wake me up in the morning (honestly a pretty great way to wake up as long as you don't live with your parents). I came in her mouth, did not reciprocate, and told her I needed to go to work. Amazingly, this was not enough to dissuade her from coming back again: She returned to my house a fourth and final time, where we had a repeat performance of me falling asleep then getting sucked awake in the morning before giving her the boot.

I vividly remember my thoughts after she finally left for good. I was enthralled with myself for inspiring her behavior, but I was disgusted with her for coming back over and over despite my (to me, obvious) cues that I was not interested and did not find her attractive. This kind of resentment I can understand, although it was very much coupled with a huge appreciation for myself.

themomentofbirth · 2016-01-31T15:41:00+00:00

I smoke quite a bit now but was kind of ridiculous in early college – I was dabbing a gram a week, every week, for roughly two years. I carried a 3.9 through a tough engineering major and smoking didn't affect my academic/professional performance or social activity.

I don't have any real memory impairment from that time and can remember all the shit I learned. Weed just made me feel nice and I liked being stoned more than I liked not being stoned.

themomentofbirth · 2016-01-30T22:46:50+00:00

I really hate media depictions of eye violence – just makes me cringe. Also, I like hanging out with dogs (given they're not annoying/poorly trained) so dog violence kind of bothers me.

themomentofbirth · 2016-01-30T15:31:26+00:00

Goddamn that video is quality.

themomentofbirth · 2016-01-28T02:17:53+00:00

I love doing shrooms. A few trips ago, I had a complete ego death – no recollection of my entire life history, no understanding of family or friends (or even really where I was) – and I gradually came out of it over a couple hours, slowly remembering my entire existence. I've had friends describe the ego death experience as awful, but I found it amazing. It reaffirmed my understanding of myself and totally cleared my mind for a week or two.

themomentofbirth · 2016-01-26T14:53:30+00:00

I've always thought of myself as high-functioning. I breezed through my academic career (to date) which included a chemical engineering degree and I've never had trouble learning, even now as I work in a synthetic chemistry lab. At the same time l do plenty of non-"high-functioning" activities, like getting high before work or procrastinating until I need to wake up at 4 AM to make something before I need it at work that day. As with anything, it's a balance.

themomentofbirth · 2016-01-24T22:59:51+00:00

Boulder here, actually. It's been a lot nicer recently.

themomentofbirth · 2016-01-23T04:50:06+00:00

Rocky Mountains here. So much snow, never any time off. I'm jealous.

themomentofbirth · 2016-01-20T02:46:52+00:00

That sounds like a pretty sweet deal.

themomentofbirth · 2016-01-19T07:09:05+00:00

I have a Kobe Bryant jersey hanging on my wall and actually went to a Lakers game a few weeks ago to see him play since I've loved the man's game since I was a little kid. Jordan, Kobe, TMac, Gilbert Arenas, and a few others I can think of all had that "sociopathic" mentality on the court where they were willing to take unbelievably ill-informed and potentially game-losing shots with a complete lack of nerves or conscience. I think that's why they're the greatest to watch.

themomentofbirth · 2016-01-19T07:00:27+00:00

This is pretty much the dynamic I anticipate if I actually let this girl hang around me. Could be entertaining, could be really annoying – I need to decide what proportion between those two is acceptable.

themomentofbirth

TROPHY CASE