Sociopaths and Holocausts

For a long time people in much of America and other Western countries have been up in arms about sociopaths. The claim is that these people are evil and can only be evil whatever they do. This militates against what we know about choice and rationality. And it also carries a very dangerous precedent.

What am I talking about? Well, what I'm talking about is that this kind of definition of people can only be useful for this: Systemic extermination. What we are dealing with here is a Holocaust. If someone can only be evil whatever he does, then that means, logically, gas chambers. And since the claim in psychology is that this disorder is untreatable, many even among credible mental health workers advocate real abuses such as "locking them up and throwing away the key."

I am not a sociopath, and my score on the personality test had a lower mark for sociopathic disorder than that of an average person. That does not however keep me from calling a holocaust a holocaust or a spade a spade. The claim that one can only be evil whatever one does is a very similar claim as was made about the Jews by the Nazis. And the qualities ascribed to sociopaths are many of the same qualities that Hitler ascribed to the Jews.

We are also dealing here with violation of basic rationality. If people are responsible for who they are, then anyone can choose to act rightfully whatever their personality; and if some people can only be evil however hard they work, however much good they do and whatever work they do on themselves, then people are not responsible for who they are and cannot be judged on the outcome. It's either one or the other; both cannot be. Either people are responsible for themselves and everyone, including sociopaths, can act rightfully; or else people have no power over themselves and are therefore not responsible for who they are.

In real medicine of a disorder - any disorder - two things are required. One is understanding the cause of the problem, and the other is having a workable treatment. Neither is present in the contemporary understanding of sociopathic personality disorder; which means that it is a completely worthless perspective until these things are supplied.

That there are jerks in the world, goes without saying. That there have always been jerks in the world, goes without saying as well. But I put it to you that the greatest wrongdoing was done not by sociopaths but by your normal English, Spanish, German, Japanese, Russians and Americans; and that, if sociopaths had a part in real wrongdoings such as slave trade, the Holocaust, Stalinism and Imperialism, these real wrongdoings were in no way limited to them.

One must remain vigilant in defense of liberty and due process; and a part of that is being vigilant in preventing holocausts from taking place. The attempt to exterminate sociopaths is a holocaust, and it sets for the rest of the world a very dangerous precedent. Doing away with one group can motivate any other group to do away with still others. And that is a risk that the First World cannot afford to take.

If there is such a thing as a sociopathic personality disorder, then there needs to be real research into how such a thing is caused and how it can be treated. Damning someone for life for having a mental disorder is as wrong as damning someone for life for having leprosy or AIDS. Until workable treatments are created, the talk of any such-and-such being a sociopath is idle chatter. Find out the causes, come up with workable treatments, and then one can handle this matter credibly.