All kids scream and throw tantrums every now and then, but Michael is different. When he was 5 years old, the boy developed a disturbing ability to switch between full-blown rage to calm rationality in a blink of an eye.
After years of trying to diagnose Michael's condition, her parents were referred to Dan Waschbusch of Florida International University, who came up with "callous-unemotional" syndrome. Basically, Michael was diagnosed as a psychopath ... at age 9.
For this intriguing article over at the New York Times, Jennifer Kahn visited the family:
So, can you call a 9-year-old a psychopath? Read more of this intriguing article over at the New York Times: Link (Photo: Elinor Carruci for the New York Times) - via Boing BoingWhen I first met Michael, he seemed shy but remarkably well behaved. While his brother Allan ran through the house with a plastic bag held overhead like a parachute, Michael entered the room aloofly, then curled up on the living room sofa, hiding his face in the cushions. “Can you come say hello?” Anne asked him. He glanced at me, then sprang cheerfully to his feet. “Sure!” he said, running to hug her. Reprimanded for bouncing a ball in the kitchen, he rolled his eyes like any 9-year-old, then docilely went outside. A few minutes later, he was back in the house, capering antically in front of Jake, who was bobbing up and down on his sit-and-ride scooter. When the scooter tipped over, Michael gasped theatrically and ran to his brother’s side. “Jake, are you O.K.?” he asked, wide-eyed with concern. Earnestly ruffling his youngest brother’s hair, he flashed me a winning smile.
If the display of brotherly affection felt forced, it was difficult to see it as fundamentally disturbed. Gradually, though, Michael’s behavior began to morph. While queuing up a Pokémon video on the family’s computer upstairs, Michael turned to me and remarked crisply, “As you can see, I don’t really like Allan.” When I asked if that was really true, he said: “Yes. It’s true,” then added tonelessly, “I hate him.”
Glancing down a second later, he noticed my digital tape recorder on the table. “Did you record that?” he asked. I said that I had. He stared at me briefly before turning back to the video. When a sudden noise from the other room caused me to glance away, Michael seized the opportunity to grab the recorder and press the erase button. (Waschbusch later noted that such a calculated reprisal was unusual in a 9-year-old, who would normally go for the recorder immediately or simply whine and sulk.)
I recommend a career in corporate upper management or politics he’d fit right in.
Overall, I guess it's just nice to give them the opportunity to show that this is an everlasting character trait. I am not sure how I feel about this new diagnosis. The fact is that there already exists diagnoses that are considered precursors to psychopathy (but these do not necessarily mean that every child with this diagnosis will end up being a psychopath), but that is based more on antisocial behaviors than emotional response. I am just afraid that this diagnosis could be too premature for many kids.
Some people have a strange attitude to kids. They seem to believe that they are all sweet and lovely and that any problems they may have are caused by adults. Sorry, but an awful lot of mental illness doesn't work like that.
Indeed a paper I read a few years ago on a specific psychopath stated that interviews with the subjects parents and others who had known him as a child suggested that he had always been a psychopath, but the condition had only been noticed when it got completely out of hand.
And of course we have to remember that if all psychopaths were easy to diagnose they wouldn't cause such problems for others. It's the fact that psychopaths seem "normal" that always surprises. Thanks to TV and film portrayals we expect psychopaths to be bezerks and that isn't often the case in real life.
Children have a sense of privacy and trust, and should be protected by laws. I don't think these adults are looking out for this kid, and I don't think this kid is that weird.
We Need to Talk About Kevin, anyone?