Interrupting Your Worst Self

I was told today that 25% of people are psychopaths or have the tendencies of one. One in Four! Seriously? I’m talking completely from ignorance but the person dropping science on me said that the tell-tale signs include things like an inability to feel and be slowed by human emotions. Apparently those classified as psychopaths also genuinely believe they are right 100 percent of the time. So I couldn’t help but Google the term psychopath for it was far too late to care about source validation. The first hit was one that relieved my fears that private detectives no longer exist and in Magnum P.I. fashion, Charles Montaldo articulated the Characteristics of the Psychopathic Personality saying,

“They[psychopaths] are generally cunning, manipulative and know the difference between right and wrong but dismiss it as applying to them. They are incapable of normal emotions such as love, generally react without considering the consequences of their actions and show extreme egocentric and narcissistic behavior.“

Given the alleged exorbitantly high number of these psychopathic folk, I thought that people operating through life without remorse, guilt and emotional intelligence could impose incredible harm on society. I surmised that the psychopath is like a special forces operative, hiding in plain sight and suddenly or gradually striking unsuspecting targets. We tend to think of ISIS, deranged shooters and the like to fit this profile. But aren’t some of these characteristics evident daily? Are they not expressed in people who don’t murder?

Jarring to me is how normative the characteristics are for psychopathic behavior. I was like, “Yo this is stuff I see in people of all ages and stages of development.” Freeway traffic in Southern California moves recklessly at 85+ miles per hour in non grid-locked periods rain or shine. Students at high achieving schools do and sell drugs with pleasure as the primary objective and consequences remotely considered. People pull phones like sidearms to capture both celebratory events and brutal displays of barbarism. I got to thinking that maybe 25 percent of people really do display these characteristics.

So how do we interrupt psychopathic behavior in ourselves and perhaps in others? Interruption, not a cure, is in strengthening the CORE of PERFORMANCE. Performance is not some formal term but rather refers to what is displayed publicly. Core refers to inward responses to outward phenomena. Los Angeles Lakers Forward Meta World Peace, formerly Ron Artest, is famously committed to mental health philanthropy. As years pass, he’s less famous for running into the stands in Detroit in 2004 to fight a fan who had thrown beer on him. One only need view the video of the event 11 years ago to see multiple symptoms of egocentric behavior raucously on display. But enter the interruption. Following a year-long suspension from the NBA and admission that he suffered from an enslaving alcohol addiction that compelled him to drink Hennessy at half-time of games, Artest sought a therapist and began CORE work. He explained his need for a psychologist this way in an article by ESPN Staff Writer Baxter Holmes:

“…everybody has different issues, good or bad, that they carry with them on the court. It affects you. And for me, it affected me to where sometimes I would be overly aggressive and, in other ways, it would affect people to where they can’t perform on the court. I was always able to perform, but sometimes I would act out and I wanted to see a sports psychologist. Because to me, I didn’t need a psychologist to get my mind right. I needed a psychologist to help me perfect what I love, and I can’t perfect it when I’m on the bench or when I’m getting suspended because I’m playing upset.”

I’m not suggesting Meta World Peace was or is a psychopath, even in 2004. In fact, former Pistons Forward Ben Wallace and the Pistons fan who dehumanized Peace by dousing him with beer fit the profile more readily. But Peace is a chief ambassador for a malady that many consider a weakness – mental illness, depression and anxiety. Imagine a millionaire vilified as a social pariah who goes inward to strengthen his talent. The talent is visible; the work that fuels it is not. Now he is synonymous with maximizing a platform for leadership and you’d have to pay people to say anything bad about this kid from the projects of Queensbridge, New York.

Make like Meta, be kind and make sure you’re not impersonating a psychopath.