Ted Bundy, a smart, charming and good-looking guy, died young. Of course, before he was fried in the electric chair in Raiford prison, he had time to murder more than 35 women after beating and raping many of them.
In addition to his intelligence and loquacity, psychopaths like him are identified as being liars and impulsive. Unable to appreciate the consequences of his actions, the psychopath is unable to show empathy or feelings of guilt, and is extremely aggressive. These traits are what allow him to approach his victims without raising suspicions and then commit the most heinous crimes with them.
But what is the origin of psychopathy?
Biological factors are intertwined with the influence of the environment. The psychopath has an abnormal brain. Several studies conducted by the University of Pennsylvania have shown that the brains of psychopaths have the least voluminous prefrontal area. It also appears that other areas of the brain related to processing emotions are less activated. This is the case of the tonsils. These are small almond-shaped structures, located inside our brain, that process fear and the perception of threat. All these brain alterations are related to uncontrolled impulses, poor learning from experience and the high aggressiveness of psychopaths.
Testosterone levels are also elevated in the psychopath. Testosterone is the main male sex hormone that has been consistently linked to a higher frequency of aggressive behaviors.
But biology doesn’t explain everything. The environment in which we grow up also has its importance in the genesis of the psychopath. When parents do not show empathy towards their children, they also do not learn to express it or feel it.
They or they?
Research agrees that the diagnosis is more frequent in ‘them’. It is also “they” who, according to experts, are more prone to competition and aggressive behaviors. But is it that women are never aggressive? Of course yes. What happens is that men and women seem to use different tactics . While men use direct aggression, women tend to prefer strategies such as deception or harmful rumors to do so indirectly.
Although we do not like to admit it, it seems that we all have biological equipment ready to respond aggressively. What explains why we do not use violence to resolve conflicts? The answer is in the prefrontal area of the brain, which acts as a modulating mechanism for aggressiveness. Properly stimulating our prefrontal cortex can help us understand other points of view and inhibit our impulses to behave appropriately in society.
By: Marisa Fernández, Senior Neuropsychologist, Unobrain
