© COPYRIGHT 2010 BY BRADLEY J. STEINER - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Sword and Pen – December 2010 Issue
[Reprinted With Permission]
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IF your answer is “Very little, if anything,” you are in excellent company. Most practicing psychologists know very little if anything about psychopaths. And, truth be told, there are almost certainly more psychopaths teaching the martial arts than there are martial arts teachers who know anything meaningful about psychopaths, per se!
In unfortunately too brief and encapsulated an explanation, the psychopath is an individual who possesses no conscience, for whom the person and property of
others means nothing (save that these others represent “things” for his use,
manipulation, and consumption), and who apparently exists in a kind of “world
consisting solely of himself” and in a universe in which “only the gratification of his own personal impulses” holds any motivational power over him. The psychopath may be defined as being, in his philosophy and behavior, antisocial.
Not all psychopaths are violent offenders. Most violent offenders, however —
certainly the horrific violent offenders — do tend to be psychopaths.
Rent or purchase the motion picture FUNNY GAMES. That is a chilling and
outstandingly enacted presentation of the psychopathic victimization of, for want
of a better term, “normal” people. IN COLD BLOOD is another motion picture
that you might wish to search out, as is the documentary HELTER SKELTER. Of
course you could always read those last two books, as we require our students to
do, but if you’re more inclined to sit back and watch and listen than you are to
read (as many people seem to be, today) then rent the two movies.
The psychologist Robert D. Hare is certainly one of the world’s great authorities
today on psychopaths. In fact he may be considered to be the authority on the
subject by many. His books are highly readable by lay people, and we recommend
them strongly.
TWO OF Dr. HARE’S GREAT WORKS ON THE PSYCHOPATH. WE RECOMMEND
THAT EVERY STUDENT OF SELF-DEFENSE OBTAIN AND STUDY BOTH THESE
OUTSTANDING BOOKS.
Alan Harrington authored a wonderful book, PSYCHOPATHS, which has been on
our students’ required reading list for decades. In fact, one of our students, the
late psychiatrist Gary Tucker, MD (who was head of Psychiatry at the University
of Washington School of Medicine, and who appeared in the “top 100 physicians
in America” book) knew Harrington, and agreed with us that the book is
excellent. Unfortunately it is out of print; but it is well worth hunting for.
THE MASK OF SANITY, by Hervey Cleckley, MD is the classic text on
psychopathy, and has long been on our students’ list of required readings, but
many find this valuable tome to be too onerous a task. We think that tackling it is
well worthwhile.
Some visitors might ask: “I am studying self-defense. Granted I need to know how
to recognize and handle potentially dangerous violent threats, but why would you
recommend my studying psychopaths per se in such depth and detail?”
Our answer is: The martial arts is inundated with mystical and fanciful, and also
with utterly irrelevant B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T. Your objective, whether you realize it or not, requires that you become a hardheaded realist and focus upon learning about whatever constitutes the real threats in the real world; and psychopaths — especially the violent ones — are your greatest potential problem. Learning about them, getting to understand how to identify them, coming to grips with the serious life-threatening danger that the worst of them may pose to YOU and to YOURS is critical. Do not think that “you can tell” if someone is or is not a danger, merely by his appearance, his initial behavior, or whatever stated beliefs and convictions he might express. Mundo nulla fides (“trust no one”; at least no one who you do not know, personally and well, and for a long time!). Nothing can achieve the necessary cautionary mindset and — if required — mercilessly aggressive and decisive offensive mindset that you MUST POSSESS for self-defense better than coming personally to grips with a serious understanding of how predators think, feel, function, and will gladly strive to violate and injure you in the worst possible ways.
Some unfortunate innocents believe that we exaggerate or embellish when we
speak of the pure evil and the ferocious danger posed to them by would-be
assailants and trouble-making violators. The cure for this — for them — may well be their independent exposure via a careful study on their own of the works of
psychological and psychiatric professionals, to an explanation of the hideously real
threat that the psychopath presents to all decent human beings in modern society.
Our advice: Throw away the books on fanciful nonsense and the macho crap about
how to be the baddest dude in the world of challenge fighting, and start educating
yourself in that which you really need to know about the very real enemy whom you are likely to face if you are ever attacked, and against whom you will also want to be able to defend those you love.
If you know little about psychopaths, correct that as soon as possible! Study this subject! If you are a self-defense instructor you have an obligation to become educated in this area.
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