Psychopaths

Is there such a thing as a ‘kill gene’? Some studies have shown that some psychopaths have some form of physical or chemical imbalance such as low serotonin, increased levels of toxic heavy metals for example manganese, lead, cadmium, copper etc in their systems, brain damage, head trauma, exposure of the fetal brain to alcohol or drug abuse or to other toxic substances, etc.

I think most people desperately try and find distinguishing factors between psychopaths and normal human beings, because most people find it hard to believe that psychopaths can also be normal human beings like you and I. There has to be a difference.

But what if there are no differences? What if we are exactly the same, and the only reason why most people don’t act out their psychopathic tendencies is because they have learned to control these tendencies through upbringing, religion, morals, etc?

It’s actually quite a scary thought. Because that would mean that we are all psychopaths. Or at least, in the depths of our beings, we are all capable of being psychopaths. We are only controlling our natural, instinctive tendencies.

This is tied to the perennial question – are we all born good and learn to become evil due to our surroundings, or are we all born evil and learn to become good due to our surroundings?

I find this a really fascinating topic.