I was saddened to see on the UK news of a vulnerable man of twenty two with a mental age of eighteen months who has been murdered by two (it seems) strangers.

Idealists’ state that there ‘is good in everyone’ but psychologists think there is ‘potential good in the vast majority’ but that about 2% of the population seems to fit the description of psychopath (see: No strings on me: Is there a psychopath in your life?)

We can all adopt more or less psychopathic behaviors under extreme enough circumstances as addressed in William Golding’s wonderful dystopian novel ‘Lord of the flies’. But a true psychopath is born according to current thinking and therefore should be recognized in childhood and adolescence.

I’ve just seen this rather inconclusive piece on childhood and teenage psychopathy.

Child psychopaths may be abnormally deceitful and manipulative, be un-shocked by the suffering of people or animals and even torture animals and bully other children for ‘pleasure.’

Then again many children and teenagers display selfish and insensitive behavior. Teenagers can even be somewhat ‘emotion blind’ as far as others are concerned making them appear callous. This is due to the still developing pre-frontal cortex. So it’s vital that children are not labeled psychopaths when they are just being children.

Mark.