Friday, September 27, 2013
Labeling children potential psychopaths
As a biology major, I definitely abide by the notion that genetics and biological influence play a huge role in development and throughout life. The article presented compelling evidence about physiological reactions to different stimuli, brain activity in certain regions, and structural variations.
This is all very intriguing but.... I would not want any of this sort of pre-screening to go on unless there was some treatment or cure. It could be extremely psychologically damaging to both the child labeled potentially psychopathic as well as to the family. How would you feel if someone told you your brain is that of a dangerous criminal?
I believe this would only set the child up for failure, to be judged and rejected, possibly fostering agression. The family would be innately fearful of or cautious toward the child, making the child feel isolated and unloved. We would like to say knowledge of such a predisposition would NOT affect the way we treated someone, but consciously or unconsciously, it would.
However, if there were better preventative measures than "keeping a closer eye on them" or sending innocent children to treatment facilities, my opionion would be different. But neither of these solutions would be constructive and no others exist. Until we have a means to treat the biological basis we are attempting to blame for this "condition," we shouldn't be testing for it.
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As I stated in my own response on this topic I am definitely of two minds on this subject. Who's to say that after this test and determining that your child did show evidence of this condition that outpatient therapy wouldn't alleviate the issues later in life? I'm not necessarily saying that clinical treatment or therapy would be the answer but if those approaches might help, wouldn't you want your child to have access to that?
ReplyDeleteI do agree that it would be practically impossible as parents to treat that child the same way once the diagnosis was learned. However, might it be worth it there was a possibility of help through therapy?
I did note that you were open to changing your mind if at a later date if new treatments became available. Just inquiring about current psycho-therapeutic options.