Pieter Hintjens - The Psychopath Code - Cracking the Predators That Stalk Us

❂ Blocked - the emotion of a failed hunt or chase. Your body relaxes and all systems go to neutral. You withdraw to a safe place and replay your memory over and over. You look for what went wrong. You imagine different "what if" scenarios, and rehearse them mentally.

In most people the predator emotions do not, even under threat of death, focus on fellow humans. In hand-to-hand warfare, most soldiers will not kill [79] http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/hope_on_the_battlefield . They aim to miss. They run away when they can. They provide cover and mass, to intimidate the other side. Much of the military machine works just to train this majority to aim their guns in the right direction.

This majority does shift gears when their families and homes are under threat. To save our relatives or children from an armed and violent stranger, most of us will aim to kill. Yet we do this without the predator emotions. Instead, we feel the defensive emotions I’ll explain in the next section.

Some of us, a small minority, feel only these emotions and no others. So the emotions work at their original full power. More, they focus on fellow humans rather than on food. This minority are the psychopaths. It is the predator emotions that drive psychopaths in their hide-hunt-attack-capture-consume behavior.

We all feel the predator emotions at some level. The key differences are degree and direction. Do you live for the pleasure of the kill? And do you hunger for breakfast, or for power over others?

Yet this does not mean all psychopaths engage in physical violence. Violence and murder is risky business. In normal circumstances the risks of exposure and retribution far outweigh the emotional rewards. A healthy psychopath amygdala shudders at the thought. It keeps the predator emotions focused on business, politics, and private life. Sane psychopaths aim to die from old age, surrounded by grandchildren. In this respect, Mallory is just like anyone else.

In specific circumstances, the equation tilts Mallory towards serial murder:

❂ If the amygdala suffers damage from injury or tumors . This may shut down its inhibition, so it feels infallible and superior.

❂ If the social status of the victim is so low that retribution is unlikely . Serial murderers tend to target individuals who are least valued by general society. That is: prostitutes, beggars, orphans, minorities, homosexuals, and the lonely elderly.

❂ If the murder is in the name of the State . This means open hostilities between two groups, in other words, war. Only losers stand trial for crimes against humanity. The winners get to butcher at will, in the name of God and Country.

❂ When there is nothing to lose, and much to gain . A large proportion of young men are evolutionary dead-ends. In some cultures, as many as two-thirds of men have no children. That includes many psychopaths. Lack of local prospects makes Mallory long for foreign adventure.

The maths of murder are consistent across human culture. Successful generals understand it. They use it to recruit young male psychopaths as the killer core of their professional armies. It is a timeless recipe. Invoke martial law, to remove the risk of punishment. Dehumanize the enemy so that Mallory faces no anger from the home front. Aim at poor psychopaths with few other prospects. Deliver propaganda and marketing that lures them in.

The military has practiced this for a long time. It selects, enables, and promotes psychopaths. It offers the chance for unlimited rape and murder. The main rule is: just don’t get caught. It has institutionalized the process of creating secondary psychopaths, via "bootcamps." The military always takes the moral high ground, and always makes it someone else’s fault.

Secondary psychopaths learn to apply the predator emotions to others. If they do kill, they later feel deep guilt and shame, as their empathy starts working again. We see the damage that the military does to its recruits, in the suicide statistics of veterans [80] http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-veteran-suicide-20150115-story.html .

The psychopaths who enter conflict zones pursue the chance to rape, hunt, and butcher. They kill without pause, once they learn the basics. They enjoy it more than sex. They build power pyramids. They sabotage peace efforts and remove internal competitors. They can rise to positions of great power, leading armies and empires.

You might ask how society accepts and collaborates in the promotion of murder. We show snuff videos on the evening news. We criminalize Mallory when he travels abroad to fight. We draw bold "do not cross" lines so that every young candidate knows where to aim. The generals don’t need to do the hard work of recruiting. Society does it for them.

The answer lies in a second group of emotions, those triggered in response to threat. It is easy to convince a population to support a war of aggression. You just invoke the defense emotions.

The defense emotions are ancient and widespread. These emotions keep us safe from predators, and let us deal with competitors:

❂ Surprise - the emotion of reacting to a sudden threat. It is what you feel when a cat leaps at you out of a closet. It’s what the cat feels if you creep up on it and say "boo!". We also call this a "startle response." You flinch away from the threat, and raise your arms in self-defense. You lift your eyebrows and open your eyes wide to see better. Your hearing gets sharp. You exhale hard to clear your lungs of carbon dioxide. Your heart accelerates and you breathe in deep to oxygenate your body for action.

❂ Suspense - the emotion of detecting a potential threat. It is what you feel when you hear an unexpected noise in the middle of the night. Or, when you turn a corner and see a large, dangerous looking animal blocking your way. Your body freezes, for ten to thirty seconds. Adrenalin starts to flow into your blood stream. You breathe out to clear your lungs without making noise. Your vision and hearing heighten as you try to identify the threat. You get goosebumps. Your memory goes into high-definition recording mode. Later this feels like time had slowed down.

❂ Terror - the emotion of wanting to flee from a threat. Blood flows to your lungs and legs. Your blood vessels constrict to reduce bleeding in case of damage. You go pale. Your digestive system slows down and stops. Your mouth goes dry. Your eyes open wide, and your hearing gets sharper. Your focus is on listening, hiding, and freezing when you are out of sight.

❂ Flight - the emotion of fleeing from a pursuing threat. Adrenalin pours into your bloodstream. Blood flows to your leg muscles, lungs and arms. You focus on paths and exits. You start to sweat. Your eyes open as wide as possible. You breathe hard and fast and your heart pumps at full speed. Your hearing switches off. Endorphins flood into your bloodstream to switch off the pain response.

❂ Anger - the emotion of defiance against a threat. Blood flows to your face and neck. Your posture makes you seem larger: arms wide, feet apart, head up. You bare your teeth and you stare with wide eyes. Your saliva gets thick and foamy. Your voice gets heavy and loud, and you shout. Anger says, "I am not backing down. Retreat now, or you will be hurt!" Anger is a caricature of glee and fury that exaggerates the most terrifying traits.

❂ Rage - the emotion of attacking a threat. Your body prepares to inflict and receive physical damage. Blood flows to your upper body and arms. You face goes pale. Your nervous system switches off pain. Your heart beats faster, and you breathe hard, pumping oxygen into the blood. Your body releases glycol and your muscles tense for action. Your vision narrows to focus on the threat. You lower your head and fixate on your target. Your hearing dulls, as noise is now only a distraction. You are shouting or screaming without pause. Rage says, "Leave, stop, go away!"