CHAPTER 4: DECEPTIVE PRACTICES

CHAPTER FOUR of four chapters


“Deceptive Practices”


By: Don Jacobs, Chair

Forensic Psychology & Forensic Science

Weatherford College, Weatherford, Texas, USA


This chapter addresses:

Brainmarks: A New Paradigm by: Don Jacobs MLA

Psychopathy: A Natural Brain Condition

Variations on a Theme

Neuroplasticity: The Brain’s Ability to Rewire

Operant Conditioning: An S+ of Psychopathy



Uncovering the Con: Psychopathy

“When a rogue kisses you, count your teeth.”

—Hebrew proverb

“Psychopathy was the first personality disorder recognized by psychiatry. The concept has a long historical and clinical tradition; in the last decade a growing body of research has supported its validity.”
Millon et al (1998)
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“…I state my belief and present my
evidence that a syndrome of ‘psychopathy of
everyday life’ {if I may, neuroadaptive psychopathy} actually exists.”

Martin Kantor, M.D.
The Psychopathy of Everyday Life (2006)

“There’s no shortage of psychopaths who con people into doing things for them, usually to obtain money, prestige, power, or, when incarcerated, freedom. In a sense, it is difficult to see how they could do otherwise given a personality {If I may, a brain} that makes them ‘naturals’…”
—Robert Hare
Without Conscience (1993)

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Brainmarks: A New Paradigm

The Brainmark Paradigm, suggested by Jacobs (2009) in Brainmarks: Headquarters for Things That Go Bump in the Night (Kendall-Hunt), refers to a conceptual paradigm of how the brain is “marked” by its own chemical connections, transitions, and modulations in discrete but related neurological regions, fired up by endogenous chemical pathways that lie behind affect, cognition, and behavior within the human brain. A brain, by the way, that is always tethered to its surrounding environments and is driven to survive.

No better example exists than the circumstances surrounding the development of the feral child, Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron, France. Jean Marc Gaspard Itard, young medical student, adopted Victor (as he came to be called) into his home to educate him in the human socialization skills of language and empathy. However, Itard soon became disillusioned with the Victor’s lack of emotional and social progress “becoming human” leaving an historical note that the brain is indeed highly influenced by social milieus orbiting around it.

In our view, Victor’s brain had been “marked” by psychopathy for survival potential, which had “worked” for approximately 12 years (his suspected age at capture) when discovered roaming naked and alone in the woods near Saint-Sernin-sur-Rance, France in 1797, but also “marked” by his environmental circumstances. Apparently, developmental “windows” of opportunity had closed and could not be revisited as both empathy and language acquisitions failed.

The Brainmarks paradigm has proven to be an excellent teaching tool in the classroom showing conceptually how individual brains are “marked” ultimately for the sake of survival and the many splendored things the brain is capable of producing and experiencing while thriving amid life’s slings and arrows. Without the brain’s amazing capacity to adapt to practically any adverse condition (survivors of genocides, plagues, natural disasters, atomic bombs, etc) we would have become extinct like the dinosaurs millennia ago.

In our view, of course, congenital psychopathy that sustains the brain neuroadaptively is the glue of survivability and the subject matter of my epiphany presented below.

Variations on a Theme

Neuroadaptive Psychopathy: A Natural Brain Condition?

At last, I am prepared to discuss my epiphany. As I began to conceptualize how best to teach college students elements of forensic neuropsychology, the Brainmarks paradigm slowly emerged in my mind, that is, how the brain is “marked” by its own chemistry within discrete cortical regions responsible for firing up emotions and thinking as precursors to behavior. Then, what might be the neuroadaptive “glue” rendering the brain to be such as adaptive and resilient organ for survival regardless of one’s age, circumstances, or what’s thrown at it; then, like a bolt from the blue:

Might the brain come “marked” at birth with gradations of psychopathy observed by our species’ remarkable survival history of thriving and surviving? The question eventually became the answer and cardinal principle of the Brainmark paradigm. This theoretical perspective, bolstered by decades of empirical research from Robert Hare Ph.D., Adrian Raine, Ph.D. and Martin Kantor, M.D., and others, verified by anecdotal (everyday) experiences of child and adolescent behavior bordering on arrogant self-serving entitlement, psychopathy must exit as a normal brain condition as well as a disorder. Actually, several existing disorders of personality all captured within DSM Cluster B personality disorders.

Shards of Glass

Here’s the status of Cluster B personality disorders in light of the Brainmark paradigm. Imagine spectrum psychopathy—psychopathy across gradations from neuroadaptive (mild or normal) to disorder (or severe)—to be configured into a pane of glass; if dropped, would shatters into pieces on the ground. Now imagine one shard of glass represents narcissism “mildly” expressed in an otherwise normal brain; another shard represents “severe” narcissism—abnormal self-love (arrogance) observed in differential diagnostic criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Both the normal shard and the disordered shard came from the same pane of “glass” of psychopathy.

The same scenario may account for histrionicism—one shard being mild (or a normal gradation of psychopathy expressed as histrionicism in behavior) widely observed in the stereotypical attractive and seductive female), while another shard is “marked” more severely histrionic amounting to Histrionic Personality
Disorder.

Borderline: Low Gradations of Psychopathy?

The most interesting “psychopathic shard” of glass belongs to borderline and antisocial formational characteristics. In the DSM’s diagnostic features, “the essential feature of Borderline Personality Disorder is a pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity (spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, and binge eating)…and chronic feelings of emptiness.”

Also, “individuals…make frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment…they are very sensitive to impending separation, or rejection, and environmental circumstances. They believe abandonment means they are ‘bad’. Their frantic efforts to avoid abandonment may include impulsive actions such as self-mutilation or suicidal behaviors.” Also, “they display inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, and recurrent physical fights).”

Recalling the psychopathy shard of glass, what would it mean for a person to be “mildly” borderline? Might it be an impulsive, low-esteemed, quick to temper individual who is sensitive to being rejected or abandoned by peers (resulting from a low gradation of psychopathy, resulting in desperation to hold on to others for “security”). Know any people like that?

They may stalk others in semi-desperation but are not, on the whole, typically violent, but they’re sensitive, frustrated, and feel retched when ignored or rejected. Might the more moderate ones be populated by stalkers and “real troublemakers”? Might the severe “shard” be populated by killers, serial killers, and serial rapists? Also, returning to DSM diagnostic criteria, “They may switch quickly from idealizing other people to devaluating them, feeling that the other person does not care enough, does not give enough, is not ‘there’ enough.” Again, it’s a matter of gradation.

Antisocial

In the DSM’s diagnostic features, “the essential feature of Antisocial Personality Disorder is a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood, or early adolescence and continues into adulthood. This pattern has been referred to as psychopathy {which is incorrect}, sociopathy {which is correct}, and dyssocial {which is also correct}.” Also “deceit and manipulation are central themes.”

“For the diagnosis to be given, the individual must be 18 years of age and must have had a history of some symptoms of Conduct Disorder before age 15 years.” Also, “the pattern of antisocial behavior continues into adulthood where they fail to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behavior; they may repeatedly perform acts that are grounds for arrest such as destroying property, harassing others, stealing, or pursuing illegal occupations. They may repeatedly lie, use an alias, con others, or malinger (an intentional con related to exaggerated physical or psychological symptoms motivated by external incentives to avoid military service, work, obtaining financial compensation, evading criminal prosecution, or obtaining drugs)”. Ever met anyone like that?

Recalling the mild psychopathy shard analogy, what would it mean for a person to be a “mildly” antisocial? What about an impulsive, quick- to-temper individual who makes one bad decision after another with little regard for consequences to self or others and ends up in the juvenile justice system? Might parental modeling of antisocial behavior lead to the development of a petty criminal from a young age? Know any people like that?

Youthful offenders may be seldom violent, but as they grow into adolescence with bigger bodies and matching tempers fueled by testosterone, violence may erupt. Might a “moderate shard” be populated by prepubescent kids with juvenile delinquency records and other “real troublemakers”; with severe “shards” being populated by what may be appropriately called “sociopaths, dyssocials, and antisocials”—unsuccessful criminals with histories of ignoring social and ethical mores, yet highly influenced by antisocial parenting, social milieu, and peer milieu? It appears that moderate to severe antisocials fill most of the bunks in our prison population. And, they are seldom psychopathic or psychotic.

I conclude this section with the following observation: DSM Cluster B personality disorders paradigmatically comprise variations on a theme of psychopathy—high, medium, or low gradations. My analogy of the shards of glass breaking into antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic characteristics has held up astonishingly well under peer review and clinical inspection. In my Brainmark Paradigm: they are all analogs of psychopathy with the usual suspects (characteristics) of deception, lying, and entitlement. Even borderlines feel entitled to stalk others who reject them; they may kill them.

That the brain is a near perfect organ for survival provides fertile cortices of resilience in the face of conflict and competition by displaying characteristics of narcissism, entitlement, and generalized deception—the tripartite of neuroadaptive psychopathic brainmarks.

We will likely survive into middle or old age if we can survive puberty and adolescence where the owner of adolescent brains must adapt and adjust to the pressure cooker of modern middle schools, high schools, and a society run by adults. Often, adolescence is a developmental stage characterized by making one bad decision and after another—from the parental perspective—while from the adolescent perspective “it’s just what happened”. When pressed by parents for a straight answer of accountability, the best that can be given is often a tearful and angry “I don’t know!”

In sum, regarding academic, intellectual, and forensics explanations, the Brainmark paradigm shows interrelated ways of explaining emotion, mood, thinking, and behavior relative to normalcy, abnormalcy, criminality, and psychopathy, and to the extreme gradations of violent sexual psychopathy as a severe and irreversible personality disorder.

Implications of a Chemically-Marked Brain

By what amounts to a brain “marked” by neuroadaptive psychopathy, the brain is ultimately a neuro-adaptive organ of chemistry and cortices geared toward adaptability and survivability amid competition. Is it a coincidence that this apparently congenital condition fits descriptive criteria for spectrum psychopathy? We make a compelling argument over the next three chapters that brains are outfitted by nature for adaptability and ultimately survivability via evolutionary developmental dynamics (often referred to as Evo-Devo). (Rather than “psychopathy,” other terms will no doubt emerge for characteristics that fit perfectly this psychological condition long recognized, described, and researched, as a disorder.

Cortical Brainmark Regions

Within the brain, the midbrain limbic system and the prefrontal cortex are two cortical regions characterized by influential chemistry often engaged in hotly contested “battle” of sorts regarding rewarding pursuits versus the restraint or “second thoughts” against following those pursuits. In the midbrain per se, a small narrow region located directly below the limbic system, it functions similar to a “pilot light” for physical movement and for production of the neurotransmitter dopamine. The main function of these two regions—midbrain and limbic systems, or midbrain limbic system (MLS) combined) is the production of dopamine to ignite close by and scattered dopaminergic receptors throughout the brain and illumination of pathways of pleasure and reward within the limbic system per se and extending to other regions including the frontal lobes. Working in concert together is our rationale for combining the two regions into one: the midbrain limbic system (MLS).

Dopaminergic neurons (neurons whose principle activator is dopamine) are plentiful in the MLS extending into prefrontal cortex (PFC) regions as part of two converging super highways of chemical brainmarks—

• the mesolimbic dopamine pathway (MLDAP) of the MLS per se connecting to the
• mesocortical dopamine pathway (MCDAP) of the PFC per se; both regions connect to the reward and pleasure pathways and regions vulnerable to sexuality, eroticism, fantasy, and sexual perversion.

Knowledge of powerful chemical pathways and discrete cortical regions of the brain along a spectrum (or continuum) from mild to severe gradations accomplishes two practical protocols in educating our next generation of forensic psychologists:
demonstrating the highly rewarding role of deception in the brain as an evolutionary strategy of survival, (keeping secrets, manipulating outcomes, or lying to get anticipated rewards has been shown to have substantial survival potential) and,

demonstrating the pivotal role of the gradations of neurochemistry and effects upon discrete cortical regions, and

the vital role of “parenting out” gradations of psychopathy as individuals becoming parents themselves. It seems the more prefrontal a person becomes, the less psychopathic and more empathic they become; hence we suggest that empathy is largely a prefrontal manifestation of survival while narcissism and entitlement are largely MLS manifestations until PFC regions become fully mature.
Neuroplasticity: Brain’s Ability to Rewire

Given the brain’s natural ability to rewire itself—adaptive neuroplasticity—thereby laying down new connections, such as parent-taught values, respect for another’s feelings, empathy, and taking responsibility for one’s actions, natural tendencies toward narcissism, entitlement, and deception—can either be exacerbated or mitigated depending upon the connectivity (maturity) of the prefrontal cortex, the last tollbooth for accountability.

This is what I refer to as the 5. 08 centimeters that defines the so-called “Generation Gap”, or the approximate distance between the MLS and the PFC in Homo sapient brains.

The following is a literary example (recalling literary misanthropes in the introduction) of how the brain of psychopathic killer Perry Edward Smith was marked for violence and compounded by “toxic” parenting in Truman Capote’s true crime novel, In Cold Blood. The short quote uncovers a foundational brainmark of severe psychopathy.

“I frisked the girl’s room and found a little purse—like a doll’s purse. Inside it was a silver dollar. I dropped it somehow, and it rolled across the floor. Rolled under a chair. I had to get down on my knees. And just then it was like I was outside myself. Watching some nutty movie. It made me sick. I was just disgusted. Dick and all his plans about a rich man’s safe, and here I am crawling on my belly to steal a child’s silver dollar. One dollar. And I’m crawling on my belly to get it…{moments later}…I knelt down beside Mr. Clutter, and the pain of kneeling—I thought of that goddam dollar. Silver dollar. The shame. Disgust. And they’d told me never to come back to Kansas. But I didn’t realize what I’d done till I heard the sound. Like somebody drowning. Screaming under water. {Smith slit Clutter’s throat ear to ear} I handed the knife to Dick. I said ‘Finish him. You’ll feel better.’ Dick tried—or pretended to. But the man had the strength of ten men—he was half out of his ropes, his hands were free. Dick panicked. Dick wanted to get the hell out of there. But I wouldn’t let him go. The man would have died anyway, I know that, but I couldn’t leave him like he was. I told Dick to hold the flashlight, focus it. Then I aimed the gun. The room just exploded. Went blue. Just blazed up.” {Smith subsequently used his shotgun at close range to kill the remaining member of the Clutter family—teenagers Nancy and Kenyon—and Mrs. Clutter.}
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote


Uncovering the Con: The Construct of Psychopathy

At its core, the traditional hypothetical construct of psychopathy refers to a theory of personality deception driven by bullet-proof entitlement and self-absorbed narcissism, where the “psychopath” masquerades as a loving and caring person on the surface, yet unbeknownst to others summarily fooled by the ruse, displays a controlling personality dynamic of deception, intent upon manipulating “prey” in a variety of contexts in a variety of ways and in severe gradations shows zero empathy and zero conscience. Sounds rather like Jekyll and Hyde.

The infusion of psychopathy into personality is today considered a brain condition and in most clinical and experimental quarters, a verifiable personality disorder. As such, it characterizes individuals who experiences no remorse or guilt from conventional theories of conscience, yet know exactly “what they’re doing” and feels magnanimously justified for accomplishing it (a well known condition of grandiose entitlement).

The construct of psychopathy has been recognized historically with a long history of clinical, forensic, and research protocol over the past twenty years (Millon, Simonsen, Birket-Smith, & Davis, 1998). Characteristics of psychopathy have long been theorized to occur across a continuum (or our preferred term “gradations” from mild to severe across a spectrum, hence our reference throughout these pages to spectrum psychopathy.

The most compelling (severe) instances are theorized to produce acts of violence mixed with sexual sadism resulting in death at crime scenes. This category reflects our perspective that normal gradation of adaptability geared toward survivability, through narcissism and entitlement (congenital and neuroadaptive psychopathy) exists 180 degree away from severe gradations representing a special breed of psychopathy diagnosable as a severe personality disorder. There is no known treatment toward rehabilitation of severe types.

Until researches have more to go on, (and they are studying the syndrome daily) severe gradations of spectrum psychopathic personality are hypothesized to be manifested from a variety of related influences with biology, brain trauma, and toxic parenting the strongest influences.

As psychopathy is a noun of the adjective psychopathic, our perspective on the brain’s natural tendencies from birth to thrive and survive is not intended as a diagnostic tool targeting “psychopaths” for differential diagnostic purposes, nor is it a “witch hunt” to rid the world of psychopaths; far from it. Evidently, from this chapter alone, this would be plausible.

On the contrary, we present descriptive criteria, carefully researched data, and self-evident anecdotes supporting spectrum psychopathy as a tool for interdisciplinary practitioners to study personality, habits, and patterns of survival in normal brains, versus brains marked by moderate psychopathy, versus brains marked by extreme psychopathy (severe pathology) evident at horrific crime scenes.

We contend “a little psychopathy goes a long way” while too much is toxic to the brain and behavior.” Therefore, in our view, severe psychopathy is an instance of a severe personality disorder from an otherwise normal brain condition typified by survival characteristics that suggest mild psychopathy—a brain tailor made by evolution to thrive and survive.

It is almost impossible to dispute that some gradations of entitlement, narcissism, and deception are required to survive in a world of “head to head competition among rivals for food, love, people, and jobs.

Beyond this evolutionarily mandated condition, might more moderate versions be “parented out” during childhood and adolescence for obvious reasons? A brain that wires itself to ever increasing modulations of psychopathy can be devastating later in life.

Might drug and alcohol addiction in young adolescents be an obvious condition that makes successful parenting practically impossible? In addiction, psychopathy is known to monumentally deepened and expanded for more deception and lying.

Similar to Edwin Arlington Robinson’s epic poem Richard Cory, the psychopath may “flutter pulses” and “glitter when he walks.” From nearly undetectable characteristics on the surface (mild gradations) to more robust, moderate gradations—the very traits that have been defined, described, researched, investigated, and measured by Robert Hare, Ph.D. and associates using his psychometric instrument, The Hare Psychopathy Checklist, researchers have documented a cluster of traits that characterizes psychopathy across a spectrum; here they are:
• Glibness and superficial charm
• Grandiosity of self-worth (expressed as narcissism and in severe forms, arrogance)
• Pathological (compulsive) lying
• Conning & manipulative interactions
• Lack of remorse or guilt
• Shallow affect (lack of emotional depth)
• Callous & lack of empathy
• Failure to accept responsibility
• Promiscuous sexual behavior
• Criminal versatility
• Need for stimulation and proneness to boredom
• Parasitic lifestyle (living off others)
• Poor behavioral controls (never learning from mistakes)
• Early behavioral problems and juvenile delinquency
• Lack of realistic, long-term goals
• Impulsivity and Irresponsibility
• Early exposure to criminal justice system
• Many short-term marital relationships

Therefore, the Brainmark paradigm mandates that psychopathic characteristics are evolutionarily central to survivability in the human brain. When the brain survives the owner of it survives as well.

From at least the 18th century and certainly into the 20th century, behavioral science has appeared at times to be on the threshold of admitting publically that psychopathic characteristics of mild varieties might be exactly what the brain required to survive and that psychopathy, therefore, was a natural brain condition. Neuroscientists agree there is no question the brain comes equipped to survive. What better strategy for thriving and surviving than to have a brain characterized by self-interest and feeling bullet-proof where lies and deception have proven over and again to be beneficial in survival?

As we will continue to insist, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary forensic scientists must become educated to the central importance of deception, entitlement, and compulsive lying forming the brains of severe psychopathic criminals. They are indeed a breed apart.

Après moi le deluge & Schadenfreude

Moderate psychopathic behavior poses real threats to congeniality and cooperation of individuals living in normal communities. As parents, moderate psychopaths may author the cowardly “poison pen” anonymous letters that extol “Christian virtues” while trying to shame others for human mistakes or immaturity; they present themselves as “concerned citizens” and often holding responsible positions as teachers, administrators, and community leaders; they may coach community kids in youth sports or work at major universities. Yet, beneath finely crafted personas, they cowardly plot and scheme with venomous pride as they anonymously attempt to control and manipulate others. There is survival value and tremendous satisfaction in “bringing down” competitors.

If by some miracle, moderate psychopaths are identified by name, they sing a different tune; they appear repentant. They’re “really sorry” (more correctly: “sorry they got caught”). Mild to moderate psychopaths do not make silly human mistakes as they are far too cunning for that. The extremely “refined ones” such as O.J. Simpson or Scott Peterson, for example, often display something equivalent to animal magnetism— the trite euphemism for charisma. They know exactly what they’re doing punctuated by magnanimous entitlement—they feel justified for doing it.

Mild Psychopathy as a natural brain condition of gradation prepares Homo sapiens to tell lies to gain advantage in what we want to accomplish regardless of what someone in authority may say. By our individual histories, we all have a pretty good idea what we can get away with.
Operant Conditioning: An S+ of Psychopathy

When deception and lying lead to positive consequences (for example, an adolescent gets what he or she wants against the wishes of parents), deceptive dynamics are reinforced (known as a reinforcing S+ in behavioral psychology) and rapidly become part of one’s modus operandi. This explains how parents lose their children to all kinds of bad choices, often developed by running with the older crowd—a crowd who often drinks copious amounts of alcohol and may experiment with drugs and unprotected sex.

In our view, what is natural in the brain at birth (characteristics of psychopathy) now becomes enhanced and eventually highly refined due to the consequences of learning—repeatedly getting what one wants by lying. No wonder lying and other forms of deception are so hard to reverse. If they worked once, they’ll work again and again.

In extreme varieties of spectrum psychopathy, and with the good looks of a model, handsome spree killer Andrew Cunanan (killer of designer Gianni Versace and others) appeared to be gay (many investigators believed he really wasn’t) as a ruse to manipulate wealthy benefactors to financially support him. Cunanan wrote a prescient one-line inscription in his yearbook building up an image of panache: Après moi, le deluge (“After me, the storm!”) Those who knew him from high school embraced the persona of a charming kid, not a deceptive monster. In spectrum psychopathy, beneath the glib, superficial charmer is a deeper psychological dynamic characterized by deceptive character traits engineered by genes for survival and reinforced by learning that deception does in fact pay, typified by:
• a lack of emotional attachment,
• insincerity
• compulsive lying
• lack of empathy for other people
• jubilation in schadenfreude—happiness at another’s expense (troubles they may have initiated by an anonymous poison pen letter, for example)
• righteous indignation
As shown over millennia, crime often pays and pays very well as observed daily in financial “white collar” crime. In such crimes, violence is seldom part of the pretzel, but deception and deceit act as “clubs” and “knives”.

Is it possible that success from lying, deception, and entitlement are emotionally comparable to aphrodisiacs and just as addicting?