Signal Blind

James Fallon

James Fallon – a person with psychopathy that leads a normal life and wrote a book about it: The Psychopath Inside

Note: psychopathy is not a clinical term.

Some things that were very interesting to me:

  • some overlap in symptoms
    • no affective empathy
    • could not tell he was different than others
  • very adept at reading the social signals
    • and manipulating people
  • talked about not harming people while describing the various harms he did
  • a neuroscientist who discovered his condition via brain scans!
  • lacked the antisocial behavior because of his upbringing and ethical system
  • He describes a “flat” social-emotional landscape. He acknowledges that he lacks the “tether” to others’ feelings but chooses to act prosocially because it is “interesting” or “logical.”

James Fallon talks about his “lack of care” for people and failure to reach out and ask how they are doing. I have the same feeling. The really interesting thing is how he describes himself (or says other people say this about him):

occasionally do things to suggest I don’t really care about other people. Consider the words and phrases they used to describe me: “manipulative,” “charming but devious,” “an intellectual bully,” “untrustworthy when it comes down to you or me,” “narcissistic,” “superficial,” “unreliable when you’re needed,”

I am the polar opposite – although we have congruent “care” behaviors our actions and descriptions of character are very far apart. Mine is from lack of Social Salience while Fallon’s are from using high saliency and a different drive to manipulate people into liking him and doing things for him (or something like that).

Additionally:

But the inherent problem I could not shake is that, try as I may, I really just don’t care. There it is again. I do have some desire to keep the people around me happy, but that’s mostly because it makes my own life easier and more pleasant.

Again a very similar situation (up to a point). Fallon knows how to deal with people but doesn’t see the use (utility) of it.

I don’t have the right signal to show care and don’t even know it is there. My lack of care is not for the person but for the signaling (I am blind to it). I show care through truth, loyalty, helpfulness, reliability and problem solving – these are not typical NT signals (and may signal the opposite!).