I also came across another thought-provoking article in The New York Times. In "Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath?", the writer looks into families with a severe problem, a child who seems cold, unpredictable, manipulative, mean, and even violent. Basically "off the walls." Through a follow-up with such a child and family, the writer asks how early children behaving so "wrongly" can be diagnosed with something resembling psychopathy, if not with that stigmatizing word itself. In studies of psychopathic adults, many have been reported as having been extremely antisocial as children. So logically one would assume that spotting such kids early on, and helping them, would prevent their harmful misdoings later on. Although current studies show that c. 1% of any given population is psychopathic/sociopathic, more than 25% of crime is done by individuals with such a psychological profile. But do counseling camps for callous-unemotional kids help, or do they actually give the kids new bad ideas even if providing useful data for psychotherapy research? The case of "Michael" makes one wonder. This is a highly interesting article for anyone to read but especially for parents. Although it's good to keep a check on our kids and their habits by making sure they don't show any symptoms of bullying, I'm going to go to bed tonight feeling grateful for my peacefully sleeping boys. Toddlers can be quite a handful, already showing little flashes of what may come when the teenage years arrive, but usually temper tantrums come and go, are only phases that to some extent need to be experienced, and can be forgiven and forgotten at the end of the day with lots of hugs and kisses. And this article, ultimately, confirms that there is no harm of attachment, nurture, and care for even the most difficult of cases. Xo.
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