The Passive-Parasitic Psychopath and Myths about Evil
A New MindMatters episode with David Abramowitz
Earlier this fall Elan and I had the opportunity to interview a subscriber of this Substack on MindMatters: David Abramowitz. After working through some technical issues, the video is now available. Check it out below. (Audio available on BuzzSprout and other podcast platforms.)
Are all psychopaths serial killers? Is authoritarianism only found on the political right? Are we all equally capable of evil? Does power really corrupt absolutely? And is evil really “banal”?
Join us today as we discuss the biggest myths about evil with David Abramowitz, the nature of psychopaths and ponerology, and how McGilchrist’s brain-hemisphere research fits into the picture.
David Abramowitz has a background in finance and accounting, but an experience with a psychopath set him on a path to research the topic for the next decade. He has read nearly everything there is to read on the subject, and describes a type which he calls the “passive-parasitic” psychopath (a term coined by Ben Karpman). These are the so-called successful psychopaths, the ones you’ll find on Wall Street and in Washington. And they’re the reason for much of today’s pathological political climate.
Love Scott Peck’s book, “People of the Lie.” Wish we still had Peck’s voice. He passed away in 2005 but I still read all of his books.
Hubbard classified these dangerous personalities as "covertly hostile." They rely totally on secrecy. They are, by and large, cowards. Thus, they would seldom indulge in serial murders. That is more likely to be a sociopath.
He built a whole technology on the problem of detecting and handling such persons. It is part of the subject of Ethics, as he defined it. It slops into the subject of Justice if the person is not detected and restrained before he causes major damage.
(I didn't make it through the entire interview before our visiting little girl demanded that I watch a movie with her. Ah well...)
Current law gives us no framework for handling these people. Thus, we could suspect that our system of Law has been somewhat influenced by this personality type, and thus functions - at least some of the time - to protect him rather than expose him.
I see no need to talk about neurology, brain hemispheres and all that. That is a broken paradigm and the sooner we realize this the better. Reincarnation has been studied academically and by many other serious researchers. I consider it a proven fact. And that takes all important aspects of the mind OUT of the brain and into some sort of energetic structure that is portable and separable from the body. And that takes all important aspects of personality out of the body and into the realm of the "spirit," where it belongs.
If you are not willing to study people as immortal beings, then you will not develop the insights needed to solve the deeper problems of personality.
Our stories of dealing with and interacting with these troubled souls are interesting and I think useful, because THEY would prefer their activities to remain a secret. I have valued these stories over the theoretical discussions, as I have already experienced much of this theory and what I need more of is to see how these personalities operate in the real world.