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What happens if you give a psychopath ecstacy?

Artificial Emotion

Artificial Emotion

Bluelighter
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Psychopaths are incapable of feeling empathy towards others and one theory based on brain scans is that there is pathological damage to the orbital cortex in the brain. There's a theory that the MAOA gene can play a role in causing psychopathy by flooding the foetal brain with serotonin I think. What happens when you give a psychopath E? Can you artificially induce the emotion of empathy in such monsters? I'm merely curious, obviously I know there would be no point in actually doing this in practice.

title: *ecstasy i.e. MDMA.
 
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AFAIK it has never been studied, but most likely the answer is different for different psychopaths.
 
They probably just get high and might do even better at feigning empathy.

Look at all the good it did Michael Alig, speaking of psychopaths.

People ask the same about MDMA and autism, too, and they're missing the point as well. Especially since it's a very transient effect and the empathy is superficial at best.
 
Idk...they might go even more nuts. Psychopath + psychoactive substance = I do not want to be there when it happens.

Or do I? =D

Sorry, silly question gets a silly answer.
 
I know it was pretty effective in reducing symptoms in schizophrenics, relaxing them, allowing them to feel empathy thus less paranoid and more open to others and their surroundings. I know it's not the same but similar with difficulty in feeling empathy. Empathy is closely tied in with a lot of our emotions.
 
Pretty_Diamonds said:
I know it was pretty effective in reducing symptoms in schizophrenics, relaxing them, allowing them to feel empathy thus less paranoid and more open to others and their surroundings. I know it's not the same but similar with difficulty in feeling empathy. Empathy is closely tied in with a lot of our emotions.
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Possibly make them a little less of a psychopath then you think? I'd say you could be on to something with that. Also remember the empathy from MDMA products is not natural though. Your brain is being flooded with the release of seratonin. So it's possible even a psychopath who under natural circumstances doesn't feel empathy might feel something they don't usually feel. Maybe not even empathy just raised awareness of normal human emotion?

SLK could be correct too, that they would just get high and better at feigning the emotion. I actually think that's more likely.
 
Good question indeed, but i wouldn't limit the inability to express emotions to the orbital frontal cortex. Other regions definitely are involved. I also suffer from emotional bluntness or numbing or whatever...but i've never consumed ecstasy.
 
I'm sure plenty of psychopaths actually take ecstasy or MDMA on a weekly basis, some probably don't even know they are a psycho. Not all are Patrick Bateman type killers, some live normal lives and end up doing rather well for themselves in the business environment.

I reckon when they take E they'll dance all night like the rest of us, maybe they won't feel as loved up, but they won't know any different anyway.
 
Another interesting one is oxytocin. This hormone is fascinating, being associated with social and maternal bonding and it's been looked at as a potential clinical treatment for conditions that affect interpersonal relationships like autism and social phobia. When people have elevated oxytocin they are more trusting, feel more connected to others and have a greater capacity for empathy. I wonder if it would have any affect on a psychopath but I doubt it.
 
MDMA usually affects/enhances only measures of emotional empathy, not cognitive empathy - the one that makes one able to 'feign' empathy. it doesn't make you smoother/more persuasive, just more happy-go-lucky

if we define sociopathy as diminished feeling of empathy, then i don't think it's a very big stretch to say that for the time of the high a sociopath would be a nicer and kinder person, i don't see why not... i think MDMA's effects on perception of social interactions are pretty solid...
 
Very subjective I think. What is a psychopath exactly?
Does a psychopath have a developmental disorder or is there a physical basis for psychopathy?
In our current state of benighted ignorance I don't think we can make any useful predictions.
Better start a trial ...
 
augustaB said:
Very subjective I think. What is a psychopath exactly?
Does a psychopath have a developmental disorder or is there a physical basis for psychopathy?
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As the Honorable Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said once, regarding pornography, "I know it when I see it."
 
augustaB said:
Very subjective I think. What is a psychopath exactly?
Does a psychopath have a developmental disorder or is there a physical basis for psychopathy?
Click to expand...

As the Honorable Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said once, regarding pornography, "I know it when I see it." And yes, I do this for a living.

But yes, there are scales for it (PCL-R, PPI, for sex offenders, Static-99, among others) and no, this does not mean it is objectively quantifiable. "Psychopathy" is not a DSM diagnosis, by the way. The closest analogue in DSM is "antisocial personality disorder," which basically means a disagreeable person who disregards other's feelings and needs and societal standards of behavior. Psychopathy goes well beyond that, and the way the term is thrown around in popular culture isn't really what it means clinically.
 
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There isn't really an established psychiatric definition for 'psychopath' - it's a concept that's found its way into our legal system, but the closest current psychiatric concept is the spectrum of personality disorders that incorporate antisocial behaviour and diminished empathy. The key word there is 'diminished' - the vast majority of people on the antisocial personality spectrum are still capable of empathy to some extent, and can usually be rehabilitated to experience it at a higher level.

I have no idea what would happen if you fed someone with antisocial personality disorder MDMA, but my feeling is that they'd get high. They may well feel all warm and lovey and empathic just like anyone else, because this effect of MDMA isn't real empathy - the drug doesn't actually make you better at appreciating and understanding other people's perspectives/feelings, it just makes you feel like you're excelling at these things.
 
SixBuckets said:
There isn't really an established psychiatric definition for 'psychopath' - it's a concept that's found its way into our legal system, but the closest current psychiatric concept is the spectrum of personality disorders that incorporate antisocial behaviour and diminished empathy. The key word there is 'diminished' - the vast majority of people on the antisocial personality spectrum are still capable of empathy to some extent, and can usually be rehabilitated to experience it at a higher level.

I have no idea what would happen if you fed someone with antisocial personality disorder MDMA, but my feeling is that they'd get high. They may well feel all warm and lovey and empathic just like anyone else, because this effect of MDMA isn't real empathy - the drug doesn't actually make you better at appreciating and understanding other people's perspectives/feelings, it just makes you feel like you're excelling at these things.
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Exactly this TBH.
 
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