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A brain surgeon begins an anterior cingulotomy by drilling a small hole into a patient's skull. The surgeon then inserts a tiny blade, cutting a path through brain tissue, then inserts a probe past sensitive nerves and bundles of blood vessels until it reaches a specific cluster of neural connections, a kind of switchboard linking emotional triggers to cognitive tasks. With the probe in place, the surgeon fires up a laser, burning away tissue until the beam has hollowed out about half a teaspoon of grey matter.
This is the shape of modern psychosurgery: Ablating parts of the brain to treat mental illnesses. Which might remind you of that maligned procedure, the lobotomy. But psychosurgeries are different. And not just because the ethics are better today; because the procedures actually work. Removing parts of a person's brain is always a dicey proposition. But for people who are mentally ill, when pills and psychiatry offer no solace, the laser-tipped probe can be a welcome relief.
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by RedBear on Friday June 26 2015, @09:23PM
Indeed as I said we will have to be extremely careful about who is doing the "repairing" and why, and make sure that it is always an uncoerced choice based on solid medical reasoning even for such people as children* and criminals who are typically not given many choices. But we are already doing it, and we are going to continue to be doing it for various reasons. Much good can come of it, if done right, and much evil if done wrong.
* It's fairly easy to identify many psychopathic children long before they grow into psychopathic adults. They reveal themselves more readily through their behavior at an early age, before they learn more conscious control of their actions. What if we could repair them early on (e.g., fix their empathy circuits), so they never become dangerous criminal types as adults? Can we? Should we? Ultimately of course, we will, at least in some extreme cases where the child is already shown to be a danger to others. On the child's behalf we will be forced to choose between incarceration, lobotomy, or "repair". The only question is on what medical basis will the choice be made, and by whom, and at what age will the child be "repaired". Rejecting the idea philosophically outright won't prevent it from eventually being considered by others, and no doubt used quite effectively in many cases to create an adult with no discernible difference from any other healthy, non-psychopathic adult. Only time will tell whether we will be able to successfully use these techniques without abusing them. But they will be used, make no mistake.
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 26 2015, @09:32PM
Citation?
(Score: 2) by RedBear on Friday June 26 2015, @10:03PM
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=how+to+identify+psychopathy+in+children [duckduckgo.com]
Of course the very definition of who is a psychopath and who isn't is still pretty fuzzy, like everything else in psychology. But in a situation where a child has been diagnosed as sociopathic/psychopathic/unempathic AND already committed multiple violent acts against others for no discernible reason and is facing an adult life as a prisoner, which choice are the parents and/or child more likely to go for? Inevitable imprisonment, or behavior modification through brain surgery? Some will of course choose the latter. And then we'll see what we'll see. And argue endlessly about whether it was "right" or not.
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 26 2015, @10:08PM
Do you have a scientific citation rather than sites like the daily mail and findoutifyourchildsapsychopath.com?
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Friday June 26 2015, @11:27PM
already committed multiple violent acts against others for no discernible reason and is facing an adult life as a prisoner, which choice are the parents and/or child more likely to go for? Inevitable imprisonment, or behavior modification through brain surgery? Some will of course choose the latter. And then we'll see what we'll see. And argue endlessly about whether it was "right" or not.
i think a better route would be to prevent them from existing in the first place. at the risk of supporting eugenics, i think that we should test people for genetic risk factors of psychopathy and ensure their possible future offspring do not have these traits. yes, various genetic markers have been identified that need to be eliminated. [wikipedia.org] unfortunately, if we dont understand our own genetic code we risk making a mistake beyond anything humanity has done so far.
so the real question is should humanity take a bold leap into an uncertain future or continue to allow natural selection in society which results in seemingly endless tragedy?