Do you think some people are just born bad/evil?

[nurider2002]

Many years ago I worked on an inpatient psychiatric ward. One of the patients was a guy in his late 20s that was a true sociopath. I can still remember his mother saying that from the moment he was born, he never wanted to be held, cuddled, or have emotional/physical contact with her or others. She and her husband had 2 other children who seemed very happy and looked like a close family, except for him. All of his interactions with his parents, siblings, and virtually everyone he came in contact with had one purpose - manipulation. He was a handsome and well educated guy so people would initially gravitate to him but, it didn't take long to figure out he lived to enjoy other people's suffering. Most often I think character is formed by early childhood attachments and learning but I do think there might be the occasional "bad seed" who is born with a predisposition to be less than wholesome.

[animalcrazy]

What if the brains of sociopaths could be fixed? | Fox News

I think we're just in our infancy when it comes to understanding the complexities of the human brain. I do believe that some people are just bad seed in the genetic gene pool and with others it's learned bad behavior.

[HappyHarley]

Originally Posted by nurider2002

Many years ago I worked on an inpatient psychiatric ward. One of the patients was a guy in his late 20s that was a true sociopath. I can still remember his mother saying that from the moment he was born, he never wanted to be held, cuddled, or have emotional/physical contact with her or others. She and her husband had 2 other children who seemed very happy and looked like a close family, except for him. All of his interactions with his parents, siblings, and virtually everyone he came in contact with had one purpose - manipulation. He was a handsome and well educated guy so people would initially gravitate to him but, it didn't take long to figure out he lived to enjoy other people's suffering. Most often I think character is formed by early childhood attachments and learning but I do think there might be the occasional "bad seed" who is born with a predisposition to be less than wholesome.

It sounds to me like the mom/dad tried to hug/cuddle the kid against his will. They didn't let the kid live his own life. They probably emotionally abused the heck out of their kid, b.c they expected the kid to meet the needs of the parents instead of the parents meeting the needs of the kids.

Often times, when a kid ends up being a sociopath/severe pych issues, and the parents seem "perfectly normal".. there is a lot of evil lurking in the secrets of the parents.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

I'm not convinced that evil exists. I suspect that what we call evil is just something that we don't yet understand.

An extreme example, people with epilepsy were at one time considered to be possessed by the devil. That seems ridiculous now, but now we understand at least the basics of epilepsy.

For all I know, the people who behave badly and in an anti-social way were born with a brain defect and they don't process information the way the rest of us do. It's not evil; it is just faulty wiring.

Things like volcanoes blowing up and killing populations, that is not evil, either. That is just Mother Nature doing what she does.

Not that I don't think people who can't behave without harming others should not be locked up or executed. If they can't be loose in society without causing harm, they need to be removed from society. But just because we don't understand why they do what they do, does not mean that they are evil.

[krug]

Lord of the Flies. I believe, as we see less and less restraint on society for people "doin what they feel like", and less consequences, bad behavior, not necessarily evil will increase. Then with increased bad, evil will win out.