TED Community » Molly Hodgdon

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Forensic psychology, tortoises.

An idea worth spreading

Cat meme-based economy.

Talk to me about

Criminal and forensic psychology.

People don't know that I'm good at

Antiquated domestic arts.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +4.40 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• +7

  A reply on Talk: Jon Ronson: Strange answers to the psychopath test

  Aug 20 2012: I agree completely and tried to make the same points earlier on this comment board. I'm glad you posted!
  
  Lots of people are making disparaging comments about psychology/psychiatry, but what they're actually describing and criticizing is some kind of bizarre, paranoid, vilified, fictionalized version that bears little to no resemblance to actual contemporary practice. They seem to think they know a lot about it, but what they're describing is like some terrible dystopian horror movie.

• A reply on Talk: Jon Ronson: Strange answers to the psychopath test

  Aug 20 2012: Mark, I'm not interested in breaking down this thread blow-by-blow to illustrate how your eagerness to insult me has resulted in a grossly incorrect reading of the specifics and progression of the conversation. You might want to look up the phrases "bias blind spot" and "introspection illusion".
  
  I'm only interested in discussing theories and ideas, not descending into childish personal attacks. For that reason I'm choosing to stop interacting with you.
  
  Take care,
  Molly

• A reply on Talk: Jon Ronson: Strange answers to the psychopath test

  Aug 19 2012: "Sorry, I'm not interested in what image anyone thinks they're projecting, I just respond to what they write."
  
  No, Mark. That's simply not true and fortunately we have our little transcript here to prove it. You accused me of insisting on "giving priority" to arbitrary rules and definitions when it was David who had posted them and said that was how he was defining psychopathy. I was following his lead, not insisting on anything.
  
  David, John Frum wrote most of what I might have typed to you. A designation of psychopathy according to the PCL-R does not come from meeting one or two or even three or more of the "list" items. You have to exhibit all or most of them persistently, in every aspect of your life, over the course of a lifetime.
  
  I'd also like to say that I have worked with a great number of young men through volunteering in my state's restorative and parallel justice programs and I don't think that I've met a single one who seemed aggressively narcissistic. It makes me sad that you perceive them that way.

• A reply on Talk: Jon Ronson: Strange answers to the psychopath test

  Aug 18 2012: Huh? He posted the assessment criteria - not me. I asked him how he was defining "psychopath" because his usage was confusing to me. If he had some other broader, definition he wanted to use I would have accepted that. If he were to tell me he thinks should be included or excluded, or any criticisms of the assessment criteria I would have accepted those, too. I'm not saying he's wrong about anything, I'm just confused because I don't understand what he's trying to get across.
  
  Geez. Do you see my user pic? I'm dressed like Esther Williams and festooned with the tattoos I've been accumulating since I was 18. And the inside of me is even less conventional than the outside. I'm not exactly "The Man" you'd like to think I am. If you want to stereotype all psych professionals as being evil rule-zealots, I guess I can't stop you. But I would like to point out that such an absolute stance it is as rigid, blind, and closed-minded as you are accusing us of being.
• +2

  A reply on Talk: Jon Ronson: Strange answers to the psychopath test

  Aug 18 2012: "What are you doing, taking these kinds of talks as personal attacks and feeling indignant about it. "
  
  I'm not "indignant" because I feel this is a "personal attack". I'm concerned because this man is abusing his creative license to spread misinformation about the study of psychopathy and about psychology/psychiatry in general. I don't find his talk personally insulting, I find it ethically challenged and factually inaccurate. Now all of these people who watch and spread it will go forth with objectively wrong ideas implanted and/or reinforced in their heads.
  
  TED is supposed to be ideas worth spreading, not lies spreading like viruses.

• A reply on Talk: Jon Ronson: Strange answers to the psychopath test

  Aug 18 2012: I don't understand. You said you were defining psychopath according to the above assessment criteria, but now you're apparently asserting a subjective definition that is applied to those you personally perceive to be bad people? I can't communicate meaningfully with you if you keep changing the rules.

• A reply on Talk: Jon Ronson: Strange answers to the psychopath test

  Aug 17 2012: I guess you will have to explain your reasoning. I do not find anything in Phillip Zimbardo's biography or works that would lead me to think he is a psychopath. From what I can glean of his character from interviews and various works he does not exhibit aggressive narcissism, and he could have had such a long and successful career if he met the criteria of a socially deviant lifestyle.

• A reply on Talk: Jon Ronson: Strange answers to the psychopath test

  Aug 17 2012: How are you defining psychopath? You're using the word in a way that does not make sense to me.
• +2

  A reply on Talk: Jon Ronson: Strange answers to the psychopath test

  Aug 17 2012: Phillip Zimbardo is an expert in social psychology - specifically how individual behavior and thought processes are (for good or ill) influenced by external stimuli. I do not think that he would agree that psychopaths are created by conditioning, but if you can find some materials suggesting that he has ever said this I'd be interested to see them. I think that he has proposed that psychopaths have been instrumental in creating many systemically evil institutions and that otherwise compassionate people end up exhibiting psychopathic traits when they participate in these systems, but that is not the same thing as "creating" psychopaths. In fact, he worked on this documentary about psychopaths with Robert Hare: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/i-am-fishead-are-corporate-leaders-psychopaths/
  
  Zimbardo deals primarily behaviors being inspired and encouraged from OUTSIDE the individual, who would not behave in such ways under different circumstances. Psychopathy is a personality disorder so we're talking about behaviors that come from something that is fundamentally different INSIDE the individual. Psychopaths will be psychopaths whether they are prison guards, day care workers, corporate sharks, or living on a utopian organic farming commune.
  
  Your question regarding 13-17 males scores on the PCL-R is not valid. The assessment was designed for adults and is only used with adults. The subject of psychopathy in children is highly controversial and very much separate from the subject of psychopathy in adults. Also, there is no known pharmaceutical (or therapeutic) treatment for psychopathy so it has nothing to do with children being "drugged".
• +1

  A reply on Talk: Jon Ronson: Strange answers to the psychopath test

  Aug 17 2012: "Even if they might be in theory, the simple fact is that in practice things often turn out differently, good intentions or not."
  
  You're right - I agree with you 100%. It's just frustrating when people assume that rigid, black-and-white ideas of "normal", "sane", and "healthy" have explicit definitions within psychology. If you pick up any abnormal psychology textbook, most of them devote the entire first chapter to establishing that there is no such thing as "normal" and "abnormal". Idiosyncratic traits, habits, and eccentricities are not the business of any psychiatric professional UNLESS they are causing distress to the individual or disrupting his or her life in some way. There is not a chapter about our secret agenda to make everyone a homogenized nation of bland, boring, vacuous, TV-watching, Wal-mart shopping, pill-popping automatons.