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All In The Mind

A kid can't be diagnosed as a psychopath. Why?

All In The Mind

ABC Australia

Life Sciences, Health & Fitness, Science

4.5825 Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2023

⏱️ 31 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As a toddler, Nicole's son was extremely aggressive.

As he got older, his behaviour worsened.

In this episode from our archives, we examine 'callous unemotional traits' — the early warning signs of psychopathy that emerge in childhood.

This episode was first broadcast in December 2022. 

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

ABC Listen, Podcasts, Radio, News, Music and More.

0:08.4

What would you think if a friend told you this?

0:12.3

He's punched me in the face and broken my teeth.

0:15.1

Oh my goodness.

0:15.9

The incident where he punched me in the face, he just stood there and stared at me,

0:20.2

like the lights were on, but nobody was home.

0:22.3

It was a vacant look on his face.

0:24.6

Just zero remorse.

0:27.8

It's a loaded term, but colloquially, you might refer to a person who do this and fail to feel any remorse as a psychopath.

0:36.4

People with psychopathy, and we'll talk about exactly what

0:39.2

that means, make up about 1% of the adult population. But here's the thing, it can only be diagnosed

0:46.6

in adults. It's not a childhood diagnosis. How old was he when he broke your teeth?

0:53.2

Oh, that was before he was in hospital, so he would have been about seven, seven or eight.

0:58.0

Oh my goodness.

1:00.0

So despite the rather extreme behavior,

1:03.0

he broke a after-school care worker's finger.

1:07.0

He's dislocated his father's shoulder.

1:10.0

Nicole's son wouldn't be considered a psychopath.

1:12.7

Brains are constantly developing. So you can't look at a kid and say this person is definitely

1:17.3

going to be a psychopath. You're listening to All In the Mind. I'm Sonic Hedar. So kids aren't

1:24.5

labelled psychopaths for a variety of good reasons, but there are a set of

1:29.4

behaviours that emerge in childhood that can be precursors to adult psychopathy.

...

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