Newest Addition to the Binder of Bizarre
Ahh, another delightful tid-bit for the Binder of Bizarre.
In the June 26, 2005 issue of Parade, I came across a tiny article on page 21 with the curious title "Crazy Cabbies". Go check it out.
I want to know who comes up with the ideas for stories like this; even more so, I want to know which editors allow this poorly researched nonsense to be published. Crap like this really burns my ass!
Yes, while it is true that Robert De Niro's role as Travis Bickle portrayed a psychopathic taxi driver turned hero in the dregs of NYC's worst era, the study referred to in the Parade clip is inaccurate.
It mentions that 40% of the bus and cab drivers demonstrated "psycopathic tendencies, including antisocial behavior." The drivers studied stated that they would not feel guilty about injuring or running over a pedestrian. The drivers they are referring to are, by definition, sociopaths.
I invite you to take a look at the definitions of psychopaths and sociopaths. Once you've done your homework, you will know that sociopathology is a sub-catagory of the mental illness milieu covered under psychopathology.
I'm getting sick and tired of the media portraying mental illness erroneously. Statistics show that the vast majority of people suffering from mental illness are much more likely to harm themselves than others. It is only the sub-species of sociopaths that are excessively prone to hurting others.
Let's all start letting the media know that their disgustingly skewed portrayals of mentally ill members of our society offends decent, intelligent people.
Click to see scan of original clipping
©2005 hpb©reations
posted by Preston @ 4:19 PM
3 Comments:
H:
Fascinating topic. A few days ago, I actually commented to a blog and discussed psychopaths/sociopaths. Although I usually use the two terms interchangably, I always wondered what the diff was. Despite your stance, I'm still not sure who's right. After all, Wikipedia (along with the DSM) are not the final word...You'll see what I mean a little further down.
Anyway, the blog post in question dealt with a woman's long time girlfriend who had f@@ked her over big time, many times, as well as her boyfriends and anyone else who got in her way. She started to wonder if her "friend" might have a mental illness.
I took the opportunity to quote from the world-renowned Gavin de Becker's book, "The Gift of Fear." In it, he quotes Robert D. Hare's book "Without Conscience" which lists the traits typically associated with psychopaths--yes, they call them psychopaths.
So in any case, these experts use this word to mean what Wikipedia defines as a sociopath, although Wiki does say that the DSM label covers what used to be called psychopath OR sociopath. Whatever.
In any case, I ran down the list of symptoms in my comment, and she posted to my site saying it was a chlling revelation, and I might be right.
The other point I made is that in the American legal system, the standard used for a verdict of "not guilty by reason of insanity" requires that the defendant did not understand the difference between right and wrong at the time. In the sociopath's case, I believe they are just considered criminal, because (I think) they DO know right from wrong, but deliberately CHOOSE not to be beholden to society's legal and moral standards--due to selfishness, greed, etc.
As Wikipedia also says, the DSM is not the bible. I wonder about the DSM turning sociopathology into a "disorder," thus lumping it in with depression, schizophrenia, etc. Esp. if our legal and justice system does not consider it a mental illness, no matter how "sick" it is. It kind of gives mental illness a bad name.
Anyway, love the Wikipedia sociopath link--really cool, mon.
Maybe we need to have Mentally Ill Rights parades and stuff.
Ok... but what does the guy getting run over by a station wagon have to do with it?
:-)
God I love that movie Taxi Driver..... I think I may have to rent it today.
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