Evil Genes

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Evil Genes Page 47

by Barbara Oakley


  Hitler's, 305

  Mao's, 235

  schizotypal personality disorder, a trait of, 135

  magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), defined, 89–90

  malaria and Baldwinian evolution, 264

  malignant narcissism, Medline's lack of citations on, 33

  manipulation. See also control, desire for; gaslighting; lying

  advantage of “dysfunctional” personality traits for, 250–52

  aristocracy, wealth, power, and control attract those with manipulative traits, 277, 333–35

  caused by neural quirks, 331

  as defining characteristic for Machiavellians

  in Christie's original work, 42, 45, 46, 47

  as part of precise definition used in this book, 281

  dictators’ use to hear only what they want to hear, 315

  murderers and, 97

  narcissism as motivation for, 162

  our best traits used as levers for our, 192

  by people

  Carolyn, 141, 142, 327

  Coleman, Roger, smooth ability to lie about rape and murder, 188–89

  Fastow, Andrew, Enron CFO, 295–98

  Gandhi, Mahatma, 169, 298

  Gordy, Berry (“Motown” creator), 291–92

  Hilton, Kathy (Paris Hilton's grandmother and similarly named mother), tactics of intimidation, 273

  Hitler, Adolf, 299–300, 315

  Jefferson, Thomas, one of the most “double-faced politicians in America,” 301

  Mao. See under Mao, Chairman, personality traits and disorders

  Milosevic. See under Milosovic, Slobodan, borderline-like and psychopathic traits, identity disturbance and lying

  Skilling, Jeffrey, Enron CEO, 296–98

  Snyder, Solomon, and his usurpation of credit for discovery of opiate receptors, 291

  Stalin, Joseph, 315

  Stewart, Martha, 293–94, 315

  Washington, George: if he wasn't the best intentioned man in the world, he'd be very dangerous, 300

  predatory murderers and, 97

  of the press. See under media, press, and journalists

  psychopathy and, 29n, 107, 132

  as seen in various personality disorders

  antisocial, 135

  borderline, 137, 140, 145, 148–49, 200n

  histrionic, 135

  narcissistic, 135

  pathological lying and, 106

  subclinical borderline, 200

  tools, for more comprehensive explanations and examples see under main headings gaslighting; memory; projection; identity disturbance; theta rhythms; and control, desire for

  gaslighting, 146–48

  intimidation, 29n, 53, 273, 297, 299–300, 315, 333–34, 336

  irrationality, 260–61

  manipulation of press, intellectuals, and politicians, 241–42, 315–17

  memory prowess, 311–12

  projection (blame shifting), “splitting,” chameleon-like, and controlling behavior, 145, 162, 234–35, 250

  sadism, 250, 274

  silent treatment, threats, no-win situations, anger, 140

  theta rhythm disruption, 148

  Mao, Chairman. See also Li Zhisui, Mao's doctor, observations of Chairman Mao

  brief overview compared to other dictators, 28–29, 308, 315, 332

  Cultural Revolution, 215–16, 235, 237, 239, 249

  death from amytrophic lateral sclerosis, 248

  family

  earliest years and antisocial tendencies, 218–19

  father's abuse of Mao—and Mao's abuse of his father, 218–19, 219n

  suffering and mental disturbances of Mao's children, 222–23, 227

  wives

  He Zizhen, Mao's third wife, a difficult life ending in madness, 221–22, 226–27, 227n

  Jiang Qing, Mao's hellish fourth wife, 223–24

  Kaihui, Mao's second wife, disillusionment, marriage, and undying love, 220–22, 228

  Mao's evanescent first wife, 220

  Great Leap Forward, 226, 234, 236

  ideological commitment, lack of, 231–32, 231n, 247–48

  insomnia, 232–33

  personality traits and disorders

  addictions

  drug abuse, 217, 232–33, 245

  sexual, 233–34

  advantages of Mao's “dysfunctional” traits, 250–52

  affective instability (mood dysfunction, “neurasthenia”), 217, 224, 229–32, 235

  antisocial behavior, early, 218–19

  attention, strangely warped, 249–50

  borderline personality disorder and, 217

  as “borderpath,” 216–18

  charm and chameleon-like behavior, 229, 241–42

  cognitive dysfunction and magical thinking

  general discussion, 234–39

  paranoia, 217, 245–46

  control, desire for, 225, 229, 236–39, 298

  empathy

  lack of, 225–26, 227n

  rare displays of, 226–28

  exhibitionism, 223–24

  good qualities, rare but real, 226–28, 248–49

  humiliation of others and feelings of self-humiliation, 246

  hypersensitivity, 246

  hypomanic qualities, 314

  identity disturbance

  inconsistency (hypocrisy), 222, 233–36, 246–47

  Mao's personalization of yin and yang, and Marxism, sneaks perilously close to, 230–31, 231n

  impulsivity, 228–29

  inflexibility (“very hard for me to change,” difficulty handling criticism), 235

  insomnia, 225, 232–33

  intelligence, 250

  lack of object constancy, 221

  manipulation of others

  general discussion of techniques, 241, 246–47, 250

  of journalists and prominent individuals, 241–42

  Mao was the “greatest manipulator of all,” 237

  use of mood to frightening effect, 229

  memory, excellent, 218

  narcissism, 225, 238–39, 242–43, 245, 248

  projection, 234–35

  psychopathic traits, 217, 224–25

  relationships, unstable personal, 217–25

  religious cult of personality, 242–43, 252, 332

  sadism, 239–40

  vindictiveness, 246

  photograph (with wife Jiang Qing), 224

  photograph of as idolators wave their Little Red Books, 243

  Pye, Lucian, explains reticence about declaring Mao a narcissist with a borderline personality, 217

  results of his policies, 216–17, 248, 251–52

  schizophrenia of son, 222–23, 227

  MAO-A (monoamine oxidase A)

  alleles produce different intermediate phenotypes, 80

  childhood stress and predisposition for antisocial behavior, 54, 80–82

  Marcus Aurelius, 275, 275n

  Markovic, Mira (Slobodan Milosevic's wife and virtual Svengali), 155, 166–67

  marriages, troubled, in relation to family discord and genetics, 60

  Marshall, Barry, “crackpot” researcher on ulcers, is ultimately proved correct, 307n

  Martha Stewart—Just Desserts (Jerry Oppenheimer), 293–94

  Martin, Bradley K. (Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader), 269n

  Marx, Karl: disproving Marx's theory that only social forces matter, 267, 308

  Marx's concept of dialectical materialism in relation to identity disturbance, 231n

  Mason, Paul (Stop Walking on Eggshells), 139–40, 146, 147

  Massey, Douglas, observations on emotion from evolutionary perspective, 187

  May, Richard, presiding judge at Milosevic's trial, 162

  McCloskey, Jim, and “Centurion Ministries,” 188

  McFarland, Sam, self-selection of personality types for positions that suit disposition, 303n–304n

  McHoskey, John

  study relating Machiavellianism to general personality disorders, 131–36r />
  study relating Machiavellianism to psychopathy, 49–50

  Mealey, George, establishment of in-perpetuity fund in daughter's name, 283

  Mealey, Linda

  “Linda Mealey Award for Young Investigators,” 283

  mystery of her disappearance, 253–54, 283

  psychopaths can't project onto others feelings they themselves don't have, 105

  media, press, and journalists

  bamboozling by the successfully sinister of the, 316–17

  Mao's manipulation of the, 241–42

  role in reporting on Machiavellians, 251, 338

  medial prefrontal cortex

  association with empathy and social interactions; Williams syndrome, 99

  illustration of, 101

  Medline, explanation of, 32

  Meloy, J. Reid

  good parents sometimes still have psychopath-like child, 102–103

  observation about psychopath as predator, 52

  remarks on paranoid personality disorder in relation to Mao, 245–46

  memory

  anterior cingulate cortex and role in making permanent, 182

  conscious ability to suppress, 165

  current and historical examples of good and bad leaders with remarkable memories

  general discussion of, 310–13, 313n

  Mao, 218

  Milosevic, 154

  Warren Buffett, 318

  effect of genes and alleles on memory

  APOE4, 76

  BDNF, 77

  COMT, 79

  Parker, Robert (wine connoisseur) and taste memory, 262n

  role of memory in charm, charisma, and manipulation, 312

  “splitting,” mood, and fragmentation in relation to storage of, 144

  “met”

  BDNF allele, poorer memory, less anxiety, 77

  COMT allele, slower dopamine metabolization, “worrier,” 79

  Meyer, Edith, pioneering studies of psychological effects of polio, 114–16

  Meyer, Michael Leverson, described Milosevic, 171

  microcephalin gene and cognition, 262

  midbrain

  murderers have “turbocharged,” 97

  poliovirus invasion of the, 114–16

  Milgram, Stanley, research on blind tendency to obey authority, 333n

  Milosevic, Borislav (Slobodan's brother), 160, 166–67

  Milosevic, Slobodan

  borderline-like and psychopathic traits

  affective instability (mood changes), 155, 161

  arrogance and defiance, 153, 171

  borderline personality disorder

  overview of Milosevic's many borderline-like characteristics, 153–68

  why Milosevic did NOT have borderline personality disorder, 162–63

  as “borderpath,” 167–68

  cognitive dysfunction and delusions

  general discussion, 164–66

  seeming normalcy masked, 209

  control, desire for, 161

  empathy, lack of, 162, 166

  identity disturbance

  chameleon-like behavior, 154–57

  distrust, 157–59

  general discussion of, 155–57

  inflexibility, 156, 156n

  impulsivity and anger, 159, 161

  lying, 153–54, 162, 164–66, 171

  narcissism, 162

  projection (by attacking other side at trial), 162

  rudeness, 154

  sadism, 161

  “splitting,” 157

  suicide and, 160–61, 166

  vindictiveness, 161

  brief overview compared to other dictators, 28, 315

  compartmentalization of activities, 158–59

  diabetes, type II, 161

  ideological commitment, lack of, 154

  mimicking abilities, 154

  only way to influence was through threat of force, 160

  photograph of Slobodan with wife Mira, 167

  positive relationships with others

  childhood: he was good, if unctuous, 218

  love for wife and family, 155, 166–67

  loyalty to friends if they were strictly loyal, 166

  results of his policies, 153, 169–71

  role in genocide, 156n, 162, 169–71

  Milosevic and Marković: A Lust for Power (Slavoljub Djukic), 155

  mimicking abilities. See also mirror neurons

  DiCaprio, Leonardo, 104n

  Milosevic, 154

  mirror neurons, 104–105. See also mimicking abilities

  Missionary Position, The (Christopher Hitchens), 285

  Mitchie, Christine, and dimensional trait description of psychopathy, 167

  Mitevic, Dusan, Milosevic's friend and propaganda chief, 161

  mitochondria in American Indians adapted to cold, 262

  modular brain theory, 175, 388n12

  Moll, Jorge

  description of psychopaths, 51–52

  imaging studies related to morality, 100

  monoamine oxidase A. See MAO-A

  Montefiore, Simon Sebag: Stalin's real genius was his charm, 30

  moodiness. See affective instability

  “moral entrepreneurs,” 335

  morality

  basic features hard-wired, not product of culture, 322

  imaging studies related to, 100–102, 322

  Wilson, David Sloan, work involving, 17

  Morgan, Peter (The Appearance of Impropriety), 335

  Morse, Stephen, free will and criminality, 330n

  Morris, Gouverneur: eulogy of George Washington, 298

  mother of the author

  amnesia of, 113

  love for Carolyn, 122, 126

  photograph of, 124

  Mother Teresa's buttering up of despotism, 285

  motor cortex

  learning to play a musical instrument produces changes in, 176

  Mao's fatal amyotrophic lateral sclerosis killed cells in, 248

  polio kills cells in, 111, 114–16, 326

  portrayed in flowchart form, 185, 196

  Mugabe, Robert

  in context with other poorly schooled leaders, 308

  control, desire for, 308

  hypomanic qualities, 314

  Mullis, Kary, foreword to Inventing the AIDS Virus, 307n

  murderers

  affective versus predatory, 96–97

  psychosocial versus neurobiological “push,” 95

  Murphy, Jane, 265

  Mussolini, Benito

  brief overview compared to other dictators, 28, 286

  hypomanic qualities, 314

  prodigious memory of, 312

  mutations, genetic, 63, 264

  myelin, definition and relation to psychopathy, 92

  Nabokov, Vladimir, excerpt from “An Evening of Russian Poetry,” 174

  N-acetylaspartate (NAA) compounds, borderline personality disorder, and schizophrenia, 205

  naivete. See also altruism

  general discussion of

  examples of credulity by many well-known individuals, 241, 315–17

  experiences of ordinary people—consequences of their credulity, particularly regarding genocide, 255, 319–22

  vasopressin, oxytocin—and gullibility, 83

  Williams syndrome, 98–99

  Nandhra, Harpal, coinage of word “borderpath,” 168

  Napoleon, Bonaparte, “They wanted me to be another Washington.” But he wasn't, 298

  narcissism. See also arrogance; narcissistic personality disorder

  acquired situational narcissism, 248n

  apology for loosely interchangeable use of narcissism, ego, self-esteem, self-importance, conceit, and arrogance, 288n

  borderline personality disorder, as coping characteristic in, 137

  can motivate lying, 162

  in children with conduct disorder, 102–104

  in conjunction with paranoid personality disorder, 246

  and connection with “se
lf” as opposed to “other” neural circuitry, 302–303

  as a crucial asset in art, science, business, and politics, 297–98

  DSM-IV definition of, 244

  as the key trait behind Machiavellianism, 281, 283

  in people

  Ceausescu, Nicolae, 287

  Churchill, Winston, 292–93

  Darwin, Charles, and the advantages of a bit of narcissism, 288–89, 292

  Fastow, Andrew, CFO Enron, has himself named CFO of year, 295–97

  Hilton, Paris, and family, 273

  Hitler, 287

  Madonna, 292

  Mao. See under Mao, Chairman, personality traits and disorders

  Mendel, Gregor's lack of narcissism, and resulting problems, 288

  Milosevic. See under Milosevic, Slobodan, borderline-like and psychopathic traits

  Niyazov, Saparmurat (dictator of Turkmenistan), 287

  Shockley, William, inventor of junction transistor, 290

  Stalin, Joseph, 309

  Stewart, Martha, 293

  Thatcher, Margaret, 309

  Wallace, Alfred Russel, and the disadvantages of being free of narcissism, 288–89, 292

  Watson, James, sublimely arrogant, misogynistic codiscoverer of DNA, 290, 392n13

  psychopathy and, 49

  social dominance and neurotransmitter levels, 238

  narcissistic personality disorder. See also narcissism

  borderline personality disorder, overlap with, 146, 208

  defined, 135

  MAO-A in “cluster B” personality disorders, 80

  placement in Axis II of DSM-IV, 134

  sadism and, 52

  National Enquirer

  Martha Stewart sues after being characterized as borderline by, 293–94, 315

  reasons behind surreptitious enjoyment of, 37

  reputation for investigative reporting, 338

  National Institutes of Health. See NIH

  Nazi Einzatgruppen, 303n

  negative affectivity, its heritability and relation to executive control, 201

  Nero, chameleon-like behavior of, 276

  Nesse, Randolph, evolutionary model for emotional behavior, 258–59

  neurasthenia, Mao's, 217, 231

  neuromodulators, 196

  neurons

  general explanation, 183–85

  illustrations of, 70, 184

  neuroscience, not mentioned in relation to research about dictators, 34

  neuroticism. See also affective instability; anxiety

  aristocracy, wealth attract those with semi-, 277

  BDNF alleles and, 77–78

  COMT gene and, 78–80

  Mendel's, 288

  neurotransmitters. See also dopamine; serotonin

  defined, 69, 184

  and delusional thinking, 304

  imbalances in borderlines, 195–201

  reticular activating system, poliovirus, attention, and, 114–16, 326

 

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