ABSTRACT
We’ve all hurt somebody. In fact, many of us have caused a great deal of pain to a lot of people-friends, family, strangers-who didn’t deserve it. But most of us feel bad about the pain we’ve caused, at least once we’ve acknowledged what we’ve done. What if we didn’t feel bad about harming others? What if the only people we cared about, whom we felt anything for, were ourselves? What if we never felt guilt, or remorse, love, or even true hatred? What if we could watch another human writhe in pain with mild interest, as we would watch puppies at play, with no desire to help? What if we didn’t learn from our mistakes, but kept repeating behaviors that prompted others to retaliate? What if we lacked the social emotions, such as sympathy, guilt, and love that bind us to other people and cause us to account for their interests as well as our own? Then we’d be psychopathic (Mealey, 1995).
