ToBeHonest
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2012
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- 63
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I agree that anything LM says is highly suspect and not to be believed without corroboration. A thorough assessment of him would include separate interviews with family members. The fact is that 60-70% of criminals come from a history of child abuse, in particular physical/sexual. Most of such criminals would also have pathological lying as a staple to their personality. The odds alone suggest he had a difficult childhood. I am not suggesting we should believe him at his word, I fully support corroboration from those who would know. I also think we have to look at factual statistics that indicate he likely had a bad childhood.
I agree with your insights, and have read the same statistics repeatedly. I know LM was a liar to the "nth" degree, but his stories of childhood trauma are consistently intermingled in his internet presence over and over, and there are media stories to corroborate that his family was not normal (his Aunt being killed, his Aunt's son being in prison). I feel if you are objective, you have to acknowledge that someone with such a Pandora's Box of pathologies was influenced both by genetics and their environment.
I think there's a tendency to think mentioning a bad childhood creates an excuse for acts committed. That isn't so--acknowledging childhood is a contributor in cases like this only helps to explain why LM and others like him lack the chemical equilibirium to choose a less self-destructive path. I think where support system guides you helps to determine this. For example, why does one person w/ psychopathic traits become a serial killer while another becomes a CEO? Granted, we don't want our bosses to completely lack empathy and conscience, but it's clear which is the more functional and successful path.
I think in cases like this, there is no black and white; LM may have come out wired incorrectly, but something along the way helped to nurture that miswiring into something devious and destructive. Those outcomes don't exist in a vacuum.