Free Bad Men Do What Good Men Dream: A Forensic Psychiatrist Illuminates the Darker Side of Human Behavior by Robert I. Simon Page B

disorder.
    The combination of minimal brain dysfunction, attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder, and conduct disorder, which contributes to antisocial personality disorder, is more common in boys than in girls. Another part of the difference can be traced to socialization and acculturation norms: girls are taught to control overt expression of anger, more so than boys. Onset of antisocial symptoms typically occurs for boys at age 7, though for girls the symptoms show up (albeit in less severe form) at around age 13. The age difference at onset may be related to the biological differences between the sexes.
    Other studies show that antisocial boys are more likely to come from large families in which their interaction with other deprived, aggressive boys fosters the development of antisocial behavior. When the family shows a predominance of girls, such antisocial behavior in the boys is inhibited. Antisocial girls come from families that tend to be more troubled than those of antisocial boys, but both male and female siblings from extremely troubled families are at great risk for developing antisocial personality disorders.
    The causes of antisocial personality disorder cannot be ascribed to social class, cultural conflict, membership in a deviant subgroup (such as a gang), keeping bad company, residing in a high-crime neighborhood, or even brain damage. Important factors in the development of the disorder are maternal deprivation during the child’s first 5 years, which leads to insufficient nurturing and socialization, and having an antisocial or alcoholic father, even if he is not in residence. Other studies, however, show that adequate discipline can decrease the risk in children whose parents are antisocial. More moderate correlations between adult antisocial behavior and certain other childhood factors have been found. These factors include early-onset conduct disorder (before age 10 years) with or without accompanying hyperactivity, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and mild signs of neurologic deficit. Emerging evidence indicates that the brains of psychopaths do not process feelings and emotions properly. Neuroimaging studies show that psychopaths use different areas of their brain in regulating emotion than do normally functioning individuals. Twin and adoption studies also indicate a possible genetic factor. The most plausible model for causation involves many factors, with a combination of genetic, developmental, and environmental factors all interacting to produce an antisocial personality.
    But I must again emphasize that the tendency toward antisocial behavior is present in everyone, to varying degrees, and in every vocation—including that of world leaders. A classic set of experiments by Dr. Stanley Milgram has dramatically demonstrated this point. In Milgram’s study, subjects were brought into a setting that looked like a learning laboratory. They were asked to administer what they were told were mild electrical shocks to other subjects (who were actually Milgram’s colleagues) when they did not come up with the correct answers to questions being put. As the experiment progressed, the subjects were asked to administer more and more severe punishment, even though the people being shocked were objecting and voicing their pain. Although the subjects often expressed disapproval of what they were being asked to do, the majority of them complied with the commands of the experimenter and continued to deliver the shocks, even when the selector button read “Danger: Severe Shock.”
    Milgram wrote that the study revealed the “sheer strength of obedient tendencies manifested in this situation.” The subjects followed the instructions of the experimenter, even though the experimenter had no authority to enforce the command to shock the victim. The subject was free to walk away at any time, but most did not. The study demonstrated that ordinary, decent people would knuckle under and unquestioningly obey