From: ibshambat@gmail.com   
      
   A claim constantly made about sociopaths and narcissists is that they are   
   incurably evil. That is a completely irrational standpoint. Evil is not a   
   function of psychopathology; it is function of wrong choice. Anything capable   
   of choice can be evil.    
   Anything capable of choice can also be good.   
      
   I never had either diagnosis, and I’ve seen psychiatrists since I was 15. I   
   take issue with this situation not because it concerns me personally but   
   because it is a matter of how all sorts of people are being treated. You have   
   to make up your mind: is    
   character a choice or is it not a choice? Because if it is a choice then   
   it’s up to the person to do with it what he wants to do with it, including   
   improve it. And if some people can be evil whatever they do, then character is   
   not a choice and not    
   something on which people can be judged.   
      
   Someone I know once told his former girlfriend, after he put her through an   
   emotional wringer, “I just wanted to show the real you again.” Here, what   
   we see is abuse that cuts to the core. Someone decides that the other person   
   is bad, and that this    
   is the real them and nothing else that they do is. Many lives are lost to that   
   kind of thing. People are prevented from growing, from improving and from   
   becoming an actual real them: That is a function of their conscious choice to   
   be what they seek to be.   
      
   At the heart of the matter, once again, is a matter of choice. The best thing   
   about choice is that it gives us power to act rightfully, whatever may be our   
   problem. If you have something wrong with your brain or your psychology that   
   disconnects you from    
   empathy, use your conscious mind to figure out how your actions impact on   
   others. Then make a determined effort to do the right thing by others,   
   whatever may be wrong with your psychology or your brain.   
      
   Being labelled a sociopath or a narcissist therefore does not have to be a   
   death sentence. You are a human being. You can choose how you want to be. Even   
   a sociopath or a narcissist can commit himself to rightful action, which means   
   that even a sociopath    
   or a narcissist can be a good person. Choice – and humanity – trumps the   
   bestial dynamics.  The solution is not treating these people as animals and   
   locking these people up. The solution is treating them as people and getting   
   them to use their brains.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)