The sad case of Dr. Sarah Myhre

JohnKnight wrote:
“It looks to me like people with little or no emotional awareness (psychopaths) behaving badly.”

I suggest that John is correct – we are in many cases dealing with sociopaths – scientists who KNOW they are spouting lies about runaway global warming, wilder weather, etc. but also know that this is currently the low-risk, high-reward career path – where they can be part of a safe larger gang and obtain research grants for any nonsense funding proposal that includes the words “climate change”, a non-falsifiable hypothesis that has been concocted to replace the already-falsified hypothesis of catastrophic human-made global warming.

Sociopathy is the oldest defined mental illness, and has been defined as “an absence of conscience”. It is estimated that 1 in 25 people have sociopathic characteristics, and I suggest that this 4% rises much higher in subgroups who climb the business, academic and political ladders.

These unwarranted and vicious attacks on honest, competent scientists are consistent with the characteristics of sociopathy, as described in the seven elements in the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV” of the American Psychiatric Association, included below.

Excerpt from: “THE SOCIOPATH NEXT DOOR”, by Dr. Martha Stout, 2005

I trust that imagining yourself as any of these people feels insane to you, because such people are insane, dangerously so. Insane but real – they even have a label. Many mental health professionals refer to the condition of little or no conscience as “antisocial personality disorder,” a noncorrectable disfigurement of character that is now thought to be present in about 4 percent of the population – that is to say, one in twenty-five people. This condition of missing conscience is called by other names, too, most often “sociopathy,” or the somewhat more familiar term, psychopathy. Guiltlessness was in fact the first personality disorder to be recognized by psychiatry, and terms that have been used at times over the past century include manie sans delire, psychopathic inferiority, moral insanity, and moral imbecility.

According to the current bible of psychiatric labels, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV of the American Psychiatric Association, the clinical diagnosis of “antisocial personality disorder” should be considered when an individual possesses at least three of the following seven characteristics:
(1) failure to conform to social norms;
(2) deceitfulness, manipulativeness;
(3) impulsivity, failure to plan ahead;
(4) irritability, aggressiveness;
(5) reckless disregard for the safety of self or others;
(6) consistent irresponsibility;
(7) lack of remorse after having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another person.
The presence in an individual of any three of these “symptoms,” taken together, is enough to make many psychiatrists suspect the disorder.

Other researchers and clinicians, many of whom think the APA’s definition describes simple “criminality” better than true “psychopathy’ or “sociopathy,” point to additional documented characteristics of sociopaths as a group. One of the more frequently observed of these traits is a glib and superficial charm that allows the true sociopath to seduce other people, figuratively or literally – a kind of glow or charisma that, initially, can make the sociopath seem more charming or more interesting than most of the normal people around him. He or she is more spontaneous, or more intense, or somehow more “complex,” or sexier, or more entertaining than everyone else. Sometimes this “sociopathic charisma” is accompanied by a grandiose sense of self-worth that may be compelling at first, but upon closer inspection may seem odd or perhaps laughable. (“Someday the world will realize how special I am,” or “You know that after me, no other lover will do.”)

In addition, sociopaths have a greater than normal need for stimulation, which results in their taking frequent social, physical, financial, or legal risks. Characteristically, they can charm others into attempting dangerous ventures with them, and as a group they are known for their pathological lying and conning, and their parasitic relationships with “friends.” Regardless of how educated or highly placed as adults, they may have a history of early behavior problems, sometimes including drug use or recorded juvenile delinquency, and always including a failure to acknowledge responsibility for any problems that occurred.

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Cults are usually long on personality and short on dogma. They frequently don’t survive the death of their founder.