The first visible signs of a child with tendencies to become a psychopath can be noticed when they are 3 years old. Sometimes the actions of the parents can push their children to demonstrate these tendencies even more, which is a result of bad parenting. The problem is that the parents don’t take these signs very seriously.
Here are the signs that can indicate your child is becoming a psychopath:
1. Animal cruelty
Animal cruelty is one of the most obvious signs of a psychological disorder in the child that leads to psychopathic behavior. If the parents notice this behavior in their kids, they should point them out that it’s not okay, for example, to pull a cat’s tail or to drag a dog’s leash, and if the kid understands it and doesn’t repeat it again the parents have nothing to worry about. But if the kid continues and does it in secrecy, you have a serious problem that needs to be taken care of. That is how the psychopaths start, with expressing their anger through using absolutely defenseless animals. Look at the photo below, this is Jeffrey Dahmer, an American serial killer who’s gotten with 15 life sentences. Notice how he’s holding the kitten.
2. A love for arsons
Pyromania is also a sign of a psychopathic behavior that a child can express. This way they show their anger and the need to destroy. Some kids are afraid of fire, some try to play with it, but if the kid is drawn to abuse the power of fire it’s a sign that the kid has psychopathic tendencies.
3. Enuresis
There is no 100% guarantee that if the child still pees at night when it’s 6 years old can and will tend to be a maniac. But enuresis is connected to this kind of disorder by the psychologists, because it provokes acts of arson, animal abuse etc. And it is a pretty humiliating situation to them. One of the most terrible maniacs in the Soviet Union known as Andrei Chikatilo had enuresis, and his mother beat him whenever he had the accident. Much later he started to find enjoyable watching other kids suffer which led to terrible things he did.
4. Breaking the rules
Kids with psychopathic traits enjoy violation and breaking the rules because they get an adrenaline from it. There isn’t a kid that never broke a friend’s doll or a car, or didn’t tease the friend, but they know the line when to stop, or when their parents tell them they quickly understand and try to act better. Kids with psychopathic tendencies are aware and know the rules and continue to disobey and violate them. They feel dominant that way. Remember how J.K. Rowling described the part when Dumbledore found stolen toys in the drawer from Voldemort? The toys belonged to other children, but Voldemort didn’t need them – he just enjoyed watching the kids weep over losing something that’s important to them.
5. Lying without regret
If the child lies because it’s afraid of getting a punishment, it’s quite easy to understand their behavior. However, if the child lies just because it needs to lie, without feeling remorse, this is something to really worry about. Children that lie often and lie because they feel like they need to, become pathological liars in the future. When a person grows with a pathological behavior, then this behavior can lead to other psychological disorders too. For kids that hold these previous mentioned traits and this one too, they are growing out to be psychopaths.
6. Bullying
Of course, not every bully is a future maniac. Kids become bullies because of many reasons, they like the power, the dominance, if the parents are violent they may want to look like them, their idols and so on. If the kids show a certain trait that other bullies may not have, is the joy of hurting other people, not just physically but more in an emotional way. They might humiliate other people and play with them simply because they enjoy it.
7. Insensitivity
Children with psychopathic behavior and traits don’t express fear because they are not aware of their own concept of fear, but are aware of other people’s fear. They also have no idea of compassion or sensitivity.
According to Heather Irvin, a senior psychologist at the R.E.A.D. clinic, the first year in the child’s growth is the most essential in the building of the future character and behavior of the kid:
“Psychopaths don’t appear out of thin air. You just need to take a look at their early years, at what was happening to these children when they were just born. For example, if they cried for the first 6 months, and nobody cared for them, nobody fed them when they were hungry, nobody helped them, their brain memorized that and realized that feelings don’t matter. Other brain structures start forming based on this concept.”
If a child grew up in a nice loving environment and for example, after the sixth year of their live there are some difficulties, the chances of becoming a psychopath are very low, because, they have time to rebuild themselves. And if the child has any deviations, it’s better for the parents and the child to visit a specialist that will help the kid try to solve the problem.
Source: Bright Side