Nature vs Nurture & psychopathic children !

I mentioned in my previous blog that we sat down, as a family, over the weekend to watch a film. It was a slightly weird film, titled "We Need to Talk about Kevin".


Actually, it was brilliant - unexpected in its delivery and really made us all think about what we would do ... or how we would possibly handle the situation that the mother found herself in. 


I won't go into the detail about the film but today I stumbled upon this story - very closely linked to the film scenario;


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2155489/Is-child-psychopath-Its-common-think--spot-danger-signs-young-three.html?ITO=1490


Now ... I am no expert ..... but I do agree that there are some very strong indicators that a child may have "issues" that need to be addressed, from an early age. 


Many children will have periods when they seem to be behaving badly or just "acting up" - certainly the terrible two's comes to mind ! Siblings will inevitably fight tooth and nail over possessions, arguments, or just .... "Because..." BUT I am sure there are signs that give clues about potential problems later on in a child's life ..... if not looked at and dealt with in early childhood.


This is where the wonderful argument of nature versus nurture comes in. I believe a child does have certain genetic or innate tendencies but these can be altered, diminished, amended or positive traits encouraged ..... according to the child's upbringing, HOWEVER, I also believe that sometimes ...... nothing will change !


Without going into too much detail - I know of a "black sheep" in someone's family. Admittedly he was adopted, so he may have been born with some mental health issues, I don't know ........ but suffice to say - as a child - he stole, he showed little remorse if he hurt anyone (he used to pick on my little brother) and eventually, as an adult he committed a major crime. 


My mother had voiced her opinion that he had psychopathic traits - that she could see in him from a very early age .... and practically predicted when he was just 5 years old, what eventually transpired many years later ... !


So although it is great to see that scientists are finding evidence to back up some "common sense" feelings - SOME people seem to have been able to predict this all along - for many, many years.


For now,  the hope is, that the chances of overcoming the problems that some children may face in later life, are definitely increased with this sort of research !