I Am Fishead: Are Corporate Leaders Psychopaths?
Generally it's well established fact that a small percentage of society causes a disproportionately massive amount of problems and suffering for the rest of us. We've always wondered what holds humans back from creating the kind of society we'd all love to see. We used to call it evil but now we know that some people don't have the capacity to empathize or be remorseful.
The documentary I Am Fishead: Are Corporate Leaders Psychopaths? examines whether the people at the top are more likely to be psychopaths than the rest of us.
The neurological definition of a psychopath is someone with small amygdala (lesser fear response) and often less connections to the frontal lobe, the center for reasoning. There are many people like this and the reasoning is that these people are more disposed to taking risks and are therefore more often in a position to take advantage of an opportunity. A psychopath is a risk taker and often fearless of most consequences.
It really boils down to how you define evil. Some derive pleasure from causing others pain, and this is the litmus test for purely evil behavior. If you don't derive pleasure from killing the man behind the counter because he won't hand over the money, or from signing the paper that privatizes the water supply in a small nation, but you do it anyway, because you want the reward, this would still constitute evil but to a lesser extent. In the first case, the thrill and positive emotions of performing the destructive act is your reward. In the second case, the reward lies in the payoff from the act, and the suffering you cause is just unimportant.
This is looking at it from an individual level however. From a societal perspective, the 'lesser' evildoers, or the sociopaths, are probably more dangerous, because they differ less from the average guy. They are just ready to go that one extra step to attain what they crave. Put in situations where that kind of behavior is rewarded, and the responsibility is diffused or non-existent, they are likely to thrive.
Really bizarre that the film never discusses narcissism or even mentions it at all. How can one discuss people who manipulate and lack empathy without once discussing narcissism?
wow- exactly where we are today!
SO RELEVENT FOR 2021....
Corporate capitalism is an economic psychopathic system.
Worst documentary I have ever seen in my life. Very bad logic.
A great premise, warranting serious study, completely derailing by the 30 minute mark when it switches to an anecdotal witch hunt.
Love this documentary
ed: A psychopath will NOT be handing out pills at a funeral if they even attend a funeral at all.
The damage a documentary can do when it misleads and is incorrect is tragic for society that thinks it is learning or that "it is true because it is a documentary". The fallacies contained here are a mishmash of suppositions and poorly presented at that. An anxiety disorder or depression have nothing to do with psychopath/sociopath behavior. "Mental illness" is also a poor choice of words that covers the nature of brain and thought disorder. Paranoid schizophrenia is nothing close to an anxiety disorder and shown here the "man in the street" is clueless about everything. Not all sociopaths are serial killers but all serial killers are sociopath/psychopath. The sociopath you will know or already have known has no emotion, has no concept of right or wrong and if you tell them they don't they don't care. They have nothing to do with capitalism but only care about themselves, they will not reach high levels of management because they will not work hard for anything, their victims will have worked hard for what they had stolen from them by the psychopath. Use the term "sociopath" as the same thing and you won't be wrong by much. A psychopath will be handing out pills at a funeral if they even attend a funeral at all. They don't feel emotion and will quickly be outed by more astute people who see those who must fake emotions because they cannot feel emotion. Once in their clutches the victim is conflicted because they love the sociopath but slowly realize they are being used and their savings are becoming depleted by the sociopath. Normal people are called "empaths", those who truly love and care. A sociopath cannot look at a photo of a person and know the subject's emotional state. A smiling face on a picture shows a happy person, a sociopath cannot see that.
The medications mentioned here do not make a sociopath and do a great disservice those who take those meds and are helped. Misuse of drugs do not make a sociopath. If you to know about the subject of sociopath/psychopath read Dr Robert Hare's books. This video is a mess of nonsense and its creator should be chastised or suspected of fraud. Dr Hare has the definitive list of traits to look for to identify the sociopath/psychopath. If you are disinterested then one rule to follow is do not loan or give money to anyone who asks. Do not bash capitalism just because you have been told to. Capitalism creates jobs and its only enemy is government and government is a collective of sociopathic behaviors using its power to take money at gunpoint from the people. The very reason for term limits and all defined in the Constitution. Gun control is a fine example of sociopaths misleading the gullible in an effort to castrate and enslave. How "red flag' laws are even considered by people as a benefit when it misuses "mental illness" as a reason to circumvent protected Rights is abomination and will reveal its faults after the damage is done and only then.
I am happy to see that many comments are in agreement that this video is trash. I for one have no idea what "fish head" even means. When you are in the trap set by the sociopath you must escape by running away and never looking back. That person will have drained your bank account and will already have another victim in his sway yet will attempt to draw you back for a little more. Never associate with that person again. They only want your money. Period. End of story.
Didn't care for the cheesy production methods, where the fishhead logo was flashed on your screen every few minutes. Thought they'd tire of it and stop after about 30 minutes, but it carries on the entire documentary. Like some other readers, I found that the original thesis of 'People of power are psychopaths' died out after a while and then there was an odd transition to other topics. Weak on many levels, informative on others, if you can deal with the cheesy production styles.
Decent, but strayed away from the self-proclaimed thesis of are corporate leaders psychopaths. It pretty much established that they are, but I would have been interested in a more in depth analysis of how the researchers came to that conclusion, with more specific examples from history and the reasoning behind that diagnosis. Instead, the documentary moved away from the question posed to try to tell readers how society can combat the affect of psychopaths, which was a nice train of thought, but not necessarily what I wanted to sign up to learn about.
The commentary on SSRIs creating sociopaths was ridiculous. The two actual studies that I bothered to find made no claims of the sort--in fact, one of them said the exact opposite: that test subjects who took the SSRI under study became more empathetic and concerned for others. The other study found that SSRIs do increase ADAPTIVE traits seen in psychopaths, such as social charm and interpersonal boldness. But if someone is severely depressed, takes an antidepressant, and sees an increase in social skills and confidence, then that means the antidepressant is doing its job. Not only that, but the SSRI decreased MALADAPTIVE psychopathic traits, like dysregulated impulsivity and externalization.
I stopped watching around minute 33. Besides the misinformed and fear-mongering stuff about antidepressants, the documentary was a weird combination of overly sensational/dramatic and boring.
I was looking forward to this documentary but found it very slow and I thought the slating of SSRIs was unhelpful and unnecessary; yes they inhibit emotional responses and deserved a mention, but the time dedicated to discussing them and bias against them was frankly, ridiculous. Even though the documentary focused on them being used for less severe diagnoses of mental illness, there was no acknowledgement that for people with more severe forms of depression or anxiety that these can be life-saving drugs. Imagine the impact for someone experiencing more severe mental illness who after watching the documentary now does not feel they should access medication that has been evidenced to potentially help them. I thought the way it was done was irresponsible and as someone who is alive today partly because of this medication I found the views on 'happy pills' deeply invalidating.
I stopped watching 50 minutes in having learnt nothing new about psychopathy or corporate psychopaths.
Anti-Depressants are prescribed too often, I agree. However, there are people who really do need these medications. Most people who commit suicide are majorly depressed. I didn't see an clear argument in this documentary for antidepressants having a relationship to psychopathy.
A good example of sociopath is in the movie "Night Crawler". What a sicko.
Great Video, I Thoroughly would give it a Solid 9.
I tend to understand much of the more "unbelievable but true and how truth is stranger than fiction and other issues in life. Cool thanks
Antinatalism FTW. If taking on all the evil in the world is too intimidating you can still refuse to procreate and add to the suffering. If we all did that one thing everything would work out just fine. If we don't then this is what we will always be dealing with.
Thank you for making this documentary.
You spelt fish head wrong.
Psychology IS a science, b.t.w. Pharmaceuticals are used too quickly too often to essentially put a bandaid on a symptom rather than treating the cause of the symptom. Also, Nutritional Healing is possible, in combination with cognitive therapy and behavioral modification. There ARE those who really do require psycho Pharmaceuticals in order to get along in life but I believe the percentage of those people is much less than what we're medicating for.
This is really interesting in respect to anti-depressants. I first took them in my early twenties and on and off for 20 years - mostly off. I would be very surprised if anyone took them didnt end up with some fairly serious side effect at some point. They are pretty horrific and you will never know if you arent just getting placebo effect. They should be for people who are really in a hole. For most people who get prescribed them that just isnt the case. Its a pandemic of learned helplessness, enabled by the medical profession.
Me first, to us first = socialism. Dump Capitolism!
Very provocative. Clarifies the mutually beneficial nature of morality. I especially like the way it points out the irony of the proud individualistic mindset so prevalent today. While it promises maximum freedom of choice and unhindered opportunity, proud individualism actually serves to divide, isolate, and therefore disempower the masses of modern Western society, making them unaware, apathetic, and much easier to control.
As is so often quoted, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing". I would only add that to do good, good men must unite.
They are paid by investment bankers (usually under the table) to bring short therm gain. Many solution for that is to destroy other people lives.
That evil devil frightened the.... I didn't like it, anyway.