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18 / 07 / 2004
Adolf Tobeņa: "An individual who can perform a suicide attack is a psychopath who also lacks moral judgment"
"Few studies have been done on combative cells, but a person who can perform a suicide attack who fulfills each and every one of the six characteristics that define this antisocial personality disorder, and, lacks moral judgment may be considered a psychopath. But all of these layers can be identified and studied," Adolf Tobeņa, Professor of Psychiatry at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, stated this morning, who has developed a board to deal with the topic, "Is our brain ethical?" This session is included in the Dialogue "The Social Brain. Biology of Conflicts and Cooperation," that will be held in Forum Barcelona 2004 until July 20.
Professor Tobeņa explained that, through a study performed in the United States on two children from three to eight months of age who suffered from very early lesions on the brain, the first due to a car accident, and the second because of a tumor, and how psychopathic symptoms develop from prefrontal lesions on the brain. He advised that everything that he has explained in the session is not science but rather approximate visions.
These two middle class boys, who had favorable affective situations, were studied when they were 21 years old and it was proven that, in spite of the very intense dedication that they received from parents, educators, and doctors, they showed the beginnings of criminality that couldn't be corrected. They carried out more risky activities, they didn't get nervous when faced with a stressful situation and they weren't scared like a normal person would be.
The last phase of the study presented the moral dilemma of choosing between saving a dog or one's brother in a shipwreck. "Those who has lesions produced while adults chose to save the dog, but they believed that it wasn't correct to say this because they had learned some norms, on the other hand, the two boys didn't have any inhibition in saying that they would save the dog instead of a brother, " Adolf Tobeņa commented.
Professor Tobeņa stated "some essential areas in the brain save the basic circuits that make it possible to implant moral norms. And if these zones are affected, there is no remedy, unless the person is given a neuronal implant."
"In the psychopaths, or people with `antisocial personality disorderī there is a reduction of 12.6% of the total volume of the grey matter in the prefrontal areas, but they do not have any prefrontal lesion. Aside from them having a much lower cardiac rhythm and electrothermal activity, " he explained.
With another example, he explained how when people enter in direct contact with the possible victims of our decisions, our moral areas of the brain are activated more because there are emotive breaks that prefigure our moral decisions. It is different if you push a button that decides to kill one person to save five (the majority of those polled said they would do it), but, on the other hand if this person has to touch the other directly, pushing the person from a cliff, (because this is how you would save the other five people), the majority said that this isn't appropriate. "Isn't it that this second case gets closer to our emotions, because we have to touch the person?" the professor proposed.
As far as the topic of suicide attacks, Adolf Tobeņa accepts that "for there to be a peculiar warlike tactic, there has to be a doctrine with goals set out to conquer. Three basic requirements need to be given: youth combativity, self-centered altruism, manipulative leadership, but also auto-recruitment, not everyone wants to do this."
He explained that few studies have been done on combative cells, but a person performs a suicide attack because they like extreme risk, they have little self-control, no fear, they are dominating, aggressive, and not very empathetic. "We may all have some of these psychotic characteristics, but the problem is when someone has all six. A suicide warrior also lacks moral judgment in respect to the suffering of others."
Finally, professor Tobeņa contributed a proposal according to which people are divided by their personality traits in altruistic / self-centered; dominating / submissive; credulous / empirical, and said that they do not have the means to study altruistic traits. He stated that you have to be particularly careful when a psychopath is also narcissistic, believes to be a messiah, or is in a state of absolute glory; these are traits of a possible suicide warrior. He concluded by asking himself, in relation to romantic love or the passion related to religion or ideology, "Don't some suicide tendencies show moral distortions, a type of organization of different structures that give romantic infatuations for an idea? As a general characteristic, all suicide warriors appear to be content with what they have done."
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