Disproving the claim that this particular person is behaving in this way because of these brain structures is nearly impossible with the state of neuroscience as it currently is, so it isn't a something that can be viewed as anything other than an interesting hypothesis at this stage. You just wouldn't be able to achieve anything approaching a decent level of statistical confidence from studying a single subject, no matter how many anecdotes you cite about them.
The standard of proof, and things you're expected to cite as evidence, is very different for "this particular person is a psychopath" vs "psychopaths in general have this characteristic".
>You just wouldn't be able to achive anything approaching a decent level of statistical confidence from studying a single subject, no matter how many anecdotes you cite about them.
Therefore, no one can be found guilty of murder beyond a reasonable doubt given that it's "just one person"?
No, you are. You're bringing up scientific standards of proof that are totally inapplicable to the question of whether one person meets the diagnostic criteria. Your argument would likewise "prove" that therapists can't diagnose patients with anything because they "only have anecdotal evidence" about "one person".
Yes, someone is very confused here and wasting people's time, but it's not me.
> You're bringing up scientific standards of proof that are totally inapplicable to the question of whether one person meets the diagnostic criteria.
It's not every day that I hear someone argue that scientific standards aren't applicable to an issue potentially resolvable with science.
> Your argument would likewise "prove" that therapists can't diagnose patients with anything because they "only have anecdotal evidence" about "one person".
But that is true, and it's been proven over and over again. Psychologists cannot reliably diagnose mental illnesses -- this is a matter of public record and scientific evidence. Tom Widiger, who served as head of research for DSM-IV, says, "There are lots of studies which show that clinicians diagnose most of their patients with one particular disorder and really don't systematically assess for other disorders. They have a bias in reference to the disorder that they are especially interested in treating and believe that most of their patients have."
This is why psychology and psychiatry are being abandoned. Read this from the sitting director of the NIMH:
Quote: "While DSM has been described as a “Bible” for the field, it is, at best, a dictionary, creating a set of labels and defining each. The strength of each of the editions of DSM has been “reliability” – each edition has ensured that clinicians use the same terms in the same ways. The weakness is its lack of validity."
> This is why psychology and psychiatry are being abandoned.
This is like saying: "This is why biology and [insert-some-unreliable-medical-procedure] are being abandoned." (because said procedure was found unreliable). Without going into debate about DSM and psychiatric clinical practice, psychology has little to do with this. Terminology should be used properly, and we should be aware what words mean, especially if we criticize sloppy science or health care.