THINKING TIME!

In this documentary, corporations are defined as “legal entities” and they meet the clinical definition of psychopathic behavior. Do you agree, why, or why not?

I agree, according to the Diccionario Terminológico de Ciencias Médicas, a psychopath is a person who has mental disorder characterized by deficient control of emotions and impulses, impulsivity, lack to adaptation the moral and social standards, association and he/she tends to acting and has an antisocial behavior. There many experts in the psychological field that has describe the behavior of a psychopath, but there is one specific work in which we can be the same as the psychopath behavior with the one of the corporations, that is the Hare’s studies. Hare propose 20 points that describe the psychopath behavior and those can similar to the behavior that a corporation applies to reach its goals, some of the points are[1]:

· Glib and superficial charm: A tendency to be easily soft, recruiters, charming, clever verbally speaking.

· High self-esteem: An extremely high view of their own abilities and their worth, confident, stubborn, conceited, boastful personalities.

· Stimuli’s needs: An excessive need for new, exciting and thrilling stimuli without taking into account any risks.

· Cheating and manipulation: the use of deception to cheat, trick or defraud others for personal gain.

· Lack of remorse or guilt: A lack of feeling or concern for the losses, pain and suffering of victims.

· Impulsivity: recurrent behavior unpremeditated and lack reflection or planning; inability to resist temptation.

· Irresponsible: Repeated failure to perform or comply with obligations and commitments.

· Failure to accept responsibility for their own actions: Failure to accept responsibility for their actions, reflected in a low realizes, in the absence of scruples, in the manipulation, denial of responsibility and in an effort to manipulate others through this denial.

· Criminal versatility: A diversity of types of criminal offenses, regardless of whether the person has been arrested or convicted of his guilt.

These characteristics can be reflected in the behavior that the corporations have in their actions, strategies and planning. And according to the Canadian documentary of 2003, The Corporation, these entities are many times related with terms as: Dominant institution, Public control, big results, bigger damages, Inter-generational tyranny, Bad used power, Machiavellism, Illegal enhancement. So as conclusion the corporations’ actions demonstrate a very detailed psychopath behavior in them.

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[1] Hare, R. (1991). The Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised. Toronto: Multi-Health Systems.

Hare, R. (1993) Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths among us. NY: Pocket Books.

Hare, R. (1996) Psychopathy: A clinical construct whose time has come. Criminal Justice and Behavior 23:25-54.