This article is an hypothesis, not a conclusion. It is does not represent the findings of a published study but rather is a suggestion for possible scholarly inquiry. It is presented as Socratic process rather than as definite pronouncement.
Steen Raaschou, editor of snaphanen.dk (1) suggests a new kind of crime called Dominance crime. A crime where the motive of the perpetrator is to experience dominance, rather than to achieve material gain. It is a rational yet innovative suggestion as the experience of dominance is already known to be the primary motive for rape.
Many countries have now criminalized motivation as well as action. The current motivation crimes are called hate crimes. If crimes can be hate motivated and thus garner stonger punishment, then criminalizing other motives is not an idea which comes from left field. Indeed, dominance is just as bad as hate as a motivating factor for crime.
Many crimes or antisocial behavior have their roots in documented and common primate behavior. Primates have been witnessed to engage in murder, rape, assault, adultery (ya ya I know that's not a crime) and theft. Primates also engage in behavior to establish and maintain dominance that would be criminal when done by a human.
In psychology the extreme need to dominate others is called sadism.
Sadism is not merely a need to hurt. It is an abnormal need to dominate. The pain, verbal abuse and imposed restrictions are merely methods used to achieve the feeling of dominance.
We are all aware of it as a sexual dysfunction but it is also a personality disorder known as Sadistic Personality Disorder or SPD (2).
SPD is a need to dominate others. Key to that is for the dominated to know and acknowledge that they are dominated. Does that sound familiar? You bet your burka it does.
Psychologists and anthropologists have known for some time that it is possible, thru natural selection, for cultures to have different amounts of incidence of specific disorders. Extreme examples of this phenomena have been documented in populations that are geographically remote from others.
What happens is this. A culture values a trait. Those with that trait, thru natural (or unnatural) selection have a higher chance of having offspring. As a result more people with that trait appear in the population and the expressions of that trait become stronger and stronger. The most extreme expressions of the trait are forms of insanity.
Of course it's not just biology. An individual interacts with their culture. But if that culture is geared towards extreme shows of dominance, because its been created by people who have a predisposition for displaying and valuing dominance, we see an echo chamber effect, with psychology/biology creating the culture and culture having an effect upon psychology/biology of the individual.
Did that make ANY sense? It sure wasn't easy to write.
A culture that engages in polygamy, where the most dominant men get most of the mates and less dominant men get mostly none, would exacerbate the increase in a population of those who have stronger and stronger predispositions to have a deep rooted psychological need to show dominance.
Schizophrenia, autism and retardation are not necessarily included in that theory as they can have other causes than just "natural" selection.
This is not the same as the "bell curve" nonsense. It is also not saying that humans are incapable of making rational decisions about their behavior. We do so thousands of times a day.
It is also not saying that only one people in the world experience this particular disorder. Mental disorders are merely extreme expressions of tendencies we all have.
It is also not intended to discount the effect of intentional radicalization and propoganda. Though such effects and their success do have a symbiotic relationship with culture and personal predisposition.
However it does appear to that there is a direct relationship between islam, the culture developed under islam, and the results of polygamy and an increase in more numerous and more extreme expressions of SPD.
It is a matter for Historians to determine if Muhammad is the generating factor or if the factors and their interrelationship I discuss above were already in existence in that region at the time of his birth. It is clear from the source material that he was a sadist but was that an over common psychological phenomena of the region already? If that is the case than even if Muhammad never existed, another with similar ideas would have eventually achieved the same kind of success he did because his ideas were of a sort that would gain traction in that particular culture.
The point I was trying to make in the previous paragraph is that Muhammad may not be responsible for the inception of the phenomena, but was himself and his resulting ideas, the result of an already existing process. If polygamy was already a common feature of the region than there could have been a process in motion already. Though if that is the case his ideas and the culture they produced certainly did not help matters.
Discus.
1.A new term: Dominance crime
2. Sadistic Personality Disorder A definition by Stephen J. Hucker, MB, BS, FRCP(C), FRCPsych at Forensic Psychiatry. ca
Steen Raaschou, editor of snaphanen.dk (1) suggests a new kind of crime called Dominance crime. A crime where the motive of the perpetrator is to experience dominance, rather than to achieve material gain. It is a rational yet innovative suggestion as the experience of dominance is already known to be the primary motive for rape.
Many countries have now criminalized motivation as well as action. The current motivation crimes are called hate crimes. If crimes can be hate motivated and thus garner stonger punishment, then criminalizing other motives is not an idea which comes from left field. Indeed, dominance is just as bad as hate as a motivating factor for crime.
Many crimes or antisocial behavior have their roots in documented and common primate behavior. Primates have been witnessed to engage in murder, rape, assault, adultery (ya ya I know that's not a crime) and theft. Primates also engage in behavior to establish and maintain dominance that would be criminal when done by a human.
In psychology the extreme need to dominate others is called sadism.
Sadism is not merely a need to hurt. It is an abnormal need to dominate. The pain, verbal abuse and imposed restrictions are merely methods used to achieve the feeling of dominance.
We are all aware of it as a sexual dysfunction but it is also a personality disorder known as Sadistic Personality Disorder or SPD (2).
SPD is a need to dominate others. Key to that is for the dominated to know and acknowledge that they are dominated. Does that sound familiar? You bet your burka it does.
Psychologists and anthropologists have known for some time that it is possible, thru natural selection, for cultures to have different amounts of incidence of specific disorders. Extreme examples of this phenomena have been documented in populations that are geographically remote from others.
What happens is this. A culture values a trait. Those with that trait, thru natural (or unnatural) selection have a higher chance of having offspring. As a result more people with that trait appear in the population and the expressions of that trait become stronger and stronger. The most extreme expressions of the trait are forms of insanity.
Of course it's not just biology. An individual interacts with their culture. But if that culture is geared towards extreme shows of dominance, because its been created by people who have a predisposition for displaying and valuing dominance, we see an echo chamber effect, with psychology/biology creating the culture and culture having an effect upon psychology/biology of the individual.
Did that make ANY sense? It sure wasn't easy to write.
A culture that engages in polygamy, where the most dominant men get most of the mates and less dominant men get mostly none, would exacerbate the increase in a population of those who have stronger and stronger predispositions to have a deep rooted psychological need to show dominance.
Schizophrenia, autism and retardation are not necessarily included in that theory as they can have other causes than just "natural" selection.
This is not the same as the "bell curve" nonsense. It is also not saying that humans are incapable of making rational decisions about their behavior. We do so thousands of times a day.
It is also not saying that only one people in the world experience this particular disorder. Mental disorders are merely extreme expressions of tendencies we all have.
It is also not intended to discount the effect of intentional radicalization and propoganda. Though such effects and their success do have a symbiotic relationship with culture and personal predisposition.
However it does appear to that there is a direct relationship between islam, the culture developed under islam, and the results of polygamy and an increase in more numerous and more extreme expressions of SPD.
It is a matter for Historians to determine if Muhammad is the generating factor or if the factors and their interrelationship I discuss above were already in existence in that region at the time of his birth. It is clear from the source material that he was a sadist but was that an over common psychological phenomena of the region already? If that is the case than even if Muhammad never existed, another with similar ideas would have eventually achieved the same kind of success he did because his ideas were of a sort that would gain traction in that particular culture.
The point I was trying to make in the previous paragraph is that Muhammad may not be responsible for the inception of the phenomena, but was himself and his resulting ideas, the result of an already existing process. If polygamy was already a common feature of the region than there could have been a process in motion already. Though if that is the case his ideas and the culture they produced certainly did not help matters.
Discus.
1.A new term: Dominance crime
2. Sadistic Personality Disorder A definition by Stephen J. Hucker, MB, BS, FRCP(C), FRCPsych at Forensic Psychiatry. ca
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