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Discovering One’s Hidden Psychopathy | James Fallon | Big Think

Big Think | December 20, 2025



Discovering One’s Hidden Psychopathy
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Neuroscientist James Fallon discusses how he came to discover (and how he’s learned to live with) the fact that he’s a borderline psychopath. Fallon is the author of The Psychopath Inside: A Neuroscientist’s Personal Journey into the Dark Side of the Brain (http://goo.gl/ioGrhS).
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JAMES FALLON:

James Fallon teaches neuroscience at the University of California Irvine, and through research explores the way genetic and in-utero environmental factors affect the way the brain gets built — and then how individuals’ experience further shapes its development. He lectures and writes on creativity, consciousness and culture, and has made key contributions to our understanding of schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

Only lately has Fallon turned his research toward the subject of psychopaths — particularly those who kill. With PET scans and EEGs, he’s beginning to uncover the deep, underlying traits that make people violent and murderous.
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TRANSCRIPT:

James Fallon: My book, The Psychopath Inside, is a memoir and it’s a mix of a personal story and what the science is, that is, the psychiatry and the genetics and the neuroscience behind what the subject is which is psychopathy. But it’s really a story about somebody, me, who at 60 finds out he’s not really who he thought he was all along in his whole life. And not until I had just by serendipity, by chance, started to run across biological evidence first from PET scans, positron emission tomography scans, that I was involved with – acted as a control in one study in Alzheimer’s disease and also had my genetics done. So it was just as a control and to compare to other people with Alzheimer’s. And so it was through that about, oh, seven years ago that I found out something very strange. And this something strange both in terms of my brain pattern and genetics happened to run, it intersected with another study I had been doing – a minor study on looking at PET scans and FMRIs, another kind of brain scan, and SPEC scans of killers, really bad murderers.

And these are particularly bad hombres and some serial killers, et cetera. And I had looked at these and had been asked to analyze them over the years from the early 1990s onward. And about the same time, 2005, when I was doing my own scans for this Alzheimer’s study I had a whole group of these killers and also psychopaths and looked at a pattern. I said, “My God, there’s a pattern in the brain for these guys.” And so I started to talk about it, give talks and, you know, at academic institutions and psychiatry departments, law schools, et cetera, just to kind of vet the idea. But at the same time I got this pile of scans back that included my own and these other controls. And I was looking through – I got to the last scan of that study of the Alzheimer’s and I looked at it and I asked my technician. I said, “You’ve got to check the machine because this is obviously one of the killers.” One of the murderers. It looked like really a severe case of brain activity loss in a psychopath.

And so when I ultimately they said, “No, this is part of – it’s in this control group.” And I had to tear back the name on it because I always do everything blind but this was like something’s really wrong. And it turned out to be my name. So it was like, you know, Gandalf shows up at the door and you’re it. So that started this whole trajectory. Now at first I laughed at it and I just didn’t care. We were so busy working on the genetics of Alzheimer’s and also schizophrenia and I had just started an adult STEM cell company. And so I was so busy with stuff I kind of let it go for a couple of years really – about a year and a half. But then the genetics came back and I had all the genetic alleles, the forms of the genes that are associated with a high aggression and violence, psychopathy, and a low kind of empathy, that intrapersonal emotional empathy. And low anxiety.

And when I got that back I started to take a little bit of note but I still didn’t care about it. And it wasn’t until I ended up giving a talk. I was asked to give a talk with the ex-prime minister of Oslo who had bipolar disorder. And so I went to Oslo to give a public talk with him, the clinician, on bipolar. You know, what’s the brain patterns…

Read the full transcript at https://bigthink.com/videos/discovering-ones-hidden-psychopathy

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Comments

This post currently has 37 comments.

  3. @dos8768

    December 20, 2025 at 1:11 pm

    This is how scientists explain how gangsta they are to each other. Instead of being like "imma pop all my opps, on godd!" its, "I found out I have no issue killing people because my brain scan showed it".

  4. @LunarNinja94

    December 20, 2025 at 1:11 pm

    I have for quite some time realized that there is something wrong with me but i never knew exactly what it was. I have noticed that i lack empathy which i really thought i had and i always did the right thing but not because i actually cared just because it’s the right thing to do, somehow i fooled myself into thinking i’m very empathetic but now i understand that it was only cognitive empathy not affective empathy. Something that he didn’t mention is that Psychopaths are bored almost constantly unless they are doing something very stimulating and it often involves taking risks, violence, theft and such where they can get a rush of adrenaline and as i have heard they aren’t always hurting people because they are sadistic it’s much due to the lack of emotions and wanting to feel at least something. Imagine living and feeling empty and bored all the time nothing interests you which makes you desperate to feel something and then the urges to do risky things appear because you want to feel something to fill the void in your chest. Another thing is lack of sense self which basically feels like being a body without an actual person inside it but instead like you are operating the body that you have that does stuff with almost no emotions except anger which is one of the few emotions they can feel. There is a spectrum to Psychopathy where on the extreme end we have serial killers etc and on the other end people who have what’s called Antisocial Personality Disorder the difference being that they can actually learn to do what’s right and fight against their own way of functioning to be a good person even though they can’t feel empathy they can still choose to do the right things

  5. @galaxielion6194

    December 20, 2025 at 1:11 pm

    12:50 what a fantastical revelation… so simple yet so profound…

    I think I have strong antisocial traits. I lack empathy, I might actually laugh unless you are truly dying if something unfortunate happens to you. I will manipulate people to get what I want. And I often create situations that will highlight my accomplishments.

    Regardless, recently I hurt (emotionally) someone who was close to me. And I realized am not really repentant of what I did, I was more sorry that my actions would cut of someone that I enjoyed being around regardless of how the felt or where affected by my actions. In a sense it was inconvenient.

    And that led to a downwards spiral were I have evaluated myself and everything I have done.

    Am not sure I have loved, or truly cared. It seems I choose people and I just don’t want them to leave my circle because it’s convenient.

    I will try just, questioning my every move and try to do what others would enjoy receiving. Although I agree, I don’t feel good when I do “good things” if anything my brain tells me how stupid I am for not going to “easy route”.

    Not sure why am sharing this, but if you read this years in the future, maybe reply to check on the results.

  6. @walkingwith_dinosaurs

    December 20, 2025 at 1:11 pm

    9:51 but how is this psychopathy if he only judt pays back (judging by his words)? In fact, i wish could defend myself like this, because not everything you can to the court with. Cheating for example, there's no legal punishment for that

  9. @nilavakar8068

    December 20, 2025 at 1:11 pm

    Youtube is such a tool like literally and figuratively.. seriously bro..  yeah you speak up a little and youtube will start recomending these videos ,the more videos you recommend like this(like random videos on mental health issues and their diagnosis with very little to no credibility or desrciption of the numerical methods used for analysis) .The more i see these vidoes the more I will continue saying these things about your algorithm.

  10. @xmartofskyx

    December 20, 2025 at 1:11 pm

    Dear Mr Fallon, thank you for taking the courage to explain and show us your example. I wish many of the people that have the same symptoms could learn from you.
    All the best!

  15. @UniqueCuriousMakeupArtist

    December 20, 2025 at 1:11 pm

    I love his self-insight. He stops what he is doing and psychologically asks himself, “What should I be doing?”

    He’s learned to manipulate himself 😂. Love this guy. So brilliant! 🤩🥰👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

    I find him quite fascinating. 😊

  17. @UniqueCuriousMakeupArtist

    December 20, 2025 at 1:11 pm

    “I just had to count on my own narcissism to drive it.” 😂. Perfectly fit for his unique personality! 😅.

    I love that he can joke about it, because he doesn’t have the psychopathy to extremely harm anyone; at least not to the degree of being a full psychopathic killer. 🙏🏻

  18. @UniqueCuriousMakeupArtist

    December 20, 2025 at 1:11 pm

    I saw the documentary of him gathering various scans, for a blind study of psychopathy.

    To create a larger study group, he asked friends and family, as well as himself, to participate in the scans, not realizing that he had traits of psychopathy.

    Fascinatingly, he discovered there are degrees of psychopathy based on the way a child was raised.

    With a disturbing and abusive upbringing, those with psychopathy had a more severe and vengeful chance in engaging in disturbing and horrific acts.

  19. @arcturianoracle784

    December 20, 2025 at 1:11 pm

    I agree with the last part so much because like at work people will always talk about “you know they don’t really like you, right?” And I’m like I don’t even care. At work everyone criticizes everyone behind their back. If you’re at least not giving me a problem to my face, that’s fine bro. I respect your “opinions” about me cos I don’t know them and don’t need to know them 😂

  25. @Here4TheHeckOfIt

    December 20, 2025 at 1:11 pm

    I still wouldn't trust him. Because they lack empathy, it's hard for them to tell when they're causing harm, even when a person is showing distress. That will always be problematic, and will always make them untrustworthy.

  28. @AndreeaCe

    December 20, 2025 at 1:11 pm

    He just explained he has done premeditated crime.

    Wasn't a serial murderer being looked out about and then later on they found out the one helping them to find the serial murderer was in fact the serial murder? Do you all remember him? I'll give you a hint: Ted Bundy.

    He is so proud of him. In his mind, right there, when he makes those stops, he is trying to not brag with the crimes he has done. He is holding so much in him to not brag. He is trying to play "this game" longer than Ted Bundy, it's like he set himself a goal, if not exactly that being his goal.

    Dayummm… he's good at fooling so many of you.

  31. @mdj-ie7rj

    December 20, 2025 at 1:11 pm

    He’s being honest and thats what matters. And even if he was experimenting with his condition by doing something ‘nice’ for his wife (even though being nice doesn’t matter to him). Its ok, bc what mattered to her was that he was trying to do so. This has to be challenging for a brain without empathy. If he can be honest with her going forward and they love each other enough that she can tolerate his differences, then more power to them.

  33. @kellyely9113

    December 20, 2025 at 1:11 pm

    As someone who is likely psychopathic genetically, the best way for me to move in society is through observation. I observe my surroundings, and developed spacial, sensory and social awareness (social was hardest because I have under active limbic systems, and highly compartmentalized emotions because of it), which prevents most neurological triggers from over riding my brain and essentially "blacking out" and making decisions based on any unhinged emotion I have at that moment. I am very careful who I allow in my personal life and space because I know this about myself, and do not wish to hurt anyone, including my own psyche. Psychological damage is very very difficult to heal, and a lot of people, especially psychopaths, cannot do this. Imagine doing it without support because if you are open that you are psychopathic, not a single person is likely going to show empathy for you.

  35. @justarandompersonguys

    December 20, 2025 at 1:11 pm

    Just goes to show how delusional people with anti personality disorders are. They completely believe that the way they treat people is justifiable and that you are just a void to them. They don't listen to your complaints, completely unbothered by your pain. His family, friends and coworkers all told him how he is and he tried to tell them they didn't say that (gaslighting) and then tried to play down what they said of their experience of him when they stood their ground. He doesn't give a damn about the impact on his family he would've still released the works anyway.

  36. @lightloveandawake3114

    December 20, 2025 at 1:11 pm

    Good job taking better care of those around you, like your wife. I’ve been on the receiving end of abuse and it sure is a hard way to live. Thank you for learning how to be kind. Thank you for being brave enough, to come out to the world.

Comments are closed.

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