Friday 5 October 2012

Sacred Smell



This study at Macquarie University in Australia seems to suggest that people who exhibit the traditional psychopathic personality traits also have an impaired sense of smell.

Since my partner Warren quite famously can't smell very well, this has led to all sorts of jokes in this household. And it had me wondering, not for the first time, if I would actually recognise a psychopath if he or she bit me.

Because I find it surprisingly hard to process the idea that some people may just be born rotten.

 I tend towards saying, with Neil Kramer, that "there are no bad guys, just disturbed guys". I do find it difficult to accept the idea of ground-in evil. I've even flirted with the thought that perhaps the reason why I can't identify psychopaths is because I am one. But that makes no real sense.If I were a psychopath I would be denying the reality of genetically callous people, not wondering why I can't spot them.

Wouldn't I?

Well, this impairment of olfactory senses in those who show a complete lack of empathy resonates with a  sort of reason outside of the scientific explanation of some kind of damage to a specific part of the brain. It speaks of a tightly-throttled input of some essential data which makes us normal, feeling humans. The sense of smell, it is said (by Douglas Adams in one of his Dirk Gently novels, if I recall correctly) is one of the very last to leave us as our bodies disintegrate. It's certainly a powerful stimulator of memory. It may be that we pick up clues which aid our feeling-with toward other beings through our noses (and our skin) which bypass the neo-cortex all together and act directly on some more essential part of our spirit. Thus not having access to this information could produce humans who have no idea of what it's like to suffer as another.

And me? My sense of smell, even though I smoke fairly heavily, is pretty acute, thank you very much. Gives me that much less of an excuse and prods me to open my soul even wider to the myriad ways of being and creating, suffering and rising above which marks this space out as such a sacred place to inhabit at any time - and especially now.

Pic: Basil, a sacred smell to me

4 comments:

  1. A book by a guy called Bowlby attributes lack of empathy to the lack of love in early childhood. The books was called Child care and the growth of love.

    It might not explain every instance, but it does seem to explain some.

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  2. That's interesting, Steve.
    I'm going to sound daft here, but perhaps there are love pheromones which enter via the nose?
    The unloved child would rarely get to experience them, then - and if they were present, she wouldn't be able to tell?
    I know that my dogs communicate like this, with humans and each other.

    Love,
    Terri in joburg

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  3. Most people seemingly can't spot them because they're not well enough acquainted with the dark spot in their own souls.

    Funny you should mention it. What do you make of this?
    Lady Gaga’s Fragrance “Fame” and its Occult Meaning

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  4. That;s a good point, Pstonie. I sometimes think my own knowledge of my Shadow is not yet complete.

    Lady Gaga's "occult" perfume...waahahahah.
    I love the attempted demonisation of Crowley by linking him to Hitler, semen and blood (it's those bloody "red and white streams" again - important when raising consciousness or dying, but made to seem so *evil*). Poor Crowley. Although, like Gaga herself, he was an interesting diversion dragged across the general public's field of view. Eggs? Serpents' eggs? Oh my gods, we're all going to die.
    And atropine has vital medical uses, which of course is not mentioned here.
    It's probably instructive to look in the opposite direction to where the control system is wanting you to look - ie Gaga and her hystrionics should be completely ignored, in my opinion.

    Love,
    Terri in Joburg

    ReplyDelete