 It is day 2 of Mental Health Awareness Month and in this video we're going to be talking about how one psychopath pretty much got away with murder. So we're going to discuss that story, we're going to discuss that case. But this is a broader topic that I really want to talk about with all of you and get all of your opinions on. What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution. If you're new to my channel I try to take different topics from the YouTube community or the news or pop culture and try to see what we can learn from them and something I'm very very very passionate about is mental health. So if you're into that stuff make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. So I just put up a poll over on my Twitter by the way for not following me on Twitter go follow me at the Rewired Soul same over on Instagram and I asked I was like yo I'm reading this very interesting book on psychopaths and it's given me a million video ideas do you want me to do like a series on psychopaths and I'm going to leave the poll up but so far a lot of people do right. Well anyways the book I'm reading is called The Wisdom of Psychopaths I'm going to link it down in the description below if you want to check that book out like it's really really really fascinating I know a lot of people out there like myself are just kind of curious and fascinated by psychopaths serial killers cults everything like that. Sarah Hawkinson actually just did a really good video about serial killer tattoos and like kind of why we're interested in these types of things but this book actually explains a little bit more in-depth why we're interested in these things right like it's not for a lot of us for a lot of us but not all of us for a lot of us it's not to glorify these people but we're just kind of intrigued and we want to study and kind of understand what's going on but anyways anyways check out The Wisdom of Psychopaths if you're into that stuff but yeah I just came across a story in there about a case of a guy named Bradley Waldrop okay so this is a story from I believe 2006 okay so Bradley Waldrop he is a man who lived in Tennessee and his wife I believe was dropping off the kids and she came with her friend and the guy had been drinking him and the wife got into an argument or something like that and he ended up shooting the wife's friends the friend eight times and then cutting her head open with some object then he went after his ex-wife with a machete all right she ended up losing a finger he hacked her up but she did survive thankfully all right so he got arrested and there was a big case around this and this is kind of a groundbreaking case because they're using like neuroscience which got this guy's sentence reduced from first degree murder and attempted murder to voluntary manslaughter so in the state of Tennessee there is the death penalty so basically the guy's still doing a life sentence in prison but he's not facing the death penalty okay so here's here's what the defenses argument was so they ended up bringing up what's called well what the media has named the warrior gene okay so I'm gonna be reading from an NPR article that I'm gonna link down in the description below but here's what it says they've tested some 30 criminal defendants most of whom were charged with murder they were looking for a particular variant of the MAOA gene also known as the warrior gene because it has been associated with violence Burnett says they found that Waldrop has the high risk version of the gene quote his genetic makeup combined with his history of child abuse together created a vulnerability that he would be a violent adult Burnett explains over the fierce opposition of prop prosecutors the judge allowed Burnett to testify in court that these two factors help explain why Waldrop snapped that murderous night so anyways the MAOA gene is associated with violence but anyways I'm gonna link a few resources down below but basically it creates an enzyme that links up with neurotransmitters to my understanding that create things like serotonin dopamine endorphins everything like that pretty much the happy chemicals okay so this also gets into a discussion about epigenetics so those of you who don't know what epigenetics are epigenetics are basically genes that lie dormant within you until something triggers them and activates them right typically for most people it's some kind of traumatic experience so I come from an addiction treatment center background and I've done a lot of studying about this although I'm not like a licensed therapist or anything like that it's something that I had to learn about working at an addiction treatment center doing groups for clients and everything so anyways this is often seen in drug and alcohol addiction is that there is a gene linked up with an addiction right but this gene might not be activated until something traumatic so this is one of the reasons why war veterans you know they never had an issue with substance abuse but they come back and then they develop a substance problem right because during that traumatic experience gene activated there's also very common with people who have been you know in abusive relationships and things like that so anyways when it comes to the MAOA gene they're talking about epigenetics as well they're talking about how this gene can actually lie dormant in people unless something traumatic happens so they said that this is a dangerous cocktail because in Bradley Waldrop's case he was not only somebody with this gene this gene that is associated with violence but he was also abused repeatedly physically abused as a child so he was at a very high risk of becoming a violent criminal later on in his life because they've done other studies that they talked about in this book the wisdom of psychopaths where they actually studied and followed a bunch of kids and into adulthood where they had this gene and they were at a higher risk of developing psychopathic tendencies okay so this is something to take into account so basically the defense's argument is when you take these two things when you take the guy's genetics and his history of abuse is he really responsible for his crime right how responsible is he this is where free will comes into play and this is free will is a topic that I am absolutely fascinated with I'll link another book down in the description below Sam Harris wrote a very short book the audio book is only like an hour I think but it's called free will I've talked about it in older videos on my channel but we think we're in control we think we are but there's so many other factors at play inside of our mind and everything like that so but this the problem is that this is very scary right this is scary this is the issue that prosecutors had this is the issue that other psychologists had reviewing this case is that it sets a dangerous precedent right because if we start blaming somebody's genetics and their childhood history on on the violent crimes they're committing today is anybody really going to be held accountable for their crimes something that I talked about I think in a Gypsy Rose Blanchard video was that most people most people in prison had some kind of terrible upbringing you know what I mean and my argument is that you know prison should be more of a rehabilitation rather than just like you know just pure imprisonment pure pure punishment in some cases with like the the for-profit prisons it's almost like slavery you know what I mean but in some cases like Bradley Waldrop is that a little too far so here's the question I want to post to you because this has been on my mind after I heard about this my girlfriend and I were having a discussion about this so there are genes that we know are linked with you know violence aggression psychopathy with addiction you know all these other things like for me addiction runs in my family my grandmother actually had a test done and we found that the addiction gene is on her side of the family and I am an addict in recovery my mom's an addict in recovery her sister her my uncle and some other people in my family are addicts in recovery so as a father I look at that with my son I'm like oh this kid is screwed right so here's the question if we know genetics can play a role and not just psychopathy but in other things like PTSD they've done studies where grandchildren of Holocaust survivors are more prone to PTSD with the way the genetics are passed down if we know who's gonna be more susceptible to addiction to depression to anxiety to all these things my question is why aren't we testing kids at a younger age like why isn't this part of it like there are tests that can be done like if you are pregnant you can have tests done to see if your child is prone to any kind of like physical illnesses right but like obviously there are genetic tests so we could see if there are mental illnesses so here's the thing like at what at what point are we responsible as parents as adults the medical community to start testing kids for these things because in my opinion this gives us a way to kind of start looking for the signs at a younger age and intervene even earlier you see what I mean like if we were testing kids like if I you know as a parent who knows that addiction runs in my family I have my eye on my son it's not something I like you know hound him about I'm like oh you're acting like a little addict playing fortnight or anything like that but I keep an eye on him and I keep an eye on his behaviors because he's 10 years old next thing you know he's a teenager and everything like that so while I'm not having like regular panic attacks about this it's something that I can keep an eye out for so the only the only thing that I can really think of is the money involved right like so here in the United States at least the you know the medical system isn't all that great even if you have really great health insurance things cost money because for example like FMRI brain scans tell us a lot about mental illness tell us a lot about the brain and everything but like insurance just doesn't pay for that so the question is is like how do we get funding for this how do we make this something that becomes more like not even more standard but just standard to test children to see if they're prone to anything that might turn them in to a problematic adult you know what I mean but for right now for right now until that day comes and this is just Chris imagining a beautiful world until that day comes I think more and more of these cases more and more of these issues with mental illness and things like that like I've talked about how people who were abused as children are more likely to develop symptoms of like borderline personality disorder so until this genetic testing starts happening on a regular basis we as adults we as parents have even more of a responsibility to be good parents alright and if you have somebody in your life maybe it's a niece a nephew somebody a child in your life a teenager wherever it is I keep an eye out be a role model be a mentor for that person because early intervention is the key in my opinion if we want to stop really really bad mental health issues in the future alright but let me know your thoughts on this topic down in the comments below okay and again go follow me on Instagram 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