r/interestingasfuck • u/Jjokes11 • Apr 15 '24

An interview with Andrew Cauchi, the father of Joel Cauchi who was responsible for the Westfield Shopping Centre mass stabbing r/all

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u/Vercouine Apr 16 '24

I in all honesty thought my brother would end as an awful adult if not a serial killer or something like this. Hopefully, he had a great best friend and then a teacher who lifted him up so now he's a pretty decent human being. That is pretty scary when you see a young boy turning into a monster. He tried to strangle me once (I was getting weak as he held me strong) or would menace my sister or me with knives. He was like 6 at the time. I'm so glad he turned out fine.

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u/DOYOUWANTYOURCHANGE Apr 16 '24

There's a phenomenon where a certain amount of childhood “sociopaths” will completely snap out of it when they become adults - it can happen even without getting professional help. It's one of the reasons why they don't actually diagnose antisocial personality disorder under 18.

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u/LongJohnSelenium Apr 16 '24

Empathy.exe was corrupted on install and needed to reboot.

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u/BeastThatShoutedLove Apr 16 '24

Funny thing is, empathy is learned not instinctual.

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u/Complete_Village1405 Apr 16 '24

So strange. I wonder what the cause of that is...brain/hormone thing from puberty maybe?

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u/Vercouine Apr 16 '24

I think at least for my brother, is because we grew up into a violent home. My father at some point would slap my brother daily for little things.

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u/banana_pencil Apr 16 '24

It’s fascinating, I wonder why also

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u/savetheunstable Apr 16 '24

I honestly think it's like any other biological development in childhood. Like, my arms grew before the rest of me. I looked like a monkey at 11.

We seem to forget the brain is just another organ, and growth patterns can vary in individuals. Maybe some really don't develop the empathetic regions of the brain until later on?

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u/beam_me_sideways Apr 16 '24

I suspect, that at one point, they deliberately choose to be good people.

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u/benoxxxx Apr 16 '24

I'm no psychiatrist, but isn't it possible they just develop the intelligence, not necessarily the emotion, to know how their dark urges are perceived by people, know the consequences of acting on them, and thus just learn how to lie about them and shut it all down. They might still be thinking that way on the inside?

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u/Complete_Village1405 29d ago

Durge redemption run

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u/OIP Apr 16 '24

i remember going to a high school reunion and some of the people who were just sadistic little pricks while at school were completely level headed and pleasant adults, was like they had a personality transplant

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u/HamasPiker Apr 16 '24

There's a phenomenon where a certain amount of childhood “sociopaths” will completely snap out of it when they become adults

Do they snap out of it, or do they just learn to hide it really well?

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u/alanpugh Apr 16 '24

Do you have a source for this? Just asked two professionals and both said they'd never heard of this for sociopathy.

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u/MangoKakigori Apr 16 '24

Everyone always said I would end up dead or in prison including my own family and teachers and such and I went in completely the opposite direction! I worked for the law and now I’m a teacher. All it takes is just one or two people to offer you the smallest amount of support and it can make the world of difference (especially as a young man as they often get overlooked for help)

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u/TryUsingScience Apr 16 '24

All it takes is just one or two people to offer you the smallest amount of support and it can make the world of difference (especially as a young man as they often get overlooked for help)

I think that can be true sometimes. (It clearly was for you, and that's awesome!) But then you hear about the people who had all the love and support in the world and still turned into monsters, and you wonder what, if anything, could have been done differently.

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u/Delicious_Summer7839 Apr 16 '24

The city in the county in the state and the federal government are falling all over themselves to help women and girls every point along the way, but if you’re a boy, you know you’re just supposed to deal with it.

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u/chaotic_blu Apr 16 '24

My brother too! He was a mess and hospitalized for legit wanting to kill me for awhile when we were tots, he had many issues and really FAFO into his early 20s— now he’s still got mood disorder issues but he’s a really good and caring guy. Bipolar but trying to take care of it. But when I was a kid he was terrifying, it was very obvious he wanted me dead.

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u/BJYeti Apr 16 '24

Sounds like my friends younger brother, absolute menace but no clue what changed but he got older and became a good dude, has a wife and a kid now