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English to Catalan: Jim Fallon: Explorant la ment d'un assassí General field: Science Detailed field: Psychology
Source text - English I'm a neuroscientist, a professor at the University of California. And over the past 35 years, I've studied behavior on the basis of everything from genes through neurotransmitters, dopamine, things like that, all the way through circuit analysis. So that's what I normally do. But then, for some reason, I got into something else, just recently. And it all grew out of one of my colleagues asking me to analyze a bunch of brains of psychopathic killers.
And so this would be the typical talk I would give. And the question is, "How do you end up with a psychopathic killer?" What I mean by psychopathic killer are these people, these types of people. And so some of the brains that I've studied are people you know about. When I get the brains I don't know what I'm looking at. It's blind experiments. They also gave me normal people and everything.
So I've looked at about 70 of these. And what came up was a number of pieces of data. So we look at these sorts of things theoretically, on the basis of genetics, and brain damage, and interaction with environment, and exactly how that machine works. So we're interested in exactly where in the brain, and what's the most important part of the brain. So we've been looking at this: the interaction of genes, what's called epigenetic effects, brain damage, and environment, and how these are tied together. And how you end up with a psychopath, and a killer, depends on exactly when the damage occurs. It's really a very precisely timed thing. You get different kinds of psychopaths.
So we're going along with this. And here's, just to give you the pattern. The pattern is that those people, every one of them I looked at, who was a murderer, and was a serial killer, had damage to their orbital cortex, which is right above the eyes, the orbits, and also the interior part of the temporal lobe. So there is the pattern that every one of them had, but they all were a little different too. They had other sorts of brain damage. A key thing is that the major violence genes, it's called the MAO-A gene.
And there is a variant of this gene that is in the normal population. Some of you have this. And it's sex-linked. It's on the X chromosome. And so in this way you can only get it from your mother. And in fact this is probably why mostly men, boys, are psychopathic killers, or are very aggressive. Because a daughter can get one X from the father, one X from the mother, it's kind of diluted out. But for a son, he can only get the X chromosome from his mother.
So this is how it's passed from mother to son. And it has to do with too much brain serotonin during development, which is kind of interesting because serotonin is supposed to make you calm and relaxed. But if you have this gene, in utero your brain is bathed in this, so your whole brain becomes insensitive to serotonin, so it doesn't work later on in life.
And I'd given this one talk in Israel, just this past year. And it does have some consequences. Theoretically what this means is that in order to express this gene, in a violent way, very early on, before puberty, you have to be involved in something that is really traumatic -- not a little stress, not being spanked or something, but really seeing violence, or being involved in it, in 3D. Right? That's how the mirror neuron system works.
And so, if you have that gene, and you see a lot of violence in a certain situation, this is the recipe for disaster, absolute disaster. And what I think might happen in these areas of the world, where we have constant violence, you end up having generations of kids that are seeing all this violence. And if I was a young girl, somewhere in a violent area, you know, a 14 year old, and I want to find a mate, I'd find some tough guy, right, to protect me. Well what the problem is this tends to concentrate these genes. And now the boys and the girls get them. So I think after several generations, and here is the idea, we really have a tinderbox.
So that was the idea. But then my mother said to me, "I hear you've been going around talking about psychopathic killers. And you're talking as if you come from a normal family." I said, "What the hell are you talking about?" She then told me about our own family tree. Now she blamed this on my father's side, of course. This was one of these cases, because she has no violence in her background, but my father did.
Well she said, "There is good news and bad news. One of your cousins is Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell university. But the bad news is that your cousin is also Lizzie Borden.
Now I said, "Okay, so what? We have Lizzie."
She goes, "No it gets worse, read this book."
And here is this "Killed Strangely," and it's this historical book. And the first murder of a mother by a son was my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather. Okay, so that's the first case of matricide. And that book is very interesting. Because it's about witch trials, and how people thought back then.
But it doesn't stop there. There were seven more men, on my father's side, starting then, Cornells, that were all murderers. Okay, now this gives one a little pause. (Laughter) Because my father himself, and my three uncles, in World War II, were all conscientious objectors, all pussycats. But every once in a while, like Lizzie Borden, like three times a century, and we're kind of due. (Laughter)
So the moral of the story is: people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. But more likely is this. (Laughter) And we had to take action. Now our kids found out about it. And they all seemed to be OK. But our grandkids are going to be kind of concerned here. So what we've done is I've started to do PET scans of everybody in the family. (Laughter) We started to do PET scans, EEGs and genetic analysis to see where the bad news is. Now the only person -- it turns out one son and one daughter, siblings, didn't get along and their patterns are exactly the same. They have the same brain, and the same EEG. And now they are close as can be. But there's gonna be bad news somewhere. And we don't know where it's going to pop up. So that's my talk. (Laughter)
Translation - Catalan Sóc neurocientífic, professor a la Universitat de Califòrnia I en els últims 35 anys, he estudiat el comportament sobre les bases de tot, des dels gens fins als neurotransmissors, la dopamina, coses així, sempre des de l'anàlisi de circuits. Bé, això és el que faig normalment. Però un dia, per alguna raó, vaig començar amb una altra cosa, fa poc. Tot va començar quan un del meus col·legues em va demanar que analitzara un grapat de cervells d'assassins psicòpates.
Així que aquesta seria la típica xerrada que donaria. I la pregunta és: "Com et pots convertir en un assassí psicòpata?" El que vull dir amb "assassí psicòpata" és aquesta gent, aquest tipus de gent. I alguns dels cervells que he estudiat són de gent que coneixeu. Quan vaig rebre aquests cervells, no sabia el que estava examinant. Eren experiments cecs. Fins i tot em van donar cervells normals.
Aixina que he observat uns 70 d'aquests aproximadament. I el que vaig obtenir van ser unes quantes dades. Així doncs, mirem aquest tipus de coses teòricament, sobre les bases de la genètica, el dany cerebral i la interacció amb l'entorn, i com funciona aquesta màquina exactament. Ens interessem pel lloc precís del cervell, i quina és la part més important del cervell. Així que hem estat observant això. La interacció dels gens, el que s'anomena efectes epigenètics, el dany cerebral i l'ambient. i com estan relacionats. I com s'acaba sent un psicòpata i un assassí depèn del lloc on es troba el dany. És una cosa programada de manera molt precisa. Així es configuren diferents tipus de psicòpates.
A això anem. I aquí el tenim, només per donar-vos el patró. El patró és que aquesta gent, cadascun dels que vaig investigar, el que era un assassí, un assassí en sèrie, tenia dany en el còrtex orbital. El qual es troba exactament sobre els ulls, a les òrbites, i també a la part interior del lòbul temporal. Aquest era el patró que tots presentaven, però tots eren una mica diferents també. Tenien altres tipus de dany cerebral. L'element clau és l'efecte de gens de violència rellevants, com el gen MAO-A.
I hi ha una variant d'aquest gen que es troba a la població normal. Alguns de vosaltres el teniu. Està relacionat amb el sexe. Es troba en el cromosoma X. Conseqüentment només el pot transmetre la mare. I de fet, probablement és la raó per la qual en la seva majoria són homes els que són assassins psicòpates o són molt agressius. Perquè una nena pot obtenir un gen X del pare i un altre gen X de la mare, el que fa que quedi com diluït. Però un nen només pot rebre el cromosoma X de la mare.
Així és com s'hereta de mare a fill. I té a veure amb massa serotonina en el cervell durant el desenvolupament. La qual cosa és realment interessant perquè la serotonina se suposa que calma i relaxa. Però si tens aquest gen, a l'úter el teu cervell es banya en serotonina. I per això el cervell s'hi torna insensible. I ja no funciona posteriorment.
He donat aquesta mateixa xerrada a Israel, tot just l'any passat. I té algunes conseqüències. Teòricament, el que significa és que per a que aquest gen s'expressi de forma violenta, molt aviat, abans de la pubertat, s'ha d'experimentar alguna cosa veritablement traumàtica, no una mica d'estrès ni que et peguin o alguna cosa així. Sinò veure violència de veritat, o veure-s'hi embolicat, en 3D. Oi? Així és com funciona és sistema de neurones mirall.
Doncs, si tens aquest gen, i veus molta violència en una determinada situació, és la recepta per al desastre, el desastre absolut. I el que crec que pot passar en aquestes àrees del món, on la violència és constant, és que acabem tenint generacions de nens que estan veient tota aquesta violència. I si fos una nena jove, en algun lloc violent, ja sabeu, de 14 anys, i volgués trobar parella buscaria algun tio dur que em protegís. Bé, el problema és que això tendeix a concentrar aquests gens. I ara nois i noies els hereten. Per tant, crec que després de diverses generacions, i aquí està el quid, realment tenim un barril de pólvora.
Aquesta és la idea. Però llavors la meva mare em va dir: "He sentit que vas parlant sobre assassins psicòpates. I ho fas com si vinguessis d'una família normal." Vaig dir: "De què dimonis parles?" Llavors em va explicar coses sobre el nostre propi arbre familiar. Li va tirar la culpa a la família del meu pare, és clar. Aquest era un d'aquests casos, perquè no hi havia violència en la seva ascendència. Però sí en la dels meu pare.
Bé, em va dir: "Hi ha bones i males notícies. Un dels teus cosins és Ezra Cornell, fundador de la Universitat Cornell. Però la mala notícia és que Lizzi Borden també és cosina teva
Li vaig dir: "D'acord, i què?"
Em va dir: "No, és pitjor, llegeix aquest llibre".
I aquí està "Assassinada estranyament" i és el seu llibre històric. I el primer assassí d'una mare per un fill va ser el meu re-re-re-re-re-rebesavi. D'acord, així que aquest és el primer cas de matricidi. És un llibre molt interessant, perquè tracta de judicis de bruixes, i com la gent pensava en aquells dies.
Però no acaba aquí. Hi havia set homes més en la família del meu pare, els Cornell, que eren tots assassins. D'acord, parem un momentet. (Rialles) Perquè el meu pare mateix, i els meus tres oncles, a la Segona Guerra Mundial eren objectors de consciència, uns gatets. Però un cop de tant en tant, com Lizzi Borden, unes tres vegades cada segle, i ara és el nostre torn. (Rialles)
Aixina que la moralitat és: la gent en cases de vidre no hauria de llençar pedres. Però això és el més probable. (Rialles) Hem d'actuar. Ara, els nostres fills ho saben, I tots ells semblen estar bé. Però els nostres nets estaran una mica preocupats. Així que he començat a fer tomografies a tothom de la meva família. (Rialles) Vam començar a fer tomografies, electroencefalogrames i anàlisis genetics per veure on són les males notícies. Per ara, l'única persona, resulta que un fill i una filla, germans, no es portaven bé l'un amb l'altre. Encara que els seus patrons eren idèntics. Tenen el mateix cervell, i el mateix encefalograma. I ara estan tan units com poden estar-ho. Però hi haurà notícies dolentes en algun lloc. I no sabem d'on sorgiran. Aquesta és la meva xerrada. (Rialles)