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SYSK Selects: How Kleptomania Works · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hello, everyone. Have you stolen anything today? Well? I hope not,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: because that's wrong. There's a real condition called kleptomania, and
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: on December seventeen, two thousand nine, we were inspired to
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: research and talk about it, and that's what I decided
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: to go with this week for the Stuff you Should Know,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: select the episode Cleptomania, very fascinating condition. Don't steal everyone,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: You can steal this podcast, That's what I say. It's
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: free anyway, but just steal it. Take it home, put
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: it in your pocket, and don't tell anybody. Welcome to
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works dot Com. Hey,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, the Chuck,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: The Chuck. The Chuck is on fire. How you doing, Chuck?
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: You've been sitting on that one for a while, just
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: since yesterday. We've actually have not recorded in two weeks,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: and I have a feeling that Josh has been planning
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: that for two weeks. I just told you. I came
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: up with it yesterday. I was listening to your sweet
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: boys while I sweat, and you have floors in my house, okay,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: and you think of dog here, you think of me?
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: And I thought like I thought it was your voice
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: that made me think of you chee Um. I thought, Man,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: I've been opening up the show pretty boring wise lately.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Well I'm glad you're talking about this now then. Yeah, anyway, Chuck,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: how you doing good sir? It has been a long time,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: hasn't it? Okay? So, UM, you know it's stealing season, buddy,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: is it? Yeah? It pretty much kicks off in November
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: and really goes up through the roof on what Black Friday.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: It's much more difficult to steal during Cyber Monday, but uh, yeah,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: as Christmas comes around, people love to steal. People love
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: to hold people up with guns, knives, sorts of physical violence,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: that kind of thing. Wow, that's this is inspiring. Yeah,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: it is, UM. And actually it turns out that this
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: stealing season will probably be worse than usual because there
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: was a report really east UM called the Global Retail
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Theft Barometer, and it was released UM mid November a
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks back, the g r TP. Yeah I'm
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: a fan, I know you are, UM, and it said
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: that this year, UM businesses have lost Retail businesses have
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: lost a hundred and fifteen billion dollars worldwide from stealing
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: from theft. What what's America? Do you have that billion? Wow?
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Because in our article it says ten billion. Ten billion
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: is like an average, so that's a huge increation. It is.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Actually I'll tell you what. Usually, UM there, I guess
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: there's an increase every year, and usually worldwide, uh, it
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: increases by about one point five I wonder if that's
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: some direct relation to the cost of goods increasing. I
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: think that that actually does have something to do with it.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: In this time article I read UM this year, uh
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: six percent increase worldwide, and in America North America, there's
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: an eight point one percent increase. So people are just
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: stealing left right, and they they the authors of the
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: study UM, the Center for Retail Research apparently talked to cops,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: talked to shoplifters, UM, and said, you know what's going on?
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: They talked to shoplifters. How so do you know people
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: who've been busted for shopling? Okay, I thought you meant
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: that had not been caught. No, they just hang around
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Macy's and are like, you look like a shoplifter, you
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: scuzz ball, or I saw what you did and I
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: won't report you if you answer these fine questions exactly
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: and give me a sawbuck. Um, what what is that?
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: A twenty? I think we've gone over this before. I
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: think it's a fiber Okay, so um, no, it's a ten.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: I bet we get some listener mill and I bet
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: it's either a five or ten. Um so chuck. Where
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: they found from talking to these people is that there
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: is an increase in um, the perception that companies are
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: making off with all this money during while everybody else
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: is having hard times, and so they kind of feel
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: justified in stealing. And they're seeing a much a rise
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: in the middle class stealing people who can afford stuff
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: and just aren't paying um. And apparently this of this
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: victimless crime, that's kind of another perception. So you're stealing
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: from a giant corporation. Uh, in the United States, we
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: paid an extra four hundred and thirty six bucks a
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: household in consumer goods prices. Yeah, that's what happens. Yeah,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: same with credit card fraud, the shrinkage along right, Yeah,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: same with credit card fraud. That's why, I mean, that's
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: not all why, but one reason why the interest rates
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: are so sky high, because people say, I'll just charge
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff and not pay it insurance fraud.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: It's just it's just, you know, that's stupid. In that
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: stupid credit card company is going to take the hit,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: but they don't, although they should they but they don't.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: They don't take a hit. They pass it all along.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Of course they do. That's how it works. We're all slaves, chuck, suckers. Anyway,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: somewhere in that those those statistics I just um, you know,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: spewed out. But um, there are a very tiny pop
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: percentage of that population that are kleptomaniacs. I feel like
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: I just gave birth to a watermelon, a square watermelon. Um, yes, Josh,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: kleptomania is not exactly In fact, it's not at all shoplifting.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Shoplifting is the means by which you would perform your kleptomania.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: That's an excellent definition, Chuck. And I've read this article too,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: and I know that that was not in there. That
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: was a special I just made it up. Yeah, although
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: I would say you could steal from anyone and that
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: would be klepto me. It didn't have to be a store. Yeah,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: but apparently, um, it is generally stores or parties. But yeah,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: if you're gonna steal from another from an individual. It's
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: usually at a party, I think, um, but it generally
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: is retailers. Let's what what differentiates kleptomaniacs from shoplifters. Well,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: there's actually a definition, as outlined by the American Psychiatric
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Associations Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, right, that
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: says that, Uh, they outline this criteria, Josh. The individual
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: repeatedly fails to resist the impulse to steal items that
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: are not needed for personal use or monetary value. That's
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: number one. Uh. The individual experiences tension before stealing. Uh.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: The tension is relieved after stealing, and the theft does
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: not due to anger, revenge, delusions, hallucinations, or impaired judgment. Um,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: and I think there's Yeah, there's one more. Psychological disorders
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: can't account for the stealing behaviors different other psychological disorders.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: That's still a little play acting. Oh I love this, Okay, Um,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be a kleptomaniac. Okay, you are going
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: to be a tube of lipstick, all right, Okay, hold on,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: let me get into character. Man, You're you're a master. Okay,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: I'm there. Okay, all right, So I'm walking into the
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: store and i'm, you know, looking for some sunglasses that
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: tend to purchase, and all of a sudden, I feel
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: this horrible tension. My stomach is tight. I'm starting to
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: sweat a little bit because I just spotted Chuck, the
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: tube of lipstick, who is sitting there as an inanimate object.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Because if you talk, then that's delusion and it doesn't
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: count kleptomania. So I'm looking at Chuck. I'm feeling this
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: horrible tension. I know that I'm going to steal. I
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: don't want to steal, but I have to because it's
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: the only way to relieve the tension. So I've just
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: grabbed Chuck and put him in my pocket. And I
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: don't even wear a lipstick. There's no explanation for this.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: I make it out of the store, and as I
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: enter into the rest of them all and start to
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: feel like I'm not about to be caught, that tension
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: goes away, maybe replaced with a little bit of a thrill,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: a kick right, and then boom, I get hit by
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: this crushing guilt. I've just stolen again. Not only have
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: I stolen from something from somebody, I have failed to
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: yet again, resist this overwhelming urge. So I take the
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: lips and I go to my grandmother's house, who is
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: now dead, but in the scenario, she's actually alive, and
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: I just put it in with the rest of her lipstick.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Go about my business feeling generally bad about myself today.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Can I talk now? Yeah, First of all, it was
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: a little weird being in your pocket. Let me say
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: that I liked it. But yeah, dude, you just hit
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: on a lot of the major points, uh, tension, relief
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: of tension, guilt, a rush, giving away what you stole,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: stealing something you don't need, or hoarding. Sometimes, yeah, a
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: lot of times people will hoard it. Um. I read
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: a case of a woman in the early twentieth century
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: who was caught shoplifting. Upper middle class. Um. They caught her,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: went to her house and found all this stuff that
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: she'd stolen, with the price textin clearly not used. There's
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: not a no one. They don't use the stuff that
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: they steal. I've got a hoarder for you, buddy, let's
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: hear it. This dude in April of this year in
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Israel was busted. They went to his house and they
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: found motorcycle helmets, um watches, Louis Vuitton, handbags, hundred and
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: fifty pair of shoes, two pair of sunglasses, olive oil,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: laundry to church, all kinds of stuff unopened in this
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: guy's house, literally stacked in in every corner of the house,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: from room to room. And he admitted that he had
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: been shoplifting for a decade, every time he went to
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: a story, shoplifted for a decade. And he alone, And
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: now he has a wife and son and wow, he
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: has a family who know to keep their mouth. Well,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: this is the funny part. And of course this is
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: from an Israeli newspaper. It says his wife and son
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: are suspected of knowing of his activity but doing nothing
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: about it. I don't know if that's a formal charge,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: but uh. He also was busted with a big um
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: roll of stickers that say like paid for thank you
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: for coming that kind of thing. Oh so ye see,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: that was part of his deal. He would go in
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: there and like put that on his big TV box
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: or whatever. I wonder if that disqualifies him as a kleptomaniac,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: though I don't think why, because he preplanned it. Because
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: one of the things that Freud and rich. Is that
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: how we say his name? The author of this article, PhD,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: isn't it? No? I thought it was Craig Freundlick, No,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: there's no l Oh, there's not totally invented that. I've
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: been reading it that way for two and half. You
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: we're gonna call him Dr Freud, Okay, okay. Dr Freud
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: pointed out that, um, people who are kleptomaniacs true kleptomaniacs,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: or I think from what I gather, we don't call
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: him cleptomaniacs. We call him people with kleptomania don't go
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: into a store intending to steal. They don't go to steal,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: they're just overcome by the impulse from the store. Yeah,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: that makes sense. The other thing that makes that guy
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: hinky as a candidate for a person with kleptomania is
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: that he's a man. Yeah. Women more often and this
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: is a little hinky too, but women are are more
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: often diagnosed with kleptomania. But that is slanted a little
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: bit because I think it said that women are less
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: likely to admit to it or to report it to
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: like a psychiatrist, that kind of thing. Oh, No, men,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: men who still go to prison, women who still psychiatric evaluation. Yeah,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: so that that could definitely slam the population. But traditionally, um,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: people think that kleptomania is a feminine disorder. Have you
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: ever seen an Ice Storm? No? I need to. Really,
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: that's a great movie. Uh. He said that shamefully. I
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: do feel kind of ashamed. Actually, the mother and daughter
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: Joan Allen and Christina Ricci both shoplift in that film
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: at separate times. I think Heartbreakers, that's Sigourney Weaver and um,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: what's her name is Jennifer Lovett? Yeah, no, I'm talking
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: about The Ice Storm. I don't think I don't think so. Yeah.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: In fact, I think Joan Allen actually steals lipstick. There
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: you go. Maybe that was me. Yeah, it is one
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: of my favorite movies. Yes, Josh, early teens and twenties.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: If we're talking more about the pattern is usually when
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: it begins, Yeah, but it can run up to Uh.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: I think they've found kleptomaniacs in their late seventies. Yeah.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Didn't we do a story about Japanese elderly that are
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: stealing just so they'll get caught in like have a friend. Yeah,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: they're so lonely. They're trying to basically make friends with
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: the police by being arrested. So that's not clepto any
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: that's a shop. Uh. And I don't know. I was
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: thinking about when I saw that in the late seventies. Um,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: I thought of that Seinfeld episode where Jerry finds out
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: that his parents steal batteries and in turn finds out
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: that almost all elderly people steal battery Yeah. Yeah, yeah
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: for their tip calculators. That the Willard I'm ruined. You
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: know another thing, Josh is uh you you hit on
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: it again with your little play acting. They usually steal
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: stuff they can afford, and stuff like shampoo it listed
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: and sunglasses are big and uh, they like famously went
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: on a writer went on a Horowitz excuse me, no, yeah,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: really that's her name. I had no idea she famously
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: stole several thousand dollars from sex fifth Avenue, five thousand.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: I think, yeah, she can definitely swing that. Yeah, And
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: I don't know if it ever came out that they
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: did they ever plead kleptomania or anything with her? Did
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: they know quietly tried to you know, pay their fine
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: and yeah, and that that brings up a pretty good.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Point is a kleptomania defense is really really hard to
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: prove or did successfully get off on it? Is? You
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: know why what, Well, your defense lawyer must argue when
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: the argument that there was no reason for you to
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: steal it, no financial gain, revenge, they got to prove
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: all those things beyond a reasonable doubt. First of all, Yeah,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: that's one you want to follow up. Well, I know
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: that the Justice Department doesn't recognize kleptomania as a defense,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: So if you're for federal charges, don't even try it. Yeah, exactly,
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: And that's that's like the Americans with Disabilities Act, that's
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: in legislation. So right, good luck, and so chuck, kleptomania,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: what is it? Is it an actual disease? Should it
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: be covered in the Americans with Disabilities Act? Should the
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: do O J finally open up their eyes and be like, okay, okay,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: there's such a thing as kleptomania. Well, we don't know
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: for sure. There's uh, some people think it's like tagged
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: onto other psychological disorders like what like obsessive compulsive or
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: personality and mood disorders. Okay, so it may like it
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: could be a symptom or a byproduct of a larger disorder, right, yes, okay,
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: but by and large it's classified as an impulse control
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: disorder like gambling or pyromania, fire starting awesome or uh
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: trick o tillomania. Yes, trick I've never heard of that. Yeah,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: obsessive hair pulling. Yeah, I wonder if that means pulling
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: your own hair. Other people's probably both, I don't know. Huh.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: That's an excellent question. Actually, and it got our producer
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Jerry giggling. So you know it's good. It's good. Yeah.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: So it's either a symptom of a larger disorder or
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: it's its own impulse control disorder. UM. One of the
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: reasons we don't know is because treatments UM for kleptomania
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: are hit or miss. Yeah, and they haven't studied a lot.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: And the other thing is like it hit me like
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: everything else with the brain. It's still sort of a mystery,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: it is. And one of the reasons why they have
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: had trouble studying kleptomania is finding kleptomaniacs like I found
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: a study from two thousand two that was just getting
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: off the ground at Stanford and UM. These people were
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: looking for twenty four kleptomaniacs for their study, and we're
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: having to go on TV radio everywhere to try to
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: find like true kleptomaniacs. And one of um, this guy
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: who was quoted in a in this article on the study, UM,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: a guy named will cup Chick, which is a pretty
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: cool name if you ask me. He's a Toronto psychologist.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: He said, Um, in the four hundred and fifty cases
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: I've assessed, probably only one or two of the people
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: were actual kleptomaniacs. We're talking about a very, very small,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: fascinating part of the larger population, didn't they I think
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: I saw some in the article. They said maybe five
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: percent of psychiatric patients admit to being our our diagnosis kleptomaniac. Right,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: and and you just you revealed something else too. I
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: think a lot of it is admission. I mean, like,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: remember when me, the play acting kleptomania, left and went
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: into the mall, was crushed by guilt. I remember that
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: I wanted to get the object away from me. Do
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: you remember the desire to keep this secret? I think
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: probably keeps a lot of people from coming forward. Yeah,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: so we have no idea how large or small this
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: population is. But I think from people who examine shoplifters
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: they find that the actual kleptomaniacs among them are are
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: very small population. Um. You know who has studied it.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: The University of Minnesota School of Medicine. Yeah, specifically psychiatrist
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: John Grant, and he studied the brain and there are
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: a few little deposits, a few theories here. One is
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: that a a defect in a molecule that transports serotonin
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: might be messed up. Yeah. Well not the defect was
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: messed up. That would clearly be messed up. The defect
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: is messed up in your potentially head trauma could cause
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: something like this. It could damage the circuits in the
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: frontal lobes. That could maybe happen and decrease in the
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: fine structure of white matter in the frontal lobe. But
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: it's all in the frontal lobe, right, and the Lympic system, which,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: as of course we know is the brain's reward center. Um.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: So that's in the frontal lobe, right, which also controls
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: um impulse, or the frontal lobe controls impulse mood. There
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: you have it, dude, Yeah, so clearly it's it could
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: be its own disorder in the frontal lobe, reasons going
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: on in there. Um. So did we say that treatments
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: don't work all that well? Like, Um, sometimes U s
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: SR rise, but not all the time. Cognitive therapy work.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you want to talk about some of the cognitive therapy. Yeah,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: cognitive therapy cracks me up a little bit. It's like
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: snapping a rubber band on your wrist when you have
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: like an impure thought. Um. Covert sensitization, Josh, is when
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: a patient wants to steal and then all of a sudden,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: you're you're trained to imagine the consequences, which, to me,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: that's like I thought that's what you're just supposed to
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: teach people. It's like, um no, it's like you're get
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: in trouble, bring a cat in the face, like every
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: time it does something you don't want with a little
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: water bottle. Yeah, aversion therapy. That is, if you feel
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: the urge to steal, you will be told to do
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: something like holding your breath until it's literally painful. Oh,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry. That's the one that's like you are that
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: covert sensitization that is kind of what we as humans
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: should be walking around doing at all times right, thinking
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: about the consequences of your actions. Uh. And then the
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: last one they uses systematic desensitization, which is relaxation therapy
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: and substituting relaxing feelings instead of the urge to steal.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: All of those are probably the most difficult thing cleptomaniac
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: will ever attempt too. I found another little study, though,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: let's hear it took in April of this year. They
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: started a test where they gave kleptomaniacs or cleptomania. What
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: do we call him again, those with kleptomania, people with cleptomania.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: I guess no one wants to be called a maniac
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: in any way. Uh. They they studied they got twenty
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: five habitual thieves men and women between seventeen seventy five,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: and they gave them the drug nal trek Zone, which
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: is what they give alcoholics and drug addicts to curb
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: their their bad behavior. Is that the stuff that makes
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: your hangover really really bad, I think, so it's supposed
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: to quell those impulses, and it kind of worked. Um.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: After eight weeks, they found that two thirds of the
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: people who had not given the placebo had no urge
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: to steal, and only like eight percent had placebo did so.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: They also ate their vegetables and went to bed when
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: they were told to be good drug, we could use that, Chuck.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: Is that it almost we're going to travel back to
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: the beginning now or this should have been at the beginning?
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: Kleptomania was um? I think it first appears in literature
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: in seven CE. Okay, uh st Augustine admitted to uh.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Lusting to thieve by st. Augustine was something mounts he
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: really was if he existed at all. Um. And then
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: it ends up in the medical literature. In eighteen sixteen,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: a Swiss physician by the name of Matthew wrote of
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: a unique madness characterized by the tendency to steal without
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: motive and without necessity. Do you have an eighteen sixteen?
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: And then Freud came in and said that has something
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: to do with penis envy, no kidding. And now it's
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: a forty five well not just a cleptomania, but shoplifting
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: is a forty five billion dollar in this country took
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: off from eighteen six team to two thousand nine. That's
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: good stuff, all right, Well, that's kleptomania. If you want
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: to know anymore, you can read the article by our
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: own Dr freud Um by typing in kleptomania. Remember it
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: begins with k uh in the handy search bar how
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: stuffworks dot com. And since I just said that, of course,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: dear friends, this means listener mayo. Josh, I'm just gonna
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: call this Hippie Rob followed up your old buddy Hippi
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Should you say something about Hippi Rob. Well, let's wait
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: till after U. Hi, Josh and Chuck I like him
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: when they started that way. I don't normally right into
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: TV shows or radio shows, etcetera. But I've heard Josh
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: talk about Hippie Rob and at the end of the
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Hangover podcast, he mentioned that he wanted to hear from
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: people who knew of his whereabouts. I do, in fact
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: know at Hippie Rob and wanted to offer my knowledge
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: of this person to determine if it was the same
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: Hippie Rob. And I've seen this email and I know
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: that it's a real Hippie Rob because he capitalize the
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: H and the rob. The Hippie Rob I know is
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: originally from vinyl Haven, Maine, a medium side a medium
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: size island off the coast of down East, Maine. They
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: say things weird of their down East. His full name,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: I didn't say his full name here, but it's Robert
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: Blank and uh. He has thick, blonde dreadlocks, the sure
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: telltale sign of a hippie. Sure. He was about five
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: ten and never talked about his age, but I would
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: put him in the upper thirties and possibly lower forties.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: In he loves coffee, hates alcohol, and he mentioned one
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: of his other habits that he loves, which we're not
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: going to mention on the air. But his name is
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: hippie Rob. So fill in the blanks. Uh. He squatted
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: at my apartment in Portland, Maine, the summer of n
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: so close. At the time, he was living off a
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: Social Security from a quote permanent work related accident. I
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: think we've all known a hippie Rob, but something told
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: me that his permanent disability was not physically related. I
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: would see him every few summers in Maine and he
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: would shoot the breeze. We would shoot the breeze while
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: drinking coffee and doing other things. He was a terrible mooch.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: I know that he loved to travel the warm places
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: in the winter, with his favorite being Hawaii. And uh,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: if you read this on the air, could you give
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: a shout out to my girlfriend Kristen. It was an
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: amazing sport about me listening to the podcast Galen from Portland, Maine. So, Josh,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: is it hippy rob No, there's a couple of things
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: missing here is so close. I mean the age. One
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: thing is that no one knows the origin of the
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: real hippie rock. No one knows where hippie robs fromocks
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: he does um he uh. And he's blonde, although you
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: would say more like strawberry blond ish, not true blonde.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: Um has a beard, kind of a little guy. Uh.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: In he would have been late thirties or so. World
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: class mooch. Yeah, well you used to like, you know,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: we'd buy beer and we'd buy Sierra Nevada beer and
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Robb didn't have any money for a while, and then
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: he get paid and um, he would be his turn
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: to buy the beer and he'd buy like a twelve
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: pack of Milwaukee beast ice and we'd be like this,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: this is not the same, rob Um. There's a dog missing,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: and this is a very key point. The dog Sodonna
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: I'll have to tell you about him sometime. He's a
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: wolf dog Sidona. Hippie Rob owned yes, no, they they
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: were best friends. There was no he's best friends with um.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: And then the real giveaway was that Hippie Rob loved
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: alcohol right that he would never even now he could
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: have given up booze. No one would have. No one
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: would say Hippy Rob hates alcohol. He just doesn't drink
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: it anymore and he probably still has. Hippie Rob loves alcohol.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: So that was the one that was the tell tale giveaway. Alright,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: So not Hippie Rob unfortunately. Yeah, and uh, I guess
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: if you know where Hippie Rob is. I've revealed some
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: more clues here, send us an email. We still want
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: to know. We're looking for him. And uh is it
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Kristen or Kirsten truck who? Uh? In the mail Galen's
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: girlfriend Kristen Kristen special thanks to you for letting Galen
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: listen to us. We appreciate that. If you have any
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: cool stories about your significant other letting you do something
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: UM that you want to do, uh, put it in
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: an email. Also, if you know where Hippie Rob is,
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: we want to hear that too. You can email Chuck
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: and me at all times at stuff podcast at how
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: of other topics, is that how stuff works dot com.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Want more how stuff works, check out our blogs on
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: the house stuff works dot com home page