6. Why Blameworthiness Is the Wrong Question

Our proposal springboards off the knowledge that the brain is a team of rivals, a competition among different neural populations. Because it's a competition, this means the outcome can be tipped.
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If it seems difficult to empathize with people who have poor impulse control, just think of all the things you succumb to that you don't want to. Snacks? Alcohol? Chocolate cake? Television? One doesn't have to look far to find poor impulse control pervading our own landscape of decision making. It's not that we don't know what's best for us, it's simply that the frontal lobe circuits representing the long-term considerations can't win the elections when the temptation is present. It's like trying to elect a party of moderates in the middle of war and economic meltdown.
 So our new rehabilitative strategy is to give the frontal lobes practice in squelching the short-term circuits.