What kind of help is available for sociopaths?

Answer 1

That is an interesting topic though. Can people be taught to have a conscience?

I would be interested to know if that is actually true, that they are a lost cause. I tend to have hope that all human beings can get help and evolve. Granted, it may take A LOT of work, a lot of conditioning, but aren't people essentially malleable and able to be affected, thus changed? We still don't know what creates a sociopath. There are theories. But I've heard people say sociopaths or ASD is caused by abuse in childhood and I tend to doubt that. Is there any research to back it up? It could just as easily be neurological disorders. Who knows. Perhaps there will be viable treatments in the future once they understand the cause of their condition. The more important question may be what can You do to help yourself if you are living with a sociopath. My father is one, so I speak from first hand experience when I say it's true they will Never feel remorse for the abuse they dish out. If they do apologize it is always insincere and has an ulterior motive. It is incredibly difficult and unhealthy to live with a sociopath. They will behave abominably and blame you, and you will either have to learn to put up with it..or leave. Simple as that.

AnswerTrue sociopaths are a lost cause. All we can do is avoid them. AnswerAvoid them like the plague! They are emotional parasites trapped in permanent emotional childhood. They cannot learn from experience, they have no conscience, they are immensely destructive; they make life a misery for others and cause nothing but suffering. Many who have been involved in close relationships with sociopaths would say that the the word 'sociopath' is essentially a medical term for an evil and depraved person.

Another viewpoint:

Sociopaths, along with other "hopeless cases" like people with Alzheimer's disease, Down syndrome, Asperger's, ADD, ADHD, autism, and the schizophrenias, along with more common disorders such as depression and addiction, and so on, are a mystery, but scientists have a way of hammering away at mysteries until they unravel them, and they are well on their way to the core of this one.

If one says that sociopaths aren't worth helping, one rather misses the point, after all. The price the world pays for not being able to help these unhappy people is incalculable.

But it also shows the hopelessness that sociopaths/psychopaths and their behavior make many people feel, itself a mirror-image of the emptiness and meaninglessness that hide always within the psychopath.

To counter that hopelessness, please know these two incontrovertible points: (1)no, the sociopath who hurt you isn't genuinely happy; (2) yes, the massive population of sociopaths the world over will be able to be treated before long, and possibly the first threads of that are already starting now.

If one says that sociopaths aren't worth helping, one rather misses the point, after all. The price the world pays for not being able to help these people is incalculable. Euthanasia isn't the answer. There are people (whose consciences I really must wonder about) who suggest that all the sociopaths that can be located and diagnosed by the authorities should be gathered up whether or not they've done anything wrong yet, and killed en masse (shades of World War Two, but with a different group of people). This is appalling, for reasons I hope I don't really need to explain!

But it also shows the hopelessness that sociopaths and their behavior make many people feel.

To counter that hopelessness, please know these two incontrovertible points: (1) no, the sociopath who hurt you isn't happy; (2) yes, the massive population of sociopaths the world over will be able to be treated before long, and possibly the first threads of that are already starting now.

True that most if not all sociopaths are firmly within the definition most everyone else has of "evil" -- but also true that it is a neurological problem to start with; over the years from infancy to adulthood, a person born this way learns nothing about connecting with people and everything about manipulating them. Empty and unable to change that circumstance, sociopaths drift aimlessly around, occasionally colliding with other people and causing damage. They return again and again to new people, but cannot get anything satisfying from their parasitic contact (they'd make lousy vampires if such things existed!), and so, drift on...

But "society" -- specifically, some neuroscientists -- may soon be capable of changing that, of freeing sociopaths from that trap and sparing the people who would otherwise get hurt by them. First of all, the parts of the brain that are silent in sociopaths and not in normal people can be awakened, although the resulting maelstrom of response would have to be carefully managed in a controlled setting. Secondly, it's been proven now beyond the hint of a remaining doubt that the patterns learned in early life are not as "fixed" in the adult brain as was once thought: even people in their sixties and seventies can change the courses taken by information in the brain, as work with stroke survivors has proven.

What no sociopath can do on his or her own, not too far in the future, neuroscientists can do.

But this would entail a lengthy in-patient stay.

With no knowledge of how to cope with the emotions the rest of the world has been dealing with all their lives, the recovering sociopath would be rendered as vulnerable as a baby. Which makes sense, because some of the most basic aspects of the human mind would be developing from the primordial stasis in which they had remained since birth!

A person thus treated would never be fully normal, but the human brain is amazing in the way it adapts and continues to develop all through life.

And given the utterly joyless and meaningless existence a sociopath leads, any genuine improvement is better than none.

But until neuroscientists can alter the thinking of a sociopath remember this: "No life is ever a total waste; it can always serve as a bad example." Anna Valerious.

Answer 2

Depends on their criminal history....If they have committed a felony, they may be put in prison, unless they have been deemed to be not guilty by reason of insanity. In that case, they would be hospitalized in either a prison mental ward, or a maximum security hospital. It is highly unlikely that a sociopath has a clean record, but even in that case, not all of them can be institutionalized. Medications have been found to be ineffective in curing the "disease" as has psychotherapy.

Answer 3

The down side is that there is not very much. The treatments that seem to work on everyone else seem to make psychopathic individual much better at being psychopathic (comunicating with others about deeper emotions in treatment teaches psychopathic people how 'normal' people think, allowing greater use of manipulation amongst other things).

The up side is that despite being a relatively new field the research has skyrocketed in at least the realm of criminology, psychology, and neuro-science. Maybe if we're lucky, in thirty years an effective treatment program will exist. Till then, some would argue the best method is to simply remove them from society... A highly controversial subject...