Can a sociopath sleep with you and then make you look like the one who has a mental problem when you don't?

Answer 1

Yes. That's a typical socipathic technique. It's called "projection."

First of all, sociopaths can't fall in love; you may think it's love, but it's one-sided at best.

Second, sociopaths are not skilled at introspection.

Third, sociopaths usually don't know they're messed up. Usually, but not always.

So, leave behind the accusations and go on with your life.

Only in neuroscience is there hope for these incomplete people. Thekey lies in awakening the brain, which is risky because sociopaths aremuch more prone to seizures than the rest of the population, and that-- an uncontrolled blast of electrical discharge spreading through thebrain and causing violent convulsions -- is likely to be the firstresponse from brain pathways that, after years or even decades ofsilence, are suddenly flooded with impulses.

But if the devices ofneurosurgeons can be tweaked to avoid this shock, and all else relatedto this idea is workable, it's feasible that small electronic devicesplanted in the brain (these already exist in a rudimentary form, but are not yet being usedfor mental illness) could open up a closed connection.

That leaves us with the problem of whether a lifetime of scatteredinformation can ever be set into order. Probably the best that could behoped for would be a kind of retraining -- like what is now done withstroke survivors and head injury patients -- that would be bothintensive and compensatory.

One of the things that would be necessary would be to try to socializethe person whose congenital birth defect made such a thing completelyimpossible before.

Whatever intervention is used, be it drugs orcomputer chips or what have you, it would probably -- I'd say certainly-- be excruciating for the patient at first.

With no knowledge of howto cope with the emotions the rest of the world has been dealing withall their lives, the recovering sociopath would be rendered asvulnerable as a baby.

Which makes sense, because some of the most basicaspects of the human mind would be developing from the primordialstasis in which they had remained since birth!

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

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

Robert Hare, PhD., says that the personality of a sociopath(psychopath) is essentially set in stone, so to speak, by adulthood,and incredibly hard to change.

Hard to change, not impossible.

Recent research on the disparities of brain function in psychopaths/sociopaths yielded some startling results:

Structural and functional hippocampal abnormalitieshavebeen previously reported in institutionalized psychopathic andaggressive populations. This study assessed whether prior findings of aright greater than left (R > L) functional asymmetry in caughtviolent offenders generalize to the structural domain in unsuccessful,caught psychopaths.

Methods:

Left and right hippocampal volumes were assessed using structuralmagnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in 23 control subjects, 16unsuccessful psychopaths, and 12 successful (uncaught) communitypsychopaths and transformed into standardized space.

Results:

Unsuccessful psychopaths showed an exaggerated structuralhippocampal asymmetry (R > L) relative both to successfulpsychopaths and control subjects (p < .007) that was localized tothe anterior region. This effect could not be explained byenvironmental and diagnostic confounds and constitutes the first brainimaging analysis of successful and unsuccessful psychopaths.

Conclusions:

Atypical anterior hippocampal asymmetries in unsuccessfulpsychopaths may reflect an underlying neurodevelopmental abnormalitythat disrupts hippocampal-prefrontal circuitry, resulting in affect dysregulation, poor contextual fear conditioning, and insensitivity to cues predicting capture.

Keywords: Hippocampus, psychopathy, MRI, trauma, neurodevelopment, asymmetry.

So it is understandable why many people don't think anything at all canbe done to change the sociopath, but in fact, that isn't true. Somekeep trying to help them; giving up is not an option. Sociopaths cause too much trouble. And experience as much.

A good therapist can prevent you from victimizing him/her withoutvictimizing you in the process. And, as mentioned above, recent studies made byneurosurgeons and other medical experts have finally begun to pinpointthe things that go awry in the brain that are part of what causessociopathy.

In some cases, such medications as Depakote, Topamax, Risperdal, Dilantin, Pentobarbitol, andeven Lithium are being prescribed, and although some individualtherapists prescribe Ativan and the like, much more research needs Tobe done there on ultimate benefit of drug treatment. It is alreadyknown that drug treatment must be augmented by a very structured andpositive-oriented talk therapy.

Sociopaths can get somewhere in a specialized form of talk therapy if the clinician isself-confident and relaxed, firm but never authoritarian orself-important. It must not ever become an ego-contest.

Once theprocess gets far enough along so that the sociopath is actually able tofeel even a tiny flicker of genuine happiness, that is an impetus thatwill grow stronger if the process continues to move forward.

But the emotional response of a sociopath will always be to some degree abnormal.

Why does a sociopath cry? Is it like the crying of a "spoiled" child, or is it like the crying of a damaged person?

Maybe both.

Thenear-constant state of frustration and dissatisfaction felt by a truepsychopath is the source of not only their rages but those eerie,on-and-off-like-a-faucet tears. (Yes, tearsare seen even in some men,though of course still more common in children and women.)

Generally, it is considered impossible for sociopaths (as well as autistic individuals) to ever experience love firsthand, and this is a tragedy.