Sociopathy (Psychopathy)

group, individual and/or family therapy, and education. Of these, individual therapy is the most common. Therapy can provide a consistent daily schedule, support, consistent rules, discipline, and limits

== == Update: It is now possible to prove the presence of sociopathy (psychopathy) by using a combination of an EEG (electroencephalogram) and a special type of MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) that shows clear images of the brain at work. Differences in the cerebral cortex -- structural and functional -- are so obvious with today's technology that it's amazing to think they could be missed. (This is discussed more below, after the next entries.)

this is not something that anyone can prove. this is something that would have to be diagnosed by someone in the health position. this is not something that someone should go throwing around as this could lead to trouble. if you are worried about someonbe then you should ask them to speak to someone that can help them. the chances are that this person does not realise that they may have a problem and talking about this may upset them and make things worse. so this is why it should be hadled with care and proffesionaly. If you are up against a real sociopath, discuss the matter with a professional yourself. Getting a sociopath to seek help is pointless as they dread facing up to their own disorder.

Except that that isn't 100% universal; it's merely 99.9999%!!

Also:

The newest breakthroughs yield enormous insight into this perplexing and devastating condition that plagues four percent of the population and causes those persons to plague everyone else!

Almost everyone in the world -- except psychopaths (sociopaths) and a few others, such as those with ADD -- has a neatly organized way of storing information in the brain. Your left hemisphere handles such things as speech, logic, and sequential thinking. It helps you keep things in order. Meanwhile, your right hemisphere handles such things as appreciation of (or creation of) art, symbols that evoke emotion, and the way one puts together in the present time all the pieces of the world around him or her as far as it is known.

But NOT if you're a sociopath.

Studies (see the masterful work "Without Conscience" by Robert D. Hare, PhD.) have now conclusively demonstrated that the way such information is stored in the brain of a sociopath is not at all like the way it is for others. Instead of things being organized into those specific regions in one or other of the brain's two hemispheres depending upon the type of information it is, the sociopath has a brain that operates a little bit like a computer hard drive: it breaks all data down into tiny fragments and stores it all over the place and in both hemispheres. Thus, to retrieve any given segment is formidable and leads to omissions and errors far more often than most people experience:

(Patient in an inpatient unit, to an NP who is organizing an outing.) "No, I'm not going out with you guys this time, and I'm going to buy some magazines when I'm there." HUH???? This kind of thing, as Hare demonstrates, happens all the time.

Clinicians give numerous (including some erroneous) reasons for not wanting to treat sociopaths, and one of the more surprising ones is that it's very difficult at times to make sense of what the patient is saying.

Unlike the jumbled mess of a schizophrenic's speech, the sociopath's speech makes sense within the fragments, but when these parts of speech are strung together, they are often jarringly incompatible. Did the sociopath in the inpatient hospital intend to go out and buy some magazines? Or did she decide to stay in? She seemed to think she could do both at the same time. If the NP who had asked her was astute enough, she might've said, "Miss Smith, if you don't want to go out, why don't you write down what you want us to pick up and give us the money to buy it?" Although that's a realistic way to do both things at the same time, one might wonder why the patient didn't just say so in the first place!

When you speak, your brain is going through a staggering feat of juggling and data-organization at a speed that makes broadband look like a snail trail. If your cerebral cortex is storing your vocabulary and the related ideas behind it, as well as all of the other numerous types of information it must handle, in the right places, this isn't so hard; if your brain has to fumble all over the place for tiny fragments of data and try to assemble it fast enough to keep up with your conversation, it is not going to be easy -- and trained professionals will know that something, at least, is awry.

So, now scientists know that the seemingly meaningless and frequent lies that the sociopath tells may not all be actual lies. Some are lies, particularly in sociopaths who have broken the law and are trying to charm or bully their way out of trouble. But some -- especially impulsive-sounding bragging or announcements of lofty intent ("I'm gonna get out of this bugbox and write a best-selling novel, climb Mount Everest, and go work for NASA!") -- are not intended to deceive others so much as to tell them "I want to do something with my life!" But, sadly, lacking the means and wherewithal to do this, the sociopath will undoubtedly end up in trouble all over again.

Think about it: you know something isn't right, but you can't tell other people, because you have not the slightest idea how to phrase what's wrong. Plus, for some odd reason, everyone keeps getting rubbed the wrong way by you. You try to get ahead in life, but everybody keeps telling you about these strange rules you're supposed to obey, that they all seem to know by heart, but you don't. So you study them and try to memorize them and use them by rote, but keep messing up because you have no mechanism to tell you (from within) that you're stumbling over the line again, and inevitably, you do. Then everyone gets mad at you and among other things tells you that you know perfectly well what the rules are, so why don't you obey them? You start to secretly suspect they're adding new ones or changing the old rules around just to get you to screw up, but actually that isn't true -- however, you have no real way of knowing that, either.

As if all this isn't enough, you feel at the very least uncomfortable, and at the worst like a human bomb, most of the time you're awake, which at times can be several days in a row. You notice that the very things that make other people happy have a very opposite effect on you: your head fills with jarring "static," like a radio playing with the tuner caught between two or more stations. Reacting instinctively to this, you try to push people away because their closeness causes the static to get worse, but then you discover a new problem: you seem to need them anyway.

You seem to need something from other people, but you don't know why. That hug each other and smile, not a phony smile but a real one, and their eyes light up. They get close and they talk to each other without having to closely study the other's eyes to try to figure out what to do in response. This seems to be a delicious pleasure to them, much better than anything you've ever experienced. But if you try it, and if you are actually lucky enough to persuade one of them to attempt such a relationship and interaction with you, it immediately starts to turn sour on you. Their touch does not warm you; you feel colder and deader than ever. You don't know how to give back, so you end up grasping for words you've heard used by other people and trying to fake your way through it so they won't figure out how you are; you've experienced enough to know by this time that when others figure out your difference, they hate you for it; in fact, you've been told you're "not a real person" and that you "have no soul" (you're not too sure what a soul is, anyway) and that people like you "ought to be lined up and shot"!

After trying several times in this new relationship to get the pleasure other people are always basking in, and failing, you start to get angry at all of this -- and the anger builds into a terrible, towering rage that begins to make you feel like a human bomb. "I will actually, physically explode if I don't..." you're thinking, and yet under the rage there is a weird, disconsolate feeling that even your burgeoning hatred is as hollow and empty and starved as you are. You consider taking your life, and certainly you think about taking lives of some of these lucky, smugly superior others. You settle for embezzling money, or something of the sort; you're clever and manipulative and you don't get caught. Triumph!

Or not. The things you buy please you for five minutes; a day, tops. Then...flat, meaningless, like everything else in your life.

Of course, you don't HAVE a life -- and you never will. That's starting to become increasingly clear.

But WHY???? You see "The Others," as you're starting to think of them, studying diligently to help and even to cure other kinds of weird things wrong with people's minds, most of which seem to have to do with the brain. But no one seems to know what's going on in you. It occurs to you that to get some kind of attention from them, you might pretend you have one of those other problems they study, and then once they're paying attention to you, maybe somehow it'll lead somewhere. What have you got to lose?

You're about to find out you can still lose more.

You go into a clinical situation presenting with carefully-memorized symptoms of the mental illness you have decided would get you the attention you want. But faking whatever it is turns out very quickly to be a lot more complex than you'd thought. In fact, it turns out to be impossible. And, branded a malingerer, you are rejected yet again, told that all that's really wrong with you is that you don't want to try to better yourself.

That, and you're "evil," and it's not paranoia on your part to realize that EVERYONE HATES YOU. Once they figure you out. Yes: to know you is to hate you.

And you will go to your grave (as gloats Martha Stout of "The Sociopath Next Door" book fame) never knowing the wonders of real human interaction, meaning, and warmth.

It might just make you decide to go off the rails and kill everyone you can before turning the weapon on yourself.

Except for one thing: the mere fact that some scientists know that much about the brain of a sociopath means that solving the problem is no longer an impossible and obscure wish -- it's moving within the realm of concrete possibility.

As soon as large numbers of sociopaths begin to be treated in a way that actually helps them, that corrects as much as possible the chaos of misdirected signals in their confused and disorganized brains, and then a form of therapy that in addition to that, by necessity, teaches them to cope with the resulting maelstrom of emotion and impression that was formerly impossible, so that they can put it in order and start to develop the heretofore dormant and silent segments of their brains and better use those formerly mixed-up areas where no recognizable order ruled, THEN THE OTHERS MAY BEGIN TO NOTICE WHAT IS GOING ON...and they will know at least this much: instead of "the kiss of death," a diagnosis of ASPD (the DSM-IV way of saying sociopathy or psychopathy) will lead someplace; that there will be things done that actually make a difference.

Crippled as they are neurologically, sociopaths are yet shrewd, and they're always looking out for themselves in a way similar to that of a loner predator. Seeing others like them actually benefiting from treatment will have to start persuading them that there's something to gain in going for help after all. Not being rejected or met with "We can't help you; you're evil incarnate," or the equivalent thinly disguised in euphemistic psychology jargon; NOT being met with a situation where they'd have to substitute symptoms of an "acceptable" illness in place of those they bear in secret -- that would almost certainly, if gradually, have an effect: if a sociopath can clearly see a benefit coming from admitting his or her real situation, there's nothing to stop him or her from doing just that.

It's already started to happen, if in a tiny, barely perceptible trickle.

Right now, all science has at the ready for them is to use various types of preexisting medication given in attempts to counteract the chaotic way the brain of a sociopath functions. That and types of talk therapy carefully altered to avoid the pitfalls that have in the past caused regular therapies to make sociopaths worse instead of better. But the more that scientists such as Robert Hare and his colleagues delve into and experiment with the new types of brain scans and learning what makes sociopaths tick like human bombs, the more likely that it becomes with each passing year that a means will soon be isolated to defuse those bombs.

The primary source of a sociopath's infamous rage is frustration, of a sort so alien and so extreme that almost no one else can understand what it means. Once they start getting taken seriously, that frustration, and the wild rage it provokes, will lessen, and since it is a primary source of the constant distrust that makes regular therapy fail sociopaths, the defusing of that rage and its maddening causes will be a huge step in the right direction.

And that will benefit everybody.

yes, not that it would necessarily make a difference, because of the behavior of a sociopath, knowing they are one would not bring a "sudden flash of realization" and therefore would not make much of a difference.

I am a psychology professional. In June 2007 I unwittingly yet very willingly opened my private front door to a Sociopath. I became his spouse. My career is now hanging on by a thread. I lay in my bed every chance I get. Alcohol has replaced him, and anti depressants have helped me to keep a roof over my heads. I am telling my story because these personalities are capacity building mental ill health in families, relationships and the community. My friends and family would have called me strong. Its taken me one years to disengage physically and still mentally I have not disengaged from the parasite. When I met the king, I believed he was this amazing smart loving person that had been undiscovered, unappreciated and unloved as a child. He behaved as if he was totally in to me. He Called me 5 times a day, and got upset if I did not call back on time. He seemed hard working and determined. he seemed loving, caring, manipulative, cunning, controlling, unreliable, hateful, smart, business minded, spiritual. Fortunately, his unveiled heavy use of betting shops, alcohol and marijuana raised questions very early on. Furthermore, his drug and alcohol used eroded his memory and made him sleep very heavily. His generosity soon turned to borrowing. He often forgot his stories and left his cell phone unattended. His friends were commodities and people who could be manipulated for money. His stable job kept changing. Eventually, his earning started to come from criminal and entrepreneurial activities. In a way I admired his focus and determination.However, With out my professional training I would have been unable to challenge and clarify his inconsistencies. To my surprise he would become verbally violent and intimidating. when I began to bring insight to his behaviour he became resentful and disrespectful. He would quickly laugh it of as a joke when he realised I was standing up to him. I new something was wrong but he managed to convince me that his way was the right way. I needed to be stronger have less feeling for others. If I hug out with female friends he would respectfully ask if I was a lesbian. Little things would offend him. He would borrow and coheres my friends and associates into lending him things he had no intention of returning or paying for. I discovered he was living with a women. I confronted him on the street. She came from no where and beat me up in the street for him. With blood running down my face he gave me his hanky. He completely denied any responsibility, for lying and manipulating us both. Furthermore, he expressed concern about his hanky as it was a gift someone gave him. He never asked about my physical well being. A friend came to the hospital with me. Two days later I discovered he had stolen my ideas for a business and secretly replaced me with her in an identical business venture. His justification was he needed help. He then went on to become a unqualified psychology professional almost the same job as I had done years ago. These discoveries pushed me into denial. I'm in rehab trying to detoxify my life. I feel like he stole my soul. They wont physically kill you but they will get others to do it and they would watch you do it then eat their dinner of you body. They would then get your family to praise them for making the snacks at your wake. Stay away from Sociopaths.

i have a daughter who is a sociopath. she was raised in a very , giving, loving home.ittook me a long time to accept this. i always said it was because she was around bad people. in reality it was her who was the bad person. everything she told me was a lie.all of the people she knew ended up coming to me and telling their horrible stories about her.she is a manipulaive liar with no feelings or remrse. she fits all of robert hares criteria of sociopathy.now she is trying to take my son with special needs money to the public trustee. she has written horrible letters about me with her sociopathic grandmother.they have found a common element in theirselves-that being sociopathy.they are beyond sick.it took me years to come to terms with this.her games and lies and without concience.

Sociopaths, by definition, are people who lack empathy and a conscience. That would certainly carry over into their sex lives, where we would expect them to be as exploitative as in any other area. If the individual is only uncaring and thoughtless in bed, you may just need some couples counseling.

The most determing factor of a sociopath is that they deny and project their behaviour onto their "victim". I AM NOT, ITS YOU, IT WASN'T ME, IT WAS YOU YOU ARE THE ONE, YOU ARE DOING THIS TO ME!!!YOU ARE A LIAR!!.They are also very paranoid-when they overhear youinnocently mention their name they accuse YOU ARE PLOTTING AGAINST ME.They set people up s scapegoats, manipulate and deceive. They are also extremely aggressive but hide it from others.They are also very charming externally-Only their "victim" knows the true Jekyll and Hyde character they truly are, nobody else can believe it,, until its their turn that it.

You can't know and only a trained professional could put a label on someone like this man. Some people can be just immature and if it bothers you that much then realize you can't change that person so you either put up with it until they grow up (hopefully) or you move on. Sociopaths/psychopaths are basically emotionally immature anyway as they have no conscious. They are random...they need a thrill or stimulation and in some cases they might 'act' immature to feel some kind of emotion inside, but they never will. Sociopaths they are so angry that they cannot feel human emotion...like all the humans they see and they are dead inside. They are almost like a machine-human; they know something is wrong with them but they don't know what because they have no CONSCIOUS. It is a really miserable existence, that is why they can kill and also be suicidal.

Perhaps one or two are, but I doubt that the conditions are in any way related. I would argue that a sociopath is actually less likely to become an addict. They want power and independence and addiction is a weakness that they are not likely to succumb to. Often addiction is due to guilt, a way of escaping their own remorse or shortcomings, things which sociopaths do not feel. The difference is that addicts feel too much, and so use drugs or alcohol as a way of escaping those feelings (generally) whereas sociopaths do not feel enough and so would not need these things. You have to look at the reasons why people fall into addiction and how they deal with it. If an addict is frequently trying to 'clean up' then you have to wonder why, the chances are they know that they are hurting people and feel bad about it. The addiction overrides their other feelings, remorse, guilt, and even love, but the feelings are still there. Drug addicts have a conscience, they have empathy, but the need for a fix is too overwhelming and can push all other thoughts to the sidelines.

Yes they can miss you because you where their tool. Consider if they are good for you in a relationship or not.

How to gauge what level of Psychopath People might be or

What is a Bully/Sociopath/Psychopath?

I would like to think that I have come up with a gauge of 1-6 to answer this question.

When a person is being bad to someone when they are calling a person names/bully etc. they are a level.1.

When they get someone to help them pick on someone else they are a level.2 and they recruit a level 1or 2. Like attracts like!

When they get 1-5 people to help them pick on someone they are a level.3 and the others under them are level 1-2. Like attracts like!

When they are able to get 5-10 people to pick on someone they are a level.4 and the others under them will be a 1-2. At this same time a level 4 will start to find things that will upset you. To try to make you angry by Picking on your friends, relative, pet to see your response. In a way they will play with you because you have become their tool. They will also justify themselves by saying freedom of speech. But freedom of speech is only when it is against the Government, because there are laws of harassment and liable. Like attracts like!

And when they are able to get more than 10 people to pick on someone they are a level.5 and the others under them are a level 1-2-3-4. But for the people who are under a level 5 a 5 is trying to get them to move up a level. Also at this time they will step back and let others rise to take any pressure off them so if and when they get caught it will not look like they are the leader. Like attracts like!

And if they are able to build up to killing someone or getting someone to commit suicide they are a level.6. Like attracts like!

But during this time if that bully/sociopath/psychopath are able to find others of his level 1-2-3-4-5 or 6 they become even stronger. Because they have no empathy for the person or the people they are bullying. Another way they will prove that they are a psychopath is they will justify what they have been doing to that person and back each other up for abusing that person/people.

So now here is the answer to the question you might be looking for? Are you a psychopath? If you do not pick on anyone to demean or abuse them and or you do not join in with the bully/sociopath/psychopathic crowd than you are not a Bully/Sociopath/Psychopath. You might be just scared to speak up when there are things happening that are wrong around you.

You see if a person/bully/sociopath/psychopath is able to talk someone else into picking on a person for the fun of it with them they have power. And in a way getting someone to become an outcast gives them the power over everyone in that group of friends they have. You see the person that is being picked on has made a different choice compared to others in that group or their religion is different or their color is different than the rest of their group etc. You see like attracts like and if the bully/sociopath/psychopath thinks he can get others to join him he/she is empowered. One way they do this is to be verbally funny. By demeaning that person or by beating someone down so bad that they either wish to die or actually do die by committing suicide. All this time giving momentum to the group that he/she has developed! So now he has this feeling of power over others more and more. But here is the real kicker if that person leaves that they are picking on the psychopath will either follow them or start on someone else to keep the feeling of empowerment alive and growing. Do you know of anyone like this?

When the bubble finally breaks in this world that they live in, they will disperse quickly. Like the saying "the rats know when to leave the sinking ship"! They do not want the school, community or the world to see them for what they are because they care about what they look like to others outside their group. But only after they try to justify what they have done.

The way they have been able to gain such power and influence over others with the bully/ sociopath/psychopathic behavior is because no one has spoken up to them in the community. No one knows what is actually going on in their group/community/world or the group/community/world looks the other way so they do not get picked on. It is a way to keep everyone in control. This has been a question that I have had since school taking history and watching others in my life. In wondering how could that person gain such control over someone/people and why do they do that.

Bullies/Sociopaths/Psychopaths want to fit in with the crowd. But only when it is their world!

Now how do you combat being bullied? By taking ownership of your life! One possible way is to write a letter in your local newspaper saying what has been happening to you with no names being said. Only the name of the place that it is happening at! I am not saying for anyone to do this. It is one thing that I have thought of.

If you have a problem and you do not know of a solution and or you are not willing to do the solution where no one is being injured or hurt then you are the problem.

being in public is one of the very few ways to be safe around a sociopath. you shouldn't ever be alone around a sociopath. they can be extremely dangerous. think of them as a very large predator and act accordingly

Pathological narcissism is a defense mechanism against the hurt and threat of ealy childhood abuse. The narcissist is, therefore, in a constant state of inner turmoil, conflict, insecurity, and rage.

There are 20 key traits which have been identified by pioneering psychologist Robert Hare. From what I know Glibness, Superficial Charm, Conning and Manipulative Behaviour, Sexual Promiscuity, Low Impulse Control, Emotional Poverty (aka flat affect) and, of course, No Conscience or Empathy are the key traits.

They score a person either as a 0 (trait not present), 1 (trait present to a limited degree) or 2 (trait present to a great extent) for each of the 20 traits. A score of 30 out of 40 is the threshold for a diagnosis using the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R).

So, if you want to watch out for them then watch out for someone who seems to be quite arrogant, who successfully charms people (particularly women) but who, under the surface, is unpleasant and who leads a parasitic and criminal lifestyle. You won't get it right 100% of the time but these things are a good indication.

Yes, sociopaths can live a long life just like people with other mental illnesses. They will live longer with the help of therapy and medications to relieve some of their symptoms and behaviors.

Maturity causes us to change our thinking process. It gives us a totally different set of emotions to deal with. We respond differently to stress, body, mind, spirit..

Sociopathic parents can vary widely in how they express their sociopathic traits. In general, sociopaths are defined as having no empathy. They're driven only by their own needs wants and desires. Often they get a thrill out of the pain they inflict by the cons they pull off. If you apply this to a parent it's a frightening picture. I recently put together my own fragmented childhood memories and realized that my mother is a sociopath. The events I remember that I couldn't explain - the constant feelings of being a failure and inadequate although not knowing why - the answer is easy to say but hard to accept. One of my earliest memories is of tearing around the living room as a toddler in socks on a hardwood floor. So much fun to slide as you round the corner of the couch... then my mother would pop up from behind a door wearing a garish rubber mask of the devil! I'd shriek in sheer terror - not a "this is fun" shriek - a sincere shriek of horror. My mom would laugh uproariously for hours. She'd find any excuse to terrorize me with that mask for years. When my parents divorced I was 7. My father had been sexually molesting my mom's younger sister for 6 years; since she was 10. My mother left me with my child molester of a father for 2 years while she enjoyed being single. Later, she remarried. This new husband came from a family with money( a great reason to marry a very odd and awkward man). They divorced several years later because (according to my mom) she found detailed sexual fantasies about me written in his journal. He had indeed been molesting me for years. I had I tried to explain to her how uncomfortable he made me her response: "So help me, if you do anything to mess this up for me I'll kill you". So I just took it. After divorcing this man she left me alone with him while she took my younger brother to live in an apartment Years later, as an adult, I'd try to work out these fragmented memories with my mom. Her standard answer whenever confronted with something she didn't like was "I don't remember that ever happening" or better yet, she'd start rehashing all the unfortunate events of her childhood - to make me feel sorry for her and shift the attention on to herself. These are just a few personal examples, but the gist is that a sociopathic parent sees their children as an inconvenience. If the parent is the mother of a girl she may see her daughter as competition. But the sociopathic parent never sees their child as human - needing affection, support and nurturing- they are the ones needing those things, and often expect an older child to provide those "goodies" for them without ever returning the favor. The end result is often either another sociopath, or in my case, a highly sensitive "emotional sponge". I was expected to give without reservation or expectation of anything in return. Today I'm a productive and fairly successful member of society, but I'm an emotional mess with intense self-destructive tendencies

Sociopath is person with a mental disease. They don't follow the rules or moral of a society. They have a complete disregard for the feelings and rights of others. They don't feel remorse or guilt of their actions. They tend to be disorganized in his or her demeanor,nervous and easily agitated. They tend to spontaneously act out without thinking about the consequences of their actions. They are dangeourus to others and themselves. They need a lot treatment.

It is very pervasive. If you look around, you will find that it is as pervasive as it's behavioral manifestations, and ramifications, such as lying, stealing, assault, fraud, immorality, perversion, violence, volatility, humiliation, abuse, threats, intimidation, control, abuse of power and authority, criticism, judgmentalism, subjugation, poverty, racism, intolerance, injustice, parallel behavior, inhumanity, and callousness.

The overriding psychological trait of a sociopath is a complete lack of a conscience. As it is a conscience that keeps most people on the straight and narrow in the conduct of their lives, the lack of a conscience would certainly be a key to someone doing "diabolical things". Couple with a need to "win at all costs", it looks like by many standards, sociopaths can be considered to have diabolical minds.

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