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Sociopathy (Psychopathy)
A mental disorder characterized by Antisocial Personality Disorder, lack of empathy and the concern for self.
535 Questions
Sociopathy is believed to be a combination of inherited and environmental factors largely centered around early severe abuse or neglect. It is difficult to say for sure, since in the nature of things the children of abused parents tend themselves to be abused, regardless of the pathology involved.
The greatest protection would, obviously, come from removing the sociopath from the children's lives. Of course, this is not always possible...nor, indeed, desirable in some cases.
If you are asking this in reference to yourself, you can relax. The fact that you are worried about it is a sure sign that you are not a sociopath, as their defining characteristic is massive unconcern about such things.
What to do to sabatoge a sociopath?
The only really ethical way to hurt a sociopath is by exposure. They are usually quite arrogant- often to the point of believing that everyone else is stupid. Sooner or later, they overestimate their skills and underestimate other people's intelligence. They get caught in their lies or their bad behavior gets discovered. You can help this whole situation along by researching their pasts and investigating what they are up to at present. An anonymous note to someone significant to them ( boss, lover, future victim) may thwart and dismay them. These people frequently have a lot to hide and go to great lengths to keep unfavorable information from seeing the light of day.
Just be very careful about any actions you take. An angry sociopath can cause you a lot of problems! (Mine actually injured himself in an attempt to frame me for a felony assault ! - although he didn't get away with that, in the end I had to leave town because he was clever and very determined to hurt me . He also manipulated half the police force into thinking that I was stalking him, when in fact, the opposite was true. However, eventually, I did have my revenge. A couple years later, he jumped probation and fled the state in order to avoid a felony charge. I tracked him down, alerted the authorities and did not let go until he spent the summer in jail. He didn't even know that I did it or where to find me at that point,)
Remember, you are dealing with a person who has no qualms about hurting you badly so exercise great discretion!
Aren't sociopaths just plain bad people?
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:
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.
And once they are helped, those who are hurt and bewildered by their terrible and often baffling behavior will be a lot happier, too.
One very important point, therefore, is that, most certainly, no one helps sociopaths by repeatedly calling them 'evil'! That kind of response cannot possibly help anyone. A sociopath before treatment cannot trust anyone and must learn the fundaments of trust and interaction between people. No one who is persuaded to believe that he or she is just plain bad can sustain any hope for change. It becomes a vicious cycle: the sociopath, being told he or she is evil and cannot be helped, gives up, and in frustration and anger lashes out again at people, and in response to that, people say that their original point is proven.
The main reason sociopaths don't usually seek help is that they can't trust, rather than that they like being as they are. Plus, they can often sense exactly what sort of a response any call for help on their part is most likely to elicit from professionals and lay folk alike. Sociopaths are not breezing along in paradise. It isn't all a game. It's a truly miserable existence. And it can be made better. It may not be "curable" yet, but it most certainly isn't as hopeless as so many people say. There is therefore nothing to be gained and much to be lost when therapists and lay folk try to ostracize sociopaths from the human race entirely! Sensationalism and superstition will only prevent progress.
This was written on another question on the same essential topic as this one, by a self-confessed sociopath (other than me!) --
- Sociopaths, though born that way, are people too. To avoid an entire group of people is absurd. That's like saying, "Since these people have dark skin, everyone should completely avert themselves from them." I am a moderate sociopath, and though part of me doesn't want to change, another does. Many times it is really entertaining to see how stupid people can be, especially when they're so gullible as to believe every word that mellifluously flows from my lips. Yes, I am parasitic, but even so, there are some people I would like to stop hurting. I can't find any websites that can provide a way to help my sociopathy. Maybe people like you should stop your self-victimisation and start trying to actually help people like me! I knew I was a sociopath before the age of ten but have only recently had it officially diagnosed. I am eighteen years old now, and I have been lying and destroying others' sanity for a long time. So, please post some helpful tidbits that might help sociopaths resist the sweet urges we get when we encounter weak human beings. When you cut us, do we not bleed? When you kill us, do we not die? Do you honestly think that you're being lied to and manipulated when we sincerely ask for help. Listen to yourselves! This is the internet; ergo, you're safe from our fortified mental grasp.
The essay that follows was written in another answer by another self-admitted sociopath, who actually might not be a sociopath. Still another person added the brief comment to that effect after her tragic essay.
- umm... i kindof am one... just so y'all know, it's not so much fun being one either. i read that sentence up there, "Incapable of real human attachment to another." i don't even know what that is, i see it, i approximate it... it's like being outside a door looking through a dirty window and watching re-runs of people I've seen in love or with children or with friends, and scratching, sometimes banging at the glass to get in and... nothing. I'm fond of people in every sense of the word, their little quirks and habits, the way they see life, except if they went away it wouldn't bother me much other than finding someone else to be fond of. i don't have friends, i only date military men because they're ok with only having a girlfriend for a couple months and i tell them in advance i won't wait for them... i don't know what else to do to limit the damage i inflict on others just as a result of them knowing me, short of moving to the mountains... but i still move between 2-5 times a year :( it's kindof hard walking around knowing I'll never have what i see making other people so happy and running when i can tell someone is getting close just because i don't want to hurt them more later down the road... i'd like it alot to settle down, i WANT to be able to feel more with people, but it's hard to miss what you never had. i want what i THINK it would feel like... it'd be easy to give in and let someone stay because I'm so lonely... but hey, I've written enough, just know i try to be a responsible little sociopath, i won't ever get married or have kids, i practice safe sex, i won't stay in one city for long... everything you all take for granted i will never let myself have just because i WANT to take it for granted. being like this won't go away so hopefully i can limit the amount of hate thrown my way by limiting my interaction with people, i don't know what else to do. and you all might not belive this, but i am sorry, hopefully i can speak for the other people who have damaged your lives.
Comment: The above testimony is clearly not indicative of a sociopath because they seem to make efforts to keep from harming others, even if it doesn't benefit themselves.
Comment: no that's just how easy it is for you to be fooled. there is good and there is bad and that is all.
Why do sociopaths do things that are so cruel and hurtful to others?
If it really were the case that "[s]ince there is no ability, there is no choice" one would expect some legal systems to allow sociopaths to plead diminished responsibility for crimes. However, as far as I'm aware, they are held fully accountable for their actions.
Responsible for actionsA sociopath may be as capable of empathy as a blind man is of sight. A blind man can't tell red from green, certainly, but a sociopath can tell right from wrong, even if he must be taught to distinguish between them by learning the real and unpleasant consequences that might befall him for engaging in bad behavior. A sociopath still has to make a conscious decision to act badly.But even though it is a decision, it's always made with no input at all from the part of the brain from which most people receive information while processing emotion. If in the future, neuroscience can find a way to wake up this strangely silent area of the brain of a true sociopath, this all can change. The area is in the cerebral cortex and sends out abnormal or depleted brain waves on EEGs of sociopaths.
New Data:
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 benefitting 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 patterns of brain impulses they suffer. Talk therapy added to this must be specially geared to the sociopath or it'll make the problem worse. And some people believe that sociopaths who are not at the most severe end of the spectrum of their illness can respond to some degree to sensitivity training. This might not, however, work as well with sociopaths who are abuse survivors.
In any case, once the type of neurosurgery that could help correct this has become possible, intervention of a sort that may fix some of what is broken in their brains someplace, this science will take a gigantic leap ahead!
And that will help everyone, not just those who are sociopaths.
A good therapist can prevent you from victimizing him/her without victimizing you in the process. And recent studies made by neurosurgeons and other medical experts have finally begun to pinpoint the things that go awry in the brain that are part of what causes sociopathy. In some cases, such medications as Depakote, Topamax, and even Lithium are being prescribed, and although some individual therapists prescribe Ativan and the like, much more research needs to be done there on ultimate benefit of drug treatment. It is already known that drug treatment must be augmented by a very structured and positive-oriented talk therapy.
Sociopaths can get somewhere in talk therapy if the clinician is self-confident and relaxed, firm but never authoritarian or self-important. It must not ever become an ego-contest. Once the process gets far enough along so that the sociopath is actually able to feel even a tiny flicker of genuine happiness, that is an impetus that will grow stronger if the process continues to move forward.
But a sociopath seeking this must be warned that at some point quite well along in the process of therapy, there will be an interval in which all the newly developing strength is called upon to endure very deep and long-buried pain. Sticking to it through that takes a very strong will.
The therapist must repeatedly remind the patient that the process will also reward him or her with better and better feelings, ultimately becoming its own reward: that terrible emptiness called 'boredom' being replaced by feeling, both painful and joyous.
In cases where brain damage is too severe to permit of this on its own, new developments in technology in the next decades will bring implantable devices that may be able to be used in the brain, along with other means including synthetic replacement neurotransmitters, to carry nerve impulses along paths formerly silent and unused in the sociopath's brain. Although such devices would have to be used with extreme care to avoid causing violent convulsive seizures, some of the anti-convulsant medications that are already being prescribed to sociopaths in test trials could possibly prevent this unwelcome side-effect.
In the present, therapy is hard to come by for anybody not extremely wealthy, and for sociopaths, many of whom are unable to work, it is even that much harder to find help. But it exists. And, looking at some observations posted at other similar questions by others, one can see that a very popular opinion is that sociopaths, psychopaths, are all "evil" and undeserving of help!
One very important point, therefore, is that, most certainly, no one helps sociopaths by repeatedly calling them 'evil'! That kind of response cannot possibly help anyone. A sociopath before treatment cannot trust anyone and must learn the fundaments of trust and interaction between people. No one who is persuaded to believe that he or she is just plain bad can sustain any hope for change. It becomes a vicious cycle: the sociopath, being told he or she is evil and cannot be helped, gives up, and in frustration and anger lashes out again at people, and in response to that, people say that their original point is proven.
The main reason sociopaths don't usually seek help is that they can't trust, rather than that they like being as they are. Plus, they can often sense exactly what sort of a response any call for help on their part is most likely to elicit from professionals and lay folk alike. Sociopaths are not breezing along in paradise. It isn't all a game. It's a truly miserable existence. And it can be made better. It may not be "curable" yet, but it most certainly isn't as hopeless as so many people say. There is therefore nothing to be gained and much to be lost when therapists and lay folk try to ostracize sociopaths from the human race entirely! Sensationalism and superstition will only prevent progress.
This was written on another question on the same essential topic as this one, by a self-confessed sociopath who was officially diagnosed (other than me!) --
- Sociopaths, though born that way, are people too. To avoid an entire group of people is absurd. That's like saying, "Since these people have dark skin, everyone should completely avert themselves from them." I am a moderate sociopath, and though part of me doesn't want to change, another does. Many times it is really entertaining to see how stupid people can be, especially when they're so gullible as to believe every word that mellifluously flows from my lips. Yes, I am parasitic, but even so, there are some people I would like to stop hurting. I can't find any websites that can provide a way to help my sociopathy. Maybe people like you should stop your self-victimisation and start trying to actually help people like me! I knew I was a sociopath before the age of ten but have only recently had it officially diagnosed. I am eighteen years old now, and I have been lying and destroying others' sanity for a long time. So, please post some helpful tidbits that might help sociopaths resist the sweet urges we get when we encounter weak human beings. When you cut us, do we not bleed? When you kill us, do we not die? Do you honestly think that you're being lied to and manipulated when we sincerely ask for help. Listen to yourselves! This is the internet; ergo, you're safe from our fortified mental grasp.
The essay that follows was written in another answer by another self-admitted sociopath, who actually might not be a sociopath. Still another person added the brief comment to that effect after her tragic essay.
- umm... i kindof am one... just so y'all know, it's not so much fun being one either. i read that sentence up there, "Incapable of real human attachment to another." i don't even know what that is, i see it, i approximate it... it's like being outside a door looking through a dirty window and watching re-runs of people I've seen in love or with children or with friends, and scratching, sometimes banging at the glass to get in and... nothing. I'm fond of people in every sense of the word, their little quirks and habits, the way they see life, except if they went away it wouldn't bother me much other than finding someone else to be fond of. i don't have friends, i only date military men because they're ok with only having a girlfriend for a couple months and i tell them in advance i won't wait for them... i don't know what else to do to limit the damage i inflict on others just as a result of them knowing me, short of moving to the mountains... but i still move between 2-5 times a year :( it's kindof hard walking around knowing I'll never have what i see making other people so happy and running when i can tell someone is getting close just because i don't want to hurt them more later down the road... i'd like it alot to settle down, i WANT to be able to feel more with people, but it's hard to miss what you never had. i want what i THINK it would feel like... it'd be easy to give in and let someone stay because I'm so lonely... but hey, I've written enough, just know i try to be a responsible little sociopath, i won't ever get married or have kids, i practice safe sex, i won't stay in one city for long... everything you all take for granted i will never let myself have just because i WANT to take it for granted. being like this won't go away so hopefully i can limit the amount of hate thrown my way by limiting my interaction with people, i don't know what else to do. and you all might not belive this, but i am sorry, hopefully i can speak for the other people who have damaged your lives.
Comment: The above testimony is clearly not indicative of a sociopath because they seem to make efforts to keep from harming others, even if it doesn't benefit themselves.
I have a friend who told me he never had feelings or felt amotion he wasnt necessarily mean to people but would manipulate people for his own benefit but he said he always loved me and my bro and we always made him happy i feel like just treating him as a equal and being nice to him has given him feelings i tripped on acid with him and since then he said he started feeling feelings and emotions and treats people alot better now i hope its true either way he thinks he does and is doing good so never give up hope!
Most sociopaths look for things that are physically stimulating, such as thrill-seeking and risk, attempting to use such temporary pleasures to take the place of the constant support of interaction with other people that satisfies much of that need for nearly everyone else.
Some sociopaths look for intellectual stimulation, depending on their intelligence, access to education, and attention span.
A small but growing number of sociopaths look for a way out (other than by death) of being a sociopath. Within the next twenty years, this may not be as impossible as it may sound.
What motivates a sociopath in much of this is a nearly constant state of restlessness or need for stimulation that is experienced by some sociopaths as boredom or (more rarely) as a form of mental "static" that makes regular interpersonal relations almost impossible.
How do you describe people that talk only about themselves?
Those types of people are known as narcissists. They often think extremely highly of themselves and when at all possible find ways to talk about things they like, their opinions on things or talk up any sort of accomplishment they have had. Narcissists sometimes try to cover up by trying to down talk themselves at time so others will give them praise.
What are the characteristics and symptoms of a psychopath?
No remorse, no empathy, superficial charm, obsession with self, usually (not always) clever, cunning, liar, often narcissistic.
What does it mean when you laugh a lot even when youre angry?
It means that you're human. Laughing a lot is a good thing. Laughing when you really want to shout or throw things is probably a learned response. At some point you probably experienced validation of laughter and invalidation of anger, so you learned that if you laughed you'd get your needs met. If you wanna change that response you'll probably need assistance, either from a therapist or from an honest friend who is willing to tell you "um, dude, you're laughing when you should be angry again"
Having the indicators of one emotion while you're actually feeling another is common. Some people simply have inappropriate responses to emotional stimuli and some people learned those responses.
Personally, I cry when I'm angry. especially if I'm actually expressing that anger to someone. It contributes to misunderstandings a lot but it's easy enough to work around. I'd say your laughing thing probably is too. Being aware of it is a great step toward deciding how you want to proceed.
Were can you get help for a sociopath child?
== == And if you possibly can, find someone trained by Dr. Robert Hare of Canada; he has developed a specialized type of therapy that will help child psychopaths (sociopaths) veer off the destructive path and have the best life the illness allows!
See his BOOK, "Without Conscience," available at online bookshops, and you'll be able to understand much more.
Until a child has been tested and evaluated by a professional, do not place a label on a child. Perhaps he/she is NOT truly a psychopath - He/she may have other things going on. Let a learned, experienced and TRAINED professional decide! TAKE THE CHILD TO SEE A CHILD PSYCHOLOGIST OR CHILD PSYCHIATRIST. It may take several or many visits to properly diagnose a mental problem, disease or disorder. Your observations, comments and experiences with the child will certainly be of great value in the final diagnosis, of course. I have nothing to do with any sort of mental health occupation, but I know parents, teachers, family members and friends are NOT trained PROFESSIONALS, so WE can't decide! SHOP AROUND for someone you feel has enough experience with the age group you are targeting. If YOU feel comfortable talking with the person, and see he/she has the potential to "connect" with the child, then you have found the right person. If you feel at all uneasy, or feel no progress or feedback is happening, MOVE ON. FIND SOMEONE ELSE. Some are better than others. Go with your gut feeling...It will usually be RIGHT! Good luck!
NEW INFORMATION:
It is now known that it can be diagnosed in childhood, since the underlying brain dysfunction is present at birth.
It was up until very recently believed that children cannot be diagnosed as psychopaths; the newest research, recently published, says that it starts in the womb. The condition is inborn and, so far, incurable. But neuroscience will almost certainly be able to develop some way of compensating for and even partially correcting this terrible condition with the use of computer chips and other artificial implants in the brain, and as well a certain type of specialized inpatient therapy geared to awakening as much as is possible in the person as soon as the condition is diagnosed.
One of the problems with anything wrong with one's central nervous system is that if it's severe and pervasive enough, it can interfere with the autonomic and peripheral nervous systems as well. In psychopaths, such maladies as what was once called neurasthenia (a state of unnatural sedation) or epilepsy (seizure disorders) are far more frequent than in the general population. Many people who are not psychopaths have some of the more than 100 forms of peripheral neuropathy, but some of these may be more common in psychopaths.
The autonomic nervous system, which prepares the body for emergencies (fight-or-flight) is erratic and inefficient in a psychopath, which can, in some situations, lead to fatal accidents; human beings have adrenaline for a reason, and the sympathetic nervous system of a true psychopath is sluggish and cannot sustain arousal for long. (In Borderline Personality Disorder, the problem is the opposite: the sympathetic nervous system responds too easily, too strongly, and way too often!)
Aside from this is the fact that a true psychopath has an extremely peculiar brainwave pattern: while awake, their brain waves most resemble a hybrid of normal waking brain waves and alpha-level sleep waves. And they often tend to sleep deeply.
Emotionally, they are cold, detached, distant, and yet deeply resentful of normal people. They know they're missing something, and often spend most of their typically short, tragic lives avenging themselves on others for what they cannot ever enjoy. So they are not truly emotionless, but they do not love, do not know true joy, and are hostile and destructive.
This ISN'T the work of the Devil; it's Nature gone horribly awry. ANYTHING THAT CAN DAMAGE THE DEVELOPING NERVOUS-SYSTEM IN A FETUS OR VERY YOUNG CHILD CAN CAUSE OR SEVERELY EXACERBATE THIS CONDITION.
THAT INCLUDES STREET DRUGS, ALCOHOL, and even SMOKING!!!
It also includes some medications; check with your obstetrician before taking anything at all during your pregnancy!
During delivery, using a forceps to grasp the baby's head should be avoided if at all possible. Any touching of the area over the FONTANEL (soft spot on top of the baby's head) must be done with caution until the fontanel has closed.
Any head injury that causes dizziness -- even without loss of consciousness -- should be treated as a medical emergency.
And another thing: NEVER SHAKE YOUR BABY!!! NO MATTER WHAT!
How do you deal with a neighbor that is a sociopath?
Move out! Get far, far away from this person. Do not answer your phone when they call. Avoid making excuses for why you are moving to a new location without them, because they will say all kinds of hateful things about your character to make you feel guilty for leaving them.
Tell them you need your own space, period! If you bring up the issues about their raging, their lies, etc, it will only rouse them to more anger and they will start badgering you with, "You owe me."
You might encounter a problem such as happened to me. The manipulative, raging, needy roommate then tells lies about why she kicked me out. She told a mutual friend that I beat her up.
Then, to top it off, she moved out of our previous home and into the same apartment building I was able to escape to. Now where do I go? This person is my sister.
Is it a fact that no sociopath can be helped by therapy?
Should society institutionalize psychopaths, even if they haven't broken the law? The United Kingdom, partly in response to the 1993 abduction and murder of two-year-old James Bulger by two ten-year-olds, and partly in response to PCL-R data, is in the process of creating a new legal classification called Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorder (DSPD). As it stands, the government proposes to allow authorities to detain people declared DSPD, even if they have not committed a crime. (Sample text from one of the Web sites that have sprung up in response: "I was diagnosed with an untreatable personality disorder by a doctor who saw me for ten minutes, he later claimed I was a psychopath. . . . Please don't let them do this to me; don't let them do it to anybody. I'm not a danger to the public, nor are most mentally ill people.") Hare is a consultant on the DSPD project, and finds the potential for abuse of power horrifying. So do scientists such as Dr. Richard Tees, head of psychology at UBC, a colleague of Hare's since 1965. "I am concerned about our political masters deciding that the PCL-R is the silver bullet that's going to fix everything," he says. "We'll let people out [of prison] on the basis of scores on this, and we'll put them in. And we'll take children who do badly on some version of this and segregate them or something. It wasn't designed to do any of these things. The problems that politicians are trying to solve are fundamentally more complicated than the one that Bob has solved." So many of these awkward questions would vanish if only there were a functioning treatment program for psychopathy. But there isn't. In fact, several studies have shown that existing treatment makes criminal psychopaths worse. In one, psychopaths who underwent social-skills and anger-management training before release had an 82 percent reconviction rate. Psychopaths who didn't take the program had a 59 percent reconviction rate. Conventional psychotherapy starts with the assumption that a patient wants to change, but psychopaths are usually perfectly happy as they are. They enrol in such programs to improve their chances of parole. "These guys learn the words but not the music," Hare says. "They can repeat all the psychiatric jargon -- 'I feel remorse,' they talk about the offence cycle -- but these are words, hollow words." Hare has co-developed a new treatment program specifically for violent psychopaths, using what he knows about the psychopathic personality. The idea is to encourage them to be better by appealing not to their (non-existent) altruism but to their (abundant) self-interest. "It's not designed to change personality, but to modify behaviour by, among other things, convincing them that there are ways they can get what they want without harming others," Hare explains. The program will try to make them understand that violence is bad, not for society, but for the psychopath himself. (Look where it got you: jail.) A similar program will soon be put in place for psychopathic offenders in the UK. "The irony is that Canada could have had this all set up and they could have been leaders in the world. But they dropped the ball completely," Hare says, referring to his decade-old treatment proposal, sitting on a shelf somewhere within Corrections Canada. Even if Hare's treatment program works, it will only address the violent minority of psychopaths. What about the majority, the subclinical psychopaths milling all around us?
GOOD QUESTION. Some PERSONAL observations:
Maybe part of why people won't "admit" this is that it doesn't have to remain true!!! Things are changing. And some people -- including Dr. Robert Hare of Canada -- are very strongly motivated to help sociopaths. One other thing the above info didn't mention: NO, IT IS NOT TRUE THAT SOCIOPATHS ARE PERFECTLY HAPPY AND HAVING AN ENDLESS PARTY!!! To put it crudely, being a sociopath sucks!! I am NOT having FUN!!!
Is antisocial disorder and narcissism the same thing?
No. But they are on the SAME spectrum. Narcissism at the "lower" end and ASPD on the "higher" end.
All ASPDs are Narcissists
Not all Narcissists are ASPDs... yet
this is why they share many traits. What distinguishes them is the severity of those traits.
Should sociopaths raise children?
That depends on the sociopath, but generally we would expect them to be treated as tools or objects rather than people, since that is the way sociopaths view others. Behavior could range from sexual exploitation to physical and emotional abuse, but the lot of a sociopath's child is never a happy one.
Can a person be both a sociopath and narcissistic?
Having Lived with a borderline NPD there are a few key differences... A true narcissist is almost totally wrapped up in themselves, and the entire world revolves around their needs and desires. The borderline I lived with had moments of minor concern for others, to a point of actually seeming to care how I felt or what I needed... She bought me a large tool box for Christmas, and had to lug it into the front room. It was to large to lift, but she managed to wrap it sitting on the floor. The tol box was a great thought for a present, but, I was constantly reminded of how much she cared for me because of the extra effort she had to go through to get it into the house and wrap it etc... and she usually reminded me when others were around... just to re-enforce my acknowledgement of how much she cared about me because of what she did... subtle but mostly it was about her... Thank the stars I am living alone now... after 10 yeaars I just had to 'walk away' from that abusive relationship...but still got a lawyer to protect my interest in the material properties...
Think of a continuum, with Sensitivity at one extreme end and Insensitivity at the other.
A Narcissist is close to the Insensitivity end, but a Borderline is close to the Sensitivity end.
A Narcissist is halfway psychopathic. The difference is that they do have normal emotions. But they have no empathy.
A Borderline can often be empathic to a fault, taxing his or her strength and putting others before him or herself until it becomes health-threatening.
Borderlines have an extremely alert cerebral cortex and are easily excited. And they are most often excruciatingly sensitive. Often, they also have an overbearing and self-punishing conscience.
AnswerThere are many similarities. Actually the Borderline and Narcissist both are wrapped up in their own universe with little or no concern for others and how their behavior affects others. However the N is wrapped up in his own self image and buries his emotions while the BPD is wrappd up in their imediate needs and have no control over their own emotions. The BPD is capable of empathy however because they have feelings for themselves as far as pain rejection etc. She only seems to empathize with you for a while only and *ONLY IF* it pertains to her universe.NPD expects others to revolve around his universe as if to be a satellite dependent on worshipping him as a god. While the BPD wraps her universe around you as if to FUSE your very existense to themselves, you are her universe. Both NPD and BPD are extremely fearfull of abandonment but handle it in two different ways. BPD will cling to you while the NPD ever concious of his self image will abandon you before you have a chance to abandon him. Both of them have excessive Rage emotions built up. The BPD will dump on you while the NPD dumps you alltogether. ( I use male for NPD and female for BPD because that is how the genders are likey to be diagnosed - however either geneder can suffer from either disorder)
BPD has an arrested emotional development set at age three while NPD is set at age six. Some authorities suggest its all all along the same continuim as Narcissistic Personality Disorder. With NPD at one end and BPD at the other. They are both in the same "B" cluster of personality disorders also with histrionic and antisocial personality disorders. IN fact many BPDS have been co-morbidly diagnosed as also having NPD. The degree of functionality among three of them is something like this Histrionics are more able to function in society than narcisssists who in turn fare better than Borderlines.
Those close to Borderline or Narcissist will find ways to deal with them are very much the same. Also the effect they have on others close to them are stikingly similar. Manipulating, lies, deception, self centeredness. and most of all a complete lack of concern for anyone but themselves. They just chose to cover it up in different ways.
I know all this because my so called "mother" was a full blown (diagnosed) Borderline Personality Disorder and eventually got locked up because of it. I have also had two "relationships" with NPDs decades apart. Looking back the characteristics of them were nearly identical to Mommie dearest. They just concaeled their true intentions better. The first one I had no realization what was going on until it was too late and I'd been burned - Bad. the second one i found out just in time and GOT OUT!
Anyone that has been raised by a borderline or narcissist will have a tendency to attract N's because they have already been "trained". If you even think you are getting involved with one of either get out now. They are nothing more than a parasite set to suck the very life out of you.
***Many people with BPD can and do recover if they are willing to get help and examine how their actions have affected others. Because they can empathize - just like a 3 year old can - it is possible for them to "grow up" mentally and emotionally with the help of a therapist/psychiatrist/support group. Doctors used to believe that is was very difficult to treat BPDs but are now finding that those diagnosed in their 20s often overcome many of their BPD behaviors by their 30s. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO ABANDON a loved one with BPD. It's just like dealing with an alcoholic - you may have to pull away in order for them to get help, but once they do, they can see the error in their ways.
i was diagnosed Borderline and i have almost recovered now. its taken 7 years. but i didn't try find my identity in another person, i felt i didnt really have an identity and didnt like myself so i tried to use other things to gain a sense of being. at the same time i often felt very in need of compliment sto bolster my fluctuating ego.
AnswerBoth disorders tend to over-emphasize the centrality of the person who has the disorder in the wider scope. The differences tend to be in terms of motivation and the payoff.
BPD tend to be heavily driven by a bipolar fear - fear of being hurt through intimate exposure of themselves to others, and fear of being isolated and abandoned. One may argue that these are two sides of the same fear, but with regards to the social expression of this fear, it results in rapid and unpredictable flip-flopping between adoration and repulsion.
NPD tend to be heavily driven by autoerotic interest - pleasing themselves takes on a higher priority than fearing retribution, although high profile NPDs also tend to share paranoia - they seek to defend their perfect image of themselves and are easily frustrated by confrontations or challenges to their self-image.
Both disorders can result in the individual losing all sense of boundaries of self due to lack of emotional discipline. The difference is often that BPD will recognize and admit that they have feelings of inadequacy and will even use expression of those feelings to prevent isolation. NPD will never recognize such feelings - the external world serves either to support their grandiosity or it cowers in secretive jealousy.
Both disorders also include the attitude that they are special cases and therefore have special entitlements or are above the law. In the case of BPD, this can result in erratic stalking behavior or pre-emptive defense tactics that come off to stable individuals as excessive and/or overtly aggressive. In the case of NPD, this results in exploitative behavior towards any who are perceived as weak, poor, naive, etc. Many sexual abuse cases involve NPD - often with children who were also raised by NPD parents and are thereby groomed to respond to the emotional needs of adults. NPD patients often struggle with pornography and narcotics addictions.
Both disorders utilize deceit. BPD will unconsciously rescript historical events in order to justify their behavior and avoid shame and ostracism. Deceit for a BPD is closer to an involuntary trauma response. NPD will consciously fabricate historical events to portray a reflection of their ideal self-image. Deceit for an NPD is a form of willful self-delusion.
BPD has slightly better treatment odds than NPD - though both disorders are very challenging for any therapist to treat. In most cases treatment stops either because of the client's grandiosity or paranoia. At times treatment stops when clients become too much of a drain on the therapist's psyche or time schedule.
ive known my whole life im diffrent from everyone else after researching it id say im defenitly a sociopath i dont feel guilt just agitation at gettin caught!
Why are sociopaths attracted to you?
You are sending behavioral messages that indicate that you are a potential willing victim. This is not your fault, and you are probably completely unaware of what you're doing, but it is something that you need to discuss with a professional or it will end up causing you more grief than it has already.
Is it possible to be a sociopath with Schizophrenia?
It is not impossible for a person with a sociopathic personality to become schizophrenic, although one diagnosis does not really relate to the other in any meaningful way as far as predicting outcome. Sociopathy is related to personality traits that are glib, self interested, shallow emotionally, manipulative, and destructive. Schizophrenia is a disorder of the brain that makes a person see, hear, taste, feel, and think things that are not baised on reality. The two really are not related to each other.
What do you do if you know a sociopath?
The parent of a psychopath/sociopath child should love the child anyway. Because to turn your back on your child because they are born different is not the way to raise your kids. I speak from experience when I say that. My own parents gave up on me when I was around 12 or so. They realized that my incessant lying, stealing and manipulation of everyone around me was never going to get any better. When they realized that I was actually incapable of loving them, they stopped showing any love or affection towards me. While I don't blame them because now as an adult I understand that they were just trying to protect themselves, I still think it was the wrong thing to do. We all became strangers living in the same house. We never interacted and that isolation combined with the void that I felt inside, left me a very cold person inside. Maybe I would have ended up like this anyway, who knows. But I do know that the way I was raised only helped exacerbate my condition and has virtually made any type of loving and intimate relationship with anyone extremely unlikely. The only thing good I can say about the way I was raised was that being alone all the time gave me much time for reflection on myself. Even though I had no concept of 'psychopath/sociopath' at the time, I knew that something was wrong with me. The lack of feelings and the disconnection from the world around me was a very hard thing to deal with when you are a teenager. I was very lucky that in my younger days I didn't do anything to screw my life up for good. I was able to figure out a way to act so that while I always was viewed as different, people really had no idea how different I actually was. I was able to hide who I was to a degree. I mention this because it is important to do this because when you are a minor, your parents can have you put into a institution against your will. I was very careful to make sure that my parents never felt that their life was threatened by me because I knew that they would lock me up at the slightest hint that I was dangerous to them. I managed to find other ways to indulge myself without endangering my freedom. Even with all the effort I was putting in to being 'normal', I still was a very troubled child with a background of expulsion's, suspensions, arrests and things of that nature. Lying was the way I talked. I used to always wonder why I lied so much and why I enjoyed it so much. The point I am trying to make is that being what I am was hard enough, but when you add the fact that my parents turned their back on their own son, because of something that I had no control over was wrong. I understand that they had to protect themselves and all that, but how they raised me was cowardly. Just because your child may be incapable of deep profound emotion, doesn't mean you throw them out to the cold, harshness of the world. Because as any genuine 'psycho' will tell you, that will only make us worse. I might have never been capable to love for real, but I will never know because instead of taking responsibility for their own actions, my parents decided to quit and pout because I didn't act like they thought a child should act. If you really want to know how to raise your 'psychopath/sociopath' child, my only advice to be brutally honest with them. Never try to B.S. them, because all that does is piss us off, and make us look at you as weak. Always be aware that your child is observing you all the time and assessing your strengths and weaknesses so as to find a better way to attack you. Try to remember that this is just a natural part of the way they think and that it isn't directed at you personally. Although it might be, I don't know your home life. I can only speak from my own life and I can say that for me, nothing is or was ever personal. So that is it, it isn't pretty but it is the truth. Now if you choose to raise your kids like my parents raised me, just be ready for your kids to never talk to you again. I have very infrequent contact with my own parents and I anticipate that it will be no contact in a very short while. While I harbor no ill will toward them, I also feel no need to deal with them anymore. It is like they don't exist, except in my memories.
How do you tell a sociopath that they are a sociopath?
If the victim has not seen this by now (and I sure they have) they either are too frightened or are in denial. It's best to keep out of it because it's a no win situation. Sometimes as much as it hurts us when we see a good friend or family member in a bad situation a few words of wisdom are good, but if they choose not to do anything with your wise words, then it's time to butt out and let them deal with it as best they can.
Except if the person being abused is in real physical danger, in which you might very well notify the authorities and be prepared to offer whatever kind of help is feasible without putting yourself in danger; check out websites for domestic abuse survival.
The current wisdom is not to "back off" but for friends and family to get, if necessary, very aggressive about helping the abused person break free. Where someone's life is in danger, who cares about propriety?
And if the abused woman in that question has children, that makes calling the authorities mandatory -- literally. At least here in New York State, it's ILLEGAL to ignore and fail to report child abuse!
How can you tell if someone is a sociopath?
So, ask yourself. Is he/she scatterbrained and flighty? Does he have trouble in concentrating on more than one thing at a time, to the point that he can endanger his safety or that of others? Does he fly into a rage at the slightest thing? Is he controlling and manipulative? Does he "have to" get rough to have sex? Does he lie a lot, or, if not, at least does he twist and slant the truth and leave out crucial details?
Even if it's "yes" to most of these things, it could be something else.
But it is best to find out.
Numerous websites on the Internet will tell you that research using brain scanning technology has recently revealed that the brain of a psychopath functions and processes information differently.
Are you involved with a psychopath (extreme sociopath)? You may not know because they can be very charming and friendly and can appear to be altruistic, until you get close and inevitably they do something threatening or immoral and then you must set limits that disappoint them. 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.)
But, don’t assume anyone is a psychopath based only on the person’s apparent attitude and behavior. It is far more complex than that, including factors in the pattern of the person's life and many other characteristics. Please don’t go around assuming or calling someone a psychopath just because he/she may have some of the warning signs. Get a professional opinion from a qualified mental health professional if you think you are involved with a psychopath. And then ask what to do, not only for the psychopath but for yourself, because being involved with a psychopath is risky.
No, sociopaths by definition are incapable of loving...
Sociopaths usually neglect or even abuse their children, because they are not able to form attachments to any other human beings if not treated.
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 everyone involved.
That's basically the whole world!
Some newer studies indicate that the real total of psychopaths (for both genders) is FOUR percent of the population.
Two books just out, Martha Stout's "The Sociopath Next Door" and Robert Hare, PhD.'s "Without Conscience," are very informative and readable, if disturbing.
A sociopath is a person who, usually due to a congenital brain disorder but sometimes due to trauma to the brain suffered after birth, cannot process emotional information the way other people do. The resulting lack of connection to other people, and the terrible frustration this brings, are the reasons for the behavior of a sociopath.
The two books mentioned tell a lot, but they do not tell everything. On the Internet there are actually blogs by diagnosed sociopaths aimed at getting other people to try to grasp what is going on with them.
Sociopaths understand intellectually (cognitively) what they cannot understand emotionally. So, depending how you look at it, they do not KNOW the harm they do, but they are aware of it in the most detached and unemotional sense.
People are liars because they can't handle the truth. Lying is not limited to a single gender. Why a man might tell lies could include the following reasons:
1. He feels his ego is threatened. He is invested in a certain image of himself, and when there are inconsistencies, he may resolve them by lying.
2. He may lie to protect his privacy or to create distance. Men typically don't like being mothered, and they may find being taken care of to be demeaning. So he may lie to attempt to prevent nurturing behaviors in others.
3. He may lie to keep others from worrying needlessly. A public servant might tell their spouse on the phone something other than the true nature of their work to try to shield them from some of the worry. What wife wouldn't worry if her husband called her and said he was in the middle of defusing a bomb?
4. Sometimes he may lie for noble reasons. For instance, a police officer called a man to tell him something happened to his family. There were 2 fatalities and the officer just said everyone was injured and to come to the hospital. The officer admitted he lied and said it was for the father's own good, that he didn't want him to wreck on the way.
5. He did something wrong, broke a vow, or has a guilty conscience.
How do you end a relationship with a sociopath?
I am a diagnosed sociopath so I answer this question from my own experience.
This is a yes and no sort of question.
With some people I drop them on the dime when they have nothing more to offer to me. That was the entire person of getting ahold of them first. I can look right through people and I love the pleasure of pain and gain.
Be it, their pain helps me gain what I want and I either find their suffering amusing or I don't care. I never have. If you have nothing more for me to take, I leave you behind. You are, and always have been, worthless. A pawn in my game.
Now go to the next part and I have 'broken it off' with this man many a time before... but I always yank him back because it excites me. I enjoy the thrills of our relationship and I love the thrill of him cheating on his girlfriends and I love it even more when they find out and they are broken hearted. I won. I won. I won. He's mine, not yours.
But I only keep him around because he offers something, entertainment. Even if he were to stop talking to me today I would feel a jolt of agitation or sadness for a moment, but not for the reasons a normal person would. Then just like that it is gone. The feeling is there but its so remarkably short lived that it does not effect me.
So yes and no is the answer.
It all depends on the person, and the taste the sociopath has.
Are there different degrees of a sociopath?
Speaking from my experience I think that there probably are different levels. However they are so clever at disguising their behaviour and have you have been so sucked into believing in them that you will think that they are over it. I thought so as I believe there were times when it wasnt in full swing. Clever manipulative abusive (verbally ) controlling and great at mirroring you or someone they like. Even down to the same haircut. To answer the question then ..................I am really not sure. As I said i though that we were over the lying behaviour but I was to find out that it came and went. Mostly came with other people as he lied to them like you wouldn't have believed. His final words were This town is doing my head in. No his head was already done in. I have studied a lot about the life of a sociopath and I reckon there is a core personality disorder which is the same in most sociopaths. Enviroment has a lot to do with the way they react. But remember they are secretive and have no conscience so how will we ever know what level they are??
How does someone get out of control of a sociopath?
Unfortunately, sociopathies are character disorders, and cannot be cured, at least by any technique known at this time. What you can do is try and set a specific set of "rules" of behavior a true sociopath can learn by rote. If this is done well, it can ease a lot of the difficulties the sociopathic client experiences.
See the Related Links for "deviantcrimes.com: sociopathy" to the bottom for the answer.
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.
In her book, Martha Stout expresses the hope that people in general will stop excluding groups of other people as less than human -- ethnic, racial, the disabled, and even the mentally ill -- except for one group among the latter. It's apparently perfectly okay to dismiss one group alone of people as less than human, and she does: the sociopaths. And many other people do, too.
And sociopaths know that. And people whose messed-up brain circuitry makes it almost impossible for them to trust others certainly aren't ever going to try again after getting hit with THAT.
Sociopaths don't always behave as though they're invulnerable. Some have said, "You don't know this, but it hurts to be me." People sneeringly say to this, "Another of your miserable lies!" But it is in fact a miserable truth.
Being angry at them is understandable, but why do people insist on justifying their anger by dehumanizing the object of their rage? Sociopaths may seem like aliens, but they aren't. Perhaps what really galls the others is that when they look at sociopaths, in certain tiny ways they see aspects of themselves, for everyone has some antisocial thoughts.
Also, sociopaths hurt a lot of people. What seems to hurt most is the idea that the sociopath is breezing happily through life having a blast while a trail of wounded victims struggle to put their shattered lives back together.
No sociopath breezes through life. They just know how to make it look like they do. It's part of the sick game they play because they can't do much of anything else, as they are.
If sociopathy is treated instead of ignored and shunned, this won't have to happen.
Those who would have been hurt by sociopaths might not be able to fully appreciate that they escaped harm because neuroscience finally found a way to treat these people who would otherwise have hurt them, but the thing that makes the most difference is that, in the final analysis, they wouldn't have to know.
Just as science understands that epilepsy is not demonic possession, that people with dissociative conditions are not harboring ghosts or devils in their bodies, and that depression is not a "deadly sin," it would and will be able to prove that sociopathy happens for a reason and that it can be dealt with. Sociopaths do very bad things. But branding them all "pure evil" isn't going to help anyone. It's just more hate.
I have commented elsewhere that the human brain is the greatest new frontier in many ways. (Although I certainly have no lack of interest in space.) Sociopaths, along with other "hopeless cases" like people with Alzheimer's disease, Down's 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, be assured, they are well on their way to the core of this one.
And that will benefit everyone.
