A True Sociopath In Society?

Question

It seems to me that allot of woman or men are considering a sociopath as someone who mistreated them or betrayed them(an a*****e) but I've been studying about sociopaths and I think a majority of people are getting the wrong idea..Sociopaths are rare at least I think a true sociopath is...From what im understanding a sociopath is a lifelong disorder and I think its allot more rare then most people think...Just read about sociopaths not allot of people meet that category unless there serial killers..So my question is what do you think a sociopath is in your own words?

Answer 1

i think most people realize that its not that common but use the term loosely to define people they see as bad. when i think of the word i think of serial killers.  

Answer 2

Ppl with Antisocial Personality Disorder lack emotion, empathy and compassion.  They tend to live outside the law.  The can be manipulative whether it be thru charm or cohersion.  They often don't care what others think about them.  As with all medical and mental illnesses, there are degrees.  Some are your serial killers, but on the other end of the spectrum are those who might just be verbally abusive and not care much about other's feelings.  The labels sociopath and psychopath are primarily popular terms and not mental health ones.  There are no clinical definitions for them, which is why they mean different things to different ppl.  As with majnun99's answer, this is consistent with DSM IV.

Answer 3

hmm lets see... someone with no feelings or emotions who has violent urges and acts on them.

Answer 4

The reason why people are called sociopaths is because they hurt their "friends".

Real sociopaths cannot feel love or compassion for other people.  So they fake this emotion and when their victim gets close, they inflict maximum damage.  This can be financial, sexual, or even egotistical gain.  

Answer 5

Sociopathy is basically the same thing as Antisocial Personality Disorder in the DSM-IV (published by the American Psychiatric Association). But the word "sociopath" is more often used in places other than mental health settings, so the word may sometimes be used for people who have never been formally diagnosed.

Antisocial Personality Disorder is basically a pattern of behavior since childhood that includes a lack of empathy for others, a sense of impulsiveness, and feeling of entitlement ("there are rules, but they don't apply to me"), usually includes a history illegal acts, physical fights and destructiveness. People with this disorder may have a superficial charm and the ability to manipulate others.

I worked in mental health since 1987, and it's not rare at all. I have heard of hundreds, probably thousands of people with Antisocial Personality Disorder that had been diagnosed by psychiatrists. Some of them had actually killed people but none of them were serial killers. Some of them didn't even have a significant arrest record that I know of.

I think "sociopath" has become a word for popular usage, media and fiction than a real clinical word. That's at least true in the USA. I don't know enough about mental health terminology in the UK to comment.  

Answer 6

it s a psychopath

Answer 7

Well, as someone who was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder (sociopathy) I can tell you exactly what one is.

It is not someone who is necessarily verbally abusive, violent, a murder/serial killer, or any of the other commonly held misconceptions about the personality. It's not necessarily that boyfriend/husband who lied and cheated and doesn't seem to care (I hear women labeling an ex as a sociopath far more than men labeling an ex as such, guys generally say she was crazy/insane).

Those kinds of people can be found amongst sociopaths, yes, but they can also be found among those who do not fit the classification of a sociopath at all.

I don't think it can even *really* be called a disorder, in the sense of how the word is generally used. It's not something that's gone wrong with the person, it's merely who they are, what their personality is like. It's just that their personality type doesn't exactly mesh with the typical notion of "what it means to be human".

There's a lot of people who believe they are sociopaths, or try to label them as sociopaths because they want to be a "rebel", or because they dislike people, or whatever their reasons for it are. This is absurd, and just goes to show they do not understand what a sociopath is.

The most basic, stripped away definition I can give you is this:

A sociopath is an individual who is incapable of forming or experiencing an emotional connection/attachment to anybody else.

This does not mean they are emotionless themselves, or incapable of reading emotions, but it does mean that they do not connect with other people.

The best way to illustrate what I'm talking about is to give an example from my own childhood:

When I was a child, not even 10 years old yet, my parents informed me and my sister that they had written a will. During this discussion my parents stated that if something should ever happen to them, one of our uncles would look after us. My father's brother was designated as our guardian. I quite enjoyed this particular uncle, since he was always funny and entertaining. Because I thought it would be more fun under his care than under my parent's, I began hoping that my parents would die in a car accident so that I'd get to live with the uncle. I can recall even praying for that to happen.

Now my parents weren't bad parents. They weren't neglectful, I wasn't ignored or treated badly by them. I just felt I'd have more fun with my uncle, and felt no emotional reaction to the thought of my parent's dying.

That is essentially how a sociopath operates. There are no emotional connections to other people, there's nothing that creates a bond between them and others. Without that bond, people fall into 4 categories:

1) People who can do something for them.

2) People who they find entertaining.

3) People they can use in some way to get something.

4) Worthless people. In other words, ones that don't fit those above 3 categories.

The terms family, friend, colleague, neighbour etc do not matter. Everyone will fit into one of those categories. That is the social structure for a sociopath, not "people I care about, people I'm close to, people I grew up with, etc."

Because of that it can be argued that it's easier for a sociopath to turn violent or be deceptive, since without feeling an emotional reaction to the person they don't feel guilt about their actions, but that doesn't mean ALL sociopaths will be that way.

Myself, I'm actually an illustrator, having done work with children's books, among other projects. I've never killed anyone, I'm not a rapist, a con-artist, or any other kind of criminal. How your average sociopath views and "values" people may be different than the norm, but 'different' is a far cry from killing them.