This semester I taught both Forensic Psychology and Abnormal Psychology at the University of Bridgeport. The students there are an ethnically diverse group and I think are fairly representative of America’s young adult population. In both classes we discussed those individuals who have a “a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others.” I wrote antisocial personality disorder, sociopathy and psychopathy on the blackboard before we began our discussion. I then asked the students if they had heard of these terms and if they could tell me the definitions.
Only a small percentage had heard the term antisocial personality disorder, nearly everyone had heard the word sociopath, about a third had heard the word psychopath.
The next question to the students was, “What do all these terms mean?” Someone asked if antisocial personality referred to a person that didn’t like to be around others. Someone else said that psychopaths are “out of touch with reality, psychotic.” Most who heard the word sociopath associated it with criminality.
The students were shocked to discover that all three terms basically refer to the same disorder.
That same week, I spoke with an internet search expert. He told me that the term antisocial personality disorder is searched through Google about 5,000 times per day. The term psychopath is searched 60,000 times per day and the term sociopath is searched 110,000 times per day. These numbers are consistent with my survey of university students. My findings indicate that the American Psychiatric Association has done the public a great disservice with their boggled naming of the disorder.
An interesting historical fact is that this disorder used to be called “moral insanity.” Insanity is a legal term that indicates that due to mental defect a person is not responsible for his/her actions. Although many people believe that the morally insane have a mental (brain)defect there is considerable resistance to saying this absolves them of responsibility for their criminal acts.
This week we discussed the case of John W. Hinckley, Jr. the man who shot President Reagan and Mr. Brady, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a mental hospital. A psychiatrist for the prosecution, Dietz testified that Hinckley viewed his actions on March 30 as successful. “It worked,” Hinckley told Dietz in an interview. “You know, actually, I accomplished everything I was going for there. Actually, I should feel good because I accomplished everything on a grand scale….I didn’t get any big thrill out of killing–I mean shooting–him. I did it for her sake….The movie isn’t over yet.” In short, Deitz saw Hinckley as a sociopath who was grandiose and trying to impress Jody Foster with his actions, though I believe he actually diagnosed him with borderline personality.
I reflected to the class that it seems that individuals like Hinckley and Dahmer (the serial killer) should be considered special cases of sociopathy and not lumped with the rest. There are sociopaths who are so grandiose and obsessed with power that they seem to lose touch with reality. Not that they are schizophrenic and have delusions or hallucinations, but their interpretations of the world cannot be construed as “normal.”
This is actually where the term “borderline” came from, as is used today to refer to “borderline personality.” The borderline is some point between neurotic and psychotic-borderline psychotic actually. So perhaps we could consider psychopaths those sociopaths who are so afflicted that their thinking and behavior indicate they have lost their grip on reality. Some psychiatrists do think of psychopaths as the worst sociopaths.
Should those with moral insanity who commit crimes be treated differently than others? Should John Hinckley be released now that he has been judged not psychotic? These are questions for another week.
See also:
https://lovefraud.com/blog/2006/07/30/confusion-about-sociopaths-pyschopaths-and-antisocials/
If you have a personal example of a sociopath’s “loose grip on reality” please share it with us in a comment.
BloggerT, you scared me for a second. When you said you were one that “falls into this part” that Donna mentioned, I thought you were saying you were a sociopath. Phew! I thought I was gonna have to have NC from LF. LOL
Well, I tend to think in terms of animal training. You can take a “calm, nice breed” of dog and mistreat them until they will become one of two things—either viscious and attack prone, or they will cower down and belly crawl at the slightest sign of aggression.
You can take a breed of dog known for their genetic tendency for aggression and you can raise it with all the love and kindness in the world and it most likely will turn out to be true to the genes and be an aggressive animal.
You can also mistreat the aggressive animal and make it into a killer.
You can also train an aggressive breed of dog to be a “selective” killer as well, which is what attack dogs are that are used by police and military.
I had a cow once that got an object of some kind in her eye and we took her to the vet for treatment. This was such a painful operation that forever after that cow, which was a tame, non aggressive cow by nature, would become fearful and violent if you tried to get her into a chute to vaccinate her or do other routine vet procedures. She had been hurt so bad, she had decided she would kill or die before she would be put into a chute again. I left her alone and she lived another 7 years without any vaccines or wormers.
I had an old oxen who had cancer in his eye. We did an even worse surgery on his eye in order to save his life 3 times. Normally I am not squeemish about this sort of thing, but the last time I had to leave while the vet operated on him. The poor steer was so afraid and “knew what was coming” that he was literally whining in anticipation of the pain, like a dog, but he obeyed and never became aggressive at all. He whimpered (we did all we could to avoid the pain but it was not possible to avoid it all) so when he got cancer in the other eye, I chose to put him down rather than put him through the same operation again. I have had a similar operation on my own eyelid and there is no way to numb the pain other than outright unconscious sedation which we couldn’t do in the steer (and wasn’t done in my case, I just gritted my teeth and endured).
Why did one animal become violent and aggressive and the other one still docile? I’m not sure, but I think it was more the genetic disposition of the two animals as well as one was more trained than the other.
I’ve always had a “problem” doing painful things to animals and babies or people who you can’t “explain” the reason you are doing this to. I worked in a pedi ICU once for a short time and the painful things we did to those infants, I just couldn’t handle emotionally. I could logically, but not emotionally, so that was not a good match for me to work there. I had no problem doing those same procedures to adults, but I could explain the procedures to the adults, all the infants knew was that we were hurting them for long periods of time. I realize someone has to do it, but it wasn’t for me. LOL
“The same sun that hardens the clay, melts the wax.” I.e. the same conditions will have different effects on people who have different constitutions. The treatment and abuse that will turn one child into a sociopath (trained abuser) will make the other child into a victim in waiting.
Just as some children who have been sexually abused will grow up to be abusers themselves, and others will grow up champions for abused children instead.
SG – 🙂
Ox – Of course I am over simplifying things with the descriptions I give and I liked your description. The difference I see is that if you have been trained to be aggressive you can be untrained (sociopath) where as if you are aggresive by nature such as a bull shark (psychopath) then you cant no untrain something that was not trained in the first place and this is why treatment professionals have had no success with them.
One of the difficulties in research on this topic is that it is hard for even the researchers to be objective and not assign their own thoughts to certain things. I think that in Hare’s book Without conscience (93 version) where he quotes Cleckley is right on. He said:
Beauty and ugliness, except in a very superficial sense, goodness, evil, love, horror, and humour have no actual meaning, no power to move him. He is, furthermore, lacking in the ability to see that others are moved. It is as though he were colour-blind, despite his sharp intelligence, to this aspect of human existence. It cannot be explained to him because there is nothing in his orbit of awareness that can bridge the gap with comparison. He can repeat the words and say glibly that he understands, and there is no way for him to realize that he does not understand (Cleckley, 1941, p. 90 quoted in Hare, 1993, pp. 27-28).
In that same book Hare points out the part about psychopathy appearing in the very young:
One particularly striking feature of psychopathy is that extremely violent and antisocial behaviour appears at a very early age, often including casual and thoughtless lying, petty theft, a pattern of killing animals, early experimentation with sex, and stealing (Hare, 1993, p. 158).
Hi Liz Conley:
You’re probably right. My ex is a Sociopath. I forgot to add to my list that he has 7 kids with 5 different women. He never really bonded with any of the moms or the kids. He does have that last one living with him who is now 12 years old. This boy lived with me and my ex last school year. I see the sociopathic traits in the boy as well. He failed 4th grade two times in a row. This is because he was able to get over on his mom whom he lived with telling her he had no homework all the time and also pretending to be sick and not going to school all the time. He has asthma but was faking being sick a lot and the mom kept him home because she was concerned he was really sick. Well after two years of that nonsense we had him live with us. He tried pulling the sick routine on us but that wasn’t going to work. We got him an inhaler that he could use while at school under the nurse’s supervision. He pretended one morning to vomit to get out of going and we made him go and said if he still felt bad when he got there to have the nurse call. No call from the nurse. He wasn’t doing his homework…even though we checked it every night. He wasn’t bringing home all his assignments. That was nipped in the bud too. The teacher would send home a list of assignments that his dad had to sign off they were done and return the signed paper to the teacher everyday until the teacher was comfortable that all homework was being done. He did not want to read…only wanted to watch SpongeBob and play video games. I bought him books about animals and places. He wanted books about weapons. One day, he forgot his key and busted a window to get in and told his dad a burglar must have tried to break in. His dad sat down with him and talked about lying. I would give the boy a $10 week allowance for taking out the garbage and making his bed and rinsing his dishes. His Socio dad started doing his chores for him and I would get angry. Socio would tell me to but out and said I should come to him if I want to ask his kid to do anything. Now the boy saw this was good. He did things to piss me off and knew he was untouchable…I couldn’t tell him what I disliked. The kid would throw ham & cheese behind the couch if he didn’t like his sandwich. I would find used Q-tips under my buffet. Just stupid stuff but I hated the fact that I had to complain to daddy. The kid was disrespecting me and dad was ok with that. Then when Dad started his 8 long affair with the OW behind my back, he was taking the boy to sleep over her house once or twice a week…after he gaslighted me and started fights as an excuse to get out of the house. The kid was instructed not to tell. As far as I knew, they were going to Dad’s friend’s house (male).
I wonder if this kid is going to make it and not turn into a sociopath. His dad has exposed him to the game as to how he uses women to get free room and board, food, clothes, use of a car, computer, etc. At least he’ll finish high school now though. He passed the 4th grade last year with A’s & B’s. He may also skip a grade ahead to get to the grade he’s suppose to be in if he repeats last year’s performance.
Today, I did feel sorry for the current girlfriend. I know what I went through working to support the dad and his son and getting spit on. She is now me. They have lived in her home
6 months now. This man has not lasted with any woman over 2 years. He already had his claws in her and on her home way before he discarded me. She was already a trained animal by the time they moved in. I will say prayers for her tonight.
Iwonder: When I was in Catholic school, I was in detention every single day after school. I was always wondering what it was that I did to warrant detention. Even on those days I wasn’t up to anything, I was in detention. I could never figure it out.
Anyway, the nuns would sit at the front and back of the classes as another nun walked up and down the isles watching everyone delligently reading and doing their homework. We could not leave detention until we showed that our homework was completed … and the nuns checked our names off our teachers list that each assignment was completed.
It wasn’t until I was in my late 20’s sitting at my brother and sister-in-laws home … that my brother admitted he was the person who told the Dean of Girls that I was too busy socializing with friends after school and that I needed to study and do my homework.
I couldn’t believe it. My older brother ratted me out … and I was so good that year … I could have had a blast during the day … knowing I’d be in detention either way. (LOL)
Anyone that doesn’t do their homework on their own … just ensure they are in detention after school.
Peace.
Wini: “When I was in Catholic school, I was in detention every single day …”
That’s because they cared about you. You can’t get that sort of common sense parenting help out of an American Public School, and it’s desperately needed. So many people are trying to parent with the extra stress of step-children, single parenthood, Grandparents and even Great-grandparents trying to raise kids, bad employment situations and dangerous urban neighborhoods.
Iwonder offered the “stepchild” ten bucks a week for doing a few simple chores. This is basic good parenting, and I’m not surprised the S father couldn’t wrap his head around the concept. Ss are dumber than dirt when it comes to child discipline and teaching ethics. She talks about a 12 year old kid in 4th grade for the 2nd or 3rd time, and my blood boils. I started home schooling for many reasons. Among my reasons was the absolute cluelessness of a school system that expected sweet, normal 9 year old boys to thrive in the same classroom with dysfuntional 12 year olds. It seemed like I spent my entire day, every day, just trying to keep my kids from being abused. It took me more time to keep my thumb on the teachers all day and do homework with the kids in the evenings than it now takes me to homeschool.
You wanna talk about freedom – freedom is not having to ride herd on those loons down at the public elementary school all day in order to keep your kids safe. Freedom is knowing they’re getting a good education, and not having to brown nose a bunch of goofball teachers to get the job done.
I wonder,
I was with a sociopath for two years. he has two adult daughters and I can tell you the result of being raised by a sociopath who overindulges, defends the bad behavior of his children, and lives his life in the embarrassment of their behavior and appearance. I DO believe overindulgence and lack of discipline is a form of abuse. His oldest went to law school. She is highly intelligent but she can’t have an intelligent social conversation but she can quote case law. She is a sociopath and behaves like she is socially retarded. She spent one Christmas dinner talking constantly about how she saw Britney Spears’ vagina on the internet, then laughed about how her future mother in law was appauled at a Sunday brunch when she discussed it with the family. Even my teenagers were appauled. She can’t look you in the eyes when she talks, but when she does look at you it’s with a hateful piercing. I don’t think she will ever work. She was married for five months but could not support herself. her father gave her $1000.00 per month for support and still she needed $800 for parking tickets, $500 for a light bill never paid…… totally irresponsible and entitled.
She and her younger sister were abusive to him and me. They were pierced, pink hair, bad language, hated everyone….. an he defended them every step of the way. They embarrased me in front of friends….talking about their father’s hairy ass. (and how do they know this?) They were rude obnoxious, sent me nasty emails. I overheard several conversations he had with his oldest who told him he is not worthy to be her father if he continues seeing me and how she hates me…… he was driven by this fear of losing her because that would mean his x wife has won and I TRULY believe that’s all he cared about….. It’s sick and the whole family is dysfunctional. i can’t begin to tell you all the stories of drama created by these adult girls who are full of hate.
thank you all for your stories. I especially appreciated the opinions of Dissociate. I really felt that this sums up all that I a dealing with in my new husband. I am not in a position to leave him so i must deal with it as it comes. My last post here did not get any response other than to get away as fast as i can. I want you to understand that as the layers have been peeled away from my husband, he is nothing more than a scared child striking out at anything that gets in his way, and then again he is a brutal unthinking animal, then again he enjoys hurting those close to him for what he thinks someone else did to him (coward). I used to hate him but now i feel sorry for him. He is a total liar, lying about things so people will fear him, or pretend he is a good person so people will like him (or women will love him), yes i will leave when i can but in the meantime i don’t talk to him and i act like the perfect wife, keep my mouth shut, and do not give him physical affection. Who knows what name this illness is, it crosses over into so many different named disorders. All i know is there is no evil or good there, although some would call it evil the things he does, but he also does some good things like helping people. What drives him, i don’t know, he seems like an empty vessel and he copies what others do or say sometimes. Am I rambling here?
It’s gonna be OK badkarma2. Just remember, you do not deserve to be treated like toilet paper.
Are you absolutely sure you can’t leave? What’s stopping you?
A coyote in a trap will gnaw off its limb to get free. People who escape from Ss, Ps and Ns usually do so by being willing to let go of material possessions. I can’t hold myself up as an example, but I’ve written of quite a bit in order to cut ties with one N and one S. Most of the people here have sacrificed far, far more. Sooner or later you realize that the things you must sacrifice are merely things. You are a person and people are more important than things.
As soon as an S, N or P gets abusive, the abuse typically escalates. Expect to lose money, expect to lose social ties, expect to lose status, expect to get beat up eventually, expect to have to reconstruct your self image after everything is said and done.
Get Away As Fast As You Can.
Love,
The Survivor’s’ Club
P.S. I could regain a few hundred dollars worth of material goods if I were willing to risk possible exposure to the S. No way. He likes keeping the objects from me far more than I want them back. Let him enjoy the hollow victory, and I don’t have to risk his getting POd enough to pursue me.
Ss, Ps, and Ns teach us what really matter in life. We’re all richer from having absorbed the lesson. Let them revel in the things they’ve taken from us. The last laugh is ours, because in the end those things are simply things. They don’t have us.