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.
Yeah I didnt mean for the parenthesis to stop it being an active URL.
BloggerT7165: Yes Sante, what a pip that one was. Notice the difference of the 2 sons … oldest one has a mind of his own and stayed away from her … physically moved away from her … NO CONTACT … and younger son, weaker personality falls into her clutches … and, peer pressure, does what she wants him to do… aka if I don’t do what mommy wants … I’m not going to be dotted on …. or any of the bennies he got from mommy … favorite son routine.
From the movie, youngest son was coming into his own during H.S. and mom was incarcerated for a few years … then she gets out and pulls him right into her scamming.
Fear factor at it’s utmost. Afraid of not having money after her last husband died …then started on her murdering spree for the car, getting to NY, the old woman with the brownstone …
And if the movie is a correct depiction of real life … the son had enough and sold her out in court … didn’t want to go further with the deny, deny, deny routine.
Peace.
The movie was, as movies usually are, sorta correct. That was the trial in California in 2004. Their first trials were years before that in NY. In fact in 2001, Kenny grabbed a t.v. reporter during a jailhouse interview and threatened to harm her with a pen, demanding that his mother not be extradited to California to face trial on charges of murder. He only “turned” on her fully in later trial after he had been away from her for years. The movie does no justice to the antics and con’s she tried to pull even while locked up and during the trials.
BloggerT7165: I can imagine what she tried to pull … I lived it … working where I did with the likes of Sante … actually, some of my co-workers … especially my last boss that I sued … made Sante look like she was sleeping.
Sante was different than the sharks I worked with. Sante was on her own, working from scratch … with her wits to work for her. The sharks I work with have the system to use against folks. More dangerous … there aren’t the bodies to find like Sante had to do … but, the murdering of people’s careers and the public are bad enough. It’s all about destruction with them. Destroy another because they want something … greed again.
Peace.
Wini I like to use this video (link below) as an example of someone who is quite free with the truth and evades even when confronted with it continues to play games with with it. Go to 6:12 on the video to see what I mean (and note how many times he has been in trouble with the law previously)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN5ihrECJms&eurl=http://video.aol.com/video-detail/john-stossel-exposes-liar-kevin-trudeau/879165204
FYI in Oct 2008 he, again, was banned from infomercials for three years, ordered to pay more than $5 million for false claims about weight-loss book. http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/10/trudeau.shtm
I read the book about Sante about two years ago. Cant recall the name of it at the moment, but it was a really good read. Wini, she did all the “conning” “backstabbing” things like you mention, PLUS murder.
On the earlier posts where the bloggers were talking about whether their ex would say “I’m sorry”. Mine would say I’m sorry to me, family, or to other people and even go so far as to grovel if it’d get him what he wanted at the moment. Didn’t bother him in the least to apologize. Sorry was just another “tool” of a word to him. Of course, once he got whatever he wanted, he’d turn right around and do again whatever he was “sorry” for. Happened over and over and over again, like I said, not only with me, but with others. The words “I’m Sorry” are as easily said by some psychopaths, IMO, as the words “I love you”. There is not emotional connection to the words, so it is no big deal to them to say them.
Mine could never say “I’m sorry.” I once asked why. His reasoning was that sorry doesn’t do anything. Sorry can’t take back what he did. I tried to explain that saying I’m sorry is so important because even though it doesn’t take things back, it makes the person you hurt feel that you actually feel bad. I guess he never really felt bad about hurting people.
BloggerT7165: Don’t take what I am going to say to you as an insult … and I’m sorry about the pain you had in to endure during your childhood … but your bio on your blog site is hysterical … you really are very comical. I know you were being serious, but I was laughing all the times you talked about your near death experiences.
Oh, and I broke my right ankle when I was a kid. I was always spraining that ankle and my mom just assumed I really sprained it bad that time, worse than the others … so she kept me in bed for a day, then the next day, made me get up and go out and play. I remember the pain ripping through my face as I first tried to step down on it. My mom was there watching me and said, come on you can do it. So I did … I took off to play with my friends and it never bothered me again.
Anyway, a couple of years ago I broke this same ankle while walking and falling on black ice. Went to emergency room … X-rayed and sure enough … definitely broken … but told me that I broke it there before many moons ago (aka as a kid).
Bottom line. In the military … if you are infantry … and you break your leg or foot or ankle out in the field … they make you walk on it immediately … it’s naturally healing of your bones … if it’s the hair break or something. Castes were invented years later … to keep your break aligned correctly. But, before that … you didn’t do anything except to get up on it and walk on it … to heal the fastest.
Plus, I think we were expensive kids and our mom’s ignored some of our requests … they knew what was going on with the family finances at the time… as kids we had no clue to what money was, nor did we care.
Peace.
I dont take it as an insult Wini, its not something that can be explained easily and you would have to know my mother to see why it makes sense. When it came to medical knowledge she could have easily been a doctor. The point I was trying to make, and seem to have made poorly, was that she was put out that her 6 year old had a broken leg and now she had to have her precious time used to deal with it. So she did her stuff first then took care of dealing with a childs pain. And Wini it was obviously broken (the break was above the knee). Plus I was purposely trying to keep things vague rather than go into detail.
BloggerT7165 said: “The point I was trying to make, and seem to have made poorly, was that she was put out that her 6 year old had a broken leg and now she had to have her precious time used to deal with it. So she did her stuff first then took care of dealing with a childs pain.”
Ok, Wini, I’m assuming you’re into the booze tonight!!! Or if not, maybe ya should be!!! lol 🙂
And BloggerT7165, I think you got your point across just fine in your blog about your Mother’s indifference.