A sociopath is someone who has a pervasive and persistent disregard for the rights and feelings of others. This disregard is manifested in the antisocial behavior sociopaths show. While we usually think of antisocial behavior as criminal, not all antisocial acts are illegal. A person who slips up once is not a sociopath. Sociopathy is a lifestyle.
Since humans are designed to live in society, a healthy personality has prosocial inclinations. Therefore, people who are pervasively antisocial are disordered in the sense that they are not the norm (thank God). Although antisocial behaviors are observable actions like lying, stealing and assault, there are personality traits that cause antisocial behavior. It should come as no surprise that people who have a sense of entitlement, over-rate their own greatness and have poor self-control are more likely to hurt others and show pervasive antisocial behavior.
The American Psychiatric Association has defined a group of personality disorders it calls “cluster B”. According to a recent paper* by German psychiatrist, Christian Huchzermeier, M.D., “ The cluster includes disturbances of personality that go hand in hand with emotional dysregulation phenomena, a tendency towards aggressive—impulsive loss of control, egoistic exploitation of interpersonal relationships, and a tendency to overestimate one’s own importance.”
The disorders of “cluster B” go together because what underlies them is a disturbance in three developmentally acquired abilities I have called The Inner Triangle. These abilities are:
Ability to Love
Impulse Control
Moral Reasoning
These abilities that a child gains during development are a triangle because the development of each depends on the other two. A child begins to acquire ability to love in the first year of life, impulse control begins in the second year of life. At two years of age there is already a link between ability to love and impulse control. Children with the best impulse control also are the most loving/empathetic. Moral reasoning begins in the third year of life and its development depends on a loving nature and impulse control. Similarly the most moral kids are also the most loving and self-controlled.
I think of the cluster B disorders as different manifestations of damage to the inner triangle. I think of sociopaths as individuals who completely lack ability to love and have impaired impulse control and moral reasoning.
Given the Inner Triangle, it should come as no surprise that it can be difficult to find people who have only one cluster B personality disorder. For that reason individuals with antisocial personality, narcissistic personality, borderline personality and histrionic personality often have symptoms of the other disorders. If someone gets a diagnosis of only one of these, it doesn’t mean that the person doesn’t also have one or all of the others. The person making the diagnosis simply thought that the one chosen best described the person. You should know there is a gender bias in diagnosis such that women are often labeled “borderline.” These women can also be sociopaths who leave a trail of victimized friends, lovers and children in their wakes.
A recent study reported in Behavioral Science and the Law, “The Relationship Between DSM-IV Cluster B Personality Disorders and Psychopathy According to Hare’s Criteria: Clarification and Resolution of Previous Contradictions” examines the relationship between psychopathic personality traits as defined by the screening version of the PCL and Cluster B personality disorders. The authors of this study were careful to examine people who had only one cluster B disorder. They found psychopathy to be associated with all cluster B disorders.
The authors conclude:
“One clinical implication of our results, nevertheless, is that in cases where a cluster B personality disorder is diagnosed a high psychopathy value is to be expected, especially where antisocial, borderline or narcissistic personality disorder is involved. The PCL score is a better predictor of subsequent events, such as problems during (criminal) custody or a relapse into delinquency, than a diagnosis of a DSM-IV personality disorder, especially in forensic populations; therefore, an additional investigation with the PCL should be carried out, if a cluster B personality disorder has been diagnosed.”
It is important for Lovefraud readers to be aware of this study especially if there is a divorce/custody proceeding or a cluster B personality disorder has been diagnosed. Many people might think that if the partner has been “diagnosed borderline” or “diagnosed narcissistic” that means the partner is not a psychopath/sociopath. This study suggests otherwise. IF YOU ARE INVOLVED WITH SOMEONE WHO HAS THESE YOU HAVE TO CONSIDER THEIR HARMFUL BEHAVIOR AS AN INDICATION OF PSYCHOPATHY/SOCIOPATHY. There are some people with cluster B, histrionic, borderline and narcissistic disorders who are not highly antisocial. But if the person is lying, cheating and manipulating, that is antisocial behavior. This behavior in the context of any cluster B means the person is potentially very dangerous. As the authors state:
“Screening for PCL-based psychopathy can also be important for general psychiatric patients with a DSM-IV personality disorder, so that potential difficulties in the course of their treatment can be anticipated and this comorbidity can be targeted in the planning of therapy. Patients with both a DSM-IV personality disorder and PCL-based psychopathy can exhibit behavior that is particularly dangerous to therapy (Stafford & Cornell, 2003).”
If you have been diagnosed with borderline personality and reading this frightens you, I am sorry. You can improve by working on your inner triangle. Talk to your therapist about DBT a treatment that is very effective in improving the state of the Inner Triangle in people who are motivated to do it.
*The reference for the paper discussed is Behav. Sci. Law 25: 901—911 (2007).
Sky ~ thank you so much for the link! Holy smoke, if there was any doubt in my mind before, there sure is not now! My mother is a full-fledged, dyed in the wool narcissist!
I’ve been her scapegoat for my WHOLE life, 51 years now. Yippee Kai aye. (have no idea if I spelled that right LOL)
h2h
H2H,
welcome to the scapegoat club. ((hugs))
Yeah that website was an eye opener for me too.
Gosh, it’s so HARD to see my parents as less than perfect, despite the glaring evidence. It just goes to show you how ingrained that programming can get!
Sky ~ ((hugs)) right back atcha. It really IS hard to see parents that way.
I guess my dad was pretty much OK, but kinda fell into the doormat category. He was one of those guys that would give friends and/or strangers literally the “shirt off his back” if they asked. He was a real softy for a sob-story. I think he was probably the scapegoat in his family when he was growing up too… hmm, ya think there’s a connection? LOL
It just amazes me how this stuff tends to continue from one generation to the next.
hi sky and h2h thanks for the link, sky. the quote at the beginning of that article made my heart hurt. the line about intimacy was the one that did it.
It’s about secret things. The Destructive Narcissistic Parent creates a child that only exists to be an extension of her self. It’s about body language. It’s about disapproving glances. It’s about vocal tone. It’s very intimate. And it’s very powerful. It’s part of who the child is. ~ Chris
One/Joy ~ yeah, I know what you mean. That part you quoted really resonates.
YIKES. I’m going to be spending a week at my mom’s house in the very near future. I’m going to do my best to spend as much time visiting with friends as I can manage. That way, she won’t be able to affect me quite so much, at least in theory.
H2H,
She’ll just resent you for that. My good sister would visit my parents and spend lots of time with the in-laws and her friends, but my parents just criticized her lack of love for them. Oh well.
sky
what a fantastic link. that is “SO” my mother!
I am printing this out and going to re-read it 1000 times.
SK
SK,
that’s what I did!
When I first read it, I couldn’t believe how accurately it could describe something so subtle.
A friend of mine is going through a divorce. Her husband has been diagnosed Bi-polar 2.
I have warned her about him being a sociopath and referred her to this site. Perhaps I will send this article to her.
He has done/she has suffered through things I could not imagine. A LOT of cheating, and he did not take care to hide it. Babysittters stopped working when he brought women over, neighbors watched him take women out and bring them to the house when she was gone.
That’s not the worst.
What can I say to convince her she needs to be tough in this divorce?
If I can jump in here, I wanted to respond to yesterday’s discussion about the relationship between childhood trauma/abuse, and its correlation with the subsequent development of psychopathy. As I said last week, I don’t believe that there is anything like a convincing link between the two. At any rate, here is Robert Hare’s position on the matter, which for the purposes of clarity, I think is worth quoting in full:
Nurture
“My favorite comic strip is “Calvin and Hobbes.” In one sequence an irritated Calvin yells, “Why do I have to go to bed now? I never get to do what I want! If I grow up to be some sort of psychopath because of this you’ll be sorry!” “Nobody ever became a psychopath because he had to go to bed at reasonable hour,” his father replies. “Yeah, retorts Calvin, “but you won’t let me chew tobacco either! You never know what might push me to the brink!”
“Calvin reflects what is perhaps the most popular generalization about psychopathy–that it is the result of early psychological trauma or adverse experiences: poverty, emotional or physical deprivation, inconsistent disciplinary techniques, and so on. Unfortunately, the picture that emerges from clinical research is far from clear on this matter. On balance, however, I can find NO CONVINCING EVIDENCE (empahasis mine) that psychopathy is the result of early social or environmental factors. (I realize that my opinion will be unacceptable to people who believe that virtually all adult antisocial behavior–from petty theft to mass murder–stems from early maltreatment or deprivation.)”
“The neglect and abuse of children CAN cause horrendous psychological damage. Children damaged in this way often have lower IQs and an increased risk of depression, suicide, acting out, and drug problems. They are more likely than others to be violent and arrested as juveniles. Among preschool children the abused and neglected are more likely than other children to get angry, refuse to follow directions, and to show a lack of enthusiasm. By the time they enter school, they tend to be hyperactive, easily distracted, lacking in self-control, and not well liked by their peers. But these factors do not make them into psychopaths.
“There is little doubt that correction of these early problems ultimately would lead to a dramatic reduction in crime and other forms of social dysfunction. But it is unlikely there would be a comparable reduction in the number of psychopaths, and in the severity of their antisocial behavior.” (Without Conscience, Pg. 170)
At any rate, I think this is a very significant statement, coming as it does from perhaps the preeminent researcher into psychopathy in the twentieth century. As I’ve stated before, I don’t believe in a blind deference to “authority”–and I think there are quite legitimate criticisms that one can raise, for example, against the PCL-R (as having limited applicability, etc.) But on this matter, as with most other things in this field, I think it’s a safe bet to assume that Hare’s view is probably the correct one.
Nevertheless, I’m not emotionally wedded to my position here, and I’m more than happy to look at scientific evidence that points in the contrary direction. However, until that evidence is forthcoming, I see no compelling reason to question Hare’s take on the matter.