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).
oxy – why don’t you do a book review of it for lf?
Gosh, One, can’t remember if I did one or not….might have….will do a search and see if it turns up….I’m surprised I haven’t sent donna a copy of a new review of a book I’ve already done! LOL
How is your leg? Spot getting any smaller?
I actually got out and mowed the yard today for the second time this year….really it has been so dry I have only had to mow it once other time…what grass is still alive is thin but was getting high so I mowed it.
Went down into the pasture to check on the new calf “Chuck,”…. as in Chuck roast or ground Chuck…he’s about a week old now and still really cute. The grass in the pasture is actually keeping ahead of the livestock chewing it back so there are tufts of grass everywhere and the stock have quit eating the hay we had to feed for a while. Just felt good to be outside and it not be so hot you couldn’t breathe. Sure wish I had a swimming hole to go to close by, all the creeks are dried up around here and the ponds are too nasty. Guess YOU wish you’d taken a shower instead of a swim though.
snort – i am already schemeing how to get back in the water once the wound is 100%, red is down to about 6″ now – leg is still swollen (didn’t’ realize how much so until i looked at both of them side to side! how’s that for obsession – didn’t even notice my left leg all week!) almost all the heat is gone except closest to the puncture and in the ankle. puncture is looking realy good after the sauna tonight, and i am feeling less beat up.
i realize my misadventure with swimming (i got bashed up another time this summer on the rocks – it’s a heavy wave area, and the whole shore is rock) is because i am going in close to home and not at the one dock i could jump off of and climb back up on a ladder – it’s a lot further away – but if i am gong to get back in the water i will have to do it there.
i tired to go to bed early – this is me making a commitment to taking care and resting and the fucking neighbor had a kid and its family over and the damn kid played with the damn dog and its damn ball in the apt. I went up asked her nicley to keep it down (she’s moved from a house, so an apt is a shock no doubt.) I explained that i was sick and needed to sleep and rest. the noise didn’t abate much. i was so angry at the noise of it i couldn’t get a grip on myself. now it’s 3 hours later and the damn kid, et al have gone home. I tired so hard to get my anger under control and i couldn’t. i managed not to go up there and be ugly, and i did reach out to a freind long distance (she wasn’t home) who could have helped me with it. there wasn’t one room in my apt that was even slightly noise free.
i am not good yet – emotionally i am all raw nerves from this infection and drug reaction. i tired so hard, and i kept repeating, ‘do no harm’ but really i wanted to yell STFU!
it’s amazing that the pasture isn’t overgrazed yet. that’s good fortune. i am not digging this summer much. it’s really horribly muggy – which makes allargies and the off gassing in the apt. worse. we have had a couple of cooler days – hot sun, but cool fall breezes and they have been very nice.
poor chuck, cute and destined to roast. I spent a lot of time with calves, and they are one of those miracles that makes getting up in the morning worth the effort.
Dear One,
You know as much trouble as you have with noise, I wonder if there wasn’t some way you could insulate the ceiling of your apartment to dampen down the noise some way.
I know what you mean though noise bothers me very much especially since my husband died, just irritates the carp out of me. Sometimes at night I can hear the natural gas drilling rigs pounding from over a mile away or hear their trucks with the back up signal, in the night air it seems to carry farther than in the day time. Usually it is so quiet out here though that I don’t hear much except the occasional air craft fly over.
I know it is difficult to put up with that kind of noise too, and hard to not become angry and frustrated when you ask nicely and they don’t pay attention or show any consideration. For your stress’s sake though, I think you need some how to get a quieter place….maybe a tent in the woods?
Yea, “Chuck’s” mom is an older cow with a great udder and gives lots of milk so he should grow off well and fast. I looked at the other cows and they are so fat I can’t tell if they may have calves soon or not, they may not even be bred. But he will have a good life here with his mom and his aunts and who knows maybe some siblings soon.
Well, take care of your leg and don’t get back into the water until it is totally CLOSED up.
NOISE???? SHIAT….ya’ll gotta come to my house! You hear NOTHING! Birds and still…..that’s it!
I moved from being on a hwy to STILL.
It takes some getting used to……believe it or not.
I kinda liked my busy hwy…..with all the coming and goings…….now, I don’t even know there is a lake down the hill or anyone else on the mountain up here!
I have my balineese wind chimes that chime in the breeze…….I notice them way more up here!
One…..i’m your neighbor upstairs…..not used to living in a condo WITH people sharing a wall with you…..I try to keep the kids under wraps…..but it’s a different thing all together now for us!
In my pity party tonight…..just before my tears streamed….I looked up in my office and the wall was like soooo much closer than my other home office wall was to me….then i glanced around and thought….even when these box’s are unpacked, those walls are NOT going to move and make this room bigger! This house is SMALL! Then I cried and said….oh shut up EB…..you have a god damn roof over your head!
Can’t go there……
Glad your boo boo is healing…….I think you’re right…..take the dock entrance next time! 🙂
well this must be the whine thread tonite – I whined on the wrong thread darn it ~! EB dont whine when your on the yacht ~! 1steprs – MOVE ~~!!!!!!
On the Yacht! In BALI……I got the windchimes to take me there! LOL! 🙂
I am trying to look at the positive….inbetween sips of WHINE……I sat on my deck and watched the moon rise over the ski resort Mtn top. It’s very pretty and white when it’s big and rising up!!!
Always think of you hens!
Sorry…..I don’t want to be a downer- just a tough day……I’ll just move to BALI on my dingy for now! 🙂
XXOO
EB
Dupester – reading between the lines of your post (and maybe I’m way off here) but I wonder ……….were you self-harming?
I only suggest it because my late husband would do things like you posted. He would not intentionally ‘cut’ himself but he would ‘harm’ himself. It took us years to figure out what he was doing.
I found this info on a site:
Reasons people have given for their self-harm include:
• When the level of emotional pressure becomes too high it acts as a safety valve – a way of relieving the tension;
• Cutting makes the blood take away the bad feelings;
• Pain can make you feel more alive when feeling numb or dead inside;
• Punishing oneself in response to feelings of shame or guilt;
• When it’s too difficult to talk to anyone, it’s a form of communication about unhappiness and a way of acknowledging the need for help;
• Self-harm gives a sense of control that’s missing elsewhere in life.
If I’m barking up the wrong lamppost – sorry. But it may give a reason why you ‘damaged’ yourself.
BTW – mental note – banging desks and anticoagulants don’t mix!
hens – you silly. ‘move’. yah uh huh. get right on that. i can’t walk worth crap and i have a roommate moving in in two weeks from out of the country.
eb – i know sweetie – I feel the same way being in the city (that the walls are too close). i feel the same way every time they rip the road up outside and (a twice annual event) and i have to close my windows up to avoid the construction. it’s all too close. it doesn’t bother me as much when i can get out and about a lot. I have ‘extended’ my place to include other places, and the woods across the street – although that’s a mozi sanctuary this time of year.
it is all worth a cry now and then.
oxy – i have thought that often since i lived here, but was really thinking about it last night. foam sheets would be the best i think and I am willing to live with ugly for quiet. If i can deal with any off gassing. have to investigate. this place is very dusty, so there would be no putting up material to cover the sheets.
I heard something you might be interested in – echo is processed in the visual cortex by some people. this makes so much sense to me. I have a building next door, and the sound of people going up and down the outdoor stairs (we have a system of stairs and balconies) is always really loud and disturbing to me when I am in the bedroom across from the house. I am a very visual person – and i need down time from visual noise – so it follows that echos (which the overhead would be also, given the flooring system is a floating one) would bother me a lot. i was thinking about the visual imprint that you must have from your husbands plane crash and wondering if that is stored in the visual cortex – if it is then your visual cortex may be overstimulated at all times, ergo noise sensitivity.
i am so short tempered today i don’t even want to talk to anyone – the smallest request from work and i want to bite their heads off. i know this is the infection/ antibiotics/ drug reaction paradigm – but my mouth is dangerous. I had hoped to make it to a meeting today – an important one, but i just don’t feel up to it, so cancelled. working on ‘do no harm’.