The “sociopath,” boiled down, is someone who routinely does, and takes, what he wants, unconcerned with the impact of his behavior on others. Nothing in my mind defines his essence more than this concise, factual description. He is rather unique, and thus diagnosable as a sociopath, to this precise extent.
Sure, we’ve discussed this before, but it always merits, in my view, fresh reconsideration. And so let me add, I think, an important caveat: The sociopath doesn’t necessarily feel he has the “right” to what he’s pursuing, or planning to take.
Rather, he doesn’t feel he needs the right. He just needs the want.
Simply wanting what he wants, with or without the right to it, meets his standard for laying claim to his quarry.
Because after all, you may ask the sociopath, “Did you have a ”˜right’ to take that? To steal it?” And he may answer, with intellectual honesty, “No. I realize, intellectually, that I had no right to what I took.”
Which gets to the nub, the essence, of his condition: His” right” to what he wanted wasn’t relevant, didn’t even enter his thinking; rather, his wanting it was the sole factor necessary to support his comfortable, non-conflictual pursuit of it.
To sum up, the sociopath’s disordered essence is captured best in his pattern of taking, without remorse, what intellectually he may very well know doesn’t belong to him—he has no right to it—yet he takes it anyway.
To be clear: when I say that the sociopath intellectually can understand he may lack the “right” to what he’s taking, I’m not suggesting that he lacks a sense of entitlement. Quite the contrary: his sense of entitlement is all the more astounding for his intellectual awareness that he may lack the “right” to what he wants, yet still takes it. In doing so, he is exhibiting self-entitlement, and attitudes of contempt, in their gaudiest, most audacious forms.
One always must beware of oversimplifying complicated concepts. The sociopath’s disorder is complex on many levels. Yet on some levels the sociopath’s mentality isn’t so complicated at all. In some respects it’s pretty simple.
In this article I suggest the sociopath is, essentially, that strange, disconcerting, disruptive individual with a history, and pattern, of taking from others what doesn’t belong to him with an impoverished sense of shame and remorse. When you confront an individual with this history and pattern, you are dealing with a sociopath.
What he takes, and even how he takes it, are less relevant considerations that that he takes, with no right.
(This article is copyrighted © 2011 by Steve Becker, LCSW. My use of male gender pronouns is strictly for convenience’s sake and not to suggest that females aren’t capable of the behaviors and attitudes discussed.)
ErinBrock
There was a power outage at a department store yesterday. Twenty people were trapped on the escalators.
HAHAHA…..GET IT…>ESCALATORS….HAHAHA ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!HAHAHAHAHAHA
ErinBrock
For my birthday I got a humidifier and a dehumidifier… I put them in the same room and let them fight it out.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! *GASP******
ErinBrock
And for the finale……..
Do you need a silencer if you are going to shoot a mime?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA…..BADABING!
ErinBrock
🙂
ErinBrock
🙂 🙂
ErinBrock
🙂 🙂 🙂
2TimeSurvivor
STOP! You’re killin’ me! I love ’em all! You’re definitely on a ROLL! (ROTFLMAO)
I especially loved your lawyer jokes! Add two more to your “You Know You Need A Different Lawyer” list and you can submit it to David Letterman’s “Top Ten” producer for an upcoming show!
Instead of Five Stars, I proudly award you Five 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 :-)!
2TimeSurvivor
Oops! That was one less than you awarded yourself.
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
There’s ten…and I’m off to bed!
ErinBrock
2xSurvivor…..just for you darlen…..
A little somthin- somthin served up with a little warm milk to help you sleep like a baby!
Night……..and sweet dreams!
Amaretti Cookies:
8 ounces (225 grams) canned almond paste
1 cup (200 grams) superfine or castor white sugar
2 large (60 grams) egg whites
Extra white sugar or Swedish pearl sugar for dusting cookies
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Have ready a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) plain tip.
Using Food Processor: Break the almond paste into small pieces and place in bowl of food processor, with the sugar. Pulse until the mixture is very fine. Add the egg whites in three additions, processing well after each addition. Continue processing the dough until very smooth (about one minute).
Fill the pastry bag with the almond mixture. Pipe 1 1/2 inch (3.75 cm) mounds onto the parchment paper, spacing about 1 inch (2.5 cm) apart. After you have filled the baking sheet with cookie mounds, take a damp paper towel and lightly press the top of each cookie to smooth out the surface (you want to smooth out the tip of dough at the top of each cookie caused from piping). Lightly sprinkle a little sugar on top of each cookie.
Bake for 15 minutes, or until the cookies have risen, are a deep golden color and have tiny cracks. Remove from the oven and place baking pan on a rack to cool. When cool gently peel cookies from parchment. If they stick to parchment, turn the paper over, take a damp paper towel and gently wipe the bottom of the parchment paper to loosen the cookie.
2TimeSurvivor
OMG! Anything with almond and/or amaretto and I’m hooked…but in a good way, of course!
Do you deliver? Maybe we could work a trade: You make ’em and I’ll eat/sell ’em! (I smell sweet profits!)
Thanks, EB! Truly sweet dreams 2nite…