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Sociopaths

by Lisa Featherston

Sociopathy is typically characterized as something being wrong with a person’s conscience. Sociopaths only care about fulfilling their own needs and desires: they are selfish and egocentric to the extreme. They see others as objects to be used in fulfilling their own needs and desires. They fail to see they are causing any harm and in fact will typically believe they are doing something good for society.  

Some people believe the term psychopathy is interchangeable with sociopathy, but field professionals make a distinction between the two.  A psychopath is marked by aggressive, violent, antisocial thought and behavior.  Like sociopaths, they lack empathy or remorse; unlike sociopaths, they often seek to fulfill their desires through violence. A sociopath prefers to play games and prove his cunning over society.  That is not to suggest that a sociopath will always choose not to engage in violence.  On the contrary, because their willingness to fulfill their own desires and their lack of emotional connection with others, they are much more likely to commit a violent act against another than most people in society.

The distinction between a sociopath and psychopath by field professionals is usually more based on the (lack of) nurturing by parents than heredity.  Lykken (1995), for example, clearly distinguishes between the sociopath (who is socialized into becoming a psychopath) and a "true" psychopath (who is born that way).  However, this may only describe the "common sociopath," as there are at least four (4) different subtypes:

According to Dr. Martha Stout, a clinical psychologist on the faculty at Harvard Medical School, a surprising number of people are sociopathic.  In “The Sociopath Next Door,” she writes that 1 in 25 people is sociopathic.  Thanks to such a broad definition, she has been both praised and criticized.

Have we developed too broad of a definition of sociopathic behavior or are we actually creating sociopaths?   Violence de-sensitizes in nearly all forms of media from video games to television and movie viewing. Desensitization to violence, cruelty and death may cause a disproportionate number of young people to develop characteristics similar to sociopaths, and yet we do not know to what degree. 

One underlying difference between sociopaths and psychopaths can be noted though – those subjected to the desensitizing effects of prolonged exposure to violence retain conscience but lose empathy.

Dr. Stout (2005) indicates that common sociopathic traits include: 

Any three or more of these traits can be used by an author to build a sociopathic character.  When writing about sociopaths, one should remember these traits for the reasons of authenticity but also for character depth.  Believe it or not, even a character with no conscience can have depth and complexity.   Life looks different through the eyes of a sociopath--and it is definitely a life worth looking at, full of darkness and lacking in mercy.

One myth that has perpetuated in popular fiction is that sociopaths are highly intelligent when in fact, they are statistically no more intelligent than the average person.  Along with average intelligence, they also have a difficult time concentrating on one thing at a time and will quickly lose interest in anything that does not concern them.  So developing a sociopathic character that has the ability to contemplate elaborately detailed plans would be inaccurate and overdone.   Sociopaths are methodical in short bursts and look for instant gratification.

They learn early on to be charming in order to manipulate their surroundings.  They lie very easily and though some lies are deliberate, most of their lies are unintentional and usually a part of boasting about their lives.  Because they seek instant gratification, they speak about the things they wish to accomplish as though they already have accomplished them.

The criminality of a sociopath may well be unintentional too.  Remembering that their only intention is to gratify themselves, they will commit a crime if to achieve gratification means breaking the law.  These people aren’t natural born predators in the sense that they seek to destroy others.  Their motives are selfish and if others get in the way of their desires, they will victimize others to get what they want.  They simply don’t see their actions as criminal because they cannot see the harm they are causing through their actions.  For a sociopath, the ends justifies the means.

Most any murdering individual you read about in fiction today is a sociopath unless the crime is a crime of passion.  But remember, sociopaths are devoid of passion, for anyone or anything.  Their primary character trait is self-indulgence and for this reason alone, they make the scariest and most deviant predators in fiction.

 

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