Am I a Sociopath?

[277768]

Do you ever wonder...."Am I a sociopath?"

You feel like an outsider at all times, and wonder why you never seem to fit with anyone socially. You watch TV, and see Bernie Madoff being led away in handcuffs, cursed forever to be hated by the entire world. Deep down you question, "Am I like this person?"

You know you are smart. But not that smart. You are able to mimic the emotions and feelings of genuine people so well, and are able to lie and cover up any feelings of inadequacy by acting confident and positive. Exuding confidence, in fact, is your MO. But deep down, you are insecure and unstable...you always feel dependant on others and hate the fact that you cannot live how you feel you trully should.

[Reading the sociopath next door, fantastic book..]

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[toothless rufus]

Well, as long as they go from birth to the grave incognito, I like 'em!

 

[OldPsychDoc]

If you worry about whether you are one or not, chances are, you're not.

 

[heyjack70]

I think Madoff is more of a narcissist than antisocial. The rest of the post sounds more like social anxiety and feelings of unworthiness and less like the disregard for the rights of others you see with sociopaths. I think many normal people feel outside the group, dependent, and lacking in confidence; it's part of the human experience.

 

[deleted276313]

If you worry about whether you are one or not, chances are, you're not.

2nd'd

 

[kazza27]

i actually work with someone who is a diagnosed sociopath and yes she can mimic emotions very well and she can act like she cares but she doesnt,shes very maniputive
heres what she is like
say you wanted to talk to someone and that persons is crying,you would comfort that person,she wouldnt she would just carry on
also she lies a lot,lies as easy as telling the truth

 

[TenaciousGirl]

Ahhhh! I just read that book and LOVED it. I love how the author breaks down the perceptions of sociopaths in society. I'm glad you enjoyed the book, too!

 

[kugel]

Q: Am I a Sociopath?

A: Yes
But since you are, you won't care what I think
:cry:

 

[RegularNihilist]

One Q: Do sociopaths fit the disease-definition? As long as they have a high IQ, they can have many children, and be very successful in life. Are they mentally ill, or just mentally superior?

 

[erg923]

none of that makes any sense pal

 

[Regnvejr]

Do you ever wonder...."Am I a sociopath?"

Not if you care Sociopaths are more defined by their lack of ability to feel emotions, a lock of superego, so to speak. Many doind stuff like Madoff fall in the narcissistic/histrionic spectrum instead and have plenty of emotions. Antisocials seem to lean more towards the schizotypal types

 

[masterofmonkeys]

Not if you care Sociopaths are more defined by their lack of ability to feel emotions, a lock of superego, so to speak. Many doind stuff like Madoff fall in the narcissistic/histrionic spectrum instead and have plenty of emotions. Antisocials seem to lean more towards the schizotypal types

a lack of emotion and a lack of superego are two very different things. I'd argue that you can be a genuinely benificent person and yet lack compassion.

Take someone with basically no capacity for empathy but a very strong sense of right and wrong. They wouldn't stop an injustice because they felt bad for the people suffering. But they would because they felt it to be wrong.

Depending on their willingness to adhere to social mores and the laws of the land in their quest to end evil, they could be quite accurately deemed to be a sociopath, even if they did nothing but make the world a better place.

 

[Regnvejr]

a lack of emotion and a lack of superego are two very different things. I'd argue that you can be a genuinely benificent person and yet lack compassion.

Absolutely. Both together is what gets our attention

Take someone with basically no capacity for empathy but a very strong sense of right and wrong. They wouldn't stop an injustice because they felt bad for the people suffering. But they would because they felt it to be wrong.

Depending on their willingness to adhere to social mores and the laws of the land in their quest to end evil, they could be quite accurately deemed to be a sociopath, even if they did nothing but make the world a better place.

Agreed.

 

[RGMSU]

If you worry about whether you are one or not, chances are, you're not.

That's what I've always heard.

 

[thamsenman]

One Q: Do sociopaths fit the disease-definition? As long as they have a high IQ, they can have many children, and be very successful in life. Are they mentally ill, or just mentally superior?

Boy, do I wish someone had asked Hitler that question.

 

[PsyDGrrrl]

i actually work with someone who is a diagnosed sociopath and yes she can mimic emotions very well and she can act like she cares but she doesnt,shes very maniputive
heres what she is like
say you wanted to talk to someone and that persons is crying,you would comfort that person,she wouldnt she would just carry on
also she lies a lot,lies as easy as telling the truth

You do realize that there is no diagnosis of "sociopath," don't you?

 

[TenaciousGirl]

You do realize that there is no diagnosis of "sociopath," don't you?

Maybe they have a research group out to include it in DSM V!!

...I kid, I kid

 

[loveoforganic]

Maybe they have a research group out to include it in DSM V!!

...I kid, I kid

Before I say anything I may have heard, how hush hush are they continuing to be about this damn book? It's not any major piece of info, but I'm not very anonymous here and would hate to get a professor in hot water.

 

[psychforme]

If you're voting repub you're a sociopath. Lots of sociopaths in the sociopolitical forum.

 

[TenaciousGirl]

Before I say anything I may have heard, how hush hush are they continuing to be about this damn book? It's not any major piece of info, but I'm not very anonymous here and would hate to get a professor in hot water.

I'm not totally sure what 'info' you're referring to. Care to share? Honestly, I'm used to the APA jerking us around. I mean, look at the APA manual 6th edition debacle. After that I became totally indifferent. I've read a couple of different things on the DSM V ... mostly stuff they're looking at to include, edit, etc. and a whole bunch of excuses as to why it isn't coming out until 2013!!!

here's a link that was posted in the psych psyd/phd forum on DSM V:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427381.300-psychiatrys-civil-war.html?full=true

 

[billypilgrim37]

If by hush-hush you mean "publishing white papers on what they're thinking about changing in major journals that are easily accessible on pub med," then I guess they're being very hush-hush.

Just typing in "DSM-V" in pubmed is pretty productive (with the quotation marks).

I guess if you're a scientologist who doesn't have access to major medical journals, a mother who doesn't vaccinate your children because you only read books with scary titles, or a journalist too lazy to care, then it's all very hush-hush.

 

[loveoforganic]

Woah there buddy, I'd just heard there was quite a bit of controversy WITHIN THE PSYCHOLOGICAL COMMUNITY a while ago about the lack of openness regarding the making of the DSM-V. Anyway, I've heard they're looking at including psychopathy, not necessarily as a diagnosis, but as a reference subcategory or some such under APD. Not sure if it's a sure thing or not though.

 

[thamsenman]

I thought sociopaths felt emotions, but feelings like guilt and shame didn't limit their behavior.

Or is this histrionic/narcissistic, etc.?

 

[loveoforganic]

A lot of stuff about psychopathy is disputed, but I think the general consensus is that they are able to act out emotions without really feeling them or feeling them to a very shallow extent, e.g. happiness, sadness, etc. In other words, they know what is expected of them in a given situation. As far as guilt/shame, I don't think those are felt to any extent, as they're pretty tied to empathy. If I remember the PCL right, a few questions explicitly seek to measure the level of empathy.

 

[DrMagic]

Do you ever wonder...."Am I a sociopath?"

You feel like an outsider at all times, and wonder why you never seem to fit with anyone socially. You watch TV, and see Bernie Madoff being led away in handcuffs, cursed forever to be hated by the entire world. Deep down you question, "Am I like this person?"

You know you are smart. But not that smart. You are able to mimic the emotions and feelings of genuine people so well, and are able to lie and cover up any feelings of inadequacy by acting confident and positive. Exuding confidence, in fact, is your MO. But deep down, you are insecure and unstable...you always feel dependant on others and hate the fact that you cannot live how you feel you trully should.

[Reading the sociopath next door, fantastic book..]

I'm glad you asked this question. Well I think many individuals think they might be a sociopath. I in fact think that most people do have some sociopathic tendencies. Let's say the police officer who interrogates someone who probably is innocent, and makes them crack and make their case worse then it really is. It takes a certain type of person to do that, possibly a sociopath. When that guy was a young kid, he wouldn't have ever thought he would become a rat, but in fact when he started working, that's what he became. Maybe a person went to MIT to be an engineer, then wound up getting convinced to join Goldman Sachs as an employee. He started out as a save the planet guy, and gradually became more and more about the bottom line, doing things you wouldn't imagine in his Wall Street career.

People, like Madoff even, typically don't want to maybe be a sociopath, but have some sociopathic tendencies. In a blue moon, you meet somebody that really is out to terrorize and put down people. They many times look for weakness and capitalize.

I would if I were you just realize you are normal. If you catch yourself manipulating someone, try to take a step back, relax, and maybe keep yourself from doing something like that next time. Realize that you can be just as good as everybody else being genuine, and that many of the most successful people try to be genuine as much as they can, and aren't always ruthless.

 

[whopper]

In a strange parallel situation, around the time this post first came up, in private practice, I have a guy that literally wants to kill colleagues and he came to me for help with this.

He met none of the the criteria for a mental illness in the DSM-IV except for some symptoms such as extreme irritability, but not to the degree where I even thought he was on the spectrum for bipolar disorder or even intermittent explosive disorder. He also, in my opinion, did not meet a criteria where I should've warned his colleagues. It wasn't a specific person, and he's had this problem for 25 years and never acted on it. Further, he told his work place that he's having anger problems and that he sometimes gets the desire to harm people but doesn't act on it.

I had him do an MMPI just in case to see if he scored high on the psychopath scale and his score was normal, suggesting he did not have that problem. Further, I didn't even know if he was a sociopath because little things irritate him. A theory with sociopathy is that these people don't experience emotion unless the stimuli is considered extreme (e.g. cutting off someone's head).

After several interviews and trying a few meds with no benefit whatsoever, I am now of the opinion that he has a very very tough exterior because he was abused by his father as a child. There's also a pattern with sons abused by fathers, where the son develops rages, but nothing on the order of something I've seen that is well treated with medication. I recommended pscyhotherapy only and had a psychologist take over this case.

 

[Ibid]

Thread reminds me of this. From http://www.secretschizoid.com/

 

[Fastball32]

Sociopath is more of a layman's term. The term Psychopathy has been discussed to replace or be used in conjunction with antisocial personality disorder when DSM-5 is released. I agree with the other posters in that if you are worrying about having it, then you probably don't have it. Currently, you need to exhibit Conduct Disorder symptoms by age 15 to meet criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder. Interesting discussion but normality vs psychopathology are entirely different, you will need to say how your personality is affecting your social/occupational or every day living.

 

[nitemagi]

Fastball touches on something about psychopathy, which is more of a trait existing on a spectrum. I would distinguish in many of the examples here that the ability to compartmentalize is different than a sociopath or psychopath, who has no conscience to suppress.

We are all very adept at compartmentalizing and rationalizing whatever evidence we need to support our desires, often that which is selfish. Madoff is just an extreme of this. But if you've ever seen physicians turfing in medicine and the rationalization used to couch poor medical decisions, you know it exists in our field as well.

 

[InBoston]

Having selfish desires, unease, and even lying are all well within the scope of a human being and the normal pressures put upon them through life. Any or all of those qualities does not necessarily make one sociopathic.

 

[whopper]

psychopathy, which is more of a trait existing on a spectrum.

Studies have been done showing it exists on a spectrum. This is an area better handled by our colleagues, psychologists, vs. our own field. If you read the journals of forensic psychology vs. psychiatry, the psychologists more often are actually doing the studies, while the psychiatrists in the journal are more often demanding more studies need to be done, offering reviews of things psychologists already did, and making general statements that are more on the order of coffee talk than actually pushing the state of the science forward.