What is a Sociopath?
A sociopath, technically, is not a psychopath. These are actual psychiatric terms, and to say they're one and the same is like saying that eczema and psoriasis are one and the same.
Though a sociopath and psychopath will often commit the same crimes, like breaking into a home, these are two different psychiatric conditions. Both fall under the category of antisocial personality disorder. They have in common the propensity for violence, lack of conscience and disregard towards ethics and laws.
The psychopath is clean cut, dresses impeccably, drives a Jaguar, is well-read and knows his wines, and is married with children. The sociopath is a drifter, disheveled, with needle marks up his arms, can't hold a job and never graduated from high school. Both, generally speaking of course. Both these individuals are capable of the same heious crimes, but for different reasons. Example: A woman is assaulted; the first guy did it for fun after breaking into her home. The second guy broke in and did it as punishment after she refused to give him money.
Sociopathy
- Obvious issues interacting with people; shows anger management problems and edginess.
- People think he or she "has problems"; they lack cunning and charm.
- People aren't surprised when he's arrested for murder.
- Capable of emotionally bonding with humans, but this is limited.
- Capture by the police is easy; they're sloppy with their crimes.
Psychopathy
- Calm, cool, collected, suave, may even be the life of the party, well-respected in the community.
- Carefully plans crimes and when caught, it's usually after they got away with many crimes.
- Despite often having a spouse and kids, the psychopath is not capable of emotionally bonding with humans.
- Skilled at manipulating and tricking people with their charm and high intelligence.
- Capture by the police is difficult.
The psychiatric establishment's position is that sociopathy is the result of childhood environment, whereas psychopathy is primarily the result of faulty brain wiring. If you had to be stuck on a dark island with a sociopath or psychopath-opt for the sociopath. You have a small chance of tapping into what little empathy he's capable of.
Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to BestHomeSecurityCompanys.com discussing burglar proofing your home on Fox Boston. Disclosures.
