"I believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents. Some you can see, misshapen and horrible, with huge heads or tiny bodies; some are born with no arms, no legs, some with three arms, some with tails or mouths in odd places. They are accidents and no one’s fault, as used to be thought. Once they were considered the visible punishment for concealed sins. And just as there are physical monsters, can there not be mental or psychic monsters born? The face and body may be perfect, but if a twisted gene or a malformed egg can produce physical monsters, may not the same process produce a malformed soul?" This is an introduction to the aberrant occurrences that are sociopaths. What are sociopaths, why do they do what they do, and why do people write about them? So what exactly is a sociopath and how can you identify one? Sociopathy is a psychological abnormality where a person exhibits a complete lack of empathy, guilt, and impulsive behavior. They can be very anti-social, or social, depending on the person. Sociopaths have a number of VSW 2 actions that they do that set them apart from normal people. They feel no shame in their actions, no matter who horrible they may be, and tend to blame other people around them when things go sour. Sociopaths use other people as stepping stones to further help achieve their goals. For example, a sociopath could run over a family's pet, and then blame them for the incident because their pet was foolish for running out in the street or the family was daft for not training the pet to stay away from cars. The idea of being “sorry” is an entirely foreign concept to them. One of the biggest traits of sociopaths are they are born liars, literally. They enjoy lying about their pasts, sometim... ... middle of paper ... ... Tim McGregor. "Empathic People Are Natural Targets for Sociopaths - Protect Yourself -- Sott.net." SOTT.net. N.p., 30 Oct. 2013. Web. 12 May 2014. Meyers, Seth, and Katie Gilbert. "Understanding the Sociopath: Cause, Motivation, Relationship." Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness + Find a Therapist. Psychology Today, 2 Apr. 2013. Web. 11 May 2014. Reidbord, Steven, MD. "Narcissists, Psychopaths, and Other Bad Guys." Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness + Find a Therapist. Psychology Today, 15 Jan. 2013. Web. 12 May 2014. Thomas, M. E. "How to Spot a Sociopath." Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness + Find a Therapist. Psychology Today, 7 May 2013. Web. 12 May 2014. "Understanding How Sociopaths Think: Why It Is Good to Ask Why." Psychopath Free Narcissist Sociopath and Psychopath Abuse Recovery RSS. N.p., 17 Sept. 2013. Web. 12 May 2014.
Another mark on the checklist is the violations of social norms and an aimless life (Hare, 1993). The psychopath is highly impulsive and has a constant need for excitement (Hare, 1993). The Psychopathy Checklist is filled with the basic characteristic of a person with a psychopathy
Down the street, in our workplaces, seemingly under our beds- Harvard Medical Professor Martha Stout’s Sociopath Next Door: The Ruthless vs. The Rest of Us sends the reader into a state of frightful paranoia when she mentions that a staggering 1 in 25, 4%, persons is, in fact, a sociopath. A sociopath, as Stout asserts, is a person with the lack of a conscience, thus a person not concerned with the suffering of others, to worry only about itself. She goes on to tell us that, because the rate of sociopaths in our society is so high, we must have already met hundreds without knowing it, due to the elusive and enigmatic nature of this psychological disease.
They are able to do things without thinking about it, therefore they can be irrational at times. In “10 ways to spot a sociopath” it says “Sociopaths tend to do bizarre, sometimes erratic things that most regular people wouldn’t do...their behavior often seems irrational or extremely risky.” Not only are they unpredictable, they can be dangerous to be around because of their carefree attitude. They can manipulate you into doing things you would never do.
Stout, Martha. “Inside the Mind of a Sociopath.” The Sociopath Next Door: The Ruthless vs. the Rest of Us. New York: Broadway Books, 2005. Web.
The sense of entitlement that comes with sociopathy is astonishing to those who abide by the social laws and conventions of our culture. Where does the entitlement come from? It stems from an underlying sense of rage. Sociopaths feel deeply angry and resentful underneath their often-charming exterior, and this rage fuels their sense that they have the right to act out in whichever way they happen to choose at the time. Everything is up for grabs with sociopaths and nothing is off limits. (Meyers)
...res of the psychopaths and gives the reader various examples of these individuals playing out these characteristics in everyday life. A widely used checklist is provided so the reader can get a wide spanning view of what is accounted for when scoring a psychopath. This form of research is very important within the deceitfulness of this population; it allows the professional to ignore their words and examine their actions. Hare made it clear that it is not uncommon for there to be an emotional and verbal disconnect from their actions. With virtually no emotional functioning psychopaths feel no remorse for the offenses that they commit and it is very important that we work towards using the opportunities we have to study and assist these populations; not only for them but for ourselves.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a sociopath as someone who behaves in a dangerous or violent way towards other people and does not feel guilty about such behavior. Sociopaths lack a conscience that allows people to decipher between right and wrong. In A Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe, the narrator, Montresor, is believed to be a sociopath by many. He kills his friend, Fortunado, after he literally adds insult to a thousand of injuries. Though what the insult was and the previous injuries were never revealed to the reader, it could be assumed that Montresor probably overreacted to the Fortunado’s insult. But in order to answer this question the evaluation upon his motivation, strategy, and Montresor’s feeling and emotion towards
...e to murder over a period of time frequently show sociopath tendencies. Serial killer's have little self-esteem and a sociopath's inability to feel other people's pain or sorrow for any wrongful acts that they have committed (Casey, p. 80).
Sociopaths are people with a major personality disorder and they possess sociopathic characteristics of being tremendously antisocial and they have no conscience. They react on impulses and they usually fail to plan ahead. Sometimes a sociopath often believes that they are doing nothing wrong or when they are do terrible things they believe that they’re doing something that’s good or acceptable. This definition may fall a bit short because of the simple fact that one will truly never understand what a sociopath really is, or what they think, unless you’re one yourself. This is because of the many characteristics that a sociopath have. Not all sociopaths are good people, but the same thing could be said that, not all sociopaths are bad people.
Megan, K., & Courant, S. W. (2005, Mar 10). THE KILLERS (AND LIARS) IN OUR MIDST ; HOW DOES A SERIAL MURDERER LIVE UNDETECTED AMONG `NORMAL PEOPLE'? BY BEING A SOCIOPATH -- A PERSON WITHOUT A CONSCIENCE, WITHOUT THE ABILITY TO LOVE. Hartford Courant. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/256830354?accountid=10244
Hare, Robert. D. (1993). Without conscience: The disturbing world of the psychopaths among us. Guilford Press.
What is a psychopath? What type of person can be characterized by this and how do they come to be? But first before we can answer these questions we must first know what a psychopath is. Psychopaths are people suffering from chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behaviors; clinically it is a person who has a lack of what we would consider a conscience. Psychopaths are seen to suffer from a lack of empathy because of psychological, genetic and environmental factors. Scientists have many theories concerning psychopaths. Scientist do not have a definite clear cut answer on what is the cause for psychopathy but they have many ideas; nature and the nurture of the person. Nature is the genes that the person carries. The nurture of the person when they were a child is simply means how they were treated when they were growing up and/or how they were raised. Some scientists even consider it a possibility that it could be a mixture of the two.
The media most often showcases psychopaths as individuals who are inherently evil and dangerous towards themselves and others. Yet, this concept of psychopathy goes far beyond this idea of pure evil and instead necessitates a needed psychological understanding. These individuals, psychopaths, are generally characterized by a lack of empathy and conscience. Indeed, psychopath’s indifference to the repercussions of their actions combined with other characteristics such as hostility and aggression make for a potentially dangerous personality (Lyken, 1996, p.30). In order to identify a psychopath’s recidivism, it is important to differentiate them from sociopaths who, instead of having a psychological impairment that makes it difficult for them to socialize, have been systematically under socialized (Lyken, 1996, p.30). In accordance. psychologists have developed the methods such as the Psychopathy Checklist- Revised (PCL-R) to help identify those with psychopathic tendencies (Walters, 2012, p.409). That is why predictions of recidivism among psychopaths is most efficient when done
Many associate psychology with sitting in a chair in a small office as someone taking notes, asking how you feel about a certain event or feeling, analyzing your deepest secrets and memories. However, it branches off into many other fields. A clinical psychologist’s main job is “to reduce the distress and improve the psychological wellbeing of clients” (Bond). This can include anything from depression, eating disorders, and addiction, to mental illness, family and personal relationships, and learning disabilities (Bond). A clinical psychologist usually will choose to have an emphasis in a certain field such as children and learning disabilities and work in schools or social work facilities, or mental illness and work in a hospital (Bond). According to Vicki Cohen, people “typically are referred or come to therapy because they have a symptom”. These are defined by emotional, social, and or physiological.