Q: Is a profound lack of empathy a symptom of Sociopathy? Its not my field and it seems worthy of an educated response.
I know that saying things like “That guy has ZERO empathy… What a Sociopath!” is rude and uncalled for. What I am asking, though, is whether or not its True.
The Robert Hare psychopathy checklist includes (among several other items) the following, which all speak to the significant empathy deficit found in pathologically psychopathic people.
It’s not just a symptom, it’s basically the core trait.
Yes and no. Sociopaths have issues in the neural connections between various parts of the brain. As a result they can only feel most emotions if they concentrate. One sociopath compared it to having a radio vs. a cell phone. Most people are cell phones, they pick up whatever signal is the strongest. A sociopath can choose which signal to attune to so they can ignore feelings they don’t like or need.
Sociopaths lack most emotions though. They lack empathy and guilt but they also tend to lack feelings of terror or fear. I’ve heard some say they can work up an anger, then let it go quickly by focusing on it.
So yes and no.
Other symptoms are lack of impulse control and terrible long term planning. Most people just assume everyone who lacks empathy is a sociopath but that isn’t true. Lots of conditions, as well as just being an asshole can affect ones empathy abilities.
Something I commonly see in people that puzzles me is an apparent lack of empathy for one type of problem yet a seemingly huge amount of empathy for a different problem or different group. I have had people I was very close to really disappoint me with displays of callousness when on other occasions they have surprised me with their generosity.
It’s strange, and frankly unhelpful, for a site devoted to understanding The Sociopathic Style[sup]TM[/sup] that “psychopathy” is not distinguished from “sociopathy.”
I am not qualified to gauge the usefulness of this list as to OP, or sociopathy per se.
The various Mr. Evils, and Brando’s Don Corleone, were always gentle in the extreme to cats. And the main Jewish gangster in the teens, before Capone, whose name I forget, was by profession a bird seller, I believe.
I believe cruelty to animals is common among (certain kinds?) of psychopaths. Perhaps a differential diagnosis?
There’s a whole lot more going on with a sociopath than lack of empathy. People on the autism spectrum lack empathy and can have difficulty determining the emotional state of others based on facial expressions.
I think sociopaths are actually pretty good with the whole theory of mind, understanding other peoples feelings and emotions, they can’t feel it personally but they understand those things, it’s what makes them so good at exploitation and manipulation.
They’re the same thing.
I seem to lose empathy as I get older.
Am I just realizing that so many people are so stupid, that they don’t deserve as much empathy as I used to feel for them?
Stated with some amount of sarcasm.
Are you confusing the general with the specific? Just because you have empathy for something does not mean other people should.
Yes, I came here to say that (with not very much sarcasm). Judging by myself and my similarly aged friends, lack of empathy seems to be a symptom of getting old. And yes, I do have a lot more empathy for my cats than for most people. Not proud of it, but there it is.
[QUOTE=Friedo]
The Robert Hare [psychopathy checklist](http://www.sociopathicstyle.com/psychopathic-traits/) includes (among several other items) the following, which all speak to the significant empathy deficit found in pathologically psychopathic people.
[/QUOTE]
Seems a lot of glurge.
[QUOTE=Leo Bloom]
And the main Jewish gangster in the teens, before Capone, whose name I forget, was by profession a bird seller, I believe.
[/QUOTE]
Monk Eastman; although whether the Five Points counts as major gangsterdom is debatable. Oddly enough he actually appeared as a character in a Wodehouse book [ 'Psmith, Journalist’ ] before the First World War *, during which I think Mr. Eastman served bravely.
Still, as with people both awful and decent: he liked kitties and therefore has a chance at heaven.
It bears mentioning that a lack of empathy is also a characteristic of narcissism. In that case, it’s because narcissists are just too self-centered to care much about the needs of the others.
The terms sociopathy and psychopathy are often used interchangeably, though there’s supposed to be a significant difference. “Sociopathy” is used by health professionals to describe a person with a rudimentary conscience who isn’t the sort to go around committing serial murders (though he/she would happily screw you over at work and rip you off on a home repair).
And yes, lack of/severe deficiency in empathy is a defining symptom of both conditions.
Narcissism to that extreme… it is also a mental illness, correct?
I first learned of him from Psmith, and was surprised he existed. Now I can’t remember which one owned a pet store. And why I remember birdies, not kittens. Gotta go find my Psmith.
No, it’s not, because there’s no agreed upon distinction. They both describe Antisocial Personality Disorder. You’ll hear some people create a distinction, but then you’ll see that same distinction used the other direction by someone else.
Heck, to tell the truth, the WebMD difference is a new one, and makes less sense than the ones I’ve heard before. Of course there are severe and less severe forms of the same condition.
Autism/Aspergers also lack empathy.
However, psychopaths/sociopaths are very charming, whereas aspies and auties are by-and-large devoid of charm.
Furthermore, where 'paths are amoral, AFAIK aspies and auties see morals ethics and laws in black and white (an opinion someone on this very board once brought up).
Yup.
But then pretty much any character trait turned to 11 becomes a “mental illness”, including the “good ones”. E.g. if you spend your days naked in the snow because you simply cannot not give away all your possessions to the first person who looks like they might need them ; or you can’t go to sleep at night because you just can’t stop thinking/guilting about that one person you cut off in traffic this morning ; those’d be personality disorders too.