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⌈ Secret Post #2640 ⌋

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...have you ever had to actually deal with a psychopath? Or a sociopath? Because I have dealt with both. So, no, this comment is not going to be filled with diagram, statistics, and citations, but here are my anecdotal observations on sociopaths vs. psychopaths.

A sociopath is several orders of magnitude less intelligent than a psychopath. They possess all the ability to bully, inveigle, scheme, and manipulate their way around whatever life they find themselves in, but most often, they are frustrated in their ability to self-determine their way out of their own situation, which they will never be happy with, because they (as the psychopaths do) see themselves as the centre of the universe, better than the ants around them, etc. Unfortunately for the garden-variety sociopath, they are unable to present the smoother veneer of an accomplished psychopath, so they will be frustrated, which leads to resentment, which leads to them bullying whatever underlings or lesser beings (usually fortunately few, again, sociopaths are far less well-accomplished than psychopaths) may, by pure misfortune, fall into their sphere of influence. A sociopath also generally has at least a partial moral compass, i.e., they cannot further their progress in their own lives, because they won't do whatever it takes, where "whatever" would entail legal or other socially questionable actions.

A psychopath sees others as, at best, tools that can be used to further his (psychopaths are predominantly men) own ambitions. At worst, they see others as ants, meant to be crushed, and there we have Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, etc. Most garden variety psychopaths view their tools (the people around them) as useful enough to be kept in good working order. I.e., if a friendship with a person of influence, or a person who can give the psychopath something he wants, is what it takes, then the psychopath will ooze all the charm and ply all the bribes he can finagle, to get whatever it is he is after.

The tool (the person) becomes useless to the psychopath, if the person (the tool) realizes what the psychopath is doing at any point, so if the jig is up (so to speak), the friendship will be dropped like a hot potato. Psychopaths are only interested in being surrounded by their "lessers" or by people who can't see through their manipulative ways. If you don't fit that model, be you friend, foe, or family, you've got to go.

Garden-variety psychopaths won't take this to its logical extreme (killing the victim and burying the body in the back forty) because, in the short-term AND the long-term, that doesn't serve their purposes. (Usually power, either financial, psychological, or physical, in extreme cases.) This is why the majority of psychopaths gravitate to positions of power in finance, politics, or industry.

Psychopaths are generally not able to tolerate doing "an honest day's work" of any stripe, because they feel themselves so superior to (what they see as) the mindless animals around them, they will do whatever they can, in order to either get the ants to do their work for them (and claim all the credit), or they "opt out" of any kind of established field that would suit their personality type (cf. finance, politics, captains of industry), and then you have your average cult leader / psychic channeler / fake guru / ponzi schemer taking the gullible for everything they can.

All of these people operate very smoothly, i.e., they can charm whoever they want (initially...if the charm wears off, and they are in a position to hold power over the victim, then things get hairy, if they are not, the victim is simply cut out of their lives), and the psychopath will do so, by whatever means necessary. (Cf. Sherlock's genuinely fake crying in front of the widow in series 2.) The fact that they are NOT dangerous or "extremely uncomfortable to be around" in fact, they are the diametric opposite of this, is what lets them get away with whatever they want to get away with. Some people do see through psychopaths (those who grew up with one and/or were exposed to one that made a victim of them, and they survived), but unfortunately, due to a true psychopath's high intelligence, and willingness to lie facilely to obtain whatever they need in the moment, only a small percentage of people will spot a psychopath right off the mark.

Again, this has just been my experience, is entirely anecdotal, not based on science of any kind.

TL;DR: Sociopaths are less intelligent than psychopaths, and a psychopath's stock in trade is to appear as cunning and guileless as possible. So a psychopath will be your best friend/most loving partner or parent, in the whole wide world. As long as you serve his purposes, and never, ever, question his actions, morals, or motives.

Anon here who did an undergrad in psych three years ago.

All of what you've said is accurate, except for the fact that there's very little distinction made between sociopaths & psychopaths. You can have stupid psychopaths & smart sociopaths, and the term is pretty much used interchangeably nowadays.

Technically it's not even a psychological term, it's used more in the field of law. Psychologists would be more likely to diagnose them as having Antisocial Personality Disorder and/or Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

But you're spot on about the behavior & the way they see the world!

AYRT

I wish I had gotten all this from book learning, like you did. I had a parent who was(prolly still is, if they're still alive) a psychopath as I describe above, and I very narrowly avoided being a sociopath's victim at one place I worked.

Agreed about the sociopath/psychopath distinction. It's pretty much antiquated at this point, and there was never really a clear definition either way.

APD is also being used more commonly because of the significant social stigma surrounding the term "psychopath"; it's not really a very scientific term at this point, it's become a descriptive term or an insult.

(reply from suspended user)

AYRT

...I have no idea what a Jesness or a SAVRY is, sorry. As I answered Undergrad!Anon above, one was a parent, the other was a coworker.

AYRT

Nope, LOL. Just educated in the School of Hard Knocks (unaccredited)

Extremely informative, thank you.

Damn, anon. I'm sorry you had to find this out first-hand, but this is really fascinating. Thanks for posting this.

As the significant other of a psychopath survivor, thank you so very much for this post. It's very accurate.

I would also like to add that, since a psychopath's main trait is their complete lack of empathy, they can fake having empathy if it serves their purpose, even to absurd extremes. Case in point: the psychopath I knew would appear to be very concerned about every evil of the world, always being the first to reblog social justice stuff and all that. That was because she wanted to be in a circle of people where everyone was very concerned about social justice, so she was acting like that to get what she wanted! Everything that is charming about them is completely constructed to serve their purpose. That's why it's so hard to spot a psychopath - their whole trade is to make you think that there's nothing wrong with them, and if you start to suspect something they will first try to shift the blame on you for ever doubting them, and then drop you in whatever way they think you should be dropped.

To stay remotely on topic, I am actually very resentful of how psychopaths are portrayed in fiction. They are either portrayed as obvious evil monsters complete with maniacal cackle, or as charming, intelligent people with a few lovable flaws. An actual psychopath is a monster who never ever wonders if they're doing something wrong, and acts so that their true nature is hidden and muddled enough that they can operate within society easily. A sociopath goes for what's convenient, and just like it's usually more convenient not to murder, it's also usually more convenient not to openly break rules but rather act in the grey areas. I can understand why it's hard to write a psychopath - before meeting one, I would have never wrapped my head around the way they operate - but I am very resentful of how unaccurately they are written, because that can lead to people romanticizing the whole thing or just making it harder to recognize a real one.

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