It appears to me that like ADD and ADHD it has become a blanket term that is in essence has become ambiguous for very wrong reasons.
Having been raised in a home with a borderline personality disorder and a sociopath I see a vast difference in the two and could easily see the borderline personality being a psychopath or the sociopath being a psychopath but also realize they are not interchangeable.
I also realize that with good counseling, typically including some early childhood trauma/imprint help a sociopath can be helped.
I agree both are personality disorders but to lump them into a ball is not accurate and just a short cut for ease of labeling.
https://incoldblogger.blogspot.com/2007/06/psychopath-vs-sociopath.html
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Psychopath vs. Sociopath (https://incoldblogger.blogspot.com/2007/06/psychopath-vs-sociopath.html)
https://bp3.blogger.com/_xhcWzF0i93k/Rn7MsjtRLuI/AAAAAAAAAcU/mKd3w0kE_zc/s200/Ramsland+Gangsters.jpg (https://bp3.blogger.com/_xhcWzF0i93k/Rn7MsjtRLuI/AAAAAAAAAcU/mKd3w0kE_zc/s1600-h/Ramsland+Gangsters.jpg)I’m often asked about the difference between a psychopath and sociopath, and it’s difficult to respond because the answer is complex. Many people mistakenly believe the two terms are interchangeable, which is no surprise since both politics and religion have influenced the long evolution of the concept of psychopathy. Thus, I’m using my first blog to discuss why we haven’t settled on a single name for a certain type of personality disorder that most TC writers eventually encounter.
While psychopathy was the first personality disorder that psychiatry formally recognized, it wasn't easy to crystallize a workable concept for analysis. Pinel, a French psychiatrist, used a phrase during the early 1800s that translated as “mania without madness.” He described impulsive people whose actions had negative consequences for themselves and others, yet they were fully aware of what they were doing. It was a mystery.
In America, Benjamin Rush designated the same behavior as "moral derangement" and observed that such people developed socially disruptive behavior early in life. In his opinion, they were more bad than ill. An English physician, calling it "moral insanity," viewed psychopathy as an emotional disorder.
The term, psychopath, first showed up in Germany, during the latter part of the 19th century, but it included biological disorders, and by the early part of the twentieth century, “constitutional psychopathic inferiority” had become a catchall term for most mental and physical defects. Then brain damage and physiological conditions were placed in a different medical category.
The next step was to remove ‘constitutional’ from the classification, leaving the unworkably broad ‘psychopathic personality’ with no diagnostic criteria: it was for those people who were not psychotic or neurotic but who caused distress in the community.
More psychiatrists worked out ways to refine the concept, but it wasn’t until 1941 that the notion of a psychopath was ably crystallized. Hervey Cleckley published The Mask of Sanity, in which he offered 16 criteria for diagnosis, including hot-headed, manipulative, irresponsible, self-centered, shallow, lacking in empathy or anxiety, and likely to commit more types of crimes than other offenders. They are also more violent, more likely to recidivate, and less likely to respond to treatment.
Now, what about the sociopath? As the concept of psychopathy continued to evolve, in psychiatric circles, diagnosis replaced a combination of traits and behaviors with just behaviors. To reflect this different emphasis, some older concepts were renamed. In 1952, in the psychiatric nomenclature, the word ‘psychopath’ was officially replaced with ‘sociopathic personality,’ and both terms were often used interchangeably under the heading of ‘personality disorder.’ Then with the second edition of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-II) in 1968, ‘sociopathic personality’ yielded to ‘personality disorder, antisocial type.’
Twelve years later, the DSM-III introduced a list of explicit criteria for people we'd long viewed as psychopaths, but calling it "Antisocial Personality Disorder" (ASPD). The criteria emphasized the violation of social norms rather than personality traits, and many researchers were dissatisfied with this approach because it had no diagnostic utility.
During the seventies, some researchers ignored the DSMDSM, as if ASPD meant the same thing. But it didn’t.
ASPD is a broader category, inclusive of people who would not qualify on the PCL-R as psychopaths, and while some psychopaths might also be diagnosable as ASPD, it would not apply to all people diagnosable as psychopaths. Thus, the terms refer to overlapping but nevertheless different categories of people. (Try saying all of that five times, fast.)
Researchers who used the traditional concept viewed psychopathy as a disorder characterized by such traits as lack of remorse or empathy, shallow emotions, manipulativeness, lying, egocentricity, glibness, low frustration tolerance, episodic relationships, parasitic lifestyle, and the persistent violation of social norms. According to Robert Hare, “Psychopathy is one of the best validated constructs in the realm of psychopathology."
Without getting into the politics surrounding the different diagnostic systems, people who were unaware of the need for precision and accuracy for research and assessment adopted a preference for using either ‘psychopath’ or ‘sociopath’ and came up with their own workable definitions. In other words, things got a little sloppy. I’ve even seen professionals use the term 'sociopath' but rely on the criteria specific to the concept of a psychopath. However, for researchers in psychopathy, ‘sociopath’ has a different connotation.
Which brings me back to the original question: the difference between a psychopath and sociopath. If you subscribe to the Hare criteria for a psychopath, then you see the conning, manipulative narcissistic liar and user as a psychopath, as long as he or she is completely lacking in remorse or empathy. The sociopath, however, is capable of guilt, caring, building relationships, etc., but only within a certain context. He or she will have loyalties to a specific group but not to society at large. They care nothing for social norms and will break them with impunity if it serves their purpose. So, on the surface, they may resemble psychopaths. However, they might genuinely feel remorse over harming someone within their group or family. They will have a moral code specific to that context: they might not lie, exploit, or manipulate within the group. Thus, they exhibit psychopathic behaviors in certain contexts but not all.
See? I warned you the answer was complex. Does it really matter? In a practical sense, yes. The PCL-R has been proven to be the best predictor of repeat behavior in criminal populations, and the best predictor of future criminal diversity and brutality. For those who are working with (or writing about) this type of person, grasping their motivational construct can be crucial to understanding what they’re all about…and what they might do in the future. As far as I know, there is no equivalent diagnostic tool for a sociopath.
Katherine Ramsland teaches forensic psychology, has published 29 books, and writes regular features for the Crime Library. https://www.katherineramsland.com/ and devised better diagnostic assessment tools for the traditional notion of a psychopath, as Cleckley had viewed it. Robert Hare and his colleagues in Canada devised the Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R), with 20 items covering both traits and behaviors. Yet most mental health professionals in the U.S. stuck with the
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https://www.sociopathic.net/rants/antisocial.htm
In a world full of fears, perhaps the worst one a human being should have is that to be afraid of his fellow man. The human that should be most feared is the one that has Anti-Social Personality Disorder or in psychology terms the sociopath and or psychopath. The psychopath is probably the most deviant mind that exists and treatment is not very successful because there is not a cure or drug to control it.
The sociopath is a combination of other mental illnesses that are incurred in childhood as a result of heredity, trauma and the lack of emotional development. The lack of moral or emotional development which gives a sociopath a lack of understanding for other people's feelings which enables them to be deceitful without feeling bad about whatever they do. The under developed emotional system, it shows the sociopath is "emotionally retarded" . The sociopathic behaviour problems that start as a child have links to heredity, a family with a pre-disposition to perform crimes, alcoholic parents that do crimes, irresponsible behaviour that persists and parents that do not discipline their children. The child that will eventually be a sociopath exhibits certain feeling inside that they are inadequate, shamed and because of that they are teased and made fun of. The child characteristics of a future sociopath consist of being incapable of following the rules. The youngster will skip school, bully, steal, torment animals, run away from home and the child is likely to develop Attention Deficit \Hyperactivity Disorder or AD|HD. At an earlier age than their peer group the child will smoke/drink, do drugs, and become sexually active. The diagnoses of Anti-Social Personality Disorder is not used for people under the age of 18.
The Psychopath is defined in the dictionary as a person suffering from, a severe mental disorder with aggressive antisocial behaviour which is a nice way of saying a really bad and mean person. There are many characteristics of a sociopath and each sociopath has their own special traits.
If you have a clear distinction in mind, please elaborate. Or, check out the reference link on my post; it says that they are not distinguishable--although there is, as I said, some ambiguity.
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