To wonder how many Sociopaths you have come across?

[Impsandelves]

Just read The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout after hearing it mentioned in another thread.

I feel as though I could list possibly 2 family members, a couple of friends past and present, as sociopaths to some degree.

Am I being unreasonably paranoid?! Or do you feel you have come across a few too?

Sociopath isn't an actual condition, it's a broad term for what can be other disorders. You have to have the opportunity to effectively challange that persons actions or perceptions and get answers from them, then you can start to unravel what is going on.

It isn't enough to fit into the criteria on the website, or behave very badly. Severe psychological damage can be a cause for lots of behaviour but that isn't the same as having a psychiatric condition. Then the catagories can be split into aquired or organic.

Nope, I don't think I know any of those. And having read the description, I'm really glad about that...

@Wannabe But you saw him up cloase. Many examples are of colleagues who you would only see the 'work facade' for. No way would my ex colleage snap and contol his colleagues like that, but I have no idea how he woudl react in a family situation.

The one thing that made me question if he was a psychopath was the fact that he vowed to be single as he could never do what someone else wanted, which suggested a certain level of self awareness.

Hmm ex husband-absolutely fits the criteria. I have no doubts about this at all.
Senior manager at work- possibly well known bully. Several people have refused to share a room with her. Yours truly stuck in same room. Manager above her has instructed me to walk out if she starts. Very toxic person, not yet decided if it is her behaviours or the feelings in me she recreates that make me draw parallels. Likely to be npd.

3 acquaintances, 1 in sales (contestant on well known tv show which attracts these types) would also border npd/psychopathy I think.

True psychopaths are very rare. Just because someone does a nasty thing, commits DV, spreads rumours does not make them a psychopath in the clinical definition.

Having studied neuropsychology and worked as a research assistant in cognitive neuroscience it really annoys me that people still assume psychiatric diagnoses to be wishy washy vague 'labels' made up one night by a bunch of quacks. What about the physical evidence, brain biopsies, scans, blood tests? Ffs.

I wonder how many sociopaths there are posting on this thread?

If you think someone is a sociopath or a psychopath, then they probably aren't. They are manifestly not that easy to recognise!

I believe I may have known one, but I will never know for sure. The one I knew had everyone except very, very close family fooled, due to a highly skilled level of manipulation, assured social veneer, and Oscar-winning acting ability.

Believing oneself able to confidently diagnose people so casually could be seen as indicative of a mental health problem, one could say.

The sheer arrogance is astounding.

my Dad

and no he's not easy to recognise. But nevertheless his behaviour (often behind his public façade and extreme arrogance) is sociopathic.

TheParan0idAndr0id: "Believing oneself able to confidently diagnose people so casually could be seen as indicative of a mental health problem, one could say.

The sheer arrogance is astounding."

Relative diagnoses everyone!

Arrogant? Confused, concerned, scared, victimised or ignorant maybe. But arrogant?

I know arseholes. The behaviour that people on this thread have witnessed obviously goes beyond our scope of arsehole.And maybe all the people mentioned here are sociopaths, maybe they're not. But they have performed acts that have struck us as way outside the scope of normal arseholeistic behaviour, and left some genuinely fearing for the safety of themselves or others. It's not arrogant to feel that these people are way beyond simple arseholes and try to find a rational explanation for their behaviour. It's not arrogant to label someone who has set out to destroy your life. I will put my hands up to ignorance, but NOT arrogance.

My therapist suggested my neighbour might be a Sociopath. After 30 years of practice she says she can recognise the signs but obviously cannot be 100% sure.

I personally differentiate between bastards, and possible -pathic behaviour, by asking myself the following question.

"Do I believe that person A or capable of deliberately injuring his or her own child, in order to put the blame on someone else, such as an ex?"

I have only ever once answered yes.

Given the (apparent) prevalence of sociopaths, I expect there's a fair few posting on MN.

NB - not meant to be snarky, in case anyone reads it that way.

I've also met someone who claimed to be one but I'm quite sure they aren't.

I have had the misfortune to become involved with someone who, if not a sociopath (don't know enough about diagnoses to say) was a really nasty, sadistic piece of work. I wouldn't be remotely surprised to see their name in connection with some horrible crime.

There probably are some on mn. We have had a couple of truly deranged trolls over the years.

TheBigJessie - "Do I believe that person A or capable of deliberately injuring his or her own child, in order to put the blame on someone else, such as an ex?"

Good goalposts.

I would like to be able to say I don't believe people capable of that.

Chubfuddler - verytrue, but I'm not just thinking of trolls. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some regulars who fall into that category!

Not sure what happened to the space bar there.

I agree flippinada - i ignore their efforts at trying to get my attention.

My ex is definitely one. I've thought it for the last year or so. He's the most manipulative,lying conniving scumbag i ever had the misfortune to meet. His family own 200 acres of land which gives him a huge sense of self importance. Over 7 years he beat me up,trapped me in the home with no money,cheated on me,alienated almost all my friends,stole from relatives,sold shitty cars to friends and set up a new business every 6 months or so. He has a paper trail following him around the country and has to move his every 4/6 months or so to get away from it. While we were together he threatened to burn down the house with me and our son in it and also tampered with the brakes in my car (saw him outside my house fiddling with it one day,luckily took it to mechanic to check after). Met him in court recently,i've been trying to get maintenance for 5 yrs,he keeps moving so it's v hard,anyway he got our sons age wrong....he's his only child and we lived together til ds was 5:( When i corrected him he just shrugged it off,telling me about his new 4 bed house he was planning to build...he couldn't afford maintenance but he can build a house!! I thank god i got away when i did,it's taken me years to get over what he did to me. Unfortunately the girl he's with now still seems taken in with him,he's already moved her away from her family after getting caught screwing them financially and getting too friendly with her cousin...

celticlass :(

What you posted reminded me of a friend's ex. Not my story to tell but this guy has a conga line of people he has fucked over and treated liked shit, of who my friend is just one. And yet he can still reel people in.

Why are we all giving there awful people labels? Surely it just excuses their behavior as sociopathy is beyond the control of the person who has it.

As others have said sociopaths a very rare and they are certainly not diagnosed by going through a list of personality traits.

GoingForGoalWeight - yes, there are some people it's best not engage with at all.