to ask what is the difference between a psychopath and a plain old bad person?

[Alwayswonderingabout]

Just that really. The world is full of unempathic, nasty arseholes who don’t care about anyone other than themselves but otherwise don’t especially fit the profile of a psychopath or a sociopath. What do you think it is that makes them different? Do you think that every awful person must have some form of personality disorder or can you just be a total arsehole without one?*

What about, say, a person who doesn’t love their children or wider family and is only interested in personal gain but never lies or breaks the law and loves one person (e.g. a partner). Are they a psychopath/sociopath but to a lesser extent? Or just not a very nice person?

• Please do not read the above as me suggesting that everyone who has a personality disorder is an arsehole or is more likely to be one - obviously that is in no way the case. I have some very lovely friends who are diagnosed with personality disorders and although they are aware that their disorder can make them likely to act in certain ways they are all quite self aware and try to work on preventing that. It sounds like quite a struggle. I’m thinking more along the lines of how, for example, on MN as soon as someone’s partner is abusive everyone piles on and calls them a narcissist. Maybe they’re not a narcissist and are just horrible in general. If you see what I mean.

there are some specific personality traits that are pretty bad - look up the dark triad.

these can include being unemotional, lack of guilt, narcissism etc. People can have these traits without being criminals or getting the label psychopath. But they still might not be nice people to work with.

I personally don’t believe that there’s never a reason for people being ‘bad’ or ‘an asshole’. So no, I don’t think people can ‘just be assholes’ as I think we are all a result of our lives up until this point. Whether that be mental illness, trauma, upbringing - I think there’s a reason for everyone behaving the way they do; good or bad.

for some people that is a personality disorder, such as psychopathy or similar. I don’t think it’s a black and white as ‘psychopath or bad person’ - there’s an entire spectrum and people can present traits from a number of personality disorders and all function differently.

The triad is made up of psychopathy, Machiavellianism and Narcissism so chances are you would get the label ‘psychopath’ as it’s part of the triad but no it doesn’t make someone a criminal. Only committing a crime makes someone a criminal.