Sociopath Stereotypes

It has long been known that sociopaths walk among humanity, perhaps even abusing, hurting, and deceiving the people around them. While the true cause of this psychiatric disorder has been never established, the disorder itself has been established as one that affects a person so deeply on a cognitive and emotional level that it turns a human being into something without any real human qualities such as: emotion, empathy, morality, and complex decision making. Some monstrous murders were found to be sociopaths even, leading to a controversial topic of whether sociopaths could be considered legally insane or held responsible for their actions. Many times, however, these individuals are not even known to the people they interact with, and while

They also tend to be “calloused, externalize blame, and fail to learn from consequences.” (Landfield, 2014) Sociopathy is a subtype of a personality disorder in the DSM-V, but is not a technical term. When the term sociopath is being used, it is usually interchangeable with Antisocial Personality Disorder, but it could also be referring to any other personality disorders as well. The dysfunctional traits that one must have in order to diagnosed with a General Personality Disorder are: “cognition”( skewed ways of perceiving and interpreting self, others, and events), “affectivity” (the low range, intensity, liability, and appropriateness of emotional response), “interpersonal functioning, and impulse control.” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) These patterns of symptoms may lead to significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. However, a Antisocial personality disorder is described as “failure to conform to social norms and behaviors, deceitfulness, impulsivity or failure to plan ahead, irritability and aggressiveness, reckless disregard to others and self, lack of

Ted Bundy is infamously known as a serial killer, kidnapper, rapist, and necrophile who assaulted and murdered at least thirty women. His charm, cold-heartedness, deceitfulness, deception, and lack of empathy and remorse qualify him as a pure sociopath. Jeffrey Dahmer is another notorious case of sociopaths. He was a serial killer, cannibal, and rapist, who was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, and psychotic disorder—all of which are subtypes of personality disorders. Even after his diagnosis, however, the court found him legally sane at his trial. Although these are two famous cases for sociopaths, this does not mean sociopaths are violent. “The view that all sociopaths are violent, and all people who are violent are sociopaths” is actually inaccurate. (Landfield, 2014) The main symptoms that make these two cases bonifide psychopaths are the lack of empathy and remorse. It is possible for an individual to be violent and malicious without being diagnosed with a personality disorder, and also a person can be diagnosed with a personality disorder and be harmless and relatively ordinary while lacking complete empathy and