[DMB]
Right. Sociopaths and psychopaths are both forms of anti-social
personality disorder but the latter is more severe.
[Arlo]
I am surprised there is no distinction, I've always used the terms
(erroneously now, I see) in the sense that a "psychopath" understands
that what he is doing is wrong, but he "gets off" on doing those things,
while a "sociopath" lacks empathy to understand that what he is doing is
wrong. Take the (fictional) case of Dexter, he only "knows" that what he
does is wrong in the sense that he understands that other people tell
him it is, but he himself is unable to understand his actions as "wrong"
(sociopath), while the Ice Cream Truck killer (won't spoil the plot for
those who didn't watch) definitely is portrayed as understanding that
his actions are "evil" but getting off on hurting people (psychopath).
That is, Dexter completely lacks empathy while the ICTK has enough
empathy to enjoy seeing other people hurt.
Now that these terms are pretty much conflated, I'm not sure how to draw
this distinction, or maybe its an unimportant distinction after all. Is
there a critical difference between someone who is unable to comprehend
others as themselves, and someone who has this comprehension and uses it
to seek pleasure out of others' pain? Between "I don't understand that
you are hurting" and "I enjoy hurting you"?
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