What is a Sociopath

If you've ever seen the movie American Psycho, starring Christian Bale, there is your best answer. Though the movie took sociopathic personality to a whole new (and slightly disgusting) level, the basic symptoms as displayed by the protagonist remain more or less the same. But while the sociopathic personality is glamorously fictionalized, be it the Joker from Batman, or Lord Voldemort of the Harry Potter series or Sweeney Todd, that Demon Barber from Fleet Street, the fact remains that the problems of such personality can be best understood by people who have lived with them.

Describing a Sociopath

Now referred to in medical circles as the antisocial personality disorder, a sociopath shows tendencies and behavior that goes against accepted social code. The main source of sociopathic personality is perhaps a heightened sense of self-love coinciding with a disregard for other people's feeling, and even existence. Indeed a sociopath may also display symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder. He cares little about the feelings and the behavior of others and is only concerned with his or her own desires. He can go to any extent to achieve what he wants and has absolutely no sympathy for the plight of other people around him. As such, a sociopath is devoid of all feelings which make us humans. Except, of course, those of anger and greed.

Sociopathic Personality

A pretty disturbing aspect is that at the outset, he would seem like a perfectly sane, and in fact, charming human being. Sociopathic personality cannot be easily deciphered by a third person because he knows how to hide it pretty well. He is a glib conversationalist and knows how to charm people. But underneath, he is cunning and intelligent enough to know how to manipulate others and get them to do what he wants. His need to have things his way makes him a pathological liar - someone who has no qualms in lying in day-to-day situations and sometimes, for no reason at all. For all his manipulative actions, the sociopath may never feel any sort of guilt or remorse and has no problems in performing a terrible act over and over again as long as he can have his share of gains.

A sociopath virtually cannot feel love or empathy. You can best understand when you see someone who is too superficial with his emotions because he cannot feel any of his own. He routinely shows promiscuousness and cannot have relationships because he is not attuned to feel love or have any such feeling. Indeed any relationship with a sociopath may end in infidelity on his or her part. The infidelity is not simply restricted to relationships, but also encompasses the other aspects of his life including his job. A sociopath finds it pretty hard to stick to his present job and feels the need to make a change more and more often. He dislikes making plans and likes to go with the flow, fully knowing that whichever field he chooses to enter, he will employ ruthless and tactless strategies to further his cause.

One cannot forget to mention that a couple of defining characteristics of a sociopathic personality are poorly controlled rage and a tendency to show physical and verbal cruelty to others. Sociopath traits start coming to the surface at the age of 15 and cases of juvenile delinquency, inability to maintain friendships, and general cruelty towards animals and humans can be seen. A sociopath is an egocentric and believes that he is the center of the universe and all the people around him ought to obey his divine command. Should that not happen, he may also showcase fits of rage.

Lastly, several people ask what is the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath. The line that separates these two personality disorders is sort of blurry, but it is widely accepted that a sociopath is less organized and easily agitated. A psychopath, on the other hand, shows no such 'weaknesses' in his personality and is completely organized and a superb planner.

Can a Sociopath be Set Straight?

Sociopathic behavior is never welcome in the society and needs to be curbed. But as is the case with most psychiatric problems, people rarely notice the symptoms and choose not to come forward to correct them. The best bet for treatment for sociopath is during teenage years when the sociopath symptoms start coming to the surface. The more years it is allowed to stay, the harder it will be to get rid of it. Psychotherapy is the preferred mode for psychiatrists to correct a sociopath.

Sociopathic personality is a social menace and collective efforts are required to round up the sociopaths to help them. The problem lies in identifying them, which is clearly not very easy.