They see the dog as an object, not a life. No matter how much they tell you their pet dog is their “baby”, female sociopaths will begin shopping for a replacement dog before the previous dog has died. This is something a human being who loves their pet would never think of doing. Apart from the stress a new dog may cause a dying old dog in the last weeks of its life, this also shows how for all their “my baby!” talk the female sociopath sees the dog as an object with no real love for it. Which is also how they people.

http://transsociopathica.blogspot.com/

Thanks.

I think you’re quite right about the genetic side being a multiple factor thing, but this would actually imply that we would get a sliding scale along the lines of Total Pacifist – Peace Loving Hippy – Realistic & Empathic person – Neutral – Common Variety B*stard – Total B*stard – Criminal Psychopath – Serial Killer. We only tend to get simple on/off relationships when a single gene is involved (e.g. sickle cell anaemia).

You are quite right that genetic factors are almost certainly at play, but with any behaviour that is consistent across environments and related to a particular brain area , we can attribute its cause to either i) Genetics, ii) Environment or iii) a brain injury.

Brain injury is particularly useful as it can provide more solid evidence (through personality change after the brain injury, and double dissociations between brain injury locations & behaviours). It may be that genetics, past environments or the past interaction of the two are producing psychopathic individuals.

For examples of brain injuries that have caused psychopathic behaviour check out the following links:

Overview
http://jnnp.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/71/6/720

Detailed case study:
http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/123/6/1122?ijkey=nqtu3ymGeRD6A

I think you’re right about the genetic link and possible test protocol to test the hypothesis, but we’re likely to find that is a genetic-stress diathesis (i.e. interaction of genes and environment) analogous to Schizophrenia for example.

It seems that sociopathy is a genetic soup of multiple factors. If one looks at such traits as arrested development childishness (impulse control, patience, etc.) or ADHD-like traits then certainly it appears that there is a normal to pathological spectrum. However it seems to me that the core view of others as pawns to be used/abused without remorse is an on/off trait. How can torturers just sit there and calmly watch their handiwork? I’m convinced that the majority are sociopathic monsters with no conscience to be appealed to.

Approaching from another angle, how many gay friends and acquaintances does it take before one concludes, “you know, these people are the way they are born to be”? From my experience with sociopaths I believe they believe that to be true in their case also. Not that this would mean anything to anybody else, but I am as sure of sociopathy being innate (once one discounts the faux sociopaths) as I am that the sky is blue.

But there is no reason to have this discussion in a vacuum, we are not discussing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin — it is resolvable. One place to start would be genetic studies of convicted criminals judged to be sociopaths by both Hare’s PCL-R and brain scans. Or one could start with with commonly considered sociopaths such as Ira Einhorn, Tom Capano, Wayne Williams and Jeffrey MacDonald.

However, your comment about psychopaths being either/or rather than on a continuum strikes me as possibly wrong. Its clearly true that someone can either be classified as a psychopath or not (using the PCL-R for example) but this either or diagnosis does not mean there are either/or psychopaths.

Clearly some individuals are psychopathic and others aren’t, but there are also individuals along a spectrum of selfishness and a spectrum of fearlessness.

My personal theory is that the Factor 1 (Selfishness) of the PCL-R is due to a lack of empathy, whereas the Factor 2 (Chaotic Lifestyle) is due to a lack of inhibition, due to a lack of awareness of negative future consequences, which can be due to a lack of fear.

Both of these factors can exist as a continuum. So a person high in factor 1 would lack empathy and be totally selfish, but have good self control (the Judge in your above post). These people are your “socially adept sociopaths”.

A person high in factor 2 would be chaotic or criminal, due to a failure to inhibit their desires due to a lack of fear, but after the act may be genuinely remorseful. These people would probably be classified as ASPD but not necessarily truly psychopathic.

A person high on both factors would clearly have no empathy and no anticipation of future negative consequences, possibly totally lacking fear. This person would clearly be a dangerous criminal psychopath, as they would lack any of the inhibiting factors which prevent most people from being violent.

I should say that I’ve come to this understanding partly by working with and studying people with frontal lobe brain injuries (I’m studying for a neuropsychology PhD). Frontal lobe brain injuries can be considered to be partially like ADHD and partially like ASPD, although there are individuals that suffer from both of these “types” there are also individuals who suffer primarily from one type or another. Some of these individuals are described as being pseudopsychopathic in the literature.

Anyway, nice blog and I will check it out in the future.