Sociopathy vs Psychopathy

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Psychopathic and Sociopathic Behavior Sean Thomas McGarvey Brevard Community College Abstract Word Count = 77 Essay Word Count = 729 Total Word Count = 806 Abstract Both Psychopathic and Sociopathic behaviors fall under the category of Antisocial Personality Disorders. Both disorders center on a person’s inability to feel empathy and to relate to other people, along with lying to and manipulating others for his or her own benefit. Many criminals have one of these two disorders. Personally, I am a Borderline Sociopath, meaning that I have many tendencies of a Sociopath, however I am nonviolent and not as likely to commit a crime. Psychopathic and Sociopathic Behavior Psychopaths and Sociopaths, for the most part, “[are] mainly characterized by lack of empathy towards others that is coupled with display[s] of abnormal moral conduct and inability to conform with the norms of the society” (depressiond, 2011). The main characteristic of Antisocial Personality disorder is the inability to feel empathy. Empathy is the ability to relate to another person’s experiences. For example, if a person’s grandmother dies, empathy would include having your own grandparent die, therefore you know the feeling. Antisocial Personality Disorder pretty much says that a person cannot relate to other people’s experiences. Another trait shared by both Psychopaths and Sociopaths is the willingness to lie to others, and deceive others, for selfish gain, and for the most part the lying and deceiving is compulsive. It’s an “Oh, I like that, I want it” kind of thing, and the Psychopath or Sociopath will feel no guilt about it after the fact. The difference between a Psychopath and a Sociopath however, is that a Sociopath is unable to purposefully harm or deceive a person who he cares about. In my case, as a Borderline
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