Have you ever thought that the person sitting next to you might be a psychopath or a sociopath?
Every day we live side by side with hundreds of people. Sometimes we chat with someone we don’t know, sometimes we help them. But what if there is an Antisocial Personality Disorder hiding behind social masks in this crowd?
What Is Antisocial Personality Disorder?
Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD) is a serious personality disorder characterized by persistent patterns of behavior, such as lack of empathy, lying, irresponsible behavior, and disregard for the rights of others. Antisocial individuals do not follow the rules of society.
Contrary to popular belief, they are often extroverted individuals. They are also capable of forming relationships with people, but these relationships may be based on manipulation, harm, and lies.
Antisocial Personality Disorder is divided into two types: psychopaths and sociopaths. Although they may sound very similar, there are decisive differences between them.
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Psychopathy is more genetically and neurologically based. Empathy and guilt are almost non-existent. They are planned, cold-blooded, and manipulative. Their crimes are usually premeditated.
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Sociopathy is often associated with childhood traumas, environmental factors, and neglect. Unlike psychopaths, sociopaths have weak but not completely absent feelings of guilt and empathy. They exhibit sudden outbursts of anger and uncontrolled behavior.
What Work Are They Mostly Involved In?
People with this personality disorder can work in normal jobs and live their lives in a normal way, just like any other person.
Psychopathic individuals generally gravitate towards professions involving authority, power, and control. CEOs, senior managers, surgeons, lawyers, politicians, security, and intelligence can be seen as the professions that psychopathic individuals mostly gravitate towards.
Sociopaths have more unstable career histories than psychopaths. They often turn to short-term jobs or jobs with low responsibility, self-employment, criminal organizations, and illegal employment opportunities.
Not everyone working in these professional groups is a sociopath or psychopath. However, individuals with these personality traits can adapt to certain environments more easily than others.
Antisocial Personality Disorder and Crime
The crimes committed by psychopathic individuals are planned and organized. Crimes such as fraud, embezzlement, and professional murder are among them. They do not have a conscience or a sense of guilt and therefore do not show remorse.
Because they are organized and planned, they are careful not to leave a trace, so they can be more difficult to catch. Most serial killers have psychopathic traits.
Crimes committed by sociopathic individuals are usually associated with sudden anger and impulsivity. Due to their uncontrolled behavior and anger problems, more visible and sudden crimes such as fights, assaults, and domestic violence are common.
Unlike psychopaths, sociopathic individuals are not regular, planned, and organized. For this reason, they commit crimes in a reactive manner without planning and are generally easier to catch because they are more likely to leave a trace.
How Psychopaths and Sociopaths Develop in the Family Environment
The personality disorders of psychopathic individuals are mostly genetic and neurologically based. They may have dysfunctions in areas of emotional processing in the brain (e.g. the amygdala). These individuals may also develop in normal, functional family environments.
Contrary to popular belief, not all psychopathic individuals had a traumatic childhood. Some psychopathic individuals may have a normal childhood but still have this personality disorder.
Since psychopathic individuals lack empathy, emotional coldness is seen, and this can be recognized at an early age. Signs such as being unresponsive to the pain of others, lying easily, and harming animals can be interpreted as emotional coldness.
Sociopathic individuals often have environmental and traumatic backgrounds. They may have witnessed physical or emotional abuse, neglect, or violence at some point in their lives. The absence or instability of parental figures can also influence the development of a sociopathic personality.
Sociopathy can manifest itself in childhood with behavioral disorders. These children do not follow the rules, tend to run away from school, and fight.
Psychopathic and sociopathic individuals walk among us. They may be the neighbor you greet every day, your childhood friend, or your colleague.
Contrary to popular belief, not everyone with Antisocial Personality Disorder is prone to crime. They may have lives that seem normal from the outside, but when you look closely at their lives, they may have behaviors and patterns that are far from normal.
References
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DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – 5th Edition)
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ICD-11 (International Classification of Diseases – WHO)
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Patrick, C. J. (Ed). (2006). Handbook of Psychopathy
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Skeem, J. L., & Cooke, D. J. (2010)
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Erel, Ö., & Bilge, Y. (2013). “Psikopati ve Suç: Klinik ve Adli Bir İnceleme.”
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Gökler-Danışman, İ. (2018). “Antisosyal Kişilik Bozukuluğu ve Suç.”