General Discussion

laundry_queen

(8,646 posts)

5. This is my understanding.

Tue May 8, 2012, 07:39 PM

May 2012

Except that there is a theory that psychopaths activate the pleasure centers of their brains when they hurt others as opposed to sociopaths who only happen to hurt others when they lack impulse control or when it benefits them in some way. Psychopaths may hurt others because they find pleasure in it and for no other reason.

I suppose science will figure out the difference in time. And yeah, they are all, at the core, narcissists. You can be a narcissist without being a socio/psychopath but you can't be a socio/psychopath without being a narcissist. I really do think there is a continuum.

Edit history

Please sign in to view edit histories.

13 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Study reveals psychopaths have significant differences in brain structure -- grey matter. [View all] hedda_foil May 2012 OP

Let's make a distinction between psychopaths and sociopaths TrogL May 2012 #1

Sociopaths don't know the difference... RevStPatrick May 2012 #2

I thought sociopaths knew right from wrong and didn't care about the consequences of their actions Larkspur May 2012 #3

This is my understanding. laundry_queen May 2012 #5

the difference is how they were created. provis99 May 2012 #4

No, that's the distinction between psychopaths and psychotics. backscatter712 May 2012 #8

No, that's a psychotic Prophet 451 May 2012 #11

This is wonderful news. With a diagnostic tool with teeth victims will not be so isolated anymore applegrove May 2012 #6

sad smile, Dan May 2012 #7

The psychopath wouldn't care Prophet 451 May 2012 #12

I wouldn't jump to conclusions... ljm2002 May 2012 #9

True, but... Prophet 451 May 2012 #13

Read "The Psychopath Test" by John Ronson mojitojoe May 2012 #10