WEBVTT - What's the Difference Between Sociopathy and Psychopathy? 0:00:01.840 --> 0:00:08.719 Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff, Lauren Volabahm. Here. 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:14.040 Popular media and social media alike are full of casual 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:18.920 diagnoses of sociopathy and psychopathy. You've probably heard these terms 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:21.800 come up in everything from true crime podcasts to horror 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:25.840 films to advice articles like seven Signs You're Dating a Sociopath. 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:30.920 According to a therapist, the words sociopath and psychopath are 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:34.199 both often used to describe someone who does things for 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:38.120 personal gain or who hurts other people, from telling lies 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:43.120 to stealing to committing grizzly violent crimes. But what do 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:47.280 these terms actually mean? Talk to various mental health providers 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:52.440 and psychological researchers, and you may get different answers before 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:54.760 the article. This episode is based on How Stuff Work. 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:59.400 Spoke via email psychotherapist Terry Cole. She said the terms 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:03.440 are often used interchangeably in popular literature, chronology writing, and 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:06.640 within the media at large, but they are not diagnostic 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:11.880 terms and not exactly the same. That means that you 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:15.120 won't find the definition for psychopath or sociopath in the 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:19.199 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders because doctors don't 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:24.160 give an official diagnosis for psychopath or sociopath. Instead, they 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:28.880 may diagnose someone with antisocial personality disorder. This is a 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:32.160 mental health condition in which a person consistently shows no 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:36.120 regard for moralistic concepts of right and wrong. Also displays 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:39.759 a profound lack of empathy and a dominant self importance. 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:44.959 How stuff works also spoke by email with Eileen Anderson, 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:48.280 a professor of bioethics an adjunct professor of psychiatry in 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:52.240 the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University. She said, 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:56.960 typically sociopathy and psychopathy are lay terms to describe what 0:01:57.040 --> 0:02:02.520 gets diagnosed as antisocial personality disorder. However, other personality disorders, 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:06.680 such as narcissistic personality disorder or borderline personality disorder could 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:11.519 be invoked to the extent that there's a difference between 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:16.280 a quote unquote psychopath and a sociopath. Anderson explained that 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:19.480 research indicates that those whom lay people refer to as 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:23.960 sociopaths might feel some remorse proceed with antisocial behavior that 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:30.160 fits their agendas anyway. Meanwhile, by common definitions, quote psychopaths 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:34.120 feel no conscience or remorse for risky behavior. They feel 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:37.480 entitled to achieve their personal goals, even when those goals 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:41.040 might include acts that most would include as unconscionable, such 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:47.040 as lying, stealing, assault, or even killing someone. When you 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:49.840 hear the word psychopath, you might think of pop culture 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:53.480 examples of villains from movies or books like Hannibal Lecter, 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:57.040 a person who has violent tendencies and seems to enjoy 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:02.280 hurting others. The latter quality is referred to as sadism. 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:05.120 These two traits are not the same thing, but they 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:08.480 are correlated, That is, they tend to appear with one another. 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:14.720 In general, mental disorders don't fit neat labels, partially because 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:17.960 we're developing and updating our understanding of mental health all 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:22.880 the time. For example, the term psychopath was coined as 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:27.519 psychopastiche by German psychiatrist J. L. A. Cock in eighteen 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:30.400 eighty eight to describe subjects with a tendency to hurt 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:34.120 themselves or others. It was a characteristic that he believed 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:39.280 someone was born with Another German psychiatrist Karl Bernbaum observed 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:42.600 the same sort of pervasive pattern of antisocial behavior, but 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:45.320 felt it was caused by societal forces that made it 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:48.160 difficult for young adults to learn a more acceptable way 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:52.120 to act. He came up with a different term, sociopathy 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:56.320 to describe this in nineteen o nine. American psychologist George E. 0:03:56.400 --> 0:04:00.400 Partridge helped popularize the term in the nineteen thirties. Over 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:04.880 the years, both terms were used in psychological literature, sometimes interchangeably, 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:07.880 but again, neither of these terms are used as a 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:13.200 diagnosis today. How Stuff Works also spoke with David Schester, 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:17.240 an associate professor of social psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:22.400 whose research focuses upon understanding the psychological and biological processes 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:28.360 that motivate and constrain aggressive behavior. He explained, we're referring 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:32.400 to what we call a psychological construct or trait. People 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:37.919 can't be reduced down to a single trait, so instead 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:40.960 of using the term psychopath, for example, he might describe 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:45.679 someone as having high psychopathy. He said, it's a dimension 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:48.680 of personality, kind of a cluster of traits, the same 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:54.360 way that extraversion is a personality dimension. Psychopathy really reflects 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:57.920 what we call an antagonistic disposition, in which my own 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:00.600 desires and wishes and things like that are placed well 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:04.080 above the well being and desires and outcomes of other people. 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:10.560 The most common Psychopathic traits include negative affect or neuroticism, 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:17.640 detachment or low extraversion, disinhibition or low conscientiousness, and antagonism 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:22.880 or low agreeableness. Chester said that the hallmark feature of 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:27.320 psychopathy is a quote callous indifference to other people's suffering. 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:30.960 That is, where most people who see someone else in 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:35.040 pain might experience an empathetic or sympathetic response. A person 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:37.880 with a high degree of psychopathy might feel a blunted 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:43.400 reaction or a lack of empathy. Altogether, the portrayal of 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:47.520 these and similar traits in popular culture definitely muddles the definitions. 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:52.000 You may have seen sociopathy described as volatile and impulsive 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:56.160 and psychopaths as cold and heartless, but again, they are 0:05:56.200 --> 0:06:00.520 not two distinct disorders, and these tendencies are highly correlated. 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:03.640 The same person might act like a hothead and lash 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:07.039 out in some situations, but at other times behave cunning 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:11.520 and stone cold. Chester said, instead of being hot and 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:15.360 cold versions of the antagonistic personality, it's really that these 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:20.400 are two strategies occurring in the same individual. At the 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:23.760 core of both is a basic antagonism and indifference to 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:26.560 others well being, especially when it comes to one's own 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:31.159 personal gain. But again, traits like antagonism and personal attachment 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:34.560 are found in varying degrees in different people, along with 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:39.960 other less scary or even admirable traits. Chester said, in 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:43.159 the overall population, one or two percent of people have 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:48.000 serious diagnosable levels of psychopathic tendencies. But that's not to 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:51.560 say that outside of that, psychopathy isn't an important critical 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:56.640 trait that people have varying degrees of. A person who 0:06:56.680 --> 0:06:59.599 has a high degree of psychopathy might even seem kind 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:03.719 and pathetic in some situations. I think of Tony Soprano, 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:07.239 the likable fictional mobster who's the protagonist of the TV 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:11.560 series The Sopranos. He's capable of forming attachments and being 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:14.880 an affectionate father. He even cares about the welfare of 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:17.560 a family of ducks living in a swimming pool, but 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:20.720 has no qualms about killing an ex mobster who's turned 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:23.400 to government witness, or about beating up a guy for 0:07:23.560 --> 0:07:28.040 dating his ex a. Chester said, Tony Soprano is not 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:32.480 a paradoxical character. He's very realistic and that sometimes he's nice, 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:36.080 sometimes he's not interested. He's honestly one of the better 0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:40.000 examples of psychopathy because he displays it in all its messiness. 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:44.880 A mental health professionals debate whether people with the high 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:48.600 degree of psychopathy lack empathy or sympathy, or whether they 0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:52.120 have the ability but choose not to use it. According 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:55.880 to Chester, the can't feel camp has been the dominant narrative, 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:59.000 but he be a growing number of other researchers think 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:03.360 the choice does fact. During the equation, he explained that 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:07.040 brain scans of subjects with psychopathies show they not only 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:10.640 have empathetic circuits, but they do use them, though not 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:13.240 necessarily in the way that most of us do, and 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:17.480 individual psychopathic tendencies might want to understand someone else's pain 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:20.600 not because they want to help, but because that knowledge 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:22.840 would enable them to hurt someone in the future more 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:28.480 effectively if that helps get them something that they want today. 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:31.680 We still don't know who will or won't develop antisocial 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:37.200 personality disorder. There's no single cause. Instead, research indicates that 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:40.040 it results from a complex combination of genetic factors and 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:44.360 environmental factors, including early family life and emotional attachments to 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:49.560 parents during childhood. As with any mental health issue, if 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:52.680 you're concerned about yourself or someone you care for, reach 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:56.120 out to a healthcare professional for more resources. We are, 0:08:56.240 --> 0:09:03.880 after all, just a podcast. Today's episode is based on 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:06.800 the article What's the Difference between a Sociopath and a Psychopath? 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:10.360 On HowStuffWorks dot com written by Patrick J. Higer. Brainstuff 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:12.920 is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:16.160 Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:19.480 my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:21.280 wherever you listen to your favorite shows.