Do you wonder if your partner, co-worker, your boss or a friend is a sociopath?
You may feel confused, angry, betrayed, and/or shocked by their behaviours. Sociopaths usually lie, manipulate, don’t care about the rights or others, feel superior to everybody else and entitled to special privileges and usually engage in unethical or illegal situations. They lack empathy and frequently take advantage of others, they have no remorse or guilt for causing suffering to people or animals. The suffering sociopaths cause may be emotional, financial, social and/or physical. They use fear to intimidate others and achieve what they want, which usually is power, and to do whatever they want. They have a way of looking at others called a “predator” look, which they use to scare others with the goal of using them for their own purposes.
Sociopaths and psychopaths see people as objects instead of humans. They treat others as servants or as ladders to climb positions at work, manipulate members of their family or their community. For example, when they get a new job, they evaluate which of their colleagues are below them and which are above them in positions of power and use them to their personal advantage accordingly. They usually start with the people that they perceive as weaker or insecure, because they know that these are the ones that will easily do what they want for fear of speaking up or causing a problem.
There are two books that I would recommend for those interested in learning more about this topic: Without conscience by Robert Hare, the creator of the Psychopathic Checklist and Confessions of a Sociopath, a life spent hiding in plain sight, written by M.E. Thomas who is a sociopath herself and explains in detail how her mind works. I found it very interesting as it gives us a thorough insight on how sociopaths process events and situations.
Currently there is no psychiatric diagnosis for sociopaths or psychopaths. According to the DSM-5, the manual that psychiatrists and psychologists use to diagnose mental health disorders, they will fall under the category of Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD).
If you feel like you are the victim of a person with these characteristics, our therapists are here to help.
