Psychopath: Narcissist and Sociopath.

As explained in part one of this series,

Psychopathy is the main heading under which are forms thereof, branching into two kinds of personality disorder manifests: that of  Sociopathy and that of Narcissism. The latter two terms  I will draw distinction between.

I feel it is important to draw distinction between the two types. This is for the sake of understanding thus to better recognise pattern behaviour in individuals that could be described as psychopath – that is – those that have this particular disordered behaviour entrenched within their personalities.

The psychopath – whether narcissist or sociopath – will have the same effect upon the lives of their victims, and that victimisation can have devastating effects and consquences.  But while the toxic results may be similar in outcome in the victim in either type of psychopathic disorder, the manifests (in terms of pattern behaviour) will be different. However there may be shared traits, cross-overs between the two.

Basically, it is my belief that the psychopath will lean more towards one type of personality disorder or the other. There may be confusion in them that stop to consider to themselves, past all the masking behaviour of the psychopath, just what is going on with that toxic personality?  In my opinion, it is easier to spot a narcissist than it is a sociopath. The narcissist is a bit more reckless in their needing, or rather, wanting, to mask a selfish, using agenda -but the sociopath has a need to conceal so they can continue, with greater cunning, to drain through ‘feeding’ upon their victims.

Also, the narcissist is a person who appears bouyed by their own self-love, which is indicative of some form of emotional experience they are having, some self feeling. And while both forms of malignant personality are without normal human conscience and empathy towards other human beings, it is the sociopath who lacks genuine/spontaneous expressions of emotion, but through cunning ways of  counterfeit (as explained in a previous article in this series) can imitate emotion for the effect of deceiving victims.

Being a reader who is interested in this subject in psychology, you may have read through either or both of these trait lists before. But for the sake of this article, we will have another look.

Traits Pertaining to Narcissism:

. Elevated sense of self-worth and entitlement.

. Pathological lying, twisting the impressions of others to agree to his/her views, sometimes with a bullying(that can be of a subliminal/less obvious sort) attitude.To get others to conform to their views is enhancing of their self-feeding and self-grandiosity.

. A superficial charm and an entertaining form of charisma. This behaviour is the attraction to the narcissist personality from the onset.

. Cunning/manipulative and will seek to control and ‘overlord’ a relationship. The narcissist will, more often than not, consider themselves to be superior in the ‘brains trust’ and, even though this may well not be actually true (for many of them can have a slightly above average intelligence – one of the reasons for their success over victims), they still nonetheless consider themselves mentally superior over others. In the meantime, they will be unaware of being self-deceived over their actual powers of mental prowess. They will simply believe that they are. (It could be said that you are, or become, what you believe, so this power of belief might work very well for them…)

. Lack of remorse or guilt. They will objectify other individuals, rather than treat others like individuals with their own souls (or personalities with feelings and thoughts that are to be respected). The narcissist has no real concept of respect for others’ thoughts and feelings.

. Emotionally shallow. In fact superficiality is their most obvious detectable traits in this writer’s opinion. Their ability to be offhand and seemingly careless, where others with normal human empathy will be more careful in their doings. Of course this pertains to responsibility, and responsibilty requires careful application in all situations. Thus on to…

...Failure to accept responsibility for own actions. It may not be ‘failure’ per se, but avoidance to accept responsibility. Also they may seek a scapegoat upon which to place blame instead of themselves. For example the narcissist spouse will blame the other for their own failures. For the narcissist, nothing but nothing must come between them and their self-loving ways and thus the continuation of an elevated ego-sense. If the figure is pointed at them for failing to assume responsibility, they will dodge the issue or seek to place the blame elsewhere. One narcissist I knew personally, would, instead of either tactic, make light of the whole affair like it was a trifle. If she could convince you the matter was a trifle, then she had you hoodwinked and hey presto! the blame for lack of responsibility was quickly able to dissipate for her.

. Callous, judgmental/hyper-critical of others they regard as ‘beneath them’ [hypocritical].

Of course there are other traits that could be listed here and some of those listed here could have even more definition applied to them. The same could be said of the following descriptive traits of the sociopath.
Traits Pertaining to  Sociopathy:

. Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom. If you have had any dealings with a sociopath, you may have noticed in a rare unguarded moment, a twinkle of mischief in the eye of one, indicative of a mind working, whereas he/she will be wearing ‘poker face’. If you are drawn into their game, you’re the mouse. Guess who the cat is?

. Parasitic lifestyle. You are the object – and objectified. You’ve got something they want, whether for financial gain or emotional energy. You’re what they want to feed on.

. Poor behavioural control. Given to impulsive behaviour. This could be in word or deed. One sociopath I knew was impulsive in speech; they liked to shock  with things they said, enjoying the reaction of their listeners. For some reason or other, this gives  some sort of satisfaction – a self-congratulation for outsmarting their victim. Poor behavioural control can come in the way of other impulsive behaviour ie., impulsive buying; racking up a credit card bill, without thought to paying  later.

. Promiscuous sexual behavior. This could be a way of seeking to fill the need for that place inside that’s void of emotions. But sex in itself changes body chemistry, so for the duration of the sex act/experience, the sociopath is sensing ‘something’, drawing a sensation ‘high’. This could also be said about any need for self-gratification through violent means ie., the signs could be there of sociopathic personality disorder if a child is prone to animal cruelty or harm upon other children. The highs promised, through body chemistry of extreme/reckless acts infuses something that makes them feel, albeit only while the act lasts. Thus can they be serial offenders to keep this effect on their nervous systems happening.

. Lack of realistic, long-term goals. The future implies  responsibility. But while they have, or can find, a victim, so much of that doesn’t really seem all that necessary. Like the narcissist, the sociopath is behaviourally irresponsible, but will have less an need to defend that because of a marked lack of shame.

. Juvenile delinquency. It is my opinion, as I consider more the nature of the psychopath, that there must be a genetic predispondancy to this personality disorder. It’s just that, combined with nurture (or lack thereof), sociopathic traits (enough to fit a whole profile) can heighten. There are degrees and degrees of all psychological disorders afterall. But what exemplifies the psychopath is lack of conscience in pattern behaviour. And thus on to…

...Early behavioral problems, the constantly naughty child (for eg). The child that may look like innocence itself while he/she calmy pulls the wings off butterflies – and progressing to higher-order species.

. Lack of desire to reform, on one main trait list this trait is headed under “revocation of conditional release”. It is my opinion that the sociopath has a choice to do, or not to do, evil acts against another human being. What we do, no matter who we are, and that includes the sociopath, is a matter of choice. I do not believe that someone could ever get off on a clearly “guilty” charge/conviction by merely saying that they have the missing gene that makes them a sociopath. For what the sociopath lacks in emotions and normal human empathy, he/she makes up with in thought-power. In fact, it is my theory that the sociopath can be above average human intelligence because there’s been a compensatatory re-routing of neural connections – connections that would work in a normal way in a non-sociopath for emotional ‘wholeness’, but fail to work in the sociopath, who lacks emotions. In these simplistic terms, the brain energy not used to be a ‘whole’ normally-functioning soul: mind, will AND emotions is now directed towards thinking and the primary way that is used is for self-seeking. It manifests as the use of victims and the methods by which completely selfish use  is obtained.

And so, there are the two branches of the psychopath. Both types can leave incredible harms upon victims. For anyone who may be reading this and has themselves been a victim of one of them, I need not add any more.

Keep in mind that the behaviour of both sorts is pattern, and thus, with knowledge, it is possible for the layperson (that is, someone who isn’t in the psychiatric profession) to observe these behavioural signs in individuals who leave a toxic wake and who appear, even on early meeting, to have their own personality ‘atmosphere’ that may give out even intutive impressions that we may not be dealing with someone we might otherwise be able to relax in a normal sort of human trust with.

To have anything to do with a psychopath for any length of time takes mental will, to of course have one’s wits about one and reserves of emotional strength that is capable of great detachment from the cunning and deranged worlds of these disordered individuals.

(This has been part 6 in Series Psychopath)

Next: Why not to become a victim and what to do if it’s too late.

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