Sociopathy versus Avoidant Personality Disorder

NimplyDinply wrote:

Immune...

@CN...No one is immune to anything. I just don't think AVPD + ASPD is common. Of course it's possible to have mixtures of both disorders in the form of traits. Just think it's very unlikely to have both in their pure forms together. I can go into why I think it's uncommon, but I think you already touched on that. Avoidants are extremely conflict and confrontation adverse.

Unless you're a covert narcissist....of course.

Also, HPD is considered to be a Borderline Disorder. If you believe in the whole BPO thing in the first place. A mild variant of BPD if you will. There's another PD that's neurotic called the "infantile" personality, which is supposed to be a subtype of HPD.

Lol, it's all rubbish I'm finding.

@Prisoner, how do you have full empathetic capacity and still call yourself a sociopath?

That's an easy question to answer. Avoidants can experience the full range of emotions but my proposition is that avoidants are manipulative control freaks, as I try to say in my posts.

You can read my thread on avoidance coping and sociopathy and I describe there what it is to be a high functioning sociopath. It is all a game that I am playing and I am able to even manipulate myself, so the fact that I am technically ill does not necessarily make me so if I am self aware and have a concience and free will in the sense that I can think that my life has continuity and that I am a person with certain values that I live my life by.

Yes by my definition. How is somebody going to become a cult leader when they don't really care about people?

The Prisoner wrote:Yes by my definition. How is somebody going to become a cult leader when they don't really care about people?

You don't have to care about people to use them, duh.

Reaper wrote:

The Prisoner wrote:Yes by my definition. How is somebody going to become a cult leader when they don't really care about people?

You don't have to care about people to use them, duh.

Well, maybe not but I can think that I do and rationalise it to myself any way I want really. I wouldn't want to kill them all. So, I was reported for trolling and the cops are investigating my internet activities, like I told you. I could try applying for a grant for a phD thesis with this maybe, or I could just write a book. It would be like one of those conspiracy theory books and I could talk about cover ups by the govermment and the DSM being like the report from the Warran commision.

I could look at it as a pro social sort of thing where I'm bringing people the truth or what?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzkzCSwhsx8

Why not write a book...

I'm a bit lazy but I'll write the book. I could even get in touch with Irvine Welsh because I know that he supports other writers and I don't know if this guy that I used to know that claimed to have been the bass player in the punk band The Exploited and was a junky that told me that Irvine Welsh visited him in prison was just talking shite but probably not because Irvine Welsh might have known him and he would have been doing research.

The Prisoner wrote:I'm a bit lazy but I'll write the book. I could even get in touch with Irvine Welsh because I know that he supports other writers and I don't know if this guy that I used to know that claimed to have been the bass player in the punk band The Exploited and was a junky that told me that Irvine Welsh visited him in prison was just talking shite but probably not because Irvine Welsh might have known him and he would have been doing research.

That statement ^ is one sentence with no punctuation but the period at the end. You might want to take some of fiveintime's advice before you attempt to write a book.

You used to talk about writing a master's thesis; now you talk about a PhD thesis -- guess that sounds grander to you. I think you'd be exaggerating to say you even have a bachelor's degree.

You're going to love this, Prisoner.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-empathic-brain/201307/inside-the-mind-psychopath-empathic-not-always

TL;DR, the premise is that some of the behavior of the psychopath requires empathy, but that callousness requires a lack of empathy. Brain scans support that psychopaths can turn their empathy on at will, and when they're actively empathizing, it's at normal levels of brain activity. This differs from normal people, in that people typically empathize automatically.

I don't know that this really supports your premise that a counter-phobic avoidant is a sociopath, but it's an interesting (and researched) alternative to the idea that psychopaths simply can't empathize at all. I think empathetically retarded might be more along the lines of the autism spectrum.

I've seen selective empathy displayed by several people dx'd with AsPD/sociopathy/psychopathy.
It was genuine.
One such person could experience an empathetic feeling when he thought of his mother.
Another about her dog.
The feelings described were similar to how a non would feel when experiencing empathy for that person/animal.

The article offers one study with some brain-imaging proof that dx'd AsPD incarcerated people can
'switch on' empathy when they choose to focus on it and try to engage it.

The article suggests that AsPD empathy is 'off' and it takes an act of will to switch it 'on' (though the on is only suggested by brain activation - there is no discussion with the AsPD person as to how s/he feels when focused on engaging an empathetic mindstate).

Not sure how this relates to Prisoner's idea that he can 'switch on AsPD/soc/psych' where his existing natural empathy is eradicated. A bit backward...

Eight wrote:Not sure how this relates to Prisoner's idea that he can 'switch on AsPD/soc/psych' where his existing natural empathy is eradicated. A bit backward...

It doesn't support his premise. It just supports the idea that "sociopaths have empathy" which was one of the things he kept saying, and something most of the people in here would agree with to some extent. I think the article gives a different spin on it then the typical "I have 30% empathy, end of story."

I think where the article and his theory sharply diverge is that he's saying he has empathy so doesn't do truly "evil" things, whereas, the article is saying that ASPD have empathy, yet still do malicious, callous things. It even implies a "misuse" of empathy is necessary for that level of deception.

I also asked Prisoner about road rage a while back, and first rejected the idea then conceded a bit, but we never really discussed it. I think it's an interesting topic. Lots of non's exhibit road rage, and while they're raging have zero empathy. Is it because the thing in front of them is a chunk of metal on wheels? Does the average person have to make a conscious effort to empathize with another driver, whereas normal empathy occurs automatically when they see a person's face? If so, a non prone to road rage might have a good opportunity for insight into the world of psychopathy.