What causes a person to be a sociopath?

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How do People Become Sociopathic?

Basically they have never learned how to socialize at any level, APD is almost synonomous with criminal behavior. 70% of sociopaths come from fatherless homes, 30% are born out-of wedlock. They have never experienced a bonding between themselves and their parent or caregiver or in fact any authoritative figure.

Here is more input from others:

• I think sociopaths are born with some of those tendencies and their paths in life make them worse.

• I believe that sociopaths is casused by the lack of love they recieved as a child. They probly grew up in foster care and/or had no real connection with anyone. It is proven that if infants and small children are not cared and loved that they will go into regression. Not having a conscience has to be caused by a parent not being there.

Lack of conscience

There are many people who missed out on parental love and care as children but who nonetheless have a conscience and are capable of treating others with repsect. There are also sociopaths who come from apparenetly conventional homes and whose siblings aren't sociopaths.

The key point about a mature conscience is this:

In addition to knowing what is right and wrong, a person with a mature conscience also feels things to be right or wrong. This emotional dimension to conscience is of the highest importance: after all, nobody can be taught rules about everything. For example, nobody is taught 'Thou shalt not manipulate others'; instead those with a mature, dependable conscience sense from the dishonesty and bullying that it is wrong.

A sociopath knows the rules, but doesn't have any emotional commitment to do right, to respect others as equals. Sociopaths have no ability to empathize. They lack the key qualities - honesty and trust - that lie at the heart of all sound interpersonal relations. Instead of honesty, they use manipulation; they abuse trust in order to wield power, and so it goes on. If one gets to know them well, it becomes clear that they are gripped by evil and revel in their depravity. The consequences of not having a conscience are frightening.

Joncey

Answer

As a much scrutinized and poorly represented sociopath, I will try to add to the pool of 'knowledge' from the point of view that no-one trusts. Just so you know what my motive is (because we are all self-serving of course), it is to educate a few extra people into creating a few less serial killers.

Think of sociopaths as dogs. Our nature is to live in the now, respect our pack, protect our young, and pee on your carpet if you don't let us out on time. You can have a good dog, or you can have a bad dog... a lot depends on if you love the dog, cuddle the dog, or stuff it in a bag and drop it on the freeway.

Some dogs are predisposed to be more unpredictable (Chow) and some are laid back (Golden). But you can still have a nice Chow or a viscous Golden.

The last writer has a fairly accurate definition, but only in what we are capable of in the poorly adapted versions. You have to remember that approximately 1 in 25 males and 1 in 200 females are sociopaths. Some of us live pretty normal lives.

I am a primarily self-destructive sociopath... most things I do come off as 'a little off', odd, or reckless. At 31, and a single mother of a 15 year old girl, I have experienced (screwed up) enough to have a knowledge bank of expected behavior and responses. Most things I have to make a very concious effort as to what my action should be. I don't have the natural emotion filter built in.

My natural decision making skill almost doesn't exist. As well as self-dicipline, and foresight. I have tried to train myself to not make a decision if I am unsure of the 'safe' or 'human' version. This has extended into all my decisions... so grocery shopping is sometimes a nightmare.

When I do make decisions without referring to my extensive list of life rules, they tend to be in situations I haven't encountered. These decisions feel more like they already have an answer... and I just follow along. These are the scary ones. I am there 100%, but I am still kind of along for the ride. i.e. Smart girl does stupid things.

In my opinion, having a very low-key childhood, an extremely reserved but not over-reactive single mother, and a mild manner by nature have provided the best grounding possible for this condition. I have also been an avid reader and people watcher my entire life. This helps build my "possible scenarios" databank.

I spun out for a while after having my daughter at 16, but made a effort to buckle down and not ruin her too. Maternal instinct seems to be spanning some of the void, but not entirely. Most of the mothering I do is because I decided this was something I wasn't going to mess up. I'm pretty bad at the normal side of mothering, but I am very close to my daughter and very protective (think of the dog again). That we can talk about anything makes up for a lot of gaps in my parenting technique.

We joke with our exchanges of affection - I say "I love you sort of" and she says "I love you more"! I have explained it to her as a disability which I have to substitute pseudo emotions (combinations of existing emotions and knowledge base). I have also told her that I need lots of extra hugs to keep from "going crazy the rest of the way". We are writing a book together about the experience.

If anyone ever tried to do harm to her and I was present, I have no doubts that I would be able to kill them and feel nothing for the person. My emotions would only be regarding the punishment for the crime. If anything ever happened to her, I would have serious grounding issues and would be very likely to become a self-serving criminal sort. She is what keeps me from giving up the farce and doing whatever suits.

Humans with pack animal emotions are dangerous because of the complexity of human life. It is a ladder climbing, back stabbing, social structure and without moral restrictions the sky is the limit. Rejection, ridicule, and loneliness are extreme negative influences on sociopaths. Bitter sociopaths turn inward and stop trying to live with 'normal' people. They have played along nicely their whole lives even though it was much harder, less profitable, and less gratifying. Now they can justify their actions because they are the victims.

So next time you snub somebody, stand somebody up, make fun of anything... You are breaking the 'being a nice person' rules of life. If you can do it - the sociopath can do it easier and more memorably.

Comment

I'm the person who wrote the last contribution but one. What you write is very interesting. Even if you were once a sociopath, you don't sound at all like one now. From what you write I don't believe you 'are gripped by evil' or 'revel in ... depravity', or anything like that.

By the way, I'm aware that the vast majority of sociopaths aren't killers, and many keep technically within the law. Let me just give a few examples of what I mean by 'without conscience'.

At the time of her divorce a sociopathic mother fights very hard to retain custody of her two children and perjures herself in court to that end. She sidesteps questions about how she'll cope with her son when he reaches adolescence. She wins. A few years later, she's completely fed up with her son. She has no control of him, and very shortly after he reaches age 18, she consults an attorney to make sure she's legally in the clear, then evicts her son with his belongings, phones her ex husband to tell him what she's done, adding that the boy will be pefectly all right and that the ex is under no obligation to look after him. She cackles with glee as she ends the call.

A couple of years later, her daughter falls victim to schizophrenia (at age 16). The psychiatrist recommends inpatient treatment at a mental hospital with a specialized unit for teenagers. Claiming that she 'needs' her daughter, the mother tries to prevent this. The father - the same ex husband as in the last paragraph - takes his/their daughter to the hospital and checks her in. The mother then threatens to abduct her from the hospital!

Now, there's a prize example of a depraved person. Surely, you're NOT telling us that you behave like that.

Joncey

Answer

MurcuryzPoison - No, what she's saying is she tries very hard to be a 'good dog' it's a conscious decision. btw, the possible scenarios human database is about the best tip i've read so far.

*updated*
Genocide4Fun - First off I completely understand what she is talking about and I think it does help to have someone to Love help you grasp the Idea of Being a Human. As a Teen Sometimes I would "people watch" too and pick and choose Behavior I would replicate when the time is right assuming that's how Normal people act. As you can assume before this I was "Completely Out of Control" and Having a Sociopathic Mom didn't help, she would simply be over dramatic and have a "Tantrum", her being more of a Common sociopath (Read Below). She had a horrible childhood, abusive careless parents, lots of drug use in the family, rape and physical abuse when she was wonder. She was in also lot of Abusive relationships where she both Abused physically and Mental as well as allowed herself afterward to be in a relation where she was the abuser.

"COMMON SOCIOPATHS are the largest subtype and have a weak or unelaborated conscience. They are not ashamed by the same things as you or I would be ashamed of. They are like feral children grown up, taking pleasures and gratifying impulses at every opportunity or temptation. They especially enjoy and take pride in bending or breaking the rules. As teenagers, they are often runaways. As adults, they are often geographically mobile, living in shelters, or taking advantage of welfare systems. They are experienced shoplifters. They have quite active sex lives. They are usually of average intelligence, but don't do well in school and never seem to break out of low-paying dead-end jobs. Nevertheless, they seem genuinely happy with their lives, unburdened by any sense of negative self-worth or the fact that they have not been a functional, contributing member of society."

Learning how to be a Human from her wasn't good because now She Lied about her being a "Bad Person" but as a child would call me Evil and blame everything in her life on me, Once stating my existence alone ruins everything for her, Things are very different now and it's been a journey to get to a place where she understands a lot more.

At first I was one of the blind, Always watching how people acted but always seemed to "Act" the wrong way... Yet Refused in any way that it was my fault or doing the wrong thing. It's almost like lying to yourself and just being afraid, Almost Ignorant for not being open minded. Sometimes out of Boredom Creating Issues or Conflicts which can also make you "Too much" to handle, a statement which is used with Sociopathty a lot in Children, Complaining, Whining, Anger, Disrespect. With age (18-21) and After being "Too Much" for so long, I seemed to learn enough about people to almost Read everything from body language to how someone chose to word what they said, almost giving me a Predictive sense of reality. This tool helped me get into the world and find out with Learning how to be a Human, I ended up disliking Parts of Humanity itself and realizing all the Flaws and faults that Society itself has, It's like a Conscience that's made up of Human actions that helps me with RIGHT and Wrong. It's odd because of how I explain myself and analyze every situation it seems like a Computer solving a Problem, Accurate but Cold sometimes.

After many scary years being in this Society where what I am can get me into trouble, even with this new understanding, Working on my Anger has been this past years task, I've noticed that what Triggers my anger the most is when after working out all of this stuff in my head so I can understand the situation, Others began or continue to use irrational thought and they continue to do wrong things to me regardless of what I have to say, Most people tend to do this when angry just to be stubborn but In a weird way it reminds me of my mother and her Irrashional behavior towards me while I was growing up and it reminds me of my many faults and it seems to cause uncontrolable Anger in Bursts of Rage. but with time comes healing right...

Also:

The newest breakthroughs yield enormous insight into this perplexing and devastating condition that plagues four percent of the population and causes those persons to plague everyone else!

Almost everyone in the world -- except psychopaths (sociopaths) and a few others, such as those with ADD -- has a neatly organized way of storing information in the brain. Your left hemisphere handles such things as speech, logic, and sequential thinking. It helps you keep things in order. Meanwhile, your right hemisphere handles such things as appreciation of (or creation of) art, symbols that evoke emotion, and the way one puts together in the present time all the pieces of the world around him or her as far as it is known.

But NOT if you're a sociopath.

Studies (see the masterful work "Without Conscience" by Robert D. Hare, PhD.) have now conclusively demonstrated that the way such information is stored in the brain of a sociopath is not at all like the way it is for others. Instead of things being organized into those specific regions in one or other of the brain's two hemispheres depending upon the type of information it is, the sociopath has a brain that operates a little bit like a computer hard drive: it breaks all data down into tiny fragments and stores it all over the place and in both hemispheres. Thus, to retrieve any given segment is formidable and leads to omissions and errors far more often than most people experience:

(Patient in an inpatient unit, to an NP who is organizing an outing.) "No, I'm not going out with you guys this time, and I'm going to buy some magazines when I'm there." HUH???? This kind of thing, as Hare demonstrates, happens all the time.

Clinicians give numerous (including some erroneous) reasons for not wanting to treat sociopaths, and one of the more surprising ones is that it's very difficult at times to make sense of what the patient is saying.

Unlike the jumbled mess of a schizophrenic's speech, the sociopath's speech makes sense within the fragments, but when these parts of speech are strung together, they are often jarringly incompatible. Did the sociopath in the inpatient hospital intend to go out and buy some magazines? Or did she decide to stay in? She seemed to think she could do both at the same time. If the NP who had asked her was astute enough, she might've said, "Miss Smith, if you don't want to go out, why don't you write down what you want us to pick up and give us the money to buy it?" Although that's a realistic way to do both things at the same time, one might wonder why the patient didn't just say so in the first place!

When you speak, your brain is going through a staggering feat of juggling and data-organization at a speed that makes broadband look like a snail trail. If your cerebral cortex is storing your vocabulary and the related ideas behind it, as well as all of the other numerous types of information it must handle, in the right places, this isn't so hard; if your brain has to fumble all over the place for tiny fragments of data and try to assemble it fast enough to keep up with your conversation, it is not going to be easy -- and trained professionals will know that something, at least, is awry.

So, now scientists know that the seemingly meaningless and frequent lies that the sociopath tells may not all be actual lies. Some are lies, particularly in sociopaths who have broken the law and are trying to charm or bully their way out of trouble. But some -- especially impulsive-sounding bragging or announcements of lofty intent ("I'm gonna get out of this bugbox and write a best-selling novel, climb Mount Everest, and go work for NASA!") -- are not intended to deceive others so much as to tell them "I want to do something with my life!" But, sadly, lacking the means and wherewithal to do this, the sociopath will undoubtedly end up in trouble all over again.

Think about it: you know something isn't right, but you can't tell other people, because you have not the slightest idea how to phrase what's wrong. Plus, for some odd reason, everyone keeps getting rubbed the wrong way by you. You try to get ahead in life, but everybody keeps telling you about these strange rules you're supposed to obey, that they all seem to know by heart, but you don't. So you study them and try to memorize them and use them by rote, but keep messing up because you have no mechanism to tell you (from within) that you're stumbling over the line again, and inevitably, you do. Then everyone gets mad at you and among other things tells you that you know perfectly well what the rules are, so why don't you obey them? You start to secretly suspect they're adding new ones or changing the old rules around just to get you to screw up, but actually that isn't true -- however, you have no real way of knowing that, either.

As if all this isn't enough, you feel at the very least uncomfortable, and at the worst like a human bomb, most of the time you're awake, which at times can be several days in a row. You notice that the very things that make other people happy have a very opposite effect on you: your head fills with jarring "static," like a radio playing with the tuner caught between two or more stations. Reacting instinctively to this, you try to push people away because their closeness causes the static to get worse, but then you discover a new problem: you seem to need them anyway.

You seem to need something from other people, but you don't know why. That hug each other and smile, not a phony smile but a real one, and their eyes light up. They get close and they talk to each other without having to closely study the other's eyes to try to figure out what to do in response. This seems to be a delicious pleasure to them, much better than anything you've ever experienced. But if you try it, and if you are actually lucky enough to persuade one of them to attempt such a relationship and interaction with you, it immediately starts to turn sour on you. Their touch does not warm you; you feel colder and deader than ever. You don't know how to give back, so you end up grasping for words you've heard used by other people and trying to fake your way through it so they won't figure out how you are; you've experienced enough to know by this time that when others figure out your difference, they hate you for it; in fact, you've been told you're "not a real person" and that you "have no soul" (you're not too sure what a soul is, anyway) and that people like you "ought to be lined up and shot"!

After trying several times in this new relationship to get the pleasure other people are always basking in, and failing, you start to get angry at all of this -- and the anger builds into a terrible, towering rage that begins to make you feel like a human bomb. "I will actually, physically explode if I don't..." you're thinking, and yet under the rage there is a weird, disconsolate feeling that even your burgeoning hatred is as hollow and empty and starved as you are. You consider taking your life, and certainly you think about taking lives of some of these lucky, smugly superior others. You settle for embezzling money, or something of the sort; you're clever and manipulative and you don't get caught. Triumph!

Or not. The things you buy please you for five minutes; a day, tops. Then...flat, meaningless, like everything else in your life.

Of course, you don't HAVE a life -- and you never will. That's starting to become increasingly clear.

But WHY???? You see "The Others," as you're starting to think of them, studying diligently to help and even to cure other kinds of weird things wrong with people's minds, most of which seem to have to do with the brain. But no one seems to know what's going on in you. It occurs to you that to get some kind of attention from them, you might pretend you have one of those other problems they study, and then once they're paying attention to you, maybe somehow it'll lead somewhere. What have you got to lose?

You're about to find out you can still lose more.

You go into a clinical situation presenting with carefully-memorized symptoms of the mental illness you have decided would get you the attention you want. But faking whatever it is turns out very quickly to be a lot more complex than you'd thought. In fact, it turns out to be impossible. And, branded a malingerer, you are rejected yet again, told that all that's really wrong with you is that you don't want to try to better yourself.

That, and you're "evil," and it's not paranoia on your part to realize that EVERYONE HATES YOU. Once they figure you out. Yes: to know you is to hate you.

And you will go to your grave (as gloats Martha Stout of "The Sociopath Next Door" book fame) never knowing the wonders of real human interaction, meaning, and warmth.

It might just make you decide to go off the rails and kill everyone you can before turning the weapon on yourself.

Except for one thing: the mere fact that some scientists know that much about the brain of a sociopath means that solving the problem is no longer an impossible and obscure wish -- it's moving within the realm of concrete possibility.

As soon as large numbers of sociopaths begin to be treated in a way that actually helps them, that corrects as much as possible the chaos of misdirected signals in their confused and disorganized brains, and then a form of therapy that in addition to that, by necessity, teaches them to cope with the resulting maelstrom of emotion and impression that was formerly impossible, so that they can put it in order and start to develop the heretofore dormant and silent segments of their brains and better use those formerly mixed-up areas where no recognizable order ruled, THEN THE OTHERS MAY BEGIN TO NOTICE WHAT IS GOING ON...and they will know at least this much: instead of "the kiss of death," a diagnosis of ASPD (the DSM-IV way of saying sociopathy or psychopathy) will lead someplace; that there will be things done that actually make a difference.

Crippled as they are neurologically, sociopaths are yet shrewd, and they're always looking out for themselves in a way similar to that of a loner predator. Seeing others like them actually benefiting from treatment will have to start persuading them that there's something to gain in going for help after all. Not being rejected or met with "We can't help you; you're evil incarnate," or the equivalent thinly disguised in euphemistic psychology jargon; NOT being met with a situation where they'd have to substitute symptoms of an "acceptable" illness in place of those they bear in secret -- that would almost certainly, if gradually, have an effect: if a sociopath can clearly see a benefit coming from admitting his or her real situation, there's nothing to stop him or her from doing just that.

It's already started to happen, if in a tiny, barely perceptible trickle.

Right now, all science has at the ready for them is to use various types of preexisting medication given in attempts to counteract the chaotic way the brain of a sociopath functions. That and types of talk therapy carefully altered to avoid the pitfalls that have in the past caused regular therapies to make sociopaths worse instead of better. But the more that scientists such as Robert Hare and his colleagues delve into and experiment with the new types of brain scans and learning what makes sociopaths tick like human bombs, the more likely that it becomes with each passing year that a means will soon be isolated to defuse those bombs.

The primary source of a sociopath's infamous rage is frustration, of a sort so alien and so extreme that almost no one else can understand what it means. Once they start getting taken seriously, that frustration, and the wild rage it provokes, will lessen, and since it is a primary source of the constant distrust that makes regular therapy fail sociopaths, the defusing of that rage and its maddening causes will be a huge step in the right direction.

And that will benefit everyone.



Just thought I'd add, to the two or three people (besides me) who spoke about BEING a sociopath in this question's long answer:

First off, be sure the clinician who diagnosed you isn't mistaking you for a sociopath from prejudice or ignorance; not all people with advanced degrees in psychology have genuinely earned them! (Some psychologists are sociopaths!)

Secondly, if it turns out you are, lots of people will tell you they cannot treat you because you can't be helped. That's simply not true. They just don't have the guts, to put it bluntly. So, forget the wimps and find someone who will treat you. It took me more than ten years. But I did.

SabrinaSingularity

I am without question a sociopath ... I have absolutely no feelings at all, am a pathologic liar, and as cold-blooded as they come. As if this wasn't bad enough, I have been unaware of this my entire adult life until recently. (I am over 50.) I have never had the ability to love, bond or have basic human emotions other than personal greed and basic instincts like hunger and pain. I now look at people and wonder what love must feel like, what normal emotions might be, etc. I had a good upbringing in a loving home, though I am adopted. My adopted brother turned out fine, and is a great person. I am a criminal, and despite my repeated pleas to God to help me, I cannot gain forgiveness or change as I consider that my heart is 'locked' or perhaps better 'blocked' to feelings. I do not know why this is, it just is.

I wish I had understood this about myself closer to 50 years ago, but in clear retrospect all I've ever done is wreck people's lives in the name of 'accomplishment' as I defined it. Interestingly enough, I've been very active in churches the whole time, but obviously it was a front just to gain some kind of phony respect and admiration.

While this may seem incredulous, this post is not a joke. I wish it were. I do not see any hope for me, and truthfully, I realize full-well that the world would be a better place without me, as there is nothing here that has any meaning at all to me...though I know I have meaning to others, it's only because I have maintained a 'mask of sanity' ever since I was young.

The best I can tell, the reason for my current condition stems from being genuinely unappreciative to the kindness and love others have shown me throughout my life. During my formative years I disdained genuine affection from my adoptive parents, and that is what soiled my character and has led to my current low moral ebb.

Regrettably I fit the sociopath profile to a 'T' except that I was never in trouble with the law as a child and I also did not come from a dysfunctional family. I wish I knew what caused this, why I did not respond with genuine affection when I was younger, but rather am just posting this so that others may somehow gain an appreciation that someone can be very convincing but still be untruthful. Time however will reveal all things.

Now I mentally (but not emotionally) regret the wasted life I've lived, all the hurt I've caused, and I also wish I had a giant 'do-over.' Unfortunately, I do not.

Perhaps this will help. To bottom-line it, I think the root cause was a lack of real thankfulness and appreciation. I am so cold and hard now that I do not know how to get it fixed.

Best Wishes, Path1

First answer by Yinzer. Last edit by Path1. Contributor trust: 0 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 104 [recommend question]