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Comment by tgv | Hacker News Reader

> Of course, you can’t blame the children in all this. They are not born as sociopaths

Not all of them no, but a small group is. We are not born tabula rasa. If there's any truth to the idea that leader types have more psycho/sociopathic features, then their children will have them more frequently too.

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Though the terms are used interchangeably, it is currently believed that psychopathy generally comes from genetic factors, such as parts of the brain not developing fully, while sociopathy results from an interruption in personality development by abuse or trauma in childhood. Sociopaths have less consistent behavior than psychopaths. Psychopaths are more controlled and charming. Their manipulation is more detached. They plan ahead. Sociopaths experience anxiety and find rage far harder to control, and they have a harder time assimilating. Inconsistencies between their words and their lives are often easier to detect.

Can you cite a source? I'm under the impression that both of these terms are considered outdated, in that modern psychology doesn't really think "sociopathy" or "psychopathy" are good abstractions.

I'm under the impression that "sociopathy" is kind of used synonymously with antisocial personality disorder but has fallen out of favour because of the pop psychology baggage it carries, and "psychopathy" is mostly used in media/criminal justice tropes.

They're both ASPD, that's the clinical term you're looking for, anti-social personality disorder.

I don't think 'antisocial personality disorder' characterizes as typical sociopaths. It is accepted (and often witnessed also by me) that ie higher management layers in corporations are often inhabited by highly functioning sociopaths, they simply have much wider toolset to reach their goals compared to more 'normal' folks, which at one point leave in disgust those continuous battlefields where sociopaths feel at home.

Unless nomenclature changed significantly in past decade or so.

German uses seelische Störung certainly in legal context and it sounds very much like it was translated from psychopathie. Notably, a life-sentence is curbed at 15 years but psychological conditions may be incorrectable and require permanent security.

Störung must have an independent history, though. The correct translation of -pathy today would be Leiden, ie. Seelenleiden, which sounds like another euphemism in the euphemism treadmill.

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