These symptoms are typical of a sociopathic person

In France, sociopathy corresponds to a personality trouble called “antisocial”. It is extremely rare and it mainly concerns men : “In my practice of psychocriminology, I would say that most of my transgressive patients were either perverse, psychopathic, paranoid personality disorder or very self-centered. In my entire career, out of more than 1,000 patients, I I only met one sociopath”, tells us Samuel Mergui, clinical psychologist and psychotherapist. The term “sociopath” is difficult to understand and can be confused with the term “psychopath” at first. In some countries, the terms are also confused. However, even if these two profiles have things in common, they are different in their thoughts and behavior. Here are the signs to distinguish them.

A lack of empathy

As with psychopaths, sociopaths do not feel no empathy And no scruples. To be more nuanced, sociopaths are still capable of observing and understanding the emotions of others without being interested in them or feeling them themselves: this is what we call “cold empathy”.

A tendency to break the rules

Like the psychopath, the sociopathic person is illustrated by a disregard for social normslaws and rules: “Psychopaths like sociopaths are people who have not properly integrated morality and prohibitions”explains the clinical psychologist.

A great capacity for anticipation

Psychopaths will be in action, not being able to fantasize and plan, they will be unable to suppress their impulses. This is why psychopaths are very present in the prison population according to the specialist: “Psychopaths will have a criminal record, with a background mostly made up of fights, scams and violence. They are often aggressive people, but not always. They are not afraid of prison and can return there many times because they are not able to learn from their mistakes.“On the other hand, sociopaths have a tendency to break the rules but they are not impulsive and they are capable of anticipation : “Sociopaths do not have the same fragility as psychopaths. They will not listen to their impulses. If it is not in their interests, they will not harm others“, specifies the expert. Sociopaths are able to adapt to the rules intrinsic to a group, they can even follow a sort of code of honor which will limit their transgressive acts.

A lack of a structured family environment

Sociopaths like psychopaths have generally experienced a fairly chaotic and demeaning life course, without a structuring family environment: “they often present emotional deficiencieswith unbalanced or absent parental references, abuse suffered and sometimes chaotic routes in host families. Which explains why they were unable to integrate morality and prohibitions.”

Stabilization of symptoms around age 40

Sociopathy remains a very rare disorder, difficult to quantify and diagnose: “In psychocriminology we consider that the acting out transgressive says something about the personality. Often it is because there are acts of violence followed by deprivation of liberty that there will be care for the people concerned. Without incarceration, there is no reason to request therapeutic monitoring.” explains Samuel Mergui. Regarding symptoms, many psychopathic people, and presumably sociopathic people, will experience a stabilization of their disorder around their forties. They will be able to adapt sufficiently to society and eventually have a job and a stable married life. Unfortunately, some will also remain unadapted to society and become outsiders. According to Samuel Mergui, therapy can help this personality type but certain methods help more than individual sessions: “Personally I received them in group therapy, this allows people with the same profile to identify with each other and help each other progress.”

Thanks to Samuel Mergui, clinical psychologist and psychotherapist and creator of the Youtube channel “Psychorama”.