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ORIGINAL: allthatjaz

This man takes control by being everything the submissive could ever of hoped for but then starts to fleece them of there money. He tells them he wants to marry them, spend the rest of his life with them and he has been known for doing this to two different women on different nights of the week. Once he has what he wants he's gone but not before he has found another victim to move in with.
The other thing he did was lie continually about his career, his money, his education, his experiences and of course about where he was yesterday night.
He moves in very wide circles and so his reputation doesn't follow him quickly but this particular sub who has investigated him was persuaded through his control to rid herself of her BDSM circles and for a while she did.

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Most of the time they behave this way because of personality disorders, and psychosis. They are born with a predisposition that the environment they grew up in fed this. I suggest you might want to read about sociopaths and that there is no help for them. A person cannot grow a conscience, and they cannot learn to have empathy.

When you meet one, not just someone that is close, but someone who is truly a sociopath, you will definitely understand better.

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Antisocial Personality Disorder Overview (Written by Derek Wood, RN, BSN, PhD Candidate)

Antisocial Personality Disorder results in what is commonly known as a Sociopath. The criteria for this disorder require an ongoing disregard for the rights of others, since the age of 15 years. Some examples of this disregard are reckless disregard for the safety of themselves or others, failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors, deceitfulness such as repeated lying or deceit for personal profit or pleasure, and lack of remorse for actions that hurt other people in any way. Additionally, they must have evidenced a Conduct Disorder before the age of 15 years, and must be at least 18 years old to receive this diagnosis.

People with this disorder appear to be charming at times, and make relationships, but to them, these are relationships in name only. They are ended whenever necessary or when it suits them, and the relationships are without depth or meaning, including marriages. They seem to have an innate ability to find the weakness in people, and are ready to use these weaknesses to their own ends through deceit, manipulation, or intimidation, and gain pleasure from doing so.

They appear to be incapable of any true emotions, from love to shame to guilt. They are quick to anger, but just as quick to let it go, without holding grudges. No matter what emotion they state they have, it has no bearing on their future actions or attitudes.

They rarely are able to have jobs that last for any length of time, as they become easily bored, instead needing constant change. They live for the moment, forgetting the past, and not planning the future, not thinking ahead what consequences their actions will have. They want immediate rewards and gratification. There currently is no form of psychotherapy that works with those with antisocial personality disorder, as those with this disorder have no desire to change themselves, which is a prerequisite. No medication is available either. The only treatment is the prevention of the disorder in the early stages, when a child first begins to show the symptoms of conduct disorder.

http://www.mcafee.cc/Bin/sb.html

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ORIGINAL: InTonguesslut

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Most of the time they behave this way because of personality disorders, and psychosis. They are born with a predisposition that the environment they grew up in fed this. I suggest you might want to read about sociopaths and that there is no help for them. A person cannot grow a conscience, and they cannot learn to have empathy.

When you meet one, not just someone that is close, but someone who is truly a sociopath, you will definitely understand better.

Oh please. don't patronise me. I have read about them, possibly and note i say possibly because as with any pyschiatric illness it's quite hard to diagnose and i certainly can't i'm not a mental health professional, known a few too. You know jack shit about what reading i have done on them and who i have known so please spare me the unneeded lecture.
 
If you read my posts you would see that my points in this thread were that terms like sociopath are bandied around too much without the wherewithal to back them up. That just because you may have a few or even all of the characteristics on the list it does not mean you are automatically a sociopath. I never once said they weren't out there or that they did not exist.
 
 

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While I may not know what reading you have done, your post showed a lack of understanding the disorder.

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Your post left the impression with me that you did not actually believe in the label.

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Only a trained professional can truly make the diagnosis, but those that have come face to face with one, know it when we see it.

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ORIGINAL: InTonguesslut
Even mental health professionals have trouble diagnosing a sociopath as it is hard to decipher unless a person readily admits it whether they have any conscience or empathy.

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ORIGINAL: Kalista07

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ORIGINAL: InTonguesslut
Even mental health professionals have trouble diagnosing a sociopath as it is hard to decipher unless a person readily admits it whether they have any conscience or empathy.

Actually, this is one of those myths that somehow gets perpetuated. People who are actually qualified to diagnose a person as suffering from anti-social disorder as well as sociopaths don't generally have much difficulty accurately picking out who has this disorder and who doesn't.
Kali

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ORIGINAL: Kalista07

i would indeed question the 'every day joes' ability to diagnose this disorder. i however, am qualified to diagnose such people in my professional life.
Kali

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This man takes control by being everything the submissive could ever of hoped for but then starts to fleece them of there money.

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ORIGINAL: InTonguesslut

You have got to be kidding me. You know a sociopath when you see one? Even mental health proffessionals have trouble diagnosing a sociopath as it is hard to decifer unless a person readily admits it whether they have any conscience or empathy.

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ORIGINAL: InTonguesslut

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ORIGINAL: Kalista07

i would indeed question the 'every day joes' ability to diagnose this disorder. i however, am qualified to diagnose such people in my professional life.
Kali

Thats cool and i would of course rely on your judgement in such a capacity.
My objection was Orions 'i know a sociopath when i see one'. That is assuming he is not qualified to make such a call. If he is then again i would say fine.

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ORIGINAL: allthatjaz

I heard a friend recently talking about her ex dominant and she used the word 'sociopath'. Not knowing much about this sort of personality trait I decided to google it and I came up with this. I found it pretty disturbing because this dominant could have every one of those traits and still be absolutely charming and convincing.

Because most of us have a conscience we can dominate safely but none of us would ever admit to not having a conscience....would we?

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ORIGINAL: MarcEsadrian

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ORIGINAL: allthatjaz

I heard a friend recently talking about her ex dominant and she used the word 'sociopath'. Not knowing much about this sort of personality trait I decided to google it and I came up with this. I found it pretty disturbing because this dominant could have every one of those traits and still be absolutely charming and convincing.

Because most of us have a conscience we can dominate safely but none of us would ever admit to not having a conscience....would we?

The human mind is (thus far) impossible to quantify. While we can generally measure brain activity, poke around its anatomy and make rudimentary observations about its nature, there is so much we don't understand about it. The brain is, as far as we know, the most complex arrangement of matter known to science, but the complexity doesn't stop with neurons and chemical baths; the neural syntax itself is without a doubt the most difficult thing we could ever hope to crack.

I suppose the reason I bring all that up is to flesh out the reality that these psych terms are generalizations which are used often with a vast degree of armchair authority. It's tempting to hurl these phrases at people we have come to dislike when they have wronged us somehow, but our diagnosis are forever foreshadowed by our own moral slants. For instance, you use the term "conscience" in such as way as to suggest most "normal" people have one. What is a conscience, exactly? It would be nice if we could pop the hood and say, "ah, there it is," or, "oh, we'll need to get a new one."

I beieve there's a more reptile part in all of us; a part we don't dare show much to the world, and sometimes even to our ownselves, but it's there. We're all sociopaths, if we look long and hard enough in the mirror.

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Up until a week ago I have never in my entire adult life heard someone say 'he's a possible sociopath'. I didn't know what a sociopath was and so I researched it and started a post on it.

There have been some interesting posts, good links and sadly some real experiences. There has also been anger but I don't feel responsible for that..... Perhaps that makes me a sociopath!!

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ORIGINAL: aravain

~FR~

Conscience is such a bad word to use. "Empathy" is much better, but still inadequate. Conscience (to me) is a learned set of cognitions in response to behavior, while empathy is more akin to 'critical thinking' in that regard. It's like knowing the multiplication tables vs. being able to computate 76x187. What does feeling 'bad' mean, anyway? When I was a kid I used to nick things like fruit and handfuls of peanuts and such from grocery stores. I never felt bad about that, despite knowing that it was technically stealing. Does this make me sociopath? Not really. I just didn't know that my actions had an impact on someone else... I hadn't developed that empathy, because no one had ever told me that that action *HAD* impact; does that make sense?

Sociopathy (this is all in my opinion, btw) is a 'disorder' in that it makes an individual unable to function in normal society... which requires a group to work together in preservation OF the group. A sociopath is a 'lone wolf' when it comes to society. The sociopath is unable (or unwilling) to understand that others can be or are as important as ze is. Taking my earlier example, a sociopathic child/person wouldn't have 'empathy' for those other people, even after learning that stealing from them impacted them... because those other people *aren't* themselves.

Is that, in and of itself, a bad thing? No. However for those *within* the society and who adhere to it, it can be dangerous to get involved.

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I said "diagnose" when speaking of who can DIAGNOSE the disorder. I used first hand comment about knowing it when you see it, which you obviously have not.

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If both my statements are true, try linking the two together and see what you come up with. It is rather simple, if you can set aside your attitude.

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So if I say I am qualified, it is okay? No verification of the information I provided or weighting of the information given? Interesting.