“Successful psychopaths” are very successful people, often ruthless, callous, and superficially charming, with little or no regard for the feelings or needs of others. They tend to carry out premeditated crimes with calculated risks. Or they can manipulate another person into breaking the law, while staying safely at a distance. They are master manipulators of other people’s feelings, but they are not capable of experiencing emotions themselves. And yes, you probably know at least one: they are found between 0.2% and 3.3% of the population.
Both psychopathy and sociopathy are known as antisocial personality disorders, which are long-term mental health conditions.
What differentiates them?
Psychopaths and sociopaths share a number of characteristics, including a lack of remorse or empathy for others, a lack of guilt or the ability to take responsibility for their actions, a disregard for laws or social conventions, and a penchant for the violence. A central characteristic of both is a deceptive and manipulative nature. But how can we distinguish them?
Sociopaths are generally less emotionally stable and highly impulsive; Their behavior tends to be more erratic than that of psychopaths. When committing crimes, whether violent or non-violent, sociopaths will act more out of compulsion. And they will lack patience, give in much more easily to impulsiveness, and lack detailed planning.
Psychopaths, on the other hand, will plan their crimes down to the smallest detail, taking calculated risks to avoid detection. The smart ones will leave few clues that could lead to being caught. Psychopaths don’t get carried away in the moment and, as a result, make fewer mistakes.
If you value articles like this, consider supporting us by becoming a Pro subscriber. Subscribers enjoy access to members-only articles, materials, and webinars.
Both act on a continuum of behaviors, and many psychologists still debate whether they should actually be differentiated. But for those who differentiate the two, one thing is widely agreed upon: psychiatrists use the term psychopathy to illustrate that the cause of antisocial personality disorder is hereditary. Sociopathy describes behaviors that are the result of brain injury, or childhood abuse and/or neglect.
There is a particularly interesting link between serial killers and psychopaths or sociopaths, although of course not all psychopaths and sociopaths become serial killers. And not all serial killers are psychopaths or sociopaths.
But the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) among known serial killers and these antisocial personality disorders. These include predatory behavior (e.g., who hunted and murdered the seven victims of him); sensation seeking (hedonistic killers who kill out of enthusiasm or excitement, such as, 21, who, in 2014, murdered two people just to find out what it feels like to kill); lack of remorse; impulsivity and the need for control or power over others.
Jack Kelsall: a case study
The Sydney murder of Morgan Huxley by 22-year-old Jack Kelsall, who arguably displays all the characteristics of a psychopath, highlights the differences between psychopaths and sociopaths.
In 2013, Kelsall followed Huxley to his home where he indecently assaulted the 31-year-old before stabbing him 28 times. Kelsall showed no remorse for his crime, which was extremely violent and premeditated.
Although the assassination was frantic, Kelsall showed patience and planning. He had followed potential victims before and had a knife with his psychiatrist a year before killing Huxley, allegedly for “.”
Whatever Kelsall’s motive, regardless of whether he was born with this dysfunction or developed it, the case stands as an example of the worst possible outcome of antisocial personality disorder: senseless violence perpetrated against a random victim for self-gratification. Throughout his trial and sentencing, Kelsall showed no signs of remorse, guilt, and did not apologize.
There are others that we should all know about, because at the end of the day, both they and sociopaths can be dangerous and even deadly.
Fountain: