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The Sociopath
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The Sociopath is far from your ordinary criminal or villain. Combine a willingness to cross the Moral Event Horizon without a shred of guilt, a keen sense of other people's mental and emotional fault lines, and a Lack of Empathy, and you have the consummate evildoer. To put it briefly, the Sociopath is like a predator while everyone else is prey to them. Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_1'); })The Sociopath displays these following qualities: Lack of Empathy and Devoid of Conscience: Their defining feature. Utterly ruthless doesn't begin to describe them: except for when trying to appear normal, they will disregard any social norms and semblance of morality in pursuit of their own selfish desires, and any "The Reason You Suck" Speech aimed at them is like water off a duck's back, because they simply cannot feel shame or remorse. The Sociopath will do whatever it takes: lie, cheat, steal, extort, manipulate, or use outright violence without the slightest hesitation, disgust, or remorse, and for as little as Pleasure or The Evulz. Murder and violence have no more emotional weight for them than eating Chinese takeout or some other mundane activity, and they have no concern for the direct or collateral damage they do to other people, being unable to understand why anyone should. Likewise, they never truly understand the feelings of others on anything more than an intellectual level, and may even believe that everybody else is faking it too. As many Real Life criminal psychologists put it: "They know the words but not the music." Techniques for learning moral behaviour, such as reason, therapy, rehabilitation, and behavioral reward/punishment, will not work on them or tend to only make their behavior even worse by making it easier for them to fake being normal. This is why the only thing resembling consistently successful treatment involves teaching them to avoid behaviors that have predictable consequences; they may still believe that consequences are bullshit, but if they have been made sufficiently aware of the fact that their behavior will always end up with them in jail, getting sued, or simply just getting jumped or killed when they fuck with the wrong people, and that they can't lie and fake their way out of it because people are wise to their game, they will usually shape up. Consummate Liar and Manipulator: In the event they are ever targets of suspicion in crime dramas and thrillers, sociopaths are able to fool any Living Lie Detectors in the cast, pass polygraphs effortlessly, and fool even you, the audience, into believing that they are genuinely kind and caring people who are victims of a "big misunderstanding" (assuming they are not so smugly confident of their own invincibility that they feel no need to hide their unsavory personality). Moreover, despite their lack of empathy, sociopaths are capable of using their knowledge of others' desires, emotions, and insecurities to manipulate them for their own personal gain. Because of this, many of them are Faux Affably Evil. This is related to their lack of empathy and shame — they don't feel the slightest discomfort about lying or exploiting others, so they do so with the same ease with which normal people perform mundane activities. This is why you should always assume that any apparent epiphany from a sociopath is bullshit; as far as they're concerned, it's just another tool to get what they want, and they don't actually believe that they have done anything wrong. Don't let them know that they are full of shit, because it will just force them to become more slick, but do act with the knowledge that they will go right back to their old ways the minute that they think it is safe to do so. Pathological Need for Stimulation: The Sociopath's raison d'etre (i.e.: an overriding goal which serves as one's "reason for existence"). Due to their inability to empathize or even care for those around them, sociopaths largely view their existence as boring or meaningless and therefore feel compelled to engage in "thrill-seeking" activities to alleviate their restlessness. How this manifests depends largely on the sociopath's personality. It can be as relatively benign as binging on video games, compulsively gambling, or leading highly promiscuous lifestyles. Far more dangerous examples are prone to satiate their lust for thrills by partaking in criminal enterprises, becoming serial rapists and/or killers, or (if they are unusually high-functioning) accumulating vast wealth and/or influence for the sole purpose of dominating as many people as they can for their own amusement. Due to their obsession with indulging their insatiable appetites however they want whenever they want, sociopaths have a very low tolerance for inconvenience or irritation, which, in turn, leads them to have a pronounced lack of impulse control. Because of this, many of them are Ax-Crazy, have a Hair-Trigger Temper, and/or are Mood Swingers. Shallow Affect and Complete Lack of Emotional Reciprocity: A Sociopath is physiologically incapable of experiencing a deep emotional attachment towards others, but — being a Consummate Liar — learns early in life how to fake them. This shallow emotional life means that the Sociopath is unable to form sincere long-term relationships with anything or anyone, but will feign feelings of love and affection if they feel it serves their purposes. Most of the true feelings a sociopath harbors towards others, positive or negative, are rooted in an insatiable desire to dominate or control them. While narcissists desire to be loved or at least respected, sociopaths don't care whether others view them positively as long as they don't stand in the way of their own self-centered gratification. Any emotional reaction to having committed a heinous act is met indifference at best and glee at worst. Grandiose Sense of Self-Importance: The trait that ties it all together — the one that changes it from moustache-twirling evil into a mental disorder. Sociopaths will go so far as to convince themselves that they have succeeded in their plan, even as failure stares them in the face and snaps on the handcuffs. They genuinely believe it. They don't really care what others truly think on the matter, but they do care about what they say, and like to fill their social circle with people who say what they want to hear. Any others — even former 'friends' — will be dismissed from the sociopath's social circle simply for doubting them. They consider themselves better than anybody else and that they are entitled to special treatment — and they can't stand anybody being considered better than them. However, while the Narcissist is self-conscious of how they measure up to others' standards (and therefore will experience shame or guilt for failing them), a sociopath's grandiosity is all-encompassing to the point they have no concern how their actions reflect upon them UNLESS it threatens their ability to indulge their appetite for further stimulation. They are incapable of acknowledging personal responsibility for failure, and will always blame others, no matter how irrational it is. In fact, it's considerably difficult to convince them that the activity they have partaken in has even failed. This is all part of why a sociopath can't change — since they consider themselves to already be perfect, and refuse to acknowledge failure on their part, and consider the true opinions and feelings of others insignificant, they never try to improve themselves. Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_2'); })Under such circumstances, high-functioning examples will obey social norms to the extent necessary to sustain their hedonistic lifestyle while more low-functioning examples will react with unrestrained hostility towards anything resembling a challenge to their "freedom". Likewise, sociopaths are incapable of acknowledging personal responsibility for any failures or disappointments they encounter (i.e: events which they automatically attribute to those out to "keep them down" or unfortunate twists of fate entirely beyond their control). Many of these traits are shared with other disorders, but it's the combination of them all that creates the true Sociopath. And, like many other disorders, sociopathy falls on a spectrum. Some sociopaths are just unusually self-absorbed. On the other end of the scale are the ruthless, remorseless, and totally insane monsters. Sociopaths also have varying levels of intelligence and goals, which influences how their disorder manifests in everyday life. Some sociopaths just want a family — but the very best, most happy family, and only to reflect well on them and make them happy. At any cost. For example, if another family member is 'spoiling' this dream, they may simply dispose of that person, and lack empathy and can't see why they might be at fault. Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_3'); })The high-functioning Sociopath will usually have better-than-average impulse control for someone with their condition, and may actually appear perfectly normal for years. They know murder is bad because they're told that it's bad — and know that murderers who are caught will get in serious trouble — but the action has no more emotional weight to them than brushing their teeth. They emulate the moral behaviour of society only because a failure to do so has negative consequences, and not because Good Feels Good. What You Are in the Dark exposes them for who they are, and they do not consider something to be wrong if they do not get caught. If killing advances their goals more easily and they can get away with it, they will often do so. And they will often seek positions of respectability within their communities in order to maintain the façade of being just like (or, rather, better than) everybody else. They might even go their whole lives appearing almost normal... but there will always be something a little "off" about them; something cold and distant and fake. And they won't even care. This type can make a terrifying Knight Templar, liable to believe that Utopia Justifies the Means — some sociopathic serial killers claim they are simply Necessarily Evil removing undesirable elements from society or making a political statement. They may understand intellectually that their actions are undesirable in society at large, but feel that they should be rewarded, not punished, for acting to solve a perceived problem. The low-functioning Sociopath is defined mostly by their impulse control being particularly shoddy, or having a personality type that predisposes them to violent behavior. For them, maintaining the façade of "fitting in" is simply impossible, as their violent outbursts make them highly visible. But even a low-functioning Sociopath can be glib and charming, the perfect liar, allowing them to accrue loyal followers who perceive their behavior as revolutionary and secretly having a higher purpose. The sociopath will see these followers as useful pawns at best, however, and will not return any of their loyalty in kind, though they may pretend to when it suits them. If they do manage to succeed in an employment situation, it will seldom last; they may throw away opportunities on a whim, relentlessly bully or torment others until the company is forced to fire them for legal or morale-related reasons, screw over too many clients or tell too many colossal, jawdropping lies to secure sales, or otherwise ruin their employment for no good reason whatsoever. Lower-functioning ones are usually marked, however, by far more unstable and spotty employment histories, with a proven history of suddenly disappearing without notice, or terminations for things like stealing company property, repeated no-call no-shows, violent behavior with coworkers, or other incidents involving poor impulse control or judgment or extreme irresponsibility. Not all sociopaths lust for world domination, of course. Your every-day low-functioning sociopath may just want to get their next hit of crack, and not only will they go to any lengths to do so, but they won't feel bad about the distress they cause others by being an addict. Addicts do a lot to fund their addiction, but a non-sociopath will feel bad enough about it to eventually seek help to quit for the sake of others, while a sociopath doesn't give a crap. They're too great to overdose, they're not going to get caught (regardless of how little effort they put into not getting caught), and they don't get why others would get worried about what they're doing to their body or the whole family because they wouldn't care about them. If they do face consequences, it's never their fault. They're in jail because someone's out to get them (so they fake compliance so they can get out, then go after the snitch who got them arrested), they're being forced to enter a substance program because the system is bullshit (so they comply to the letter, but know full well that they're going to go right back to their old ways once they've "completed" the program), and they got the shit beaten out of them by someone for no reason whatsoever, so they're going to hunt that person down and settle the score. One important thing to note is that even family members and long-term 'friends' are not excused from these behaviors. Even their own children mean nothing to the Sociopath. They too are tools to be used and tossed aside as soon as they reflect poorly on the sociopath or get in their way. If a character cares about anybody other than themselves; if they can hesitate, they may be terrifyingly, murderously ambitious, but they have empathy for others, and by extension they are not a sociopath. It has been noted that many sociopaths like animals, though. If the Sociopath has standards, there's a good chance that those standards are either carefully calculated to manipulate others, or incidental to the sociopath's personality type, if not just extremely pragmatic (i.e., they know that society holds some things to be virtuous and just and they have consistently succeeded for long enough by cleaving to those virtues, so why reinvent the wheel). Often, their lack of emotional investment in any kind of moral code or ideology can strike a person with more typical psychological makeup as Blue-and-Orange Morality. The canonical alignment for many Sociopaths is Chaotic Evil of the Type 4 variety, though some Neutral Evil examples exist under the Type 3 variety. Lawful Evil Sociopaths are possible. The Sociopath has become a very popular villain-type in recent years; crime dramas and thrillers, for example, will inevitably feature one as a particularly merciless and evil antagonist. Some tropes that are frequently associated with The Sociopath include Serial Killer, Faux Affably Evil, Lack of Empathy, The Unfettered, Manipulative Bastard, The Chessmaster, and Übermensch. Many Psychos For Hire, The Soulless, and believers in For the Evulz are this as well. If the Sociopath happens to be a ruler, and considers themselves above the law, then expect them to be The Caligula or worse, Jerkass Gods. If a character qualifies as a Complete Monster, there's a good chance that this trope applies to them. Compare Sociopathic Hero, Comedic Sociopathy, Moral Sociopathy. Contrast the Narcissist, who has the grandiose ego and Lack of Empathy, but experiences the full range and intensity of human emotion, and is capable of love — even if it's a very one-sided, selfish kind of love. The trope is named following an old edition of the DSM which used the term to refer to what is now classed as Antisocial personality disorder. Though the terms sociopathy and psychopathy are still recognized in some circles, they have no official standing. See Analysis and UsefulNotes.Lack Of Empathy for more detailed information. Note: Very few fictional sociopaths — even the ones identified as such by the work itself — would be considered as such by a real-life psychiatrist. This is because, as Robert Hare points out in his book Without Conscience, sociopaths by definition are two-dimensional characters, lacking an ability to have anything resembling Character Development (not to mention that people who have the full range of human emotions may find it near-impossible to conceive of a human being that truly lives without them). The biggest indication that a fictional character may score high on the psychopath checklist is antisocial behavior (whether violent or nonviolent) coupled with their loyalty or affection to other characters being dubious at best. So if a character has a Morality Pet, Morality Chain, or a deep attachment to a family member or leader that goes beyond simple practicality, it's a good bet this trope doesn't apply to the character. |
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