5/2/11

A Return to Sociopathy: Origin(s) and the Inner Triangle

As mentioned previously on this blog, two great resources in the field of study of sociopathy are both the website lovefraud.com and the nonfictional accounts detailed in The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout. Today's piece follows two quick trends detailing the personality disorder: it's origin and seemingly incurable nature and a more detailed, defined model for what sociopaths lack within themselves.

The debate over sociopathy/psychopathy has been waging for more than five decades. Books, peer-reviewed psychology journals, the DSM-IV and "experts" in the field have thrown the two words around and their apparent definitions. Perhaps its a questionable subject to approach based on personal beliefs, because one school of thought attributes individuals possessing sociopathy and psychopathy to have been there since birth. This would seem to entail, then, that individuals could be born "bad" or "evil," something a religious or optimist may not accept. Other schools will describe the personality disorder as stemming from a medical or physical injury. While the last will say the disorder is learned, from childhood onward, through environmental factors such as their socioeconomic status, parental rearing, peers or a significantly low or high intelligence.

Well if we accept any three of the origin schools of thought for this PD, they each equally dictate the same story for managing the illness. There is none. The illness since its "discovery" has largely been passed over because of a universally accepted belief of it being "untreatable and no interventions have proved to be effective." Empathy is not something you can buy over the counter and take with injections. There is no talking out in a session that will rekindle a conscious. In fact, studies have been conducted across the board that therapy in the conventional sense, or rehabilitation will only assist sociopaths in both further masking their abilities and defects, and gaining a better understanding as to how to manipulate their surroundings. Essentially moves to help these individuals have assisted them in only better understanding human nature and psychology for personal benefit. 

The Triangle

On the lovefraud website, the origin school of thought in regards to genetic traits is taken, a contributor Liane J. Leedom, M.D. describes an inner triangle that exists in each and every person. Leedom states that said inner triangle is lacking in individuals with addictions, alcoholism, ADHD, sociopathy and the like. And being that the three sides of the triangle are an ability to love, moral reasoning and impulse control, one begins to draw upon the importance of Leedom's theory. 

Without an ability to love, sociopaths may experience fleeting feels of affection, a drive to be with another person. But in lacking empathy, sociopaths have no guards against hurting the friends and family close to them. Caring, then, is for a hidden agenda, as a sociopath will never sacrifice their own desires for another person. 

Sociopaths lack impulse control, making them overly sexual and at times, very aggressive. Moreover this side of the triangle conducts planning, foresight and a consideration of consequences for one's actions. Rarely is any of the planning stages of an action put to use for sociopaths. Actions then are driven by  one of the basic  human motivators: "nourishment, comfort, physical contact with other people, sex, social dominance, material possessions and entertainment." For sociopaths, it leans toward the four latter.

And while sociopath know the rules and laws of the land, can recite them when asked, the rules are ruled out in their actions. Leedom believes narcissism plays a large role in this side of the triangle, in that sociopaths first do not believe the rules apply to them for whatever reason, and when the action is carried out, give little to no afterthought to what has occurred. This one-two punch allows the sociopath to act with moral impunity in their minds, again and again.

41 comments:

  1. Interesting write up on sociopathy, I always wonder what goes thru sociopath's heads

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  2. this reminds me of the ap physic test i had to take today. i dont think i did that well :(

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  3. This subject has always interested me, I don't believe in the existence of good and evil though, that's more for those who are religious

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  4. I've always wondered about the love component of sociopathology, great read! thanks for the information i didn't think about

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  5. Learned something new today! Thanks for great article.

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  6. wow i love this blog, it's making me do a lot of self analyzing and trying to change up some habits.

    Thanks man

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  7. Anonymous17:11

    There are millions individuals with addictions, alcoholism, ADHD, are all they lacking the "triangle"??

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  8. In a word, yes, bruno- they're lacking in some aspect whether its the guy who puts getting drunk over work or the narcissist who does not love anyone but themselves. The triangle is a healthy human being at their core

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  9. good paradox triangle

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  10. I feel sorry for them.

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  11. Good article indeed :D

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  12. Anonymous19:15

    Nice article.
    Interesting paradox...

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  13. made me think a bit :p

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  14. I'm impressed by the amount of research you've put into this.

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  15. your blog is very inspirational.

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  16. Wow...I would have never known about this if it weren't for your blog.

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  17. curious. I must say I do believe that people are a product of their environment so I would happen to be of the latter of the 3 types of people who think about how Sociopaths occur.

    I find it interesting that every time I read something that describes someone I find traits of that person within myself. Generally, as in this case, I do not find a complete description and I'm rather happy about that. I do hope that most people do not find a complete description of themselves in the description of the sociopath as you have put here but it is worth noting that sociopaths are generally rather smart people. Or at least so I've always though. Looking forward to reading further posts. I hope you continue to do research into the subject

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  18. Anonymous20:22

    I've always known that sociopaths and psycho people are smarter than many others, but they do evil things sometimes :/

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  19. Very interesting stuff dude :). I enjoy reading your posts

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  20. Intriguing blog, I had very different impressions of people who show signs of sociopathy.

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  21. I meet more than my fair share of sociopathic jerks. People suck sometimes.

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  22. Nice post, very interesting

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  23. summarize your posts, my attention span is limited, im a dummy. lol

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  24. Anonymous23:09

    Very informative. This subject has always interested me, especially the question of what can be done with such people, if anything.

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  25. Anonymous23:19

    Great post. Love the layout also. Consider me a follower.

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  26. I'm glad my triangle is pretty solid. I don't want to have a fucked up triangle.

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  27. Right after high school I was told a riddle:

    A woman, while at the funeral of her own mother, met a
    man who she did not know. She thought he was 'amazing'. She believed him to be her dream partner so much, that she fell in love with him right there, but never asked for his number and could not find him.

    A few days later she killed her sister.

    Question: What was her motive for killing her sister?

    The scary part... I knew the answer.

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  28. Interesting stuff man, thanks for the great read

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  29. Anonymous01:30

    Glad I stopped by. Great article. Very interesting. :)

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  30. I'm starting loose my faith in humanity

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  31. Anonymous01:33

    I actually read an article on this kind of stuff the other day. Quite a coincidence on my part.

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  32. that guy looks kinda creepy lol

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  33. Anonymous02:17

    great article. keep bringing informative and useful articles to the web!

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  34. Nicely summarised, man... :D

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  35. Interesting read. Scary to think of what goes on inside some peoples heads.

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  36. Very interesting. I'm gonna keep up with this blog.

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  37. Anonymous09:21

    Learnin' how to diagnose different scenarios according to the DSM-IV at the moment, really interesting stuff. From the different abnormal mental behaviours I read about, I think the Schizoid type fits me alarmingly well. Maybe you can do an article on that some time? :)

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  38. thank you fro the info on sociopaths.

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  39. complicated, but I think I'm getting it. Really well written articles

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  40. Very intriguing and thought-proking writing. Great material mate!

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