Are people with autism borderline sociopaths?

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Some aspie men women I know seem to be over the borderline

must be repressed frustrated rage, like excessive liver yang

Ok, I guess saying that Aspies and Sociopaths are opposites is being a bit defensive/arrogant, but I was merely summing up pretty much everything I've read on autism and empathy and sociopathy and empathy, and made the opposite conjecture on my own. However autism and sociopathy are still completey different, just look at the statistics. Also you cannot deny that, even if aspies lie just like everyone else that they are still less likely to make white lies than other people.

I would hardly call myself a sociopath or anything, but as I said before, I do believe I have significantly less empathy than many NTs, and I also lie just as much as NTs, and I manipulate people for fun (because, well, it's fun, and it gets you stuff you want). I am particularly proud of the latter because it means I've developed my social skills well enough to do that.

And I am officially diagnosed with Asperger's.

So, what you are saying may be true for you personally - I can hardly argue against that - but I don't think it's true for all Aspies.

If I even feel like my actions are going to change someone's likelihood to do something for me, I feel wrong about it. I know that does not make sense to most people, but it is just the way it is. Sometimes I wish I had no feelings so I could just get what I need like everybody else.

exactly Asp-Z, I have done and felt the same exact way, + have an official AS Diagnosis.

yeah i feel guilty if i think i have manipulated someone in some way for my own gain. it doesn't feel right at all.

Well I have never heard of aspies being manipulative before, as they usually are either incapable of manipulating, morally opposed to it, or both.

It's not really hard to establish that autistic people are not borderline sociopaths, due to generally lacking many of the definitive traits that sociopaths have. This does not mean that some autistic people are not borderline sociopaths or diagnosable with anti-social personality disorder, but this is most likely far from a majority.

One thing that has been brought up has been supported with research - that autistic people tend to have normal affective empathy and lack in cognitive empathy. ASPD tends to lack in affective empathy but have normal cognitive empathy - this is one reason they are good at manipulation. Someone with ASPD also tends to lack a conscience, a sense of regret, and other things that tend to complicate treating people as complete tools all the time. These are not traits that are typically associated with autistic people.

Any particular person is not a representative population. If you find that you have sociopathic traits, that does not mean that a) all or most autistic people have sociopathic traits, b) that autistic people who say they don't have those traits are lying, and c) that going to extremes to reject such a negative label as "sociopath" is a conscious attempt to manipulate and lie, nor is it climbing on a "moral high horse."

Last edited by Verdandi on 18 Nov 2011, 8:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I know that Sociopathy can refer to Pychopathy or ASPD, are those two things the same thing?

They can be born with the potential, but it may require environmental triggers (such as abusive treatment during childhood) to bring it out.

For example, the story of Jim Fallon:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... =127888976

I heard that on the radio once!

Good to hear I'm not alone on this.

Being able to manipulate people and not feel guilty has helped me out in the past and I'm sure it will do so for the rest of my life. It's a good trait to have IMO.

The funny thing is that if you are empathetic you would see empathy as a good thing as it helps other people, but if you are unempathetic you would see it as a bad thing as it would keep you back from helping yourself at others expense. "If you desire a brain you must already have one. " "If you desire a heart you must already have one. " " If you desire courage you must already have it. "

Ahh, but I'm smart enough to help others when that person will help me. But if that person isn't helping me, then I can't say I'm too fussed - they've done nothing to help me, why should I do something to help them? Unless they pay me for helping, of course.

This is also how I regulate my emotions - if you are nice to me, I'll generally act nicely towards you. But if you treat me badly, I'll treat you badly and am more likely to manipulate you and toss you aside if it helps me.

As I said, I'm not a sociopath, so I do still have that basic moral code. I generally don't like to s**t on the hand that feeds me, as the old saying goes.

I was referring to helping other people fr the sake of helping other people, not for personal gain. If you are unempathetic doing such a thing is meaningless.

I am personally not unempathetic, I am simply less empathetic than most NTs. I gave money to Children in Need today. I can still be nice.