Aspie or Sociopath?

Post Reply New Topic

Listening to my favorite radio show here in Florida the topic came up about Casey Anthony (the young woman who supposedly killed her 3 year old daughter a few years ago). The radio program had a psychologist on the show who said he believed Casey is a sociopath. A lot of the traits seemed actually similar to Asperger Syndrome. I never considered myself a sociopath, but a lot of the traits of one I have. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociopath Makes you think.

Those aren't Aspie traits

Just because aspies don't show alot of emotion doesn't mean they have none.




here is the list

failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest;
deceitfulness, as indicated by repeatedly lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure;
impulsivity or failure to plan ahead;
irritability and aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults;
reckless disregard for safety of self or others;
consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations;
lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another;

1. not an aspie trait
2. nope not good at lying at all
3. failure to plan ahead? Thats the opposite of an aspie
4. ok this one can be but I bet it is for an opposite reason
5. I don't know aspies with a reckless disregard for others
6. Ok this one might fit some aspies
7. we may not show the remorse but it is there.

So no Aspies are not sociopaths unless they are a sociopath aspergers doesn't make them one.

I'm not saying they are the same. However I can see how an Aspie who doesn't know they are an Aspie might think they were a sociopath and vice versa, but lets look further.

**Characteristics of people with antisocial personality disorder may include:**
Apparent lack of remorse or empathy for others (WE MAY HAVE REMORSE, BUT IT APPEARS TO OTHERS AND EXPERTS THAT WE DONT
Persistent lying or stealing NOT A FACTOR
Cruelty to animals[5]
Poor behavioral controls — expressions of irritability, annoyance, impatience, threats, aggression, and verbal abuse; inadequate control of anger and temper OH YEA, WE CAN BE IMPATIENT AND SHOW IRRITABILITY
A history of childhood conduct disorder WE DON"T FOLLOW NORMS AND GET IN TROUBLE
Recurring difficulties with the law THERE IS A LOT OF DOCUMENTATION THAT ASPIES HAVE BEING THE VICTIM AND VICTIMIZER
Promiscuity I'VE READ NUMEROUS STORIES ON HERE REGARDING PROMISCUITY
Tendency to violate the boundaries and rights of others WE DON"T DO IT TO BE MEAN, WE JUST DON"T KNOW BETTER
Aggressive, often violent behavior; prone to getting involved in fights DON"T KNOW ABOUT THIS ONE
Inability to tolerate boredom WE START STEMMING
Poor or abusive relationships
Irresponsible work behavior OH YEA
Disregard for safety YES, BUT NOT CONSCIOUSLY

Last edited by CentralFLM on 28 Mar 2011, 7:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

There are some similarities, but I think they are really quite different.

I know I for one fit the symptoms for Asperger's, but I fit almost none of the symptoms for ASPD. I am not prone to cruelty to those around me and I don't lie and cheat to get ahead. I may not always understand social rules, but I won't try to manipulate the system once I do understand them. I think of sociopathic behavior as knowing and understanding all of the rules, and then taking it a step further.

In short, I think the end results can be similar phenotypically... but the core mechanism is different for both. Not understanding the rules is much different than willfully disregarding the rules.

And antisocial people are like NTs in overdrive. They understand emotion but just don't care. Most aspies take huge pains to fit in. Antisocial people can easily fit right in and abuse that ability to con and use people. I have a hard enough time getting NTs to take me seriously much less con them into things.

Casey Anthony liked hanging out with her friends and partying nonstop in loud, crowded nightclubs.
No way does this chick have AS.

An aspie lacks empathy because they dont understand once they understand they do care. A sociopath lacks empathy because they understand but dont care.

She undoubtedly doesn't, but I know autistic people who are hyposensitive and do enjoy going to nightclubs and the like because it provides enough stimulation for them. You can't decide whether someone is autistic based on one or two traits.

I was under the impression that sociopaths are bullies. That they spend a lot of time thinking about how to manipulate others and do it in a very subtle underhand way. People with AS are incapable of manipulating others in a subtle way. We would be useless sociopaths.

Not all aspies are violent and not all violent people are aspies.

Yes, quite so. The skills required to be successful as a sociopath are also the ones that are very weak in people with AS. If you are autistic and a sociopath, it is highly likely that you will end up in prison by adulthood, or else, if you are not prone to lawbreaking, at least known as a sociopath by everyone around you. Non-autistic sociopaths learn to read and manipulate people and to follow social norms; autistics often have a great deal of difficulty doing this. So, while we can be sociopaths, we are usually extremely obvious ones. There may be exceptions to this rule, of course; when it comes to autism, there are always exceptions; but the fact is that the skills you need to hide sociopathy are the very same ones that autistics usually don't have. I think it may ironically be easier to hide being a sociopath if you are more obviously disabled, because people don't usually associate obvious disability with sociopathy.

I look at it this way.... I'm an aspie (suspected) but if I even HEAR of a child dying I become very emotional. It doesn't really matter that I have abnormal emotions the other 90% of the time. A kid dying tears me apart. A woman who can sit there like she does with no emotion may have asperger's but that sure as hell isn't the reason she sits like that, it's because she's flat out socio/psychopathic and a cold-hearted b***h IMHO. Sorry if I'm so inflammatory about it, but I live in FL too, and this is just too damn close to home. Casey Anthony single-handedly makes me wish we still performed public hangings in this country.

casey anthony was out clubing the night after her child disapeared.she is a wild party girl.also she is in general population usualy aspies get sent to protective custody.there was a seriel killer from atlanta that had some real aspie traits but i have forgoten his name.it took the police or rather cold case detectives a long time to catch him because he made so few mistakes.when he knew the police where on to him he eat only finger foods at lunch break so they couldnt get dna from a fork or knife.he was a lab technition

I guess I'm just surprised by the definition of sociopath. I always thought a sociopath to be a murderer monster like Ted Bundy. You can actually be a sociopath and a productive part of society without committing a crime.

I guess I'm just surprised by the definition of sociopath. I always thought a sociopath to be a murderer monster like Ted Bundy. You can actually be a sociopath and a productive part of society without committing a crime.

Most sociopaths aren't killers, there may be a higher percentage of violent sociopaths than there is of non-sociopaths, but being a sociopath doesn't mean a person will go around killing people just for kicks. In fact a lot of the more successful ones work in the corporate or financial sector where their ruthlessness, disregard for others, lack of loyalty and willingness to bend rules for personal gains are often seen as very positive and desirable traits. The University near me did a study of it a couple of years ago and they found in those two sectors the percentage of people scoring either as sociopaths or borderline sociopathic was significantly higher than in the other professions they looked at.