Are people with autism borderline sociopaths?

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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.

I may be a borderline sociopath because I seem to lack empathy. I just can't feel other peoples feelings. I have very little empathy. But I don't go out and manipulate people and go hurting others.

But reading this thread helps me feel better because maybe I am not one after all since I speculate why people are the way they are and wonder if they could be having a bad day or maybe this or maybe that thanks to my obsessive thinking. I suppose that is empathy. Plus I am married so I must be in love because I really liked my husband. Plus I don't do what real sociopaths do. While other aspies are over empathetic, I feel I am under empathetic so therefore I felt like a sociopath. I can help people and give them support but I just don't feel anything. I suck at giving emotional support though. The emotional support I can give is all scripted and I don't feel anything.

Yes I have heard of aspies being manipulative, my aspie mate was. You don't need to be lying and cunning to manipulate. You can be threatening to break stuff to get your way or hurting people to get your way, that is manipulation. He did that for control. He bullied people to get his way too and if you didn't listen he threaten to break something and he would do it if you didn't do as he said and he also abused his mother. He happened to have ODD.

Exactly the same here. I tend to logic my way into and out of stuff. If it doesnt fit in with logic, well it has no value then to me. I honestly don't believe in true good/kindness. Everyone does something in order to get something. Even the so called people who do good things because it makes them feel good or its the right thing to do. If your doing it because helping others makes y7ou feel good, its still in my line of logic a "selfish" action simply because you get a benefit out of it (IE: feeling good). As for going it because it is the right thing to do? You are most likely doing it to stick to some Faith or moral system you follow. This one falls under being guilted into it because it makes you feel bad, thus you do it in order to not feel bad. Regardless its a selfish action as well because you are trying to prevent yourself from feeling bad.
To put it simply, most people act in order to gain something or prevent negativity within their own psyche. In another sense it basically calling out EVERYONE on being a sociopath, albeit to totally different degrees.

It may not exactly make sense to most people, but it makes sense to me. Its one of those beliefs that you cannot clearly express or express at all in words.

Selfishness is concern with self without any regard for other people.