Are people with autism borderline sociopaths?

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Everything I read about them in medical journals seems to indicate that people with Aspergers and Autism are in fact borderline sociopaths? The claim they lack empathy, and a lack of empathy is a cornerstone of being a sociopath.

I definitely do not lack empathy. My problem is expressing it correctly.

That's what I've kind of figured. Honestly, along with the word "aspie" this notion that people with autism or aspergers lack emotion is far more offensive then anything I've posted. And it's a belief held by many therapist and parents and that to me is utterly frightening.

Yes, I agree.

Regarding empathy Pyschopathy and Autism are actually probably opposites. Aspies have lower Theory of the Mind, which is sometimes referred to as cognitive empathy, while pyschopaths have average or high of this. Aspies actually have average or high effective empathy, which is the common use of the word and is the thing that psychopaths lack. The other reason Aspies are sometimes thought to lack empathy is, because as stated previously, we have difficulty expressing emotion appropriately.

Some Aspies probably are. We're all different and our "Aspieness" works differently in all of us.

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.... and i want to point something more out: the reason why we have problems expressing is that we are more sensitive to sensory or to emotions or both. Thus it is likely that an aspie looking in the outside as if he doesn't care, in fact cares more than anyone else!

greets,
anton

Lack of empathy, they say? Well, I have TOO MUCH empathy for people, which can cause problems too! If NTs had any empathy at all then why do I get stared at in the street all the time when I don't do anything different or anything? Surely somebody with empathy will think, ''I better not stare at that solemn-looking girl over there, she might be having a bad day or might be feeling upset about something or she might be feeling nervous. I felt like that the other day when [insert personal situation here] and I didn't feel like smiling.'' But no, they don't think that, when I DO think that. If somebody is looking shifty or nervous or miserable, I totally look away because they might not want eye contact. I look at people who look like they want to be looked at, like hunky looking men who walk in a cocky way and chat to lots of people.

That is just ONE example how I can consider how others feel. Another one is, my dad shouted at my mum the other day when she didn't do anything, and she obviously got angry and upset. I yelled at my dad not to shout at people like that and to learn to keep his bad mood to himself and piss off, but then a bit later on I remembered that he had been doing night shifts and probably felt a bit groggy and funny, and sometimes you can get a bit snappy and short-tempered when you're feeling like that, so I said that to my mum but I also said that dad should had perhaps kept out of the way if he could help it and not say anything at all if he knew he felt irritable. That actually made my mum and dad make up, and we went on a family meal after that.

Of course, everybody can lack empathy sometimes, like if we're angry or having a bad day or an awkward situation has happened on the heat of the moment or if people are in a rush or whatever, but generally speaking I can't say that I'm borderline sociopath.

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I find it interesting that so many Aspies say they feel a lot of empathy, but just have trouble showing it. When I show empathy, a lot of the time I have to fake it. I'm not completely devoid of empathy or anything, but I do think I have less of it than NTs do. But I don't really understand any of my emotions anyway.