Let's look at it in a little more detail, shall we?
Psychopaths are said to have a characteristic glibness and superficial charm about them. Does the individual with Asperger's syndrome (AS) display such characteristics? Persons with AS and nonverbal learning disorders tend to have a higher verbal IQ than performance IQ on the WISC and WAIS, which can manifest as verbosity, and this can superficially resemble the psychopath's ease of conversation, which results from a lack of self-consciousness. However, the psychopath's verbalizations are typically lacking in substance; their speech tends to be folksy, meandering, and full of idiomatic expressions and logical fallacies. In contrast, the aspie's use of language is exacting, even pedantic; it tends to come across as an academic treatise or technical manual instead of everyday conversation. Now, are aspies charming? I might like to think so, but it is more likely an acquired taste. Perhaps our most endearing quality is our relative naïveté and honesty.
Psychopaths are said to have shallow affect, or emotions. They are generally emotionally cold although they can make brief, often dramatic emotional displays—most often for conscious gain. On the other hand, persons with AS and high-functioning autism (HFA) frequently have flat affect, meaning nearly no display of emotion (not a smile, not a tear—blank). Other aspies have low emotional control and are easily excitable, prone to bouts of anxiety and depression, rage, and excitement. Insofar as they can both appear emotionally cold, psychopaths and aspies are similar.
Psychopaths are further said to be callous and lacking in empathy. Basically, they don't care about anyone but themselves and are unmoved by disaster and misfortune. They may make insensitive comments because of this lack of concern but at the same time can come across as cool under pressure (since they don't experience the pressure!). Many aspies, though, are quite concerned with world affairs, disability rights, and their own favored causes; many report being quite moved by disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami in Indonesia, civil war in Sudan, and so forth. For most aspies, then, the difficulty is in understanding what other people are tihnking and feeling and not an indifference to their concerns. Unfortunately, it is not unheard of, either, for aspies to develop a degree of callousness as a result of sheer psychological wear: the product of significant mistreatment and misunderstanding which leads to a turning toward the self and a more profound detachment from others.
Psychopaths are said to have a grandiose sense of self-worth and an extreme degree of egocentricity. Few aspies, in contrast, engage in boasting and careless disparagement of others. Many aspies actually apply ideals of equality strictly, treating supervisors, clerks, celebrities, teachers, classmates, and coworkers the same. Aspies tend to respect knowledge, merit and merit much more than social status, wealth, or title.More aspies. A higher proportion of aspies than NeuroTypicals (NTs) are clinically depressed, suffering low self-esteem. Those aspies who exhibit inflated self-esteem often do so as a transparent compensation for social rejection and an inner feeling of inadequacy. When aspies are stubborn, argumentative, and sure of their rightness, it results more from their pedantry and depth of knowledge than from a compulsion to put others down or exhibit superiority. It cannot be denied, though, that many if not most aspies are egocentric in that they understand their own needs well but have trouble understanding others and the consequent social obligations; this is more a developmental egocentricity than selfishness.
Psychopaths are said to have an extreme need for external stimulation and an inability to tolerate boredom or monotony. Aspies show a variety of hypersensitivities and hyposensitvities. I have met an aspie who claimed to be a bit of a daredevil and enjoyed jumping off her roof as a child; I have also heard of aspies who become quite nervous and unable to focus because of the chatter in a typical classroom. Most aspies are quite able to focus on dry, esoteric material if it is in their area of interest; many also have a preference for the familiar, but I cannot say this covers all aspies.
Most psychopaths are pathological liars who take special delight in conning and manipulating others for personal gain or for the simple thrill of it. It is often reported that aspies, especially as children, have difficulty lying and are obvious when they do tell a lie. This and their difficulty reading people makes more complicated manipulations next to impossible for an aspie to pull off—if they were interested in such a thing to begin with.
Psychopaths are generally impulsive, including emotionally. Many aspies have executive function deficits which lead them to be impulsive and have emotional dysregulation as well; however, an aspie's impulsivity rarely leads to the commission of crimes in the way a psychopath's does.
Psychopaths are often highly sexually promiscuous. Many aspies report trouble even finding a date.
Psychopaths tend to have severe conduct problems going back to early childhood, including theft, truancy, lying, and assault, Few aspies do.
Aspies tend to have all-consuming interests (obsessions) whereas few psychopaths have persistent interests beyond taking advantage of others.
Aspies tend to have severe social deficits (lack of or peculiar eye contact, rigid body language, monotone voice, trouble making friends), but psychopaths typically have little trouble making friends (or at least superficial acquaintances whom they then exploit or use for entertainment). Psychopaths' social deficits are almost always a direct consequence of having hurt others, acting recklessly, or having a criminal record.
12 Aug 2007, 7:28 pm
