Do we get mistaken for psychopaths??

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As an adult with Asperger's, I must say it was very rare that anyone would verbally/directly label me as a psychopath, except the bullies back in my early teens or so. But I got the sense, at various points in my life, that people thought of me as a psychopath b/c of my "emotional dyslexia" as we've come to call AS in more layperson terms. Maybe it was because I couldn't find a "middle ground" in terms of my approach in interacting with others - which I've been able to calibrate since - but I was either too overly friendly and familiar (a classic psychopath warning that in my youth naivete I missed, btw!) OR I was too aloof, mumbled, avoided eye contact etc. Classic AS black-and-white thinking you might say. That was the problem, it was more the initial impression that I think people got of me but once they got to know me, if they were enlightened enough, it became apparent to them that this was not the case (in fact, they clearly and correctly concluded that I was far more likely to be on the receiving end of psychopathy!! !)

I remember reading on one online source several years ago that one ill-informed poster described those with Asperger's as "psychopaths who are not very good at it." Also when I was at a lunch event with work colleagues a while back, one woman remarked how she did a BA in Philosophy and said that she'd never want to teach it, because everyone she met who had a PhD in it "had almost no ability to relate to other people, they were almost psychopathic." A fallacious argument, since psychopaths have higher than average ToM (thus translating to higher street-smarts) but virtually no empathy. Whereas people with AS have the reverse (indeed, some have remarked that they have more empathy than others because of a higher moral standard - it's just expressing it that comes across as weird to others).

I have actually done some serious reading on psychopathy, and IMO, those who believe that Aspergers = Psychopathy are the easiest victims for *actual* psychopaths.

Ha ha, right on brother!! That's gold!! That has to be one of the best statements I've seen on WP all year.

Anyone who knows anything about psychopathy or has been around actual psychopaths could not mistake anyone on the spectrum for being a psychopath.

Me, never. But those who do are idiots who pre-judge me badly.

Psychopathy needs the ability to be socially adapt and highly aware of the same.

Socially adapt and ASDs don't go together.

(Antisocial acts can go with ASDs, of course, but that and psychopathy aren't one and the same; psychopathy just includes antisocial acts by definition, whereas the majority of those with ASDs don't do such.)

Was labelled a psycho in grade 9 and apparently people had spread a rumour that I had a hit list and was going to "pull a Columbine." Their words, not mine. I don't remember shaking the stigma throughout high school. It didn't help with some of my humour being dark at times either.

I am not sure why some people think we are psychos. I never looked into it much myself. I think maybe because others didn't know when to take me serious and the issues with my body language and tone of voice.

This isn't true, although it's a common trait found in psychopaths. Many are not socially adept.

Depends on what you class as psychopathy.

It tends include the usual superficial charm and glibness (plus cunning and manipulation, both of which need social ability), both of which require the ability to be socially adapt and aware. They just don't care under it all though.

Well, I did a lot of reading about psychopathy last summer, and there was discussion of less superficially charming (some might even say creepy or more overtly violent) psychopaths. However, superficial charm is a common trait, as you say.

Additionally, there is a higher measure of self esteem among wrongdoers, something that those who are socially excluded lack.

This, too. Self-doubt is not a feature of psychopathy. Anything that goes wrong is someone else's fault. This can get downright ridiculous. For example, a psychopath claiming that his murder victim was at fault for being where he could find them when he decided to kill them. The idea of taking responsibility is alien to them.

People with Aspergers might not be psychopaths but the experience of being ridiculed and social excluded over long periods of time can in my opinion make a person more likely to harm others as they have far less reason not to than the average person as the social bonds that keep people in check aren't there so resentment and anger just builds and builds. The end result can be a murder and the person can lack empathy for their victim as they have come to represent 'the world', which has consistently rejected the person. So there are various routes a person can end up going down to end up having a mentality whereby they devalue others to the extent that they don't care what happens to them.

For example I'm the very opposite of manipulative but if you told me one of the nasty cows giving me a hard time at work had died horribly over the weekend I'd be happy. You'd have to do a control by giving me a wonderful life to see if I felt any differently towards these people as a result. But in my opinion a lot of NT 'sorrow' is just learned behaviour and they don't give much of a toss either - they just mask it well!

I think everyone is a little bit of a psychopath

I tend to agree

Making it a 'them and us' thing is wrong - people are a mixture of all sorts of behaviour

People aren't walking DSM diagnoses

I seem to be a walking ASD in regards to all of my outward behavior.

(ASD affects far too much socially, or better, it affects everything that's social in addition to...all my behavior outside of that domain. My personality might like a certain thing, but the ASD is what makes it obsessive and all-encompassing. Though the ASD can factor in whether you like something or not, i.e., tangible and mechanical things over the social things.)