Sociopathy seems to be, to some extent, bred in the bone. As I have discussed here in the past, it's about a cool indifference to others, often while presenting a mask of warm caring and self-sacrifice (the so-called Mask of Sanity). It's about an easy ability to lie to your face, and it's usually not about violence and murder.
High IQ sociopaths fool shrinks all the time and we kick ourselves every time we finally realize it. Often, they confess things as red herrings for us. They tend to have ulterior motives, but do not mention them to us at all. People who repeatedly lie to shrinks generally have sociopathic traits, at the least. They tend to have an assortment of other symptoms and problem behaviors also, such as substance abuse, shame, narcissism, blaming, exploitative relationships, and anxiety. They always have an excuse at the ready, tend to be impulsive, and always have their self-interest in mind.
At Gene Expression's Bad to the Bone:
Could a psychopath mount a legal defense by saying “my brain made me do it”? Or my “genes made me do it”? Is this any different from saying my rotten childhood made me do it? Psychopaths know right from wrong – they just don’t care. That is what society calls “bad”, not “mad”. But if they are constitutionally incapable of caring, can they really be blamed for it? On the other hand, if violent psychopaths are a continuing danger to society and completely refractory to rehabilitation, what is to be done with them?
Don't ask me. Just keep them out of my office. They are Very Bad News for soft-hearted gullible trusting folks like me.
