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Do you ever feel like a sociopath/psychopath?

[INTJ] 
12K views 103 replies 48 participants last post by  Olde Irish 
#1 ·
Do you ever feel like a sociopath/psychopath? Or wonder if you are one?

Or are there any on this forum?

Personally, I feel like a sociopath sometimes, because I always feel numb. And I do things I know I shouldn't, but I never feel any remorse/regret, ect. I just call them "experiments". And I don't really care about people. The only people I care about I have this mentality of, "well, it's logical that if they are happy, then I will be happy too."

And along with my inquisitive nature of redefining concepts, such as asking, "what is empathy?" in response to questions such as "do you feel empathy?"

"Do you feel love?" "Well, what is love?"

And lots of other things I won't go into.

So, do you ever feel like a sociopath? I've read that it can be quite common among NT's, in particular INTJ's.
 
#10 · (Edited)
I wondered for a while if I was one. There's an old joke: if you have to ask if you're a psychopath, you're not.

Many people have some degree of sociopathic/psychopathic traits (blunted morality, etc.). People who misunderstand the definition of sociopath/psychopath sometimes call me one during an argument. Being able to detach from emotions in many instances is not what a psychopath is. Those are people who cannot feel (much) empathy, regret, or remorse. I definitely have those.
 
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#14 ·
I am ENTP and I find that I can sometimes think like a sociopath. One of my close friends is a sociopath so I have a point of reference.

I know that I am not a sociopath because I do feel emotion but from time to time I lack empathy towards other people my theory is that the NT personalities can sometimes lack empathy towards others because they tend to be less in tune with there emotions than other types in favour of logic.

The key to telling if you are a sociopath is that sociopaths can only feel anger the rest of there emotion parts of the brain are dead if you feel any emotion other than anger you are not a sociopath just very logical.
 
#20 · (Edited)
The thought has never even entered my mind. I work with a bunch of INTJs and I am 100% sure that the vast majority of them are not p:s or s:s either.
I think it's a myth that INTJs are more likely to be s/p and I am pretty sure that I have read that MBTI does not generally apply to people w mental disorders anyway, so the reoccurring 's/p vs INTJ' statement may not even be valid from a definition standpoint.

Definition of sociopath here. Does not sound like it goes in line with the general behavior of INTJs.

Another PerC thread on the subject can be found here. It seems like many of the participants did not find INTJs to be the most likely candidate for Antisocial Personality Disorder. One of the referred to web-sites on that thread states something that I was actually thinking as I read the OP:
There is no law that says a psychopath cannot be an INTJ. However, I would be surprised if that were the case. INTJs are normally boringly responsible individuals. Consequently, if you have someone with a spotty employment record, he is probably not an INTJ...start wondering about psychopath. Be cautious, one trait does not a psychopath make.
 
#22 ·
I don't know of any psychopaths that are introverted other than works of fiction, I've worked with a criminal lawyer for a year so I know quite a bit from real life also.

There is one that could be but his lack of empathy was from another disorder and likely not psychopathy.

Whoever told that INTJ's are more likely to be psychopaths are probably the ones that think we are robots devoid of emotions and that psychopaths come with a label attached to their heads like INTJ's do :kitteh:

Psychopaths aren't devoid of emotions also. They don't have empathy, don't feel guilt but have many other emotions, like anger, can be depressed, etc. Love I don't think so.

About being an advantage being a psychopath it depends, you tend to make a good politician and go up in corporations that are based on politics instead of skill (and break said corporation taking it's money :D) but also tend to be bad in academia because of poor impulse control and dependent on others from your narcissim. Quite a good chance that if you are a psychopath you are in jail now.

Psychopaths are somewhat slaves to basic desires and it's pretty much impossible to have another goal other than getting those if you are a psychopath. Some common goals are sex, power, material goods, cause pain for the kicks of it like kids do.


You can say a normal person contain a psychopath inside them, the difference in the normal person and the psychopath brain is that a part of the psychopath brain doesn't function

Most psychopaths aren't in jail. They are quite common wherever one can get power without much effort - religious leaders, politicians, big corporations, police, etc. Very common in jail though.
 
#23 ·
I talked with one psychopath who said he took an MTBI test multiple times, it came out a different type every time he did it.

They have emotions... there was one serial killer that talking with a researcher to try to understand himself was saying that he felt that anger whenever he thought someone was looking down on him in some way and he wanted to kill that person (often doing it - he killed more than 100 if I remember correctly, had ties with the mafia which is not that common for a psychopath because of his lack of impulse control).
 
#28 ·
Even though we lack emotions, I do not think we can be perceived as sociopaths/psychopaths. Why? Well we do care for some people at the least: family, REALLY close friends... I guess you want to be sociopathic/psychopatic. I kind of see being one cool too, no shame in admitting that, but I really doubt any of us can be called "pure" psychos, we only have those tendencies.
 
#41 ·
Death is a great example, thanks for bringing that up. When people I know have died and I have been informed, I have often felt 'nothing'. I have prepared and gone to the funerals, thinking to myself "This is not normal, how can I be this empty? Why don't I FEEL anything?". Generally, what has happened is that suddenly it hits me during or right after the funeral and I have been shocked (and embarrassed) about suddenly breaking down crying. Also, keep in mind that I am 'allowed' (maybe even encouraged) to cry since I am a woman.
I have a bunch of other examples as well, but I won't bore you with those right now.

I think that many INTJs have the capability to deal with stress by compartmentalizing emotions and we can (sometimes subconsciously) 'choose' to access them when we have time or feel safe alternately when we are exhausted or when triggered in other ways.

We can all probably agree that sometimes it is convenient/preferable not to feel. When I grew up, I was misunderstood (and not treated well) by most people around me, including my family. I was pissed off for years during adolescence. Afterwards I have understood that being angry was the only way I could conjure up the energy to not give up; anger can create enough juice to keep a person going even though everything feels utterly hopeless. It was also a great way not to show other and more personal emotions, thus reducing the risk of becoming more susceptible to emotional abuse on a deeper level. The more impersonal we act, the less vulnerable we become.
I do seem to recall reading that excessive anger in adolescents is a sign of depression, but I am too lazy to Google it right now. However, I am inclined to think that it is likely true, based only own experiences.

I also believe that, as we mature, we often tend to stop denying our true selves, including our real emotions or that we have them in the first place.
 
#35 ·
I'm certain that I am not a sociopath and have never met anyone of the INTJ type who actually was. Psychopathy is a lot more complex than a lack of feelings, and it is most definitely not something to be proud of. I've seen people of our type claiming to be sociopaths because they thought it was 'cool,' just like how a lot of them on this forum will run around pretending to never have emotions at all because they think it's 'cool' to perpetuate those stereotypes for some reason. But it isn't. And, quite frankly, it pisses me off that anyone would take such a serious disorder and glorify or make light of it.

If you haven't guessed, I have some personal experience with this. One of my older brothers is a full-blown dark triad personality: narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism.. If you have any questions about what it's like to be around him I'd be glad to answer.
 
#36 ·
It's okay, I actually have a narcissistic step-dad and brother too. And a sociopathic bio dad. So I know what it's like.

There is a huge difference in sociopathy and narcissism mind, but if I wanted to know whether I was either all I would have to do is take a look at them. Funny how my bio dad can never manipulate me though, I barely know him and yet I know how to turn all his tricks back round on him. I empathize with his lack of empathy, how is that possible?
 
#38 ·
I've been hungry for a psychopath for the longest time...
 
#39 ·
A sociopath wouldn't make a thread called "do you ever feel like a sociopath". You may have one minor aspect, but I doubt you would score high enough for concern on a DSM4 test.

Characters like Dexter and Hannibal Lector have romanticized antisocial personality types just as the Omen movies romanticized the Antichrist figure. It's just mass-media messing with you.


-ZDD
 
#40 ·
It was called malignant narcissism I think.

No sociopath has been proven to exist that I know of and is there is research showing that it is from birth, so psychopath is the more accepted term today.

There are many ways to lack or have low empathy, but won't make you a psychopath which have a problem with their amygdala not working properly.


Edit: psychopaths are pathological liars so I don't discount the possibility of him lying about the MTBI test... (there wasn't an advantage to do that by that time but habits are hard to change).
 
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