New Sherlock series equating Asperger's with sociopaths?

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Moffat is terrible, I blame him for the weak bits in Sherlock. Mark Gatiss is good though. So far it's by far my favourite thing Moffat has been associated with.

One of the biggest problems with Sherlock is this:
Season 1 episode 2, we are introduced to Sherlock and learn he really doesn´t care about justice, to him solving crime is just a game. The killer in the episode has no clear plan to which people he kills, it´s just a game to him.
Season 1 episode 3, Moriarty appears. He´s a snarky megalomaniac who´s bored with humanity and life itself because he has nothing left to strive for. The only thing that keeps him going is the great game of crime, outsmarting the law and even Sherlock.
Season 2 episode 1 features a dominatrix who seems to take life as a game too.

Maybe I´m old-fashioned, I usually expect criminals to have some sort of motive for committing a crime, other than playing around. It´s almost as stupid as when the bad guys do evil stuff because they think it´s oh so fun to be evil. In my opinion that´s bad writing.

Agreed. That's part of the problem that I'm inclined to blame Moffat for. I watched some of recent Doctor Who and it's pure megalomania, and now Sherlock is all Übermenschen. I don't appreciate that world view. One character like that is fine if you're showing him in contrast to the normal world, and maybe allow a sprinkling of arch nemesis in the background. They risk oversalting it, especially having already done The Hound of The Baskervilles, The Reichenbach Falls and The Final Problem. I know that Steven Moffat's idea of where you go from there is larger and larger, which would be just terrible.

I always played games to learn about people. Winning or losing was irrelevant. I'd always be sure to win and then to lose to experience the full effect and learn the most. I could understand a character like that but Moriarty is more a comic villain.

I thought the Baskerville episode was best, with just normal people in it.

I've watched all 3 recent episodes about 10 times each.

The fact that Sherlock is seen following neurotypical social norms and behaving accordingly is not a clear indicator of ASPD over asperger. Given enough intelligence anyone could pass for a "normal" human without much of a hassle providing they were high-functioning enough. For someone like Sherlock who is without a doubt of genius level intelligence, combined with having an extraordinary memory and acute observational abilities, pretending to be neurotypical would be a simple task in comparison with many of the tasks he undertakes. However, doing so would without a doubt be a drain on his mental faculties and thus he would not function at max capacity. IE he would be unable to observe, reason and so on as effectively while pretending. For instance, if we look at the character of Cal Lightman from "Lie to me" his ability to read body language, micro-expressions and such is reduced when he has to act as an interrogator and also socially interact with the person being interrogated.

Given his comment in the last episode to Moriarty "Oh, I may be on the side of the angels...but don't think for one second that I am one.", this would appear to be a clear-cut sociopath reference given that they are often presented as pure evil, thus Sherlock's statement makes sense. However, it could also be a way to illustrate the moral ambiguity of the character as a result of primarily relying on reason, since reason is not conditional on social norms or laws.

The main issue I had was figuring out how his disregard of social norms linked up with asperger rather than ASPD, however if one postulates that his "special interest" so to speak are the cases he takes on would a person on the autism spectrum break social norms in order to pursue their special interest? For instance, could a person with autism or aspergers with a special interest in regards to trains break into a train yard in order to enhance his or her knowledge on the topic. If yes, it follows that Sherlock with Asperger's could break into a house in order to further his special interest namely his cases.

Furthermore, it strikes me as odd knowing that people with ASPD tend to strive to appear neutrotypical that Sherlock does not. His behavior when he's not being consciously manipulative is much more akin to that of Asperger's than that of ASPD, if we contrast it with that of Dexter Morgan the difference becomes quite clear.

Then again, it's a TV-show and the writers are free to infuse their characters with whatever personality quirks they desire, it doesn't mean they have actual knowledge about the conditions they use, it means they know the name and stereotyped appearance of it.

*The term "High functioning sociopath" is used to separate those sociopaths who control their destructive urges or find legal outlets for them versus those who do not. The difference between Gordon Gekko and Ted Bundy pretty much.

I think that Sherlock ID's as a sociopath to appear more frightening/to keep people away. Its possible that he's internalized it over the years, and believes himself to be a sociopath out of self-preservation after spending his entire life being exposed to people like Anderson and Donovan.

After all it is quite obvious that he cares about John, Mrs. Hudson, and Irene--even Lestrade and Molly to some small level. (wont say anymore for those who havent seen S2)

I don't think he's a sociopath at all, and while Aspergers is a likely diagnosis to his behaviors, its not the only one.

Did anyone else get the feeling that the directors and the actors were desperately TRYING to portray "APERGEEEER'S!" in Sherlock, especially in the last season? The last season was too...different from the first. It frankly made me uncomfortable. Could it be that perhaps they're trying to give viewers a glimpse ("...a tiny GLIMPSE, Sherlock!" Couldn't help myself...) of Sherlock's internal emotional life, and develop him as a character? Maybe that's why I don't like it as much. They just made him seem so exaggeratedly "alien" for a bit, then they gave him these emotions....doesn't fit together. Or is it just me?