Bullies - Know any sociopaths?

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I ask because I came across a statistic that said that every 1 in 25 people are sociopaths, other sources have estimated this could be as high as 1 in 20. AS is supposed to affect 1 in 250 people. Now statistics I always take with pinch of salt but if you use these figures as a ball park estimate that means there are roughly 10 sociopaths for every 1 of us Aspies!

Is it possible that you ever been the victim of bullying at the hands of a sociopath? Someone who is superficially charming and maybe well liked or popular but takes great delight in inflicting whatever damage they can upon you with no pangs of conscience? They especially like to use their position of power to bully those that are in some way more accomplished than them, perhaps smarter or morally admirable. Does that make Aspies naturally easy targets for people like this?

And has anyone here ever had the misfortune to have had dealings with one of these people? Personally I think I might have, as a recent episode caused me to think that the person involved seemed to possess many of the classic sociopathic traits.

Here is the article that prompted my thoughts: http://www.cix.co.uk/~klockstone/spath.htm

I know some pretty horrible people, but none who are superficially charming or popular with the majority.
I mean, there are a few twits I know who are popular, but they're nothing like the truly horrible people I've met.

yes, there's plenty of sociopaths around, there's even some here pretending to be aspies. It's quite common for aspies to link up with them in some way, as they're outcasts in their own way and we're naive. ugh.

Just for clarity's sakes, autism is now believed to be 1 in 150.

As for sociopaths, I can name several that I went to high school with, but there are five that come to mind immediately.

More Bully sh*t topic

I read with interest Aries' post regarding the link between sociopathy and bullying. I have always had an interest in this area. Mary Stout's ideas are interesting. I have been reading about Dr. Robert Hare and his ideas regarding psychopaths (Dr. Hare chooses a different term as a label for a person without conscience). Below is the checklist of behaviours and traits he observed and developed after years of intensive research. It would bode well for Aspies to make a note of these points. Best not to be fooled. Better safe than sorry.

Hare's items (From Wikipedia online)
These items cover the affective, interpersonal, and behavioral features. Each item is rated on a score from 0 to 2. The sum total determines the extent of a person's psychopathy[3]

Factor1: Aggressive narcissism

Glibness/superficial charm
Grandiose sense of self-worth
Pathological lying
Conning/manipulative
Lack of remorse or guilt
Shallow affect
Callous/lack of empathy
Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
Promiscuous sexual behavior

Factor2: Socially deviant lifestyle

Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom
Parasitic lifestyle
Poor behavioral control
Lack of realistic, long-term goals
Impulsively
Irresponsibility
Juvenile delinquency
Early behavior problems
Many short-term marital relationships
Revocation of conditional release
Traits not correlated with either factor

Many short-term marital relationships
Promiscuous sexual behavior
Criminal versatility

For a more comprehensive approach read his book Without Conscience: the Disturbing World of the Psychopaths among us1999. The picture on the book's cover is a photographic negative exposure of a male face and quite creepy.

A bully is just a coward with muscles...

I read Hare's book online recently. It's really well written but it is quite long. It's a long time since I've seen such nice use of language.

I also read Stout's "The Sociopath Next Door".

I've had bosses and 'friends' who were sociopaths. My dad was an aspie but I suspect my mother was a sociopath. The thing I notice about them is that other people aren't 'real' to them, and that's something aspies have in common with them, up to a certain (mental) age. At least we grow out of that thinking. The other thing that strikes me is that they are always acting. They never drop the 'mask' and become real. They are their masks! ugh. I think it's described as 'shallow' personality by Hare, this lack of 'real' in the personality.

I have never found that particular sentiment to be very true . . .

I have met a few people who seem to have a few psychopathic personality traits, but I don't know if they would qualify or not (for one, I'd have to know more details about their life).

• One woman I knew used to lie pretty much nonstop to me, sometimes about ridiculous stuff. She also displayed other bizarre behavior that piqued my curiosity, and I started trying to figure out what caused her unusual behavior. She did seem plenty nice and friendly when I first met her, which is why I really didn't catch on to her crueler behavior for a long time (people tend to be forgiving of friends and especially romantic interests). She could be very upright, professional, and innocent when she wanted to be; but she could also be flippant and even crass for a lady (or even a guy!); she seemed to have multiple personas to fit different people/situations. She probably had a mixture of a little bit of all of the DSM-IV Cluster B personality disorders.
  
• A roommate I had one semester back in college assaulted me over the lights. The guy was a pain to get along with (refused to compromise at all), so one day I got sick of it and disregarded him (I did ask first just in case he had an epiphany and decided to have some consideration for others). He lied his way out of trouble to the police (claimed I started the physical provocation and, without third-party witnesses, they wouldn't make an arrest) and then apparently went on like nothing unusual had happened. He wasn't expelled or academically disciplined in any way either (my mom suspects that, since he was black and from the inner city, the university was concerned about race issues).
  
• Some guy at work displays numerous characteristics: trying to flatter everyone incessantly (which has probably alienated him from most people actually except maybe a few of the managers), tends to let his mouth run wild, tells creepy jokes about dead hookers, jokes that he's crazy, admits most women come to think he's an a****le, etc.
  
• A doctor I recently went to at the recommendation of a family member really, really overplays the insincere flattery and attempts to come across as a buddy; it's obnoxious. I would hope he's not a full psychopath because he does perform surgery, and psychopaths are notorious for forging credentials to enter their desired profession (they lack the follow-through to get the genuine education in most cases)!

Yeah, I have terrible luck with the people I run into!

oops just have to correct myself. It wasn't Hare's book I read online, it was Harvey Cleckley's The Mask Of Sanity.

You can dowload a PDF version here.

http://cassiopaea.com/cassiopaea/psychopath.htm

Make that 6 people . . . after reading Neanthumain's post, I thought of someone else . . . *shudders* Can't believe that I forgot HIM.

I thought that Hare's first book Without Conscience was excellent. I wasn't quite as impressed with Stout's book. I thought that her attempt to get into the minds of psychopaths did not make sense: I don't think that doing so is really possible.

I also must say that I'm not totally convinced of the 1 in 25 statistic for psychopaths. I've heard that being used for antisocial personality disorder, but as far as I know, psychopathy and antisocial personality are not the same thing.

mmm sorry I did correct that. It wasn't Hare's book I read but Cleckley's Mask of Sanity. I loved the writing style, slightly old fashioned but highly readable english.

Stout's book was more the modern self-help stuff. It's not a scholarly work, but lotsa people wouldn't read anything more academic than that, so I'm sure it has a niche.

Are psychopath and sociopath used interchangably? They seem to be here anywy. I was never really sure what the difference was. I always assumed the psychopath had more obsessive and sadistic qualities and will harm others because it makes them feel powerful, and sociopaths are just usually manipulative liars who may be willng to harm if it's in their own best interest. And both lack conciences. Is there a difference?

It's not that they might be pretending to be Aspies it's that they could have been misdiagnosed as Aspies.

My Mother always gets upset when people think it just takes a few visits to a psychiatrist to get diagnosed.
My Mom says "It took Marlys Nine years to get diagnosed! She spent two months in a psych ward to get her diagnoses! it's not easy to get diagnosed!"

Just as a preemptive measure, please be aware that using this thread to call another member a sociopath will not be tolerated.