

Confessions of a Sociopath - jcyq
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201305/confessions-sociopath

======
api
I have a strange hypothesis: sociopaths / psychopaths are not inherently evil
(or good for that matter), just different... one of the many variations in
human wiring that exist within our collective gene pool.

Chief among their differences are an indifference to shame and a high
tolerance for social deviancy.

Sometimes this makes them criminals and exploiters, it is true, since without
shame and with little respect for tradition or custom it becomes very easy to
lie, cheat, and steal. But I wonder... ever heard of the Milgram experiment?

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment>

I wonder how a pathological sociopath would fare? Would a sociopath actually
find it _easier_ to ignore the voice urging them to administer escalating
shocks to the subject? Would he or she actually find it easier to disregard
the experimenters' claims of authority, instead substituting their own
judgement in its place?

Adolf Hitler is our era's most famous example of evil incarnate. But he
probably never killed anyone. I bet he rarely, if ever, even committed an act
of violence. All his evils were in fact carried out by his subordinates under
his command, and under the command of those whom he appointed.

But what was in it for these subordinates, really? What was in it for a German
soldier to risk their lives for Hitler's dreams? What was in it for a
concentration camp guard to listen to the horrified gasps of the dying? Yet
their authorities told them to do it, and they were good loyal servants of the
state. They succumbed to shame, herd mentalities, peer pressure, and social
reward mechanisms.

Would it take a sociopath to desert such an army? Would it take a sociopath to
do this: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_July_plot> ?? Oskar Schindler was
probably a sociopath given the ease with which he deceived the Nazi brass and
his fellow industrialists.

Are sociopaths simply moral _individualists_ , with all that implies? Are they
as capable of deviant good as they are of deviant evil?

There's been a trend lately of sociopath/psychopath "awareness" and blame,
even calls to pre-emptively surveil or treat people who exhibit these traits.
I think this is just more scapegoating and shadow projection. People don't
want to face the fact that anyone can do evil -- even them -- and that the
evils of the world have many causes that often include the actions of the
well-intentioned. I also think that there are more dangerous personality types
than the sociopath, chief among them the selfless and fanatical "true
believer." Small evils might be committed in the name of self-interest, but
grand historical-scale evil requires a cause greater than oneself.

