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I always knew I was different, I didn't know I was a sociopath

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Re: I always knew I was different, I didn't know I was a sociopath

#61
post #46

I think it's more likely that she's lying for attention (and a book deal) than it is that she's actually a sociopath. Since we're talking about subjective feelings, it's not like there's any way to knwo for sure. I suppose if she killed someone and was managing this publicity blitz from jail it would add some credence.

Someone who dedicates so much of your life pretending to be a sociopath just for publicity.... You'd have to be a sociopath to do that.

Re: I always knew I was different, I didn't know I was a sociopath

#62
post #2

Fascinating article. I wonder what made her do the steps in finding what's "different" with her, and most of all, why the need to fix it arose. Is it to "fit in", understandably? It somehow felt alien to me, and this shows my ignorance on the topic, that people lacking in empathy department would attempt to understand the reasons and act "good" towards others even if this feeling is only understood intellectually.

I think it’s easy enough to explain. I’m asexual and don’t feel sexual attraction. In fact I’m completely blind to it. I definitely noticed something was wrong with me once I started school. Since then, I am constantly reminded of that by everyone around me. They have something I’m expected to have. Just imagine if you were the weird one because you were the only person with emotions. You can’t escape it. You can’t f…

Wrong !== Different. This is by design. I can imagine all the birds in the dinosaur times felt wrong because they weren't t-rexes. Well, that's what saved them in the end.

One would never know.

Re: I always knew I was different, I didn't know I was a sociopath

#63
post #53
post #52

I had the experience of dealing with clinically diagnosed pshycopaths. One of them was in my school, a kid that was very smart but too rational, you could feel there was something wrong with him. He did not have real friends so he tried threaten people into becoming his friend or else... He was not using physical force, but using his mind in order to plan punishing people rationally. He just could not understand the…

PostData: He got diagnosed as a 30 years old or so.

How could he be 'very rational' and also 'threaten people to become his friends'?

Re: I always knew I was different, I didn't know I was a sociopath

#64
post #33

Super interesting. I can recognize this behavior with people playing multiplayer games. When there are no stakes, and everything is a game, people mess around – especially when they’re bored. If it’s just a game, who cares? People with extremely low “emotional reactivity” appear unlikely to share with others (why would they, most of us share stuff for empathy - and they may not see the point - or lose out socially).…

> The best fit in a healthy society, I think, is doing things that others can’t, like extreme sport type of stuff, or astronaut, brain surgeon Reminds me of the Bill Burr bit on Lance Armstrong[1] > The guy was a sociopath on a bicycle. As far as I'm concerned we got off easy. If that guy was working for a corporation he would have been pouring stuff in the water supply, doing god knows what. Just keep him on the bik…

Though on the matter of Lance Armstrong, well, tons of others, in the same races, did the same things.

Re: I always knew I was different, I didn't know I was a sociopath

#65
I thought this fad of building identity on labels was dying down ? I have no idea if her diagnosis is right - doesn't sound pathological/needing a diagnosis.

Reading trough the article I don't feel I've gained any practical insights - just reads like someone trying to sound interesting by putting a label on themselves and explaining how it fits them.

Re: I always knew I was different, I didn't know I was a sociopath

#67
> After years of study, intensive therapy and earning a Ph.D. in psychology, I can say that sociopaths aren’t “bad” or “evil” or “crazy.” We simply have ...

Holy moral vacuum, Batman. That is not true, at all. First, psychology doesn't do ethics. It tries (not very well, I may add) to find causes for behavior, emotions, feelings, and social and cognitive processes. But it doesn't justify nor condemn those. Second, stabbing someone with a pencil is bad. The person who does that is bad. Sure, they can redeem themselves, but then they still were bad when they did so.

The "we simply have..." part of the sentence is like saying "people with a low iq aren't dumb, they only have a harder time understanding complex issues". It's self-absolving bollocks.

Re: I always knew I was different, I didn't know I was a sociopath

#68
post #33

Super interesting. I can recognize this behavior with people playing multiplayer games. When there are no stakes, and everything is a game, people mess around – especially when they’re bored. If it’s just a game, who cares? People with extremely low “emotional reactivity” appear unlikely to share with others (why would they, most of us share stuff for empathy - and they may not see the point - or lose out socially).…

> The best fit in a healthy society, I think, is doing things that others can’t, like extreme sport type of stuff, or astronaut, brain surgeon Reminds me of the Bill Burr bit on Lance Armstrong[1] > The guy was a sociopath on a bicycle. As far as I'm concerned we got off easy. If that guy was working for a corporation he would have been pouring stuff in the water supply, doing god knows what. Just keep him on the bik…

> He's not hurting anybody.

Well he did insist that other members of his team also take EPO, HGH, blood transfusions (occasionally with bad blood), etc.

We don't know what the long term affects of that will be but he certainly wasn't thinking of health of his staff.

He also destroyed Greg LeMond's career for exposing him.

Re: I always knew I was different, I didn't know I was a sociopath

#69
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PostData: He got diagnosed as a 30 years old or so.

How could he be 'very rational' and also 'threaten people to become his friends'?

Hypothetically if this was rephrased as "he was very rational and threatened other children to play with him and treat him like a friend" does that make sense to you?

Re: I always knew I was different, I didn't know I was a sociopath

#70

I thought this fad of building identity on labels was dying down ? I have no idea if her diagnosis is right - doesn't sound pathological/needing a diagnosis. Reading trough the article I don't feel I've gained any practical insights - just reads like someone trying to sound interesting by putting a label on themselves and explaining how it fits them.

I agree. We really need pop-identity-politics to die. It's like a race to find the most obscure and irrelevant form of oppression made to distract us from actual oppression.
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