Where art meets psychology.
Narcissistic abuse vs sociopathic and psychopathic abuse.
Well technically sociopaths and psychopaths don’t exist any longer . . . What?
Little differs between psychopathy, sociopathy and narcissistic personality
disorder. Not unlike comparing - the subtle but nuanced taste differences
of the same poisoned wine!
The disappearance of Psychopaths and sociopaths can be explained. The
book that categorizes disordered folk, is better known as the DSM (The
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) The DSM is
revised and updated with each new revision. The DSM or the bible of
judgement, documents observed trait behaviours. These traits are then
further categorised into what is known as Clusters - namely A, B and C.
With each new revised edition, some categories are removed,
some are added, while other categories are just renamed or rebranded.
The dreaded category, known as Cluster B is reserved for the personality
disordered individuals, those who are deficient in empathy, unable or
unwilling to regulate their emotions. In this fine class of Cluster B’s, you’ll
find the borderlines and histrionics – as well as some of the real
dysfunctional delinquents such as psychopaths, sociopaths and narcissists.
As with all those on the dreaded Cluster B spectrum, narcissists exist on a
spectrum. It is not spectrum of bright colours, but a grey scale of
muted monochromes, from dark greys to blacks.
As individuals on the dreaded Cluster B spectrum, have a tendency to
flip-flop between mental states, they can type differently, while sharing
common patterns of toxic trait behaviours. Drugs do not work for those
people on the Cluster B spectrum, it is viewed as both untreatable and
uncurable. This is a personality disorder, and not a true mental illness
nor psychosis. Those on the Cluster B spectrum function as normal, and
know exactly what they are doing, but as they either lack the ability to care
or they can over-ride their emotional states and detach.
So, both psychopaths and sociopaths now fall into the category which is
known as Anti- Social Personality Disorder. It sounds like a introvert who
has a natural dislike for social interactions - although to be fair, the
anti-social part does offer a slight clue, to an element to their character
which relates more to anti-social behaviours. But moreover, the ambiguous
title lessens the diagnoses somewhat, by almost depicting those relatively
harmless folk with loutish traits, drinking cans of cider, hanging
around street corners late at night, only guilty of perhaps? Kicking the
occasional stray cat. Back in the day before the revised update to
Anti-Social Personality Disorder, psychopaths differed from sociopaths,
the main criteria for becoming a psychopath as opposed to a sociopath,
was a proclivity towards crime at a young age and a criminal record.
However, in reality the opposite effect was true, as psychopaths tended
to be far smarter in evading detection, using superficial charm together
with heightened cognitive abilities. By nature, psychopaths seemed better
adapted to deceive others, evading detection with relative ease,
committing methodically planned callous crimes. Psychopaths as it
turned out, possessed a Genetic component that was missing from
their poorer relation (sociopaths) That genetic difference is known as the
genome MAO-L which is commonly referred to as the warrior gene. Thus,
psychopaths were born pre-programed for life of chaos, unlike the
sociopaths who had to learn basic programming skills from scratch, before
they could even actively pursue a life of crime. As sociopaths had to learn
how to become dysfunctional, they tended to be slower off the mark,
sloppy, unsophisticated and very likely to commit crimes very badly i.e. by
forgetting their wallet and leaving it behind them, at the scene of the
crime. Thus, sociopaths were more likely to have a previous history of
crime from a young age.
The genetic component of psychopaths (genome MAO-L) Which accounts
for their bad rap, is largely only triggered if they have experienced some
kind of early childhood abuse or trauma, especially in their development
stages. If it is triggered however, they’ll find a thousand different
alternative uses for a chainsaw, pretty dam quick!
All psychopaths are narcissists, but however, not all narcissists are
psychopaths. Not all psychopaths are totally dysfunctional either or in
prison, as many function as normal and many walk amongst us. The
total absence or the low level of emotional empathy found in psychopaths,
can be of benefit especially when working under pressure, allowing them
to remain calm and unfazed, while those around them panic and fall to
shit. They make for excellent surgeons albeit not out of care for their
patents but out of care for their own reputations as top surgeons. In the
high-end retail environment, governments or in the banking sectors,
they are very common. They crave money, wealth, power and control -
and some world domination!
Narcissists in past versions of the DSM were known as megalomaniacs
which might have been more fitting, because all of them are totally nuts!
But prior to the DSM, In an ancient book called the Bible they were known
as Jezebel spirits, empty vessels or plain old evil . . . which, even by today’s
standards, it is still a good fit.
Narcissists do however run on a spectrum or a sliding scale of dysfunction.
Some of the milder versions are quite benign and relativity harmless, but
the higher you go - the worse they get, and toward the higher end of the
spectrum, you’ll find the malignant narcissist.
While it’s important to always remain non-judgemental and never
demonize abusers. But with malignant narcissists the lines can often
become blurred, as these folk can foam at the mouth with little provocation.
They are quite vicious, and if garlic won’t work, then try a wooden stake!
An obsessive impulse to destroy you is second nature, and at this end of
the narcissistic spectrum, very little, if nothing separates a malignant
narcissist from psychopath, as most of the key trait behaviours become
almost indistinguishable.