Psychopath vs Sociopath

Over the years, Psychologists have been unclear about what a psychopath is, as opposed to a sociopath; and psychologists have often used the two terms interchangeably.  I would prefer to define the two words—psychopath and sociopath—by saying that the “sociopath” is a person who is capable of understanding morality and who is able to relate, at least superficially, to others in terms of sympathy, friendship, loyalty, etc.  It is just that this person, the sociopath, is also capable of turning off these feelings—especially while under stress or the influence of drugs and alcohol—and they can act for brief periods of time in a way that is more characteristic of the psychopath. 

The ability to turn these feelings off and then on again is a clear evolutionary advantage, especially as the human population has expanded and people have become much more mobile, and immigration has become much more fluid. The actual number of sociopathic personalities in society has been estimated with both very high and very low numbers, but I would suspect that estimates of, perhaps as much as 10% of the population, would not be out of line with the reality that many of us see, day to day, and especially in larger cities.

In a complex and fluid society, the sociopath is perfectly adapted to camouflage himself (or herself) with the appearance of a traditional morality, often taking on as his disguise and identifying himself as a member of a conservative religion. Traditional morality is much more easy for the sociopath to simulate—with its rigid and very clearly defined distinctions between right and wrong—than a more fluid liberal morality full of sepia and shades of gray and blends of hard-to-distinguish pastel colors.  For the sociopath, a conservative persona is much easier to create and maintain. He can blend into the background. But, as always, when the sociopath senses a clear advantage in tossing aside this disguise, he can do so, and then act as a human predator.   

This is why so many child molesters have used the Catholic Church as a screen for their predatory activities, there is fairly clear evidence that the Catholic priesthood and Protestant clergy probably have a larger percentage of sociopaths than the overall population. When we find that a priest or minister is, in reality, a child molester, we should be no more surprised than we discover that the women’s basketball coach is a lesbian. The lesbian is probably not a sexual predator, but that doesn’t mean she can’t “window shop.” The men’s basketball coach is probably gay and doing the same thing. People are always drawn to the things they desire. Like the Boy Scout leader….