Are Sociopaths and Psychopaths Doomed for Eternity?
Dottie went through tough times in her younger days, but she has been clean and sober for more than a decade. She admitted at A.A. recently that she once was an unholy terror and probably was a sociopath. Then she wondered out loud to the group, "Can a sociopath really be cured?" And, I wondered, what are sociopaths and psychopaths? Are they the same thing? And can they be cured? I turned to my good friend Mr. Google. According to L. Michael Tompkins, EdD, a psychologist at the Sacramento County Mental Health Treatment Center, a key difference between a sociopath and a psychopath is conscience, "the little voice inside that lets us know when we're doing something wrong." A psychopath has no conscience at all. "If he lies to you so he can steal your money, he won't feel any moral qualms, though he may pretend to. He may observe others and then act the way they do so he's not 'found out.'" A sociopath has a conscience, but it is we...