At what point does the needle move from sociopath to psychopath?

[EleanorR]

Link to tweet

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. His traitorous followers want to kill, imprison or deport all of us. So does he.

[Zoonart]

2. Psycho.

[Blue Owl]

3. Let's bring this up at the debates -- whaddya say, Joe?

n/t

[0rganism]

4. iirc, the distinction is between social/environmental causes vs. additional causes such as genes

from wikipedia:
the term sociopathy is preferred by those that see the causes as due to social factors and early environment, and the term psychopathy preferred by those who believe that there are psychological, biological, and genetic factors involved in addition to environmental factors
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy#Sociopathy

so, to the extent it's not semantic, the difference is really one of causation rather than effect. sociopaths and psychopaths might act the same way for completely different reasons. distant external observers probably wouldn't be able to tell.

not a psychologist so fwiw: "it is what it is"

[Brother Mythos]

5. I don't believe Turd is smart enough to be a psychopath.

From my readings, I've been led to believe that true psychopaths usually learn how to fake empathy.

On the other hand, Turd appears to have been raised by a sociopath, or psychopath. So that, and his father's wealth, may have thrown the whole need for "learning how to fake empathy" out the window.

[kurtcagle]

6. Psychopathy is defined psychologically, sociopathy is not

Trump is a malignant narcissist with a comorbid antisocial personality disorder (ASD).

ASD means, in basic terms, he's a criminal - poor impulse control, enjoys breaking the law, the inability to feel compassion, a strong sense of entitlement, a pathological need to lie, lack of any sense of responsibility, as well as a fundamental cowardice.

Typically what distinguished psychopaths is that they enjoy personally causing physical violence. Trump is a sadist - he enjoys seeing others suffer, but he generally prefers to outsource the physical violence part, partially because it gives him a (thin) layer of deniability, and in part because he's a coward - he's afraid of physically getting hurt.

[pecosbob]

7. When he no longer experiences shame for his misdeeds

It is pretty clear that he is driven to avoid shame for his actions at all times. He obviously has no remorse for his behavior but is mortified of being ridiculed, humiliated or laughed at.