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Thorfinn: If you are interested, Psychology Today had something a couple years back about how the DSM-5 categorizes psychopathy and sociopathy, and what that particular author thinks distinguishes between them (Though many shrinks think they are one and the same). I've always thought of politicians as somewhere on the sociopath scale, but this author thinks they are more on the psychopath scale.

How to Tell a Sociopath from a Psychopath
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Hickory: Quoting from that article:

"Sociopaths ... are likely to be uneducated and live on the fringes of society, unable to hold down a steady job or stay in one place for very long.
...
Psychopaths, on the other hand, ... are often well educated and hold steady jobs."

That's social pigeonholing bullshit. It's no wonder so-called 'experts' can't agree.
Personality disorders are out of my province but I think the key difference between the two is emotion. Psychopaths have no feelings whatsoever and sociopaths do have emotions - but those emotions are reserved for the patient. I`m not too confident in that statement. Psychiatric diseases are more of my thing.
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jsidhu762: Personality disorders are out of my province but I think the key difference between the two is emotion. Psychopaths have no feelings whatsoever and sociopaths do have emotions - but those emotions are reserved for the patient. I`m not too confident in that statement. Psychiatric diseases are more of my thing.
It's not my province either, but I think both display lack of feelings towards others. I believe key with sociopaths is their irrationality; the classic 'loose cannon'. It's important to remember that a single trait does not make one or the other, it's a combinations of things. Psychopaths can be serial killers, for example, but not all serial killers are psychopaths.