Are people with autism borderline sociopaths?

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On the contrary!
Sociapaths and psycopaths are people who often have very good social skills. They often manage to come across as nice, reliable and charaming but they don't have a conscience nor moral values. They are capable of doing anything to get what they want and they don't care if they hurt and damage others in the process. A lot of sociapaths are very succesfull in mainstraim society and you will find them in all walks of life. Some of them have high management positions and others are writers, politicians, dictators and even tv personalities for instance.

Peole with asperges often have rigid opinions about good and bad, justice and injustice and so on. There is a severe lack of social skills and a lot of aspergers ( I don't like to use the term aspies because I find it too populistic) often mean well but their intentions are misunderstood because of awkwardness, too much honesty and tactlessness. A lot of us find it hard to obtain and keep jobs which means that we are not nearly as succesfull as the average, dangerous sociopath.

I have many of the traits of a sociopath and many of the traits of an aspie. My father most likely has Asperger's and my mother is definitely a sociopath. As well as my grandmother. My mother lies, steals, cheats, and shows no remorse whatsoever. She is also a drug addict but I think the drugs are more of a symptom of her sociopathy. I feel like I possess both traits. I'm able to manipulate people like my mother, but I possess the intelligence of my father. I don't know if I actually care about anyone. When my grandmother was dying I secretly "faked" crying in order to persuade my family to pull the plug. I can only, genuinely care about myself, anytime I cry or feel pain it's about me and not other people. I'm jealous, self-aggrandizing and cunning. I'm also incredibly intelligent, having an IQ of something like 154, and I can manipulate almost anyone into doing anything for me. At the same time I know what I do is wrong yet I still do it but only passively. As a child I abused animals and as an adult I have an obsession with power...idk what this means but yeah.

Haha poor dumb aspies prowling around pretending that having high emotional empathy is a good thing, its not a virtue its just an extension of your hypersensitivity which clouds your cognitive judgment. No wonder you guys are society rejects. You wallow in other peoples pain and absolutely lack self nationalism self ego self boundaries which is key to get you through life

Couldn't have said it better myself. I wish they would put this empathy down as "cognitive empathy issues" on the diagnostic criteria, because just "lack empathy" gets so mistook for other things which just doubles the unfair stigma we already get.

I have a lot of empathy towards things people are suffering that are being done to them or have happened to them.
I don't have a lot of empathy for people who are offended by things I say, because frankly I sugarcoat things things enough.

Have a kiss.

I have heard that a sociopath uses empathy in order for them to get what they want from people.

So, I suppose empathy can come in as a useful tool to people.

And if that is what being a sociopath is. Then is it always such a bad thing?

Sociopath and psychopathy are two different things so be sure we are on the same page here:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wi ... psychopath


I am not a sociopath. I can understand the overlaps because we can seem to have rages due to our anger and outbursts, and some are even violent outbursts. I am prone to being nervous due to having anxiety and I would get frustrated easily due to the anxiety, I am a high school graduate but uneducated for college. But I don't think I am a sociopath because i would never do psychopathic things.

But I have wondered if I have psychopath traits but they could be sociopath traits since I never done any planning. Things always happened spontaneously. Everyone keeps telling me I am not one because I have a conscious and I don't go out and torture people and animals and also because I am concerned about being one. It's the lack of empathy thing that gets to me and the lack of remorse which makes me think I have the traits. I do not feel other peoples emotions. I am not deeply affected by things like lot of people are when they hear bad things in the media. But yet I seem to have empathy over old buildings which is hard for me to read about the history of my town because I find out there used to be an old building and it got torn down or how a bunch of homes got ripped down which is why I refuse to look up my town history and vintage photos because it's too depressing. But yet I don't care about any buildings built after 1950 so there is where I stand how lot of people feeling about pre 1950 buildings.

So in the case of that article then, if people with autism are said to have little or no empathy then it cannot be said that they share traits with sociopaths?

Empathy and sympathy are two different things.

Empathy is theory of mind- getting into other's hearts and heads.

Sympathy is being concerned for others.

Sociopaths have empathy, but no sympathy.
Autistics have sympathy, but no empathy.

Sociopaths exploit empathy for their own ends to exploit others.
Autistics are unable to exploit anyone, and are frequent victims of exploitation.

So autistics and sociopaths are actually polar opposites.

Anyone who claims that autistics are like sociopaths is severely misinformed.

End of discussion.

"Autistics have no empathy".

For Christ sake, haven't you read any of these posts in this thread?

I'm Aspie but I don't lack this empathy thing what NTs are supposed to be so brilliant at. In fact I think I have too much empathy.

And many NTs lack empathy when it comes to understanding things like mental illness and disorders. Some NTs do have more empathy, but a lot don't. This is why we have forums like these, because a lot of us feel misunderstood by the world.

An NT thinks an Aspie should like socializing and doesn't understand how anxious it makes the Aspie feel and doesn't understand why the Aspie doesn't mind not socializing. But it's ok, the NT's an NT so no matter what they do they're always the empathetic ones.

But that scenario being the other way round, oh dear, shame on the Aspie again, putting the poor NT through hell.
I get just as offended over this old-fashioned "all Aspies have no empathy" s**t, just like how Muslims feel when people say "all Muslims are terrorists".

Sociopaths have empathy, but no sympathy.
Autistics have sympathy, but no empathy.

Sociopaths exploit empathy for their own ends to exploit others.
.[/quote]

You just summed it up in a beautiful way. I also really relate to building boy.

HELLO READ THIS, ABOVE POSTER AND THE OTHER POSTER WHO FIRST SAID AUTISTICS HAVE "NO EMPATHY"! HELLO HELLO HELLO

I find it hard to understand when people say we have no empathy.

Personally for me, if I have lived through something and then I meet someone who is hurt or upset and it's because they have been through a similar experience, then I know what they are going through and I can feel for them.

Is that not empathy?

Also, if I am in a room full of people I am like an emotional sponge. It's overwhelming sometimes because I can feel other people emotions.

Is that not empathy?

I didn't used to think I had empathy because I could never understand other peoples sadness but it hit me all at once one day.

I still have trouble with understanding other peoples happiness though. I don't get what all the excitement is about. Ever.

I struggle where it comes to applying sympathy to the empathy though and I would usually pass the distressed person over to a third party.

My bad..

I think it's a tremendous oversimplification to say we have no empathy. I think we have empathy and sympathy, although I think we have a lot more sympathy. I think our empathy works differently than most NTs, varies a lot amongst autistic people, and may not work the same in every situation. I think the operative concept of empathy is to be able to imagine ourselves in someone else's situation so we understand how they feel. It's easier for us to manage empathy if it's a situation we've already experienced. We don't really have to imagine how it feels. We know.

I can manage empathy by comparing similar situations, for example, I can imagine how someone feels who lost a child because I had a miscarriage and also lost my brother a few years later. Not the same events, but there is some similarity. I can feel sympathy when I see a news article about a plane crash ("gee, those people must feel terrible") even though nothing similar has happened to people I know. It's a more distant, abstract feeling, without the immediate strength of something happening to me or someone I love.

Where I really break down is real-time empathy: being able to read the emotional reactions of others. I have loads of sympathy once someone tells me what they are feeling--I'll listen to their problems and try to help. A sociopath is the opposite: he or she can read the emotions of others, and doesn't feel bad about manipulating them to get ahead.

There are some kinds of people that I cannot understand at all: people who are violent; bigots; people who reject logical arguments in favor of religious doctrine; and people who act without caring about how they hurt other people, like corporate raiders, Ponzi schemers, and con artists. For me, those people are a complete mystery, and could not be more alien than if they came from another planet.

The troll who necrobumped this post has been permanently banned. Thread has reached almost 30 pages, it has run its course here.