The difference between a sociopath and a psychopath, the way I define the terms, is that a sociopath has mental stability, whereas a psychopath suffers from delusions and compulsions he cannot control.
They both lack empathy for other human beings. They both regard other humans as mere tools to use as they see fit for their own entertainment or advancement. They are both skilled liars and manipulators. You might say that a psychopath is an extreme sociopath.
Sociopath knows it's wrong but does it anyways.
A psychopath does wrong but doesn't understand it's wrong.
So what is someone who just lacks empathy? Without the craziness.
an apathetic person
your passion is being staunched by something in your life
not sure if staunched is really the word for what you mean.
Depends how you define empathy. A lot of people will lie to manipulate your feelings, seeing through the lie and being unmoved by someone's manipulation strategy doesn't mean you lack empathy.
Empathy, to me, means you can sense people's feelings, where they're coming from because you understand their situation. You understand this person behaved in such and such way because of certain circumstances. You can be sociopathic and have Empathy.
I think we have a lot of people who experience over-empathy, which is uncontrollable, unbias empathy that essentially leads to self-destruction. They are the type to be vegan and complain about speciesism and fight for Dog breed equality. Selective empathy is still genuine empathy. It's not like it's healthy to feel empathy for insects... And that's a subconscious bias.
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