If there is anything of an obstacle in online discourse about ASPD or psychopathy, it is this weird online conceptualization of psychopaths and sociopathy as two distinct disorders.
It persists through Youtube, Quora, Blogs, but you won't find it in any contemporary clinical or scientific context.
Why? Because it is outdated! Yes, there has been a nature versus nurture debate, but today we know that every personality disorder is a mixture of both. The term 'psychopathy' was coined by people who proposed a more genetic origin and 'sociopathy' a social one, but they are both referring to the same dissocial manifestation.
And yes, there also has been the cold versus hot debate, but this does not refer to a distinction between sociopathy and psychopathy. nevermind that a psychopathy would be more calm and collected. If anything, the psychopath would be more impulsive than the sociopath. Since if the term 'sociopath' is still used anywhere, it is in the USA for a form of sub-clinial but socially functional form of psychopathy scoring about 25-30 on the PCL-R while the psychopathy threshold is 30 or above. In Canada, Great Britain, and Germany, they speak simply about 'psychopathy' at 25.
The hot versus cold debate is about the reactive versus instrumental aggression I spoke about in my webseries. But if you think 'instrumental' refers to any long-term planning, when you got the wrong end of the stick. Instrumental aggression refers to aggression to achieve a goal. In accord with the nature of psychopathy, these are not long-term plans, but quick impulsive decisions, such as attacking a helpless person with weapon to take their belongings, maybe even while witnesses are watching. Reactive aggression refers to aggression where the aggresion itself is the means of an end.
While in theory these are distinct, in practise both co-occur. Someone with instrumental aggression will also get angry once their status is threatened and may use their aggression to assert dominance. It is not muhc colder than a reactive outburst. Science does acknowledge etiological differences between those with a rather calculative form of anti-social behavior in the form of a CU-modifier. CU stands for 'Callous Unemotional Trait'. This is also not a complete deficit in emotions, as often errorneously claimed in popular media, but a lack of activation of emotional distress during aggressive action. These CU-traits is what spikes the PCL-R score and distinguishes ASPD from psychopathic forms of ASPD.
The CU-modifier - or the psychopathy - is not a separate deficit in emotions per se, but in deficit in emotional attachment within the action. Since the CU traits have a stronger genetic component and appear early on (see: conduct disorder with childhood onset), I can see why people are inclined to look for different terms. If we want to use 'sociopathy' for forms of ASPD without the CU modifier and hence a more social - but still partly genetic - predisposition, this is a fair point. However, then 'sociopathy' is simply a more harmless form of psychopathy.
In other words, every psychopath is also a sociopath but not every sociopath a psychopath.
Yes, this also contradicts the idea of the oxymoronic idea of a pro-social-psychopath. Yes, CU-traits are an early onset for a callous unemotional predisposition, but it is not the psychopathy itself. Also, it is directly manifest in anti-social behavior we can already observe in children in the form of various abnormalities:
Lying for fun around the age of 3 is an example. Unaffected by the distress and cries for fellow children. Compared to healthy children - even autistic - have shown to develope a sense of fairness and care for their peers. Breaking of objects. Running away, including places most children are natually afraid off such as the basement or dark alleys.
But this in itself is not psychopathy. But lets say it is! Who wants to speak about "Callous Unemotional Traits" when you can jsut say "psychopathy" as colloquial term? But even then, it has been shown that anti-social tendencies remain relatively stable across all ages. Hence some experts suspecting it could be a neurological developmental disorder. At times, the diagnostic manual for Psychopathy seems to use a similar speech to autism, describing it as signs appearing in early childhood and remaining "relatively stable throughout life". This is also why in forensic settings, psychopaths face harsher punishment, since their likelyhood of change is diminished.
One can counter anti-social behavior. One promising way so far has been that you send rewards into sight. Kids with CU traits are extremely selfish and love being seen in a good light and feeling superiro themselves. A simple "you did well" is not enough, it must be a high five, a loud party at best. You cannotdeactivate their inflated ego, but you can configurate their brains to find a more social way to satisfy their selfish needs.
But something like a "pro-social psychopath" who "does the right thing because it makes sense" or "because of consequences" does simply not exist. It contradicts what "psychopathy" entails. A lack of long-term thinking, care for responsibility, inabiltiy to learn from punishment are all crucial for psychopathy. A "psychopath" who is "afraid of his future" such as James Felon, is as much psychopathic as an autistic person who has no struggles with social interactions or a spontaneous schedule.
There are also so-called "successful psychopaths", people who are similar to their incarcerated counterparts who were believed to have found a way surpress their anti-social mind. But studies have shown that they are not more socially integrated at all. They commit as many crimes as their incarcerated counterparts, just found loopholes or had the money to stay out of trouble. Sometimes it is not even themselves, but their social environment which helps them.
This is important because the belief that pro-social psychopaths exist, shifts the blame back to the disorder. The implicit message is, that anti-social behavior is the result of psychopathy or CU traits rather than psychopathy itself is the anti-social behavior. This then leads to - in my humble opinion useless - therapeutic methods such as the emotional wheel, talks about feelings, and methods used for autism or alexithymia. Emotions are not a mystery for psychopaths, and they do not lack fear or love or regret. All the emotions are present, they just don't activate within a social context. Figuring out the Why would be the solution to cease anti-social behavior.
