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The Use Of Sociopathic Behavior And Its Effects On Society

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Every day you walk down the street, and unknown to you, 3% of the people you pass suffer from some sort of sociopathy. According to Webster’s Dictionary, a sociopath can be defined as a person with a psychopathic personality whose behavior is antisocial, often criminal, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience. The majority of sociopathic behavior begins in adolescence, normally due to a traumatic event and manifests itself into adulthood. Someone punches you and a friend, you don’t shed a tear but your friend sobs for 3 minutes. The reaction you both demonstrated were very different from each other, this can be related to how a person reacts to trauma. One person might cope with the pain, another might not be able to handle it and in some cases this causes psychological damage. Trauma that occurs in adolescence is often blocked out by the recipient and in some cases and worsen into sociopathy. Psychopaths are born psychopaths, sociopaths are created. Due to both disorders following the same path, these terms can be used interchangeably when referring to symptoms, behavioral patterns, and future development of the disorder. “The greatest failing of explanations that single out particular experiences or character traits as feeding the well springs of evil, is that thousands of people have had those single experiences or share those traits, factors that describe Hitler describe many people; [however] there has only been one Hitler” (Begley, 2).

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