Psychopathy Psychopathy is one of the hardest disorders to detect. A psychopath can blend into society, and the reason for this is that they mimic the behavior of other human beings, especially emotional behavior. They don’t feel these emotions, but they study others who are experiencing them so they can blend into society and fool other people. Psychopaths don’t experience empathy, but they can learn to appear empathetic to trick people. They’re highly manipulative and volatile with no conscience. They can be criminal in character. It can be fascinating to learn about psychopathy, but psychopaths are cruel and unemotional. They don’t care about others, and they’re out for themselves. They’re relentless about going for their goals, and because they don’t care about the feelings of others, it makes it easier to create and meet their goals. They don’t have to stop and feel guilty about hurting someone’s feelings. They don’t care about being liked unless it gets them closer to what they want. Symptoms & Characteristics Psychopaths are also unable to detect fear in the faces of others, and they have a high tolerance for things that would otherwise disgust an average person. A psychopath may not react whatsoever when shown disturbing images or subjected to violent situations. Another of the confirmed psychopath signs is something called "blame externalization." This means that a psychopath will blame others for things that they have done. When called out for this behavior, the psychopath may admit to the behavior, but feel shame. Another sign includes the lack of a physical response to a stimulus that might otherwise be unsettling. For instance, if you know that you're about to get into a car accident, your heart will race, your breathing will quicken, and your sweat glands will activate. In psychopaths, the brain does not respond in this manner, and so his or her palms remain dry with normal heart rate and stable breathing. Other potential psychopath characteristics can include superficial charm, pathological lying, a grandiose feeling of self-worth (overconfidence), selfishness, an inability to make and follow long-term goals, and - in the more extreme cases - violent tendencies. A person with an antisocial personality disorder may find himself or herself regularly engaged (or instigating) fights and assaults due to increased levels of irritability and aggressiveness. Psychopaths vs. sociopaths Though both are frequently diagnosed under the same umbrella of Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD), the term “psychopath” differs from the term “sociopath.” A sociopath is a human being that experiences little-to-no empathy and has a little-to-no conscience. Sociopaths are usually a result of their environment. A sociopath may have grown up in a chaotic or traumatic environment that lead them to develop ASPD. There's a critical difference between a sociopath and a psychopath; a psychopath is born that way, and a sociopath develops their condition from their environment. Sociopaths and psychopaths have traits of ASPD, but a psychopath's condition is more severe.