Reply #162: Okay, that makes sense.

[H2O Man]

One of the things that happens frequently is that parents view their child's bahavior in terms of their parenting, or question their genetics, etc. It sounds like you are able to realize it wasn't you, your family, and that you couldn't have helped by doing things differently. That's unfortunately uncommon, which is odd, because it shows that the parents feel guilt and have a conscience that their child does not have. Everyone who has a sociopath in their family ends up paying a price, it seems, including siblings, often cousins, etc.

Sociopathy has a long history, of course. In the books of the O.T., there is reference to "lions waiting near the path" that warns of sociopaths. Reid Maloy's books have theories on why the occurance of sociopathy seems to be on the rise.

When I did forensic psychiatric social work, sociopaths posed real difficulties. There are, of course, huge differences between violent people and non-violent people. I think what struck me the most was the waste of talent in some cases. At the same time, I learned t never trust them on anything they said.