SOCIOPATHY: What the heck is sociopathy?

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2025

The Mayo Clinic speaks: We'll never forget our one-on-one luncheon with MSNBC's Chris Matthews.

It was post-election 1996, or it might have been post-election 1998. No one ever explained to us why the event had been arranged, though we came away with a speculation.

Inevitably, we lunched at The Palm. Inevitably, the other guy paid.

This morning, Chris appeared on Morning Joe, during the 7 o'clock hour. At 7:15 a.m., he used some suggestive language. 

He spoke about the way the commander has removed federal protection from Dr. Fauci, but also from General Milley (and others). Suggestively, Matthews said this:

The idea that Milley, with all those stars on his shoulder, has to protect himself? It's crazy!

"It's crazy," the gentleman said. We'll assume he was speaking colloquially.

That said, we've been asking a basic question for a very long time. Is something "wrong" with Elon Musk? How about with President Trump?

No really—is something actually wrong with these guys? Could something be "clinically" wrong?

As we noted yesterday, the very concept of "mental illness" can be a bit complex. 

Physical illness is relatively easy; mental illness can be hard. For example, here's some of what the leading authority says about the late Professor Szasz:

Thomas Szasz

Thomas Stephen Szasz (1920–2012) was a Hungarian-American academic and psychiatrist. He served for most of his career as professor of psychiatry at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University. A distinguished lifetime fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a life member of the American Psychoanalytic Association, he was best known as a social critic of the moral and scientific foundations of psychiatry...

[...]

Szasz was a strong critic of institutional psychiatry and was a prolific writer. According to psychiatrist Tony B. Benning, there were "three major themes in Szasz's writings: his contention that there is no such thing as mental illness, his contention that individual responsibility is never compromised in those suffering from what is generally considered as mental illness, and his perennial interest in calling attention to the political nature of psychiatric diagnosis." According to Williams and Caplan, Szasz is "best known for his view that without a diagnosis of neurological disease or damage, a psychiatric diagnosis was meaningless." Though his ideas had little influence on mainstream psychiatry, many were supported by some behavioral and social scientists.

His books The Myth of Mental Illness (1961) and The Manufacture of Madness (1970) set out some of the arguments most associated with him.

Mental illness is a myth

In Szasz's view, people who are said to have a mental illness only have "problems in living." Diagnoses of "mental illness" or "mental disorder" are passed off as scientific...He argued that psychiatry is a pseudoscience that parodies medicine by using medical-sounding words...

("Without a diagnosis of neurological disease or damage"—we'd say those are key words.)

For the record, we're not saying that Szasz was right in his beliefs and claims.  We are saying that the basic conceptual premises of "mental illness" can at times perhaps be challenging.

That said, is it possible that something is clinically wrong with the gentlemen we've mentioned? As of late yesterday afternoon, it seemed to us that one of these fellows had come close to answering our question. 

(We'll offer more this afternoon concerning what he said.)

Questions like these are being avoided, even disappeared, within the mainstream press. That said, we recently re-explored the nature of a well-known (clinical / diagnostic) "personality disorder"—a form of "mental illness." 

Inquiring minds on our campus wanted to know! When we googled the relevant term, the very fine people at AI Overview instantly started with this:

AI Overview

Sociopathy, also known as antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), is a mental health condition characterized by a persistent pattern of disregard for social norms, laws, and the rights and feelings of others. 

Symptoms: 

• Lack of remorse or guilt
• Shallow emotions or inability to empathize
• Manipulative and deceitful behavior
• Impulsivity and aggression
• Irresponsibility and disregard for consequences
• Violation of social rules and laws 

Causes: 

The exact causes of sociopathy are complex and not fully understood. Factors that may contribute include: 

Genetics, early childhood trauma or abuse, brain abnormalities, and neurochemical imbalances. 

The report continued from there. To our ear, the symptoms sounded extremely familiar, though we're not entirely sure what that means.

In fairness, the gang at AI Overview is quite new to the game. We also checked with the Mayo Clinic. Here's what we found there:

Mayo Clinic

Antisocial personality disorder

Antisocial personality disorder, sometimes called sociopathy, is a mental health condition in which a person consistently shows no regard for right and wrong and ignores the rights and feelings of others. People with antisocial personality disorder tend to purposely make others angry or upset and manipulate or treat others harshly or with cruel indifference. They lack remorse or do not regret their behavior.

People with antisocial personality disorder often violate the law, becoming criminals. They may lie, behave violently or impulsively, and have problems with drug and alcohol use. They have difficulty consistently meeting responsibilities related to family, work or school.

Symptoms

Symptoms of antisocial personality disorder include repeatedly:

⦁ Ignoring right and wrong.
⦁ Telling lies to take advantage of others.
⦁ Not being sensitive to or respectful of others.
⦁ Using charm or wit to manipulate others for personal gain or pleasure.
⦁ Having a sense of superiority and being extremely opinionated.
⦁ Having problems with the law, including criminal behavior.
⦁ Being hostile, aggressive, violent or threatening to others.
⦁ Feeling no guilt about harming others.
⦁ Doing dangerous things with no regard for the safety of self or others.
⦁ Being irresponsible and failing to fulfill work or financial responsibilities.

Adults with antisocial personality disorder usually show symptoms of conduct disorder before the age of 15...

Such people "lack remorse or do not regret their behavior?" That sounded even more familiar! But what might such familiarity turn out to mean? 

At this point, we turned to the leading authority on every such condition. Here's what we were told:

Wikipedia

Antisocial personality disorder

Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) is a personality disorder defined by a chronic pattern of behavior that disregards the rights and well-being of others. People with ASPD often exhibit behavior that conflicts with social norms, leading to issues with interpersonal relationships, employment, and legal matters. The condition generally manifests in childhood or early adolescence...

[...]

Although behaviors vary by degree, individuals with this personality disorder have been known to exploit others in harmful ways for their own gain or pleasure, and frequently manipulate and deceive other people. While some do so with a façade of superficial charm, others do so through intimidation and violence. Individuals with antisocial personality disorder may deliberately show irresponsibility, have difficulty acknowledging their faults and/or attempt to redirect attention away from harmful behaviors.

That sounded extremely familiar. To see what the Cleveland Clinic said, you can just click here.

These description of this (clinical) "personality disorder" sounded very familiar. But what might such points of familiarity mean? 

As we understand it, the conceptual question breaks down something like this:

If a person is diagnosed with "ASPD," are we simply offering a capsule account of the way that person behaves? (Of the way that person chooses to behave?) 

Are we just describing the way the person in question behaves? Or is that person in the grip of some condition over which he has no control, as would uniformly be said of the children down in Texas who have now come down with the measles?

As best we understand it, that's the basic question. That said, you'll never see such questions explored within our nation's "public discourse," a relatively childish endeavor which hides behind the torrents of praise our elites tend to heap on themselves.

Putting it a different way, is "mental illness" perhaps a bit like color blindness? (Technically, "color vision deficiency—CVD.") 

No one thinks that people with CVD are simply choosing to fail to distinguish between certain colors. Is "antisocial personality disorder" a bit like that? Or is it somehow different?

You'll never see such questions explored within our public discourse. That said, is something just flat-out wrong with Elon Musk? Is something possibly wrong (unusual; different from the norm) with the wiring inside his head?

It seems to us that the gentleman keeps providing something resembling an answer. As he does, the leading actors on our academic and journalistic stages just keep averting their gaze from the strangeness of the behaviors and statements to which we refer.

What the heck is "sociopathy?" The Mayo Clinic has spoken, but what exactly did they say? 

What should their statements be taken to mean? What might our flailing nation be dealing with at this time? Is anyone planning to ask?

Tomorrow: Plainly, she's no slouch

This afternoon: His latest crazy statement