Hi seeker,

Thanks for sharing your story, which only shows how generous and open hearted you have been in the past, even if it did go wrong for you.

But I have to affirm - that was one very frightening story, and there is not much else to say about it - it's heavy stuff. You showed great courage.

As I understand it, both from reading and sadly from meeting actual cases, the sociopath is a person who does not empathise with others in any normal way, but is able to do a highly convincing act. Maybe the act is so convincing just because they don't feel things, they are mimics.

I think that there is a difference between the sociopath and the psychopath. As far as I understand it, the sociopath has clear goals of self interest and will burn anyone who gets in the way. The psychopath is not working to a self interested goal, but seems to need the manipulation of others in order to feel real and alive, even to the extent of terrible crimes.

In this schema, the sociopath seems the better option, but as Mac said, mature sociopaths are not readily treatable, maybe because they don't see what they are doing as wrong. Either of these personalities can do bad damage to you if you are targetted.

One thing you said about upbringing. An irony is that the budding sociopath will use the 'upbringing' card as part of the sting, they'll use anything, and they are clever and convincing, because sociopaths work to outcomes, and that is all they care about.

I knew a lady whose business was not going so well, and she was in danger of losing her house. By coincidence, she found a cheque book, and at that time she had an arrangement to cash cheques at the counter of her bank (you can't do that now I think). It was a small bank branch in the countryside somewhere. Anyway, she wrote a substantial cheque to herself and cashed it. A few days later the assistant manager from the bank came to her house and told her that the cheque had bounced. He said that he would lose his job if they didn't get the money back from her. She said, "That's your problem."

Was this lady a sociopath, a criminal, or a survivor? The lines are not always clear. I know what I think.

Cheers, M