this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2026
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It's not a specific mental defect either. It's just a sophistic appeal to plausible sounding psychology speak. Psychobabble.
Psychology experts feel the same way hearing "sociopath" as engineering experts feel hearing "quantum capacitor" or "chronometric transistor". It's like when a hacker on TV says they've decompiled the mainframe.
Some psychologists have been charitable and decided the pop culture understanding is close enough to ASPD that it might as well mean ASPD, and I think they're wrong. If laypeople want to be understood they should use the correct words. Using the wrong words has serious consequences when we're talking about mental health.
I once watched two idiots online argue between using sociopathy or psychopathy to describe a fictional character. Is there a difference? yes, kinda. Does it matter? no. It was mostly harmless, but psychologists avoid actively to use either term ever, both in discussions of cases and official reports. We stick to the definitions and terms on diagnosis manuals, and we focus on describing symptoms mostly. Diagnosis are long winded and arduous decisions that require observation, tests, logical argumentation about applicability of criteria. The goal is to help the patient, diagnosis is but a tool not the end goal. Either term appear exactly once on the DSM-V, and they appear together on ASPD.
But people love to argue online about asinine topics.