If she said a psychopath is born and a sociopath is made, shes wrong.
One, Science is incapable of determining something like that. As it's retrospective and a subjective determination. Was Genghis Khan a product of his environment or born blood thirsty? No empirical data can be used that supports one and not the other.
Two, that's not even the definition. Psychopath is a label based on characteristics of someone. Sociopath is a label based on behavior. Nouns vs. Gerunds. This paradigm change occured when the colloquial wisdom shifted to "you're not a bad person, you just did a bad thing" or "don't attack the person, identify the behavior and talk about that".
Narcissist v. Et Al - A narcissist doesn't feel guilt, but does feel shame. A psychopath doesn't feel guilt or shame. Technically speaking the distinction is rooted in the internalization of libidinal impulses. The narcissist feels these impulses(say aggression) and makes it apart of their outward projected identity. I am an aggressor. The psychopath lacks a properly developed ego. They aren't an aggressor, aggression is just a tool to be used.
Violence is a volitional expression of rage in a narcissist. For a psychopath, it's just a tool to achieve material ends. "You had a burger, I wanted it, stab. Whatever." For a narcissist it would read like "He had a burger, I wanted it, stab, but wait you don't understand the whole story I'm not that kind of person".
This is because narcissism is at its root, someone without an internal compass who has a need for outside affirmation of identity. The desire for others to view them how they want to be viewed is responsible for their deteriorated empathy, and inability to define themselves. The lack of guilt and shitty behavior is an effect. The root cause is needing outside affirmation.
A psychopath has no concerns about that.
Sidenote - A sociopath(yes I'm switching terms, this study came out after the terms switched clinically) will score high on empathy tests, like the minds eye test. This is because they have well developed cognitive empathy, but they don't connect to it. Their affective empathy is almost non-existent. They wont feel that emotion internally that they see in others. A narcissist is the opposite, they don't recognize these cues in others. Too self-absorbed, focused on their own feelings. But they do feel and they can connect to others feelings. Its just that this process deadens that ability.
- Last thing -
Narcissist and Sociopath/Psychopath are mutually exclusive. One can not be both.
