Sociopathy, Normal Society, and Abnormal People – Thoughts from June 7, 2025

I’m excited to talk about sociopathy. The reason for my excitement is the book Sociopath by Patric Gagne Ph.D. I finished listening to it recently and connected to her story. She herself is a sociopath. Her story is the same as anyone who doesn’t fit into regular society because her mind works differently than most people. It matters less what the specifics of a person’s differences are as much as thinking differently. Extreme behaviors are the things most people notice, but every day becomes a challenge when dealing with other people. What is easy for most people is a frustrating series of challenges for those of us who think differently.

In her book, she points out that there were no programs to help people with sociopathy. The only way people dealt with them was to put them in prison, especially if society labeled them as psychopaths. Most prisons are not made for rehabilitation. They are made to keep people locked away from regular society. Society labels people with sociopathy as antisocial. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR) calls it an “Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD).” This is like the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) I find myself described as. These are labels that try to soften the language but wind up so general that the description can assess no specific information about actual people.

The reason I connected with the book so thoroughly is the same reason I connect with some people and not others. The more out of touch with “normal” society you are, the more I can relate to you. Especially in the United States, what most Americans consider positive things are repulsive to me. From competition to religion, I find American values to be misguided and wrong much of the time. For people acting abnormally, we praise them in entertainment and chastise them in real life. In her book, Patric worked in the music business and found many people with sociopathic tendencies. Many entertainers say that if they hadn’t gotten into entertainment, they would have gone to prison. Finding a place to focus your abnormal thoughts seems to be key to turning a detriment into an asset.

One attribution that gets applied to sociopaths much of history is being “evil.” I’ve discussed this before, but I will reiterate that evil doesn’t exist. It is a word born of religious texts. The dictionary defines it as “profound immorality and wickedness, especially when regarded as a supernatural force.” Just as evil doesn’t exist, supernatural forces don’t exist. Supernatural forces are beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature. In other words, we don’t understand them. Labeling something we don’t understand as supernatural is sad and weird. Society considers me abnormal because I don’t believe in their outdated and completely wrong ideas about the world.

Being abnormal is how society advances. Without abnormal people, the world would be boring. We need to understand abnormal people and work with them to make the world a better place. We’ve seen what happens when “normal” people are in charge. In no way am I suggesting we put sociopaths in charge. Our current president is proof of that. What I’m suggesting is that we listen to all people’s stories and use them to make a world that helps everyone be the best person they can be. Caring about other people is important. Training may be required for some people who lack empathy. Helping everyone means recognizing who people are and not expecting them to think like everyone else. We can program robots to do that. A robot society is a boring society.