America - Nation of Sociopaths?

I think I'm here to record just how many aspects of myself I can define into being.  I'm not quite sure what that means yet, but I'm here to write about experiences with my own internal ways of how I vew things while alterred by smoking pot.  Without filter, this is where its' lead me:  We are the world's sociopaths. 


I have good news and bad news.  The bad news first.  I think I might be a sociopath, at least by European standards.  The "good" news?  So are you, unless you're as good as Mr. Rogers, because seriously, he's the only guy I can think of who wouldn't have at least three out of six of this criteria for the international (non-American defined) version of sociopathy.  Cut and past from Wikipedia:  

The World Health Organization's International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, tenth edition (ICD-10), defines a conceptually similar disorder to antisocial personality disorder called (F60.2) Dissocial personality disorder.^[5]

It is characterized by at least 3 of the following:

1. Callous unconcern for the feelings of others
2. Gross and persistent attitude of irresponsibility and disregard for social norms, rules, and obligations.
3. Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships, though having no difficulty in establishing them
4. Very low tolerance to frustration and a low threshold for discharge of aggression, including violence.
5. Incapacity to experience guilt or to profit from experience, particularly punishment.
6. Markedly prone to blame others or to offer plausible rationalizations for the behavior that has brought the person into conflict with society

 Taken as a whole, this stuff all seems BAD.  Like bad guy bad.  The epitomy of every Bond villain.  But when you break it down, there's a story here.  Think of each item as a single isolated act that has occured in a moment of rage, frustration, or annoyance that has mostly happend at least once for most people.   

 Let's look at the first criteria:

Callous unconcern for the feelings others.  Who hasn't said something rude or callous to a person we love, at some point or another?  To some degree  To any degree?  We stupidly say things that hurt their feelings.  Or sometimes we do it on purpose, because they've done the same thing to us at some point.  Most of the people I know, have all retaliated back with the same kind of emotional manipulation that's dished at them.   That counts!  Looks like we're 1/6 of the way there.

Second criteria.

Gross and persistent attitude of irresponsibility and disregard of social norms, rules and obligations.  Havent' we all defied and disregarded social norms, rules and obligations to some degree?  Even consistently?   Will you very sporadically, but consistently litter because you can't find a trash can when you really need one?  Big fucking deal, right?  Let's go bigger.  How consitently do some people cheat on their taxes or their co-workers and employees?  How many politcians lie with such proficiency and ability that it defies the ability of most of us, even if we tried REALLY HARD to lie as much as they do. What about rock stars?  The second criteria defined an entire generation of rock n' rollers and punks.  Protesters of every kind, from Tea Partiers to Occupy Wallstreet could meet this criteria, depending on who's defining irresponsiblity.   

Third Criteria:

 To even the slightest degree?   Think about it.  We actually have a term called "white lies" because we need sanitizing language to clense the fact that lying is something we all do, to some degree.  Point being, this criteria is highly subjective and could apply to just about anyone as we lower and raise the bar of responsibility, defining it however one likes. 

Fourth criteria:

Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships, though no difficulty in establishing them.  Hmmm.  Several breakdowns here. 

• Okay, let's see, what do you mean by relationship?  Because anyone who has ever had a rocky relationship with anyone, consistently, could be pushing the envelop of what constitutes a relationship.  And what kind of relationship?  Is this referring to a parental or sibling relationship?  Or a friendship?  Or a romantic relationship?  Does that mean if any of these fail to endure at your current age, you're potentially guilty?  Yep, everyone who has ever been an ex, please stand up.  
• How long should they endure for?  Five years, ten years, or your entire life?  What if you have some hangup, like OCD or some weird quirk that always seems to get you dumped in relationships because you have to lock the door sixteen times a night?  Or some other weird mental quirk you really don't have control over, but a potential romantic partner would REALLY be annoyed by?  Lots of people could meet this criteria, again depending on where we draw the very fuzzy line of mental disabilties and/or conditions that make it hard for anyone, including the person, to maintain a relationship. 
• No difficulty in establishing relationships is also really really vague.  Do they mean measuring their success in number or type?  Both?  I won't harp on this point because it's largely a good thing. Knowing how to establash and form relationships is a damn useful skill to have and something any uber-successful person (as we define socially) usually has. If you've ever noticed there's a certain technique or way to treat people that makse a good impression, and you've altered your behavior for this effect, you're guilty of engaging in this "sociopathic" manipulative behavior.

Fifth Criteria:

Let's break this one up too.  Hey, I didn't write these retarded definitions, but hang in there with me.  This all is going to a point.  But let's take the first part of the fifth criteria first.

• Very low tolerance to frustration.  Well, I don't know about every else, but I've had very low tolerances of frustration when being annoyed repetitively by a loud noises or by very rude people.  I'm not consistently frustrated, and I'm actually a pretty patient person and I look at things from different angles to avoid frustration as I think any creative person does.   But that doesn't mean at some point, my tolerance just drops and I get a little burst of hatred.  That annoying concrete jack outside giving me a headache?  Guess what, I hate it.

• The next two have to meet the criteria of "low threshold for discharge":  If I threw a paper ball against the wall in frustration because I found out my Aunt Flo died, is this a discharge of aggression?  Seems like it to me.  I personally don't throw shit around when frustrated because I think it's dumb, but I know plenty of people who do because they don't stop to think about it, they just act.  I've kicked inanimate objects to vent frurstration in the past (way back, when I was a kid) but I think that was a pretty common thing to feel and do when younger.  Hell, Mr. Rogers had a song about it.  Have I been surrounded by sociopaths all this time?  If I choose to vent some type of frustration by aggressively chopping wood, I think lumberjacks are not going to have a problem meeting this criteria.           

• Violence.  I first thought I didn't meet this criteria.  But thinking about it again, I can think of a few contexts where I think violence is the best choice.  Do I think I could hurt someone if I thought I was going to be hurt, or perhaps worse, I thought the attacker was going to hurt the person I love?  Yep, then I'm guilty.  I've never actually done this, but I'd like to think I would if I was ever in that situation. I think it's pretty good to have a "low threshold for discharge" in certain contexts where a fraction of a second can mean the difference between life and death.  I'd think cops or people in the military would have to deal with these types of feelings all the time.  

   Six criteria:

• I'm not even going to spend much time on this one.  Whatever the fuck "markedly prone" to blame others means because I don't know either.  Who hasn't blamed someone else for the reason their life sucks, at some particular point in time?  Has anyone ruined your entire day because they decided to be a douche and as a consequence, you blamed them for it?  Is blame always a bad thing when it's the main emotional response you feel to check someone who's treating you unfairly?  You'd think this definition would better define blame to know how and where to place blame justifiably, but then again, I'm an asshole American.     

• Haven't we all used plausible rationalizations for behavior that we only realize in hind-sight was irrational to begin with, along with the realization it was pretty stupid to act that way to begin with?  I think we've all done this at some point. We'll even ignore friends who tell us how our behavior has changed when someone or something has made is significantly shittier, as a person.  It seems to be the favorite plot point of every romantic comedy or tragic love story where a person's perception of what's reasonable/rational gets seriously and negatively alterred by another person. Hell, I could be rationalizing my own "manipulative" behavior just by attacking the European definition of sociopathy because I think a lot of people meet this criteria.  At least the ones I know.   

FINALLY.  I think I've picked this definition apart pretty well, from an American perspective.  And just for comparision, here is the American version of sociopathy from the DSM-IV, via Wikipedia:

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM IV-TR), defines antisocial personality disorder (in Axis II Cluster B) as:^[1]

A) There is a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others occurring since age 15 years, as indicated by three or more of the following:

1. failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest;
2. deception, as indicated by repeatedly lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure;
3. impulsiveness or failure to plan ahead;
4. irritability and aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults;
5. reckless disregard for safety of self or others;
6. consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations;
7. lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another;

B) The individual is at least age 18 years.

C) There is evidence of conduct disorder with onset before age 15 years.

D) The occurrence of antisocial behavior is not exclusively during the course of schizophrenia or a manic episode.

Holy shit.  It's a lot harder to meet the criteria for the American version.  Or maybe we just have a higher standard of asshole?  USA!  USA!   

I guess something could have been lost in translation between the two set of criteria.  But my spidey sense is telling me that maybe I'm more affected by shitty American culture than I thought I was.  Even though I don't meet the American definition of sociopathy, I certainly do for the European.  Or maybe the international definition of socipathy is complete bullshit and could potentially apply to anyone.  Judge for yourself.