Bite Size Psychology
No — they’re not all serial killers the way they are portrayed in movies.
Published in · 4 min read · Jun 27, 2020
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When people are “difficult” to be around, it’s easy to toss off labels like psychopath or narcissist — a lot of people are using these terms interchangeably but each is a distinct psychological disorder.
Here’s a key difference to remember right off the bat:
Every psychopath is narcissistic but not every narcissist is a psychopath.
Narcissism exists on a continuum, but someone with NPD is grandiose, lacks empathy, and needs admiration from others.
Narcissism is a disorder of self-esteem. They are deeply insecure so they want everyone around them to feel insecure. Their defense is to drag everyone down so they can feel superior.
When narcissists do a bad thing, they feel some degree of shame and guilt.
Their shame is more of a public emotion focused on the judgement of others, rather than regretting their wrongdoings.
A psychopath, on the other hand, doesn’t feel remorse when they do something bad; they simply don’t care who gets hurt.
A psychopath is someone who tends to be calculative, cunning, manipulative, exploitative, lacks empathy, and doesn’t think or care about the consequences of their actions.
Psychopaths have extremely charming facades that they use to manipulate those they interact with.
As a rule of thumb, glib shallow charm is a good red flag to watch out for.
Prince charming is probably prince psychopathy!
There is a lot of overlaps between a Psychopath and a Sociopath and they both fall under the Anti Social Personality Disorder diagnosis.
The key difference though is that psychopaths are born and sociopaths are made.
A sociopath might be a kid who grows up in a bad neighborhood and learns criminality as a way to get by. They may not be…
