as small as a world and as large as alone

2:39am August 23, 2014

madeofpatterns:

alliecat-person:

madeofpatterns:

alliecat-person:

pxnkabed:

say it with me kids:

the concept of sociopathy is fucked up and useless and demonizes people with low empathy/blunted affect

Are we talking about the technical definition of sociopathy—performing clearly unethical acts with little regards as to possible effects on others? 

Because no, that is not ableist.

Yeah. There really *are* people who don’t give a damn about anyone but themselves, and we need a word for that.

There’s this thing that happens where psychologists call patterns of behavior they disapprove of a mental disorder.

And then some anti-ableists act like… that behavior actually *is* a neurological problem. And that it’s ableist to use a negative word to describe it.

That’s a problem.

But yeah, having trouble understanding how others feel and reduced affect is not inhuman or evil.

This is basically what I meant to say.

Evil shouldn’t be medicalized, but sociopathy is still useful as a descriptive term.

Other people in this thread convinced me that sociopathy implies medicalization of evil pretty strongly.

And it’s really not a word I’m very comfortable with, for exactly that reason.

I think it’s one of those words that… it’s a fairly bad word, and people who can avoid saying it probably should.

But some people need that word. For actual reasons. Not because ableism.

I need that word because I need a word for a person without a conscience.  I don’t use it in a medical way and I don’t use it to refer to people diagnosed with personality disorders.  But I do need the word.  And I can’t stop using it just because of the problems that exist with it.  I still need it.  I need to be able to refer to people who have no conscience (or no connection to conscience), quickly and easily, and have people understand what I mean.  At least one of my stalkers is a bona fide sociopath, has no conscience, I need to be able to say that.

393 notes