[qumpis]

Fascinating article. I wonder what made her do the steps in finding what's "different" with her, and most of all, why the need to fix it arose. Is it to "fit in", understandably? It somehow felt alien to me, and this shows my ignorance on the topic, that people lacking in empathy department would attempt to understand the reasons and act "good" towards others even if this feeling is only understood intellectually.

[h2odragon]

"do unto others as you would have them do unto you" is good advice and a rational strategy without emotion or empathy.

The practical problem is figuring out that "others would have" something different than you would like, because they're emotional and irrational (as far as you can tell).

[swayvil]

The best way to fit a hand is not another hand. The best way to fit a hand is a glove.

So when you say "good advice" I say, "it depends"

[Attummm]

If you read about her tendencies, they are distinctly antisocial, characterized by a genuine urge to commit acts of violence and stealing.

Not having the urge to commit violence would be a pretty good reason for trying to get help.

[kayodelycaon]

I think it’s easy enough to explain. I’m asexual and don’t feel sexual attraction. In fact I’m completely blind to it.

I definitely noticed something was wrong with me once I started school. Since then, I am constantly reminded of that by everyone around me. They have something I’m expected to have.

Just imagine if you were the weird one because you were the only person with emotions. You can’t escape it. You can’t fix it. Some people try to be “helpful” and “understand” but the entire time, they are pointing out you are beyond their comprehension.

It cause enormous anxiety to know you need to be something you are not. You have to learn to cope with it.

[JohnBooty]

     I definitely noticed something was wrong with me once I started school

I hope you have gotten, or will get to, a place where you no longer think of this as something "wrong" with you!

[yard2010]

Wrong !== Different. This is by design. I can imagine all the birds in the dinosaur times felt wrong because they weren't t-rexes. Well, that's what saved them in the end.

One would never know.

[shrimp_emoji]

On the flip side, the vast majority of people can't make up a username as cool as yours.

[JohnBooty]

It's fascinating. I've read a fair bit about sociopaths (but I'm no expert, obviously) and her compulsions feel pretty unique to me. It's not something I have really seen mentioned with sociopaths too often.

A lot of sociopaths lead pretty normal lives. Pro-social behavior is generally pretty beneficial, even if you are doing it for practical reasons and not out of empathy.

[endo_bunker]

It would be interesting to know if this is a common experience among sociopaths. I had always thought that behaviors like theft resulted more simply from the lack of empathy (and desire for the stolen item), rather than resolving some kind of internal tension.

[james-bcn]

Yes. She says "I was sorry I had to steal to stop fantasizing about violence" - it seems there is something else going on here, not just being a sociopath.

[DrDroop]

Special books for special children did an interview with a self identified sociopath that shows the same level of self awareness and openness to discuss the problem[1].

I think it is always difficult to analyse why someones does something. In Psychology, behaviour is like a Feynman diagram, you can always rotate the picture and get a valid particle interaction. What is cause and what is effect is hard to tell, but yes some people steal out of a sense of justice if you can call it that.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdPMUX8_8Ms