Hacker CinemaI, Psychopath
I, Psychopath
Ich bin ein Psychopath
2009 · Film · documentary · 83 min
Directed by Ian Walker
Sam identifies himself as a psychopath. Filmmaker Ian Walker takes him on a diagnostic journey to be analysed by psychologists and neurologists. But Ian hasn’t considered the reality of spending time with someone with a serious personality disorder, or the effect that the diagnosis will have on Sam himself – or his wife.
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3 comments on Hacker News
It depends on what you mean by "genuine awareness". Anyone with a diagnosed personality disorder will of course know that they have a personality disorder.
An alcoholic might engage in behavior that matches sociopathy (lying, manipulation, irritability, etc) for various reasons (covering for their drinking, getting access to alcohol and so on). What makes it different is that the alcoholic deep down can recognize that their drinking is a problem and hence also act to mitigate their destructive behavior.
A sociopath might be theoretically knowledgeable about their condition, but they can do little, if anything, to mitigate how they act and even if they know that everyone else might think something they do is wrong, they simply don't care. In other words: an alcoholic is likely to wish for not being an alcoholic, while a sociopath is likely to want to stay a sociopath.
An example of this is Sam Vaknin[0], who also monetizes his personality disorder after a fashion. There's a documentary about him and his wife floating around on Youtube, "I, Psychopath".
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Vaknin
If you haven't seen it, you might enjoy the Australian documentary "I, Psychopath". The protagonist shares a lot of the traits you mention. It's not a great film in the sense of "watchability", but it resonated with me.
http://www.sott.net/article/205485-I-Psychopath
Note, in the documentary "I, Psychopath" http://youtu.be/jKvhKI6Kxew they run tests in the MRI to predict psychopathy as the inability to consider future consequences on present choices. Thus, in view of this, lack of empathy is not the determining factor in psychopathy, it is lack of foresight. (perhaps it was about being oblivious to future pain - can't quite recall)