Ever suspected a child to have sociopathic tendensies?

[Unia]

Cumbersome title, I know. I got pretty creeped out trying to explain to my relative's son why pulling a cat's tail isn't nice. He really seemed to have no sense of empathy whatsoever at age 7.

Then there's this little girl I know well that keeps having nightmares about geometrical shapes. She'll describe stretching rectangles and colliding spheres that bring her to tears Okay so that's less indicative of sociopathy but it's...something, I guess.

Now I'm not going after some random encounters with brats at a supermarket, but do you know children who sometimes just make you uneasy? Alternatively feel free to tell me all kids are dumb or I'm reading way too far into things or whatever.

 

[Aeshi]

I'd love to know how "Nightmares about shapes bumping into each other" equals "Possible Sociopath"

 

[Someone Depressing]

It's in those early ages that psychopathic tendencies - or at least, a lack of empathy - begins in shine through.

Though most parents chalk it up to their kid being a little shit to get attention. That's bad parenting. Really bad parenting.

It's worrying, sure, but you probably are reading a little too deeply into things. I don't think kids are innately stupid - quite the opposite - but some... some really are stupid.

Nightmares about geometry also shouldn't be very strange.

 

[Kopikatsu]

Most children are sociopaths by virtue of being children. Diminished responsibility and all that.

I got my ass beat by a huge group of kids in middle school because they wanted to steal a cake I'd made for my mother. More recently, a friend's daughter (who had a broken leg) was pushed down a flight of stairs by three girls who thought she was 'too pretty'. Two of many, many, many, MANY such events that I have experienced, witnessed, or heard about.

Kids are just monsters all around.

 

[Kolby Jack]

All kids have sociopathic tendencies. Empathy isn't something you're born with, it takes time to develop. Children have a hard time relating to other people. That's why we call it immaturity. It's natural.

Honestly I'm amazed people don't seem to remember what THEY were like as kids. You were a giant asshole. Don't sugarcoat it. Nobody will think less of you.

 

[balladbird]

Honestly I'm amazed people don't seem to remember what THEY were like as kids. You were a giant asshole. Don't sugarcoat it. Nobody will think less of you.

I know for a fact I was. one of the first things I did when I snapped out of it was thank my mom for not leaving me in a dumpster, I was so bad. XD it's embarrassing because I did all the stereotypical things bad kids do. Act out because I got a high off the negative attention, disrupt classes, be contrary for the sake of it, misrepresent my symptoms to therapists to skew their diagnosis... yeah, no sugar coating it... I was an asshole as a kid.


"there is nothing more pure or more cruel than a child"

depending on who you ask, some people think all children are sociopaths until they hit a certain age, since younger and more defenseless human beings don't have the luxury of empathizing with others if they want to survive themselves, thus the empathy and cooperative spirit necessary to a herd animal like us doesn't start to develop until past toddlerhood.

...though I personally think that's bollocks.

As to older kids, like, preteens/early teens... yeah, I've seen a few. It's rude to make an assumption based on such light observation, but I can't help the impression I got.

 

[Kae]

Eh, everyone used to tell me I had sociopathic tendencies and that I was probably going to end up as some kind of murderer or something when I was a kid, sure I have trouble empathizing with people but I'm the nicest person I know now, so I don't know if that kind of stuff really holds up.

 

[Twintix]

Of course kids have sociopathic tendencies. Morality is something you learn, something you have to discover for yourself in your life through painful introspection and experience. You can't blame them for not having developed yet. That's part of the reason why kids and babies are so cute, so we'll put up with all their selfish, sociopathic bullshit. I'm not even kidding, that's true. Then you grow up, get steadily less cute, and people steadily put up with less of your shit, it's a pretty elegant system actually.

Kids aren't "stupid", they're just inexperienced. Kids actually have a mind-blowing ability to learn new information compared to adults, they just know less stuff. That's an important distinction to make. And morality, at least any legitimate form of morality, comes from introspection and experience, which kids just don't have, it's something you have to earn, that's not their fault. We've all been there, all of us have been selfish, shithead, amoral, sociopathic kids at some point who everyone only put up with because our faces were adorable.

(capcha: Join the millions, how fitting)

This right here? Bam. The answer. I hate it when people write off kids as dumb or stupid. There's a difference between being inexperienced and being an idiot.

Most kids seem to have sociopathic tendencies because they don't really learn to have empathy until they're a certain age. They're not stupid or inherently evil; They've just not developed that ability yet. I lifted some kittens by their tails when I was four years old. I loved cats, and I didn't understand that it hurt them. Then I accidentally dropped one. The owners got mad at me. After that incident, I didn't do it again. I'd learnt that cats also feel pain. I still feel bad thinking about that, actually...

And shapes bumping onto each other? I've dreamt stranger things than that as a kid, and I don't think I'm a sociopath. Though I guess the key-word here is "think"...>_>

 

[JennAnge]

Kids are not born with empathy. They develop it when they realize, somewhere between the ages of 3 and 6 if I recall, that they are one entity - not the entire universe - and that other people and creatures are other separate entities yet have similar existences to their own and can feel the same pain. 7 is a tad old for that behavior, but relapses are frequent for quite awhile, or could be the sign the child is having problems with something else - bullying, school, a family situation - and cannot express it otherwise. Not that the behavious should be brushed aside as 'just a phase' if you're in charge; part of the process that eventually consolidates the notion of other's feeling pain and the seeds of empathy comes from the child's caretakers explaining for the hundredth time that no, you can't pull Rover's ears because he has feelings TOO. Now go to your room until you can come out and say sorry to the dog and promise not to do it again. (I say dog because in my experience, cats tend to have in-built auto-correcting mechanisms that address this behaviour quite as effectively as a parent, unless they're old or have been declawed. Dogs, by contrast, will always come back for more as long as neither its owner or the kid is a raving nutcase)

And then there's the type of parent who passively encourage this sort of thing because they think it's a sign of character or high spirits, and the cat/dog/sibling affected will get over it anyway. That's a fertile ground for growing bullies. Not a psychopath, however. That's another thing entirely, and tellingly, usually only diagnosed in its very earliest phase from age 6 and up.

 

[CrystalViolet]

Then there's this little girl I know well that keeps having nightmares about geometrical shapes. She'll describe stretching rectangles and colliding spheres that bring her to tears Okay so that's less indicative of sociopathy but it's...something, I guess.

Oh gosh, I want her to be my friend!!! There is no way a little girl can say stuff like that without being reeeeeally damn interesting!!!

As for a sociopathic 7-year old. No, that's not how it works.

 

[Vivi22]

All kids have sociopathic tendencies. Empathy isn't something you're born with, it takes time to develop. Children have a hard time relating to other people. That's why we call it immaturity. It's natural.

Honestly I'm amazed people don't seem to remember what THEY were like as kids. You were a giant asshole. Don't sugarcoat it. Nobody will think less of you.

Indeed. You can't even accurately diagnose sociopathy until someone is basically an adult for exactly that reason. Kids will do all kinds of horrible things because they don't even realize they're horrible.

That said, if you're twelve year old is torturing the neighbourhood pets it's time to worry.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

A shrink could tell you if they are or not but just trying to diagnose a kid because they aren't as empathetic as an adult will get you nowhere. Also people saying kids have no empathy at all I disagree. Kids seem to be self obsessed most of the time, but they can surprise you with genuine concern. My nephew was in tears not long ago because he found out smoking gives you cancer and thought that meant my smoking father was going to die.

 

[Vault101]

aren't very young children sociopaths by definition? in that they haven't developed the concept of "other people experience things differently"

there's a test I think where they tell a story

Sally and her friend Betty are in a room with two boxes, Sally has a cookie and puts it in the green box, then leaves the room. When sally is gone betty takes the cookie and put it in the red box.

When sally comes back into the room where will she look for the cookie?

the "correct" answer is the green box because the kids understand that Sally doesn't know what Betty did, she experienced things differently.

 

[Johnny Impact]

Suspected? Once or twice.

Known? Absolutely yes. That would be my cousin Ashley. Her mother wouldn't allow consequences of any sort when raising her, so all she learned was she could do whatever she wanted, to whoever she wanted, whenever she wanted. Her younger brother grew up a nervous wreck and still has serious trust/socialization issues from all the shit she pulled. At family gatherings we had to put all the coats and purses in a locked room because she would steal everything out of them. The question I always had was why she was allowed to be there at all.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

A lot of sociopath tendencies (like, say, schizophrenia) don't develop until the start of adulthood, around the age of... I want to say twenty? So you really can just write it as kids being dicks.

However, there are symptoms of an upcoming mental disorder that can appear in kids, like hyper-sexuality, lack of empathy (in later adolescence), and pathological lying.

I can't pull up sources on this, best assurance I can give is that it's what I hear.

 

[newfoundsky]

Most children are sociopaths by virtue of being children. Diminished responsibility and all that.

I got my ass beat by a huge group of kids in middle school because they wanted to steal a cake I'd made for my mother. More recently, a friend's daughter (who had a broken leg) was pushed down a flight of stairs by three girls who thought she was 'too pretty'. Two of many, many, many, MANY such events that I have experienced, witnessed, or heard about.

Kids are just monsters all around.

Beyond bad parenting or some other factor. All children I have come in contact with are beyond sweet and have not a hateful bone in there body. The love animals, each other, and while they do fight it's usually resolved by explaining how you shouldn't hit each other over (insert object of desire) Also, they all like my favorite band. They like how it's "sometimes angry but he really sounds sad and that makes us sad but happy because some songs are also happy too."

I baby sit my friends children and the only age appropriate band I know are the Gaslight Anthem. Spread the word. Keeps your kids from killing cats.

 

[Unia]

After some thought I realize my worry was less that this boy was insane and more that he was growing up to be a prick. See, he was mostly especially polite and considerate so the cat incident was really unusual. When I told him he was hurting the cat his first answer was "Yeah, so?" How would you react to hearing that coming from a kid who, up to that point, had seemed almost too kind for their own good?

And the geometrical nightmares is a whole other story, really. Dreams tend to be nonsensical but usually you can trace the elements back to real life events. Nightmares convey real fears albeit through convoluted, non-sensical imagery. So I'm just bewildered what lines and rectangles are supposed to be. Hard to comfort someone when their problems make zero sense.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

So I'm just bewildered what lines and rectangles are supposed to be.

She hates math class. Is that so hard to understand?