Dr. Eric Bender

I've been asked this before.

So the psychopath term means you're essentially people say you were born that way.

Sociopath, we used to say, means over time society created and morphed you into that.

We kind of use them interchangeably now is really psychopathic or sociopathic, and it doesn't necessarily mean you were born that way or society created you that way.

There's an idea that sociopath adapted to that behavior because it helped them survive in the world around them.

When it comes to dating, psychopathy is probably an extreme version of narcissism.

one of the traits for narcissistic personality disorder is you lack empathy.

So an extreme version would be, say, Ted Bundy or a serial killer or something like that.

So I think when people are talking about that, they're talking about extreme narcissists.

And I want to understand, well, what's going on?

I want to start helping people.

And I see a lot of people dating.

I have patients in California, New York, Florida.

I see a lot of people dating different places, different ages.

And we'll talk about people they're dating and say, oh, do you feel like any of that's concerning?

And sometimes this stuff comes up.

Whether they're a sociopath or not, I don't know.

But if they're doing things that are pretty harmful to you, maybe it's not the right fit.

Let's forget about labels.

But it's just like you asked about other language, bipolar and mania.