Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Tony from Skins = portrait of a teenage sociopath

I recently finished watching the first series of the British television show Skins, which features the game playing of a young sociopath. He is smart, charming, promiscuous, manipulative, risk seeking, without regard for the safety of himself or others, deceitful, and lacks remorse for the problems he causes for others, presumably only for his own pleasure or gain. He quotes sociopathic literary references:
Shakespeare: Conscience is but a word that cowards use, Devised at first to keep the strong in awe.

Nietzsche: The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.
His friends admire him but are afraid of him:
Sid: You freak me out sometimes.
Tony: But it's never dull, is it?
And in his description of himself:
Life in Bristol is boring as sh**, so you gotta make your own fun. Keep it interesting. Try new things. I think that the best things happen when you're the one in control. My best mate Sid loves to do whatever I tell him, it's pretty safe. Actually, most of my friends do what I tell them to do. After all, I'm Tony Stonem. Michelle is the sexiest girl in school and, of course, she's my girlfriend - wouldn't have it any other way. Occasionally I do the reading thing and right now it's La Nausee by Jean-Paul Sartre.
Tony is a very accurate depiction of a teenage sociopath who is enamored with his talents and ability to control his friends. He is also very textbook in his propensity to overreach in his game playing and his recklessness in choosing targets and in not bothering to remain anonymous -- things that more mature sociopaths have learned are worth extra care.

The only reason I hesitated in diagnosing him as a sociopath is that I wondered whether he was a narcissist instead. Narcissism and sociopathy can be very similar in how they manifest themselves. a narcissist supposedly
1. has a grandiose sense of self-importance
2. is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
3. believes that he or she is "special" and unique
4. requires excessive admiration
5. has a sense of entitlement
6. is interpersonally exploitative
7. lacks empathy
8. is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him or her
9. shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes
Sociopaths can also seem to have many of these qualities. Sociopaths may be more discreet in real life, but as some readers have noticed, sociopaths can frequently seem full of themselves, particularly when writing blogs about themselves. The real distinction between a sociopath and a narcissist is not the whats but the whys. Sociopath traits result from faulty emotional wiring and narcissist traits result from self delusion. I think this difference is illustrated very well here. Without hearing the inner monologue of decision-making, it is hard to tell whether someone is a sociopath or just a narcissist.

Here's why I think Tony is a sociopath rather than a narcissist: when one of his schemes falls apart in a big way, he tells his friend Sid, "I know I'm a wanker, but you all like me that way." To me, that sort of self-awareness can only be found amongst sociopaths.

19 comments:

  1. I thought sociopaths had a sense of consistency that narcissists lacked. To the outside world sociopaths appear to always maintain a sense of calm -- sociopaths never got really nervous, excited or surprised.

    Narcissists tend to have an annoying way of taking everything personally. They react to things that have absolutely nothing to do with them. They are constantly getting excited or deflated based on how others respond to them.

    In general I think narcissists tend to overreact more and display a more distorted sense of reality.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "the real distinction between a sociopath and a narcissist is not the whats but the whys. sociopath traits result from faulty emotional wiring and narcissist traits result from self delusion"

    That is blatantly incorrect. Self-delusion is part of the narcissistic makeup, but the whole of the narc's traits to do not emerge from the self-delusion. I would also be quite interested to see your claims backed up by actual research, which I am fairly confident you'd be unable to produce.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Self-delusion is not the whole makeup of narcissism, no, but it can also be a part of the sociopathic makeup. The point here is that narcissists act the way they do because of the emotions that they feel, and that sociopaths act because of the lack of emotions we feel. Those emotions can cause the sorts of delusional behaviors listed in the blog, but just as well can a sociopath's lack of emotion cause such behaviors.

    I'm not sure if your defense is indicative of an insecurity you may have, but it seems that you've lost perspective of the whole message being conveyed. Unsuccessful troll.

    -Morpheus

    ReplyDelete
  4. Chunky from rugrats is more of a sociopath than him :/

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  5. Definitely a narcissist

    ReplyDelete
  6. He genuinely cares for his sister, Effie. He definitely isn't high on empathy but he does have one, which makes him just a jerk, not a sociopath or a narc.

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    1. Right now I consider a narcisist to be relatively harmless. They just want attention. They can never get enough. But the sociopath wants your soul. They want everything you have. When you leave them, you will never have felt so empty. Little my little, friends, money, happiness, a sense of who you are, will be ripped out from under you. And you won't really see it coming until they tell you you're not useful any longer, because you're getting too close an they cannot have that. AND THEN YOU'LL BE ALONE!!!

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