If you’re self-diagnosing after taking self-administered, online ‘tests’ then don’t. I wouldn’t want to diagnose you from your self-reporting and I’m a professional and ‘Cluster B’ disorders are my area of focus.
If you've been diagnosed as having Antisocial Personality Disorder after a battery of tests administered, over a period of time, by experienced professionals and, furthermore, had MRI scans done whilst undergoing other batteries of appropriate tests and been found to have the appropriate neurological differences that would differentiate you from a ‘sociopath’ then you might … might … be a ‘psychopath’.
Although an argument might be made in favour of a diagnosis of Sociopathy, unless you’re lying about it, the fact that you claim to be capable of empathy and remorse, however, rules a diagnosis of Psychopathy 100% out: those with sufficiently severe ASPD to be considered ‘psychopathic’ are incapable of either.
Furthermore, it’s not universally accepted that:
- Psychopathy is a valid term in the first place and not better considered simply descriptive of the most extreme expression(s) of ASPD;
- there is any real difference between ‘psychopaths’ and ‘sociopaths’
As I said, If you’re self-diagnosing after taking self-administered, online ‘tests’ then don’t.
But with separating the psychotic and sadist elements the word wouldn’t be psychopath anymore.
Psychosis not only has nothing whatsoever to do with Psychopathy — so called ‘psychopaths’ are, by definition, not psychotic.
That’s when I found the newly minted term of Dark Empath.
Don’t get your information from ‘self help’/’survivor’ bulletin boards and/or dodgy pop Psychology sites: Psychology Today is not in the ‘Top 100’ of reputable sources — cite it in your research and … unless it’s as an illustration of a phenomenon attributable to the existence of such sites by way of setting it in context or pinpointing its first occurrence … your submission will be marked down (if academic) or rejected (if professional).
Whilst the term ‘empathy’ is recognised and may be used to describe a characteristic of an individual or to highlight a deficit (as in the case of those with ASPD/NPD in particular), ‘empath’ is not a diagnosis you will hear from any reputable practitioner and if your ‘shrink’ likes to use the term, find a different counselor/psychoanalyst (you want a scientist ‘treating’ you, not a hippy) — the ability of those with ASPD and NPD to ‘read’ others is already sufficiently adequately described within the literature without the need to coin a meaningless term to restate a characteristic already attributed to them ¹.
You might have ASPD, you might not (as I said, I wouldn’t want to try and diagnose you at this stage) but, unless you’re an experienced professional yourself, you’re not in any position to self-diagnose … and, if you are a professional, you should know better than to try to (especially not from online ‘tests’ and articles in the likes of Psychology Today).
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Cf. the coining of the term ‘artillect’ by de Garis to describe the already extant term ‘artificial intelligence’, for an example of the spuriousness of doing so.
