This came up in the comments this week.
We have some characters in Teen Wolf that seem to fit the profile of sociopath or psychopath.
Those terms are now considered pretty much interchangeable with
various specialties and new definitions tacked on.
I'm not a professional and I don't pretend to be,
but I figured I'd have a layman's look at the differences.
Peter: Like a vengeful god - I will raise this Earth to the ground. I will take out all of them.
Starting with Peter, he was highly organized and methodical in his efforts to start a new pack
and straight up murder all the people involved with the conspiracy to burn
up his family and then those that covered up that crime.
If we're doing this properly, Peter would probably be considered a "disempathetic
sociopath" because he did justify his actions as loyalty to his family and
he did genuinely seem to like Malia and desire a relationship with her.
Peter: I honestly have no idea where you get your obstinacy from.
Malia: I get it from you. Peter: You certainly do not.
Malia: Something else is going on here. Something even you can't outrun.
Peter: There's nothing I can't outrun. Running runs in the family.
I tend to be more simplistic in my terms.
Peter was a classic psychopath his idea of right and wrong was wholly self-defined
Stiles: So you're not going to kill me?
Peter: Don't you understand yet? I'm not the bad guy here.
He showed a total disregard for social norms and the feelings of others.
He was manipulative early in his life and tended to treat most people as pawns or disposable.
But his actions - while completely insane - were the result of careful planning.
Sebastien: Go ahead, tell them it's me.
And watch me tear them apart in a matter of moments.
Sebastian Valet is almost the opposite of Peter in some ways.
He is highly disorganized and prone to outbursts
of anti-social violence that often place him in danger.
Marie-Jeanne: You have killed children.
Sebastien: I kill whatever dares to cross my path. It's what I am, what I become.
Part of this behavior stems from his belief that he is "too big to fail"
and literally un-killable. But it's also a sign of a deeper disorder.
I think at one point we probably all thought about what we would
do if we were suddenly handed Sebastien's power.
I mean his behavior is a choice.
He doesn't seem to struggle at all, giving in to his transformation right from the start.
He could have chosen to be a superhero like the Hulk.
Instead he's what some of the literature would call a hostile sociopath.
But again, in my simple layman's eyes,
Sebastian's flavor of crazy is impulsive and erratic and that makes him a classic sociopath.
While he gives indications that he fully understands the morals of his society,
he openly flaunts them with total disregard for the consequences.
Sebastien: You won't catch me. And you won't kill me. We're family Marie-Jeanne.
Theo: Seriously you couldn't have waited five minutes.
I should have stayed. I should have made sure.
At first blush one might group Sebastian and Theo into the same diagnosis.
Theo: What do you think Lydia? Am I doing it right?
Theo often gives in to wild and self-destructive impulses and
while he kept acting like he had a plan - if he did - he didn't stick to it for [ __ ]
Theo: I'm your alpha and all of you... all of you belong with me.
So yeah - Theo is a sociopath. But he's really one of those
31 Flavors of sociopath that's hard to pin down.
Like Theo thought he was this grand manipulator but he actually kind of sucked at it because he
didn't have a clear idea of what he wanted the manipulated people to do.
I mean he kind of hit gold with Liam but the
rest of the pack just sort of - I don't know - ignored him.
Theo: I'll tell you where your dad is you promise not to help Scott.
There he is!
He also kept claiming he wanted to belong to a pack,
which indicates that he craved the support of a group.
But then he gets a pack and the members are completely
disposable whenever they get in the way of something else he decides he wants.
And all of this is about Theo before his trip to his personal hell dimension.
We don't know how long he was in that loop, but I like to think that it was long enough
for him to learn empathy or maybe the process just rewired his brain somehow.
I mean wasn't that what the skinwalkers were doing
for Kira they were rewiring her brain so she wouldn't go all...
Anyway, after Theo's vacation he seemed to be a much more
stable individual who actually placed other needs above his own.
Liam: We're both getting caught. You can do it while you're running. I'm going down fighting.
Of course he might just be what they call a "high-functioning
sociopath" who has learned to mask his crazy a little bit better.