Is everyone good at the core, or are there true sociopaths?

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I read a book called the The Sociopath Next Door, in which the psychologist author claims that some small percentage of people are pretty much awful to their core. Some of the stories of peoples' behavior are so bad you'd think they were fiction. The author makes the point that non-sociopaths get used sometimes because they can't believe someone would be like this. I've met some beauties in my life, but I've usually imagined that everyone is good underneath, and that nasty behavior is a result of stupidity, ego, unconsciousness, pain, etc. Maybe I'm naive. Curious what others think. I guess I'm asking about the existence of, or nature of, "evil".

On a practical level, maybe it doesn't matter. You act as needed. If you feel bad around someone, you get away from them. No need to have a concept about "evil" one way or another.  Though I think at times my idea that everyone is good underneath caused me to tolerate some hits from people when it would have been wiser to get away quickly.

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Oct 23, 2018 14:56:33 GMT -5 @robertc said:

I read a book called the The Sociopath Next Door, in which the psychologist author claims that some small percentage of people are pretty much awful to their core. Some of the stories of peoples' behavior are so bad you'd think they were fiction. The author makes the point that non-sociopaths get used sometimes because they can't believe someone would be like this. I've met some beauties in my life, but I've usually imagined that everyone is good underneath, and that nasty behavior is a result of stupidity, ego, unconsciousness, pain, etc. Maybe I'm naive. Curious what others think. I guess I'm asking about the existence of, or nature of, "evil".

On a practical level, maybe it doesn't matter. You act as needed. If you feel bad around someone, you get away from them. No need to have a concept about "evil" one way or another.  Though I think at times my idea that everyone is good underneath caused me to tolerate some hits from people when it would have been wiser to get away quickly.

From my meager knowledge of Psych, sociopaths are made, psychopaths are born. So perhaps sociopaths were good at some point in time. Psychopaths are born with the inability to feel empathy. "There but for the grace of God go I." Psychopaths feign empathy to fit in. But psychopaths aren't always violent. As a matter of fact, I read an article about a neuroscientist at UC Irvine who developed an brain MRI profile for psychopaths, and he is a psychopath.