ŷ������

It feels almost wrong to rate a personal life story such as Sociopath: A Memoir. It shocked me how much I related to some of her experiences growing up. A lot of these traits are similar to being autistic. Especially growing up feeling 'weird', out of place, like we don’t fit in, wishing to spend lots of time alone��
However, I’m not one to armchair diagnose, and even if Patric’s diagnosis is incorrect, I took it at face value as I read through her experiences. This reads as her believing that she is a sociopath and doesn’t really mention neurodivergence.
There are reviews on here that have eloquently described this observation of the book already, before finishing I went to see if anybody else was feeling the same way as me and happened across quite a few reviews which further validated my thoughts and opinions here.
As an autistic individual, I too struggle to identify my emotions. It’s hard to tell here where the autistic traits ends and the sociopathic ones begin. I know I can feel emotions a bit too much sometimes that they overwhelm me, and Patric explains how she doesn’t seem to feel those emotions at all. But autism is a spectrum and will affect everybody on that spectrum differently. I feel like I am an empath, but many autistic individuals struggle with being empathetic towards others. As do sociopaths. I think because of my diagnoses with autism and ADHD too, I am bound to look through some of these characteristics and traits with that clouding my judgement.

It’s interesting how Patric discusses that she feels like sociopathy is also a spectrum disorder.
Overall, this is quite a quick read, is well-written, and is interesting to read from this perspective of a diagnosed sociopath (ASPD). I too have a diagnosed personality disorder, BPD, and know how horrible the stigmas surrounding such mental illnesses can be. Raising awareness is never a bad thing! My BPD gives me an overwhelming range, and rapid fire, of emotions, even if I don’t always understand them.
This book reminded me of the young woman, Vic, who makes TikTok videos sharing her experiences of being a psychopath (she opens every video with “hi, I’m a diagnosed psychopath��) which I think shows that people do use the terms “psychopath��, “sociopath��, and “ASPD�� interchangeably - I will have to do some further research here, as I always thought the diagnoses met different criteria - this is even mentioned in the book!
I have a lot of thoughts, so I may reflect and come back to this review as I couldn’t help but look at this book from a personal angle.

3.4 Stars