The concept of sociopathy in psychiatry
From a medical point of view, sociopathy is a form of mental pathology: psychopathy. You need to understand that in this case we are not talking about whims or bad parenting, but about the actual mental disorder in which the individual formed a misconception about the relationship between people. Because sociopaths are not capable to understand the underlying motives of human affection, they believe that the only meaningful form of relationship – the manipulation of others to achieve their goals. Such people are usually selfish, concerned with their interests and with the ease of ignoring social morality, if its norms interfere with their plans. In addition, they are suspicious to the attempts of others to associate with them, believing that they just want to use.
In a broader sense, a sociopath is a person who is experiencing prejudice against most members of society, social norms and stereotypes, and not ashamed of this prejudice to Express. As a rule, such individuals quite unsociable, sullen and often aggressive.
Sociopathy and misanthropy
Sociopathy are very often confused with misanthropy, that is, with hostility to all mankind. Indeed, the symptoms of sociopathy and misanthropy are similar, but we must not forget that sociopathy is a mental disorder and misanthropy is just a system of views on the world and people. In addition, a significant difference between these concepts lies in the fact that sociopaths in the first place, peculiar opposition to society and its laws, and misanthropes only characterized by opposition to the rest of humanity.
Finally, sociopaths are not capable of a different kind of affection, while misanthropes, in principle, can be friends and fall in love. Another thing is that they impose relatively high demands on the people who are willing to allow the "inner circle" of communication, so often misanthropes, and sociopaths alone.