What is the difference between a narcissist and a sociopath? Narcissist is driven by self-interest. They're driven by the supply they get from other people. Being interested in them, looking at them, giving them praise and attention. A sociopath is driven more from the sense of deriving pleasure out of hurting other people or getting away with something around other people or sneaking around and getting successfully fooling people. That sort of thing where they enjoy the supply because they know that they are hurting others. They enjoy the supply because they know that they can control others. Narcissist's form of control is more of a self-serving one where they are actually enjoying the supply from the praise itself. Sociopath is deceitful and callous and calculating. They are high-risk takers that enjoy doing things like setting up situations where perhaps they are cheating. They cheat with multiple people. They know you know that you can't prove it. Then when you catch them, they don't care. They just keep playing the game. They enjoy the pain that you get from it and you staying invested in the game. A narcissist is going to be more likely to try and hide the cheating with covert and secretive affairs and then try to weasel their way out of it with excuses and gaslighting and they don't want to be seen in that light or they play a victim and say, oh my gosh, I'm so bad. I'll never do it again. And then of course, they're doing it again. So that's just one example. So remember that both of these have narcissistic traits. Asociopath will have all the narcissistic traits that there are to have. They can be charming. They can, they will love bomb and devalue. It will look a little different. It will be more calculating or more exacting. They both tend toward grandiosity, right? They have big egotistical visions of who they believe they are and they live through that lens. They both will take credit for other people's successes and point fingers and gaslight and twist the truth when they need to get out of something or get away with something or there's something to blame, right? They are both self-serving in the sense that they are only out for themselves. They don't have empathy to give to others, to connect with others through an empathic experience. They are seeing the world both through the lens of their delusional state of believing that they are the center of the world and the most important thing in the world. They both lack empathy. They both have awareness of what empathy is, but they lack empathy. They understand that you're going through something. The narcissist just doesn't care. Wow, yeah, okay, but what about me? That's kind of how they are. So see a path picks up on what it is you're going through and starts poking at it, starts pushing on it, enjoys the pleasure they get from any pain or suffering or struggle that you're having in the situation. They like to set you up and pull the rug out from under you just to watch you fall. There is a sense of entitlement with both of them. So when you're talking to them, when you're in a relationship or getting to know them, a narcissist will talk about themself and always twist things back to themself. So you could be talking about something completely unrelated to the narcissistic person's life and somehow they'll find a way to make it about them. They will twist things around or someone they know that then brings it back to something they did with that person that then brings it back to themself. You know what I'm talking about here? If you've been around this, it feels like someone that can only look in the mirror when you're talking to them. When you're around a sociopathic person, they will want to talk more about you because what they're doing is grooming you. They're trying to figure out about you so that they can use the information later on against you, right? So they will seem more interested in you than a narcissist will, straight up narcissist. A narcissist will want to be perceived by others in a good light. They don't generally like for people to see that anything could possibly be wrong with them or they don't want anyone in the world to know about any of the toxic stuff that they do, okay? A sociopathic person wants to be seen as suits the situation. They want to be perceived as the role that they're filling in that situation and they want to be seen very well in that role. So they do not want to be seen at all. They just want to watch you and take from you what they can by all the manipulation tools that narcissists use only they're doing it for the purpose of watching you squirm and watching you hurt. A narcissist might just ignore all the social rules. So they know they're there, but they're like, yeah, that doesn't apply to me. Or sneaky, you know, oh, I didn't do that, you know, but they're ignoring the social rules and the ways we get along with others, the ways we function in society, a sociopath will deliberately break those rules just to push the line, just to get away with something, just to get the thrill out of deceiving people, out of hurting people, out of taking from people. A narcissist may have some level of self-awareness, but a sociopath has clear level of self-awareness. They know exactly what they're doing and they are doing it on purpose. They may not admit even to themselves that some of the stuff is on purpose. They also have known sociopathic person and they did not necessarily admit to themselves what they would do is make excuses like a narcissistic person will as to why the behaviors they were doing were necessary, right? And then later they'd say it's self-protection and then later they'd say, yeah, I kind of liked it when you hurt. So you see, there's gonna be varying degrees of self-awareness, but most sociopaths have some idea that they are taking, that they are using, that they are hurting and that they like it. Narcissist is preoccupied with the image that other people see them as, with getting their ego filled, with the supply meaning your attention toward them being positive or even not positive, they like the negative too, because it means you're engaged with them. It means you are giving to them. They're taking from you. And narcissists is also, they want the approval and the admiration, right? They want all of that. A sociopath is preoccupied with winning. They're preoccupied with setting up situations where there is a direct win, right? And by win that means you knock down, you hurt, you sad, you reactive. And them sitting back and cooling looking at you and soaking up all of that attention, which is their supply. A narcissist will be bullying or demeaning and devaluing in the ways that they are, which is, as it relates to them, lesser than them, right? You put everyone beneath them. A sociopath will be cunning about it. They will be strategic about it and they will set people up to have situations where it proves they are better, even though it's not actually proving it. But you know what I mean? They will preload things so that you fall into a trap and then they watch you struggle. It's basically they do take downs. Another thing with a sociopath is that they intentionally harm. I was kind of talking about this earlier, but they're doing things to hurt you on purpose because they enjoy the hurting you. They actually get off on it really. They need it. It is there, it's like their food, right? You'll notice with sociopathic people that if they don't break the law directly, they push the line, okay? And they know they're doing it. And somehow they get away with it oftentimes. They don't always get away with it, but sometimes and often they do. So a narcissist is less interested in that. They're more interested in just the gains that they get on the day-to-day basis from everyone that they are seeking attention and supply from. Those are just some of the differences between a narcissist and a sociopath have you experienced either one and what have you experienced both? What did you notice? Let me know some of the other signs that you might have seen and we'll talk more about this. I am Lisa Callucci and I will see you guys next time. Bye bye.