>>43338724Okay, you want me to go through the full set of all the ways he's not one?
Fine.
I've got nothing better to do right now.
Before we start, I'll make it clear both that I'm going to be discussing Doyle's Holmes here, as I'm only passingly familiar with the BBC series, and that I will be using the more modern term of "psychopath" over the archaic "sociopath" (while there are arguably differences, they lie primarily in whether one believes the causative factors are psychological or sociological, the behavioral patterns and mental factors are essentially the same).
Robert Hare, a leading expert on the topic and creator of the PCL-R, one of the standard diagnostic tools for psychopathic personality disorder, describes psychopathy as being characterized by four major facets, or groups of traits: the interpersonal, the affective, the lifestyle, and the antisocial.
Into the first facet, the interpersonal, fall superficial or glib charm, a grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological deception, and a certain manipulative cunning. The second facet, the affective, encompasses a lack of remorse or guilt, a shallow emotional range, a callous lack of empathy, and a failure to accept responsibility for ones own actions. The third facet, the lifestyle, is made up of a need for stimulation and proneness to boredom, a parasitic lifestyle, a lack of realistic long-term goals, impulsiveness, and irresponsibility. The fourth facet, the antisocial includes poor behavioral controls, tendencies towards early behavioral problems and juvenile delinquency, an increased likelihood to break parole (or other conditional release), and a certain criminal versatility. There are two additional "miscellaneous" aspects as well, a series of short-term relationships and sexual promiscuity.
