Do you think Eric and Dylan were sociopaths? Why or why not? (2021)

Although I have made a post about this once, I want do it again to try and get more responses, especially if more people have joined and if any of you have changed your minds.

If you think Eric and Dylan were Sociopaths? Where on the spectrum were they?

Pretty obvious you read my reply on the other post and that gave you the inspiration for this post, lol. So let me copy and paste since I got an answer ready for this post.


There’s PLENTY of non-sociopaths that have committed murder. Yea, it is possible to have empathy and still be willing to kill certain people, given specific circumstances. I’m sorry, but if anyone really thinks Eric and Dylan have the diagnosis that is known as *sociopathy*, you’re a complete fucking idiot. Do your research on what a sociopath is, what Eric and Dylan were, and you should come to your conclusions.
It’s worth mentioning, serial killers VS mass shooters are two VERY different breeds. And most of the time, serial killers are sociopaths and mass shooters aren’t.
This is really a whole discussion in of itself, but a serial killers kills purely for psychological pleasure, usually doesn’t even know there victims. It’s not personal AT ALL. For a lot of mass shooters, it’s very personal. And even if not, they choose a specific location and make it a big spectacle for the world to see, and forfeit there lives to either suicide, death by police, or life in prison. A sociopath serial killer doesn’t want that AT ALL. They usually are fathers and husbands, have successful jobs, live completely double lives, while they secretly murder dozens for decades. Usually there family and friends are SHOCKED and say they were normal good people. They don’t want anyone to know to get away with it, they won’t shoot up a school in broad daylight for the world to see. They’ll sneak out of there house at 3am, break into someone’s house and kill them, return home before there family wakes up... no one knows and they completely get away with it.

A mass shooter is usually isolated, bullied, and suffers from some sort of mental illness.

Again, usually serial killers are sociopaths and mass shooters aren’t. And the two groups of people are COMPLETELY different.

Sociopath serial killers examples are Ted Bundy, John Wayne gacy, Jack the Ripper, the green river killer, the list goes on and on.

Non-sociopath mass shooters are Eric, Dylan, Nikolas Cruz, seung hui Cho, Adam Lanza. Again the list goes on and on.

If you ignorantly mistake the two, or anything otherwise, this massive paragraph should be a good education for you.

From what I understand sociopath is kind of an oudated diagnosis. To me it seems like a stereotype, I don't think you can typically pigeonhole peoples personalities into a single archetype like sociopath/psychopath.

I don't think either of them lacked empathy, but it had certainly been diminished, at least by the time they did the shooting. Lack of empthy doesn't mean you go on to be violent, though. People choose to be violent, and a lack of empathy can make it easier, but I'm certain there are people out there who lack empathy but who understand that violence is wrong, either because it would be against their self-interest or out of some kind of moral but not affective sense.

VoDKaComeHere wrote:

Pretty obvious you read my reply on the other post and that gave you the inspiration for this post, lol. So let me copy and paste since I got an answer ready for this post.


There’s PLENTY of non-sociopaths that have committed murder. Yea, it is possible to have empathy and still be willing to kill certain people, given specific circumstances. I’m sorry, but if anyone really thinks Eric and Dylan have the diagnosis that is known as *sociopathy*, you’re a complete fucking idiot. Do your research on what a sociopath is, what Eric and Dylan were, and you should come to your conclusions.
It’s worth mentioning, serial killers VS mass shooters are two VERY different breeds. And most of the time, serial killers are sociopaths and mass shooters aren’t.
This is really a whole discussion in of itself, but a serial killers kills purely for psychological pleasure, usually doesn’t even know there victims. It’s not personal AT ALL. For a lot of mass shooters, it’s very personal. And even if not, they choose a specific location and make it a big spectacle for the world to see, and forfeit there lives to either suicide, death by police, or life in prison. A sociopath serial killer doesn’t want that AT ALL. They usually are fathers and husbands, have successful jobs, live completely double lives, while they secretly murder dozens for decades. Usually there family and friends are SHOCKED and say they were normal good people. They don’t want anyone to know to get away with it, they won’t shoot up a school in broad daylight for the world to see. They’ll sneak out of there house at 3am, break into someone’s house and kill them, return home before there family wakes up... no one knows and they completely get away with it.

A mass shooter is usually isolated, bullied, and suffers from some sort of mental illness.

Again, usually serial killers are sociopaths and mass shooters aren’t. And the two groups of people are COMPLETELY different.

Sociopath serial killers examples are Ted Bundy, John Wayne gacy, Jack the Ripper, the green river killer, the list goes on and on.

Non-sociopath mass shooters are Eric, Dylan, Nikolas Cruz, seung hui Cho, Adam Lanza. Again the list goes on and on.

If you ignorantly mistake the two, or anything otherwise, this massive paragraph should be a good education for you.

Very simplistic. I liked definite conclusion about Jack the Ripper's sociopathy, considering it's not known (for sure) who Jack the Ripper is.

Ligeya wrote:

VoDKaComeHere wrote:

Pretty obvious you read my reply on the other post and that gave you the inspiration for this post, lol. So let me copy and paste since I got an answer ready for this post.


There’s PLENTY of non-sociopaths that have committed murder. Yea, it is possible to have empathy and still be willing to kill certain people, given specific circumstances. I’m sorry, but if anyone really thinks Eric and Dylan have the diagnosis that is known as *sociopathy*, you’re a complete fucking idiot. Do your research on what a sociopath is, what Eric and Dylan were, and you should come to your conclusions.
It’s worth mentioning, serial killers VS mass shooters are two VERY different breeds. And most of the time, serial killers are sociopaths and mass shooters aren’t.
This is really a whole discussion in of itself, but a serial killers kills purely for psychological pleasure, usually doesn’t even know there victims. It’s not personal AT ALL. For a lot of mass shooters, it’s very personal. And even if not, they choose a specific location and make it a big spectacle for the world to see, and forfeit there lives to either suicide, death by police, or life in prison. A sociopath serial killer doesn’t want that AT ALL. They usually are fathers and husbands, have successful jobs, live completely double lives, while they secretly murder dozens for decades. Usually there family and friends are SHOCKED and say they were normal good people. They don’t want anyone to know to get away with it, they won’t shoot up a school in broad daylight for the world to see. They’ll sneak out of there house at 3am, break into someone’s house and kill them, return home before there family wakes up... no one knows and they completely get away with it.

A mass shooter is usually isolated, bullied, and suffers from some sort of mental illness.

Again, usually serial killers are sociopaths and mass shooters aren’t. And the two groups of people are COMPLETELY different.

Sociopath serial killers examples are Ted Bundy, John Wayne gacy, Jack the Ripper, the green river killer, the list goes on and on.

Non-sociopath mass shooters are Eric, Dylan, Nikolas Cruz, seung hui Cho, Adam Lanza. Again the list goes on and on.

If you ignorantly mistake the two, or anything otherwise, this massive paragraph should be a good education for you.

Very simplistic. I liked definite conclusion about Jack the Ripper's sociopathy, considering it's not known (for sure) who Jack the Ripper is.

Laughed at the fact he called people "stupid" or "idiotic" for going against his analysis yet didn't have the decency to write out his diatribe with proper punctuation and grammar.

Ivan wrote:

Ligeya wrote:

VoDKaComeHere wrote:

Pretty obvious you read my reply on the other post and that gave you the inspiration for this post, lol. So let me copy and paste since I got an answer ready for this post.


There’s PLENTY of non-sociopaths that have committed murder. Yea, it is possible to have empathy and still be willing to kill certain people, given specific circumstances. I’m sorry, but if anyone really thinks Eric and Dylan have the diagnosis that is known as *sociopathy*, you’re a complete fucking idiot. Do your research on what a sociopath is, what Eric and Dylan were, and you should come to your conclusions.
It’s worth mentioning, serial killers VS mass shooters are two VERY different breeds. And most of the time, serial killers are sociopaths and mass shooters aren’t.
This is really a whole discussion in of itself, but a serial killers kills purely for psychological pleasure, usually doesn’t even know there victims. It’s not personal AT ALL. For a lot of mass shooters, it’s very personal. And even if not, they choose a specific location and make it a big spectacle for the world to see, and forfeit there lives to either suicide, death by police, or life in prison. A sociopath serial killer doesn’t want that AT ALL. They usually are fathers and husbands, have successful jobs, live completely double lives, while they secretly murder dozens for decades. Usually there family and friends are SHOCKED and say they were normal good people. They don’t want anyone to know to get away with it, they won’t shoot up a school in broad daylight for the world to see. They’ll sneak out of there house at 3am, break into someone’s house and kill them, return home before there family wakes up... no one knows and they completely get away with it.

A mass shooter is usually isolated, bullied, and suffers from some sort of mental illness.

Again, usually serial killers are sociopaths and mass shooters aren’t. And the two groups of people are COMPLETELY different.

Sociopath serial killers examples are Ted Bundy, John Wayne gacy, Jack the Ripper, the green river killer, the list goes on and on.

Non-sociopath mass shooters are Eric, Dylan, Nikolas Cruz, seung hui Cho, Adam Lanza. Again the list goes on and on.

If you ignorantly mistake the two, or anything otherwise, this massive paragraph should be a good education for you.

Very simplistic. I liked definite conclusion about Jack the Ripper's sociopathy, considering it's not known (for sure) who Jack the Ripper is.

Laughed at the fact he called people "stupid" or "idiotic" for going against his analysis yet didn't have the decency to write out his diatribe with proper punctuation and grammar.

I don’t care to worry about making sure I have completely correct punctuation when discussing a topic on a website for people interested in Columbine, lol. I was simply making a point, and was interested in typing out the huge paragraph not worrying about my grammar, this isn’t an essay for something important. And I’m over here laughing you LITERALLY think Eric and Dylan were sociopaths. So YES, that does make you an idiot, at least on that topic. Yes Eric and Dylan lacked empathy and were incapable of it like a sociopath okay lmao. Diatribe? No. You just take it that way, because you misinterpreted it as a personal attack on those who believe Eric and Dylan to be sociopaths, when really it was me discussing why that literally cannot be true, and explaining examples of actual sociopaths. Bud, I literally go on this website like once every two or three months and I ALWAYS see you on here. You’ve been on here, a website about Columbine and mass shootings, every day for years. I don’t give a single fuck about making sure I have proper grammar for someone like YOU. Your opinion is completely irrelevant to me.

VoDKaComeHere wrote:

Ivan wrote:

Ligeya wrote:

VoDKaComeHere wrote:

Pretty obvious you read my reply on the other post and that gave you the inspiration for this post, lol. So let me copy and paste since I got an answer ready for this post.


There’s PLENTY of non-sociopaths that have committed murder. Yea, it is possible to have empathy and still be willing to kill certain people, given specific circumstances. I’m sorry, but if anyone really thinks Eric and Dylan have the diagnosis that is known as *sociopathy*, you’re a complete fucking idiot. Do your research on what a sociopath is, what Eric and Dylan were, and you should come to your conclusions.
It’s worth mentioning, serial killers VS mass shooters are two VERY different breeds. And most of the time, serial killers are sociopaths and mass shooters aren’t.
This is really a whole discussion in of itself, but a serial killers kills purely for psychological pleasure, usually doesn’t even know there victims. It’s not personal AT ALL. For a lot of mass shooters, it’s very personal. And even if not, they choose a specific location and make it a big spectacle for the world to see, and forfeit there lives to either suicide, death by police, or life in prison. A sociopath serial killer doesn’t want that AT ALL. They usually are fathers and husbands, have successful jobs, live completely double lives, while they secretly murder dozens for decades. Usually there family and friends are SHOCKED and say they were normal good people. They don’t want anyone to know to get away with it, they won’t shoot up a school in broad daylight for the world to see. They’ll sneak out of there house at 3am, break into someone’s house and kill them, return home before there family wakes up... no one knows and they completely get away with it.

A mass shooter is usually isolated, bullied, and suffers from some sort of mental illness.

Again, usually serial killers are sociopaths and mass shooters aren’t. And the two groups of people are COMPLETELY different.

Sociopath serial killers examples are Ted Bundy, John Wayne gacy, Jack the Ripper, the green river killer, the list goes on and on.

Non-sociopath mass shooters are Eric, Dylan, Nikolas Cruz, seung hui Cho, Adam Lanza. Again the list goes on and on.

If you ignorantly mistake the two, or anything otherwise, this massive paragraph should be a good education for you.

Very simplistic. I liked definite conclusion about Jack the Ripper's sociopathy, considering it's not known (for sure) who Jack the Ripper is.

Laughed at the fact he called people "stupid" or "idiotic" for going against his analysis yet didn't have the decency to write out his diatribe with proper punctuation and grammar.

I don’t care to worry about making sure I have completely correct punctuation when discussing a topic on a website for people interested in Columbine, lol. I was simply making a point, and was interested in typing out the huge paragraph not worrying about my grammar, this isn’t an essay for something important. And I’m over here laughing you LITERALLY think Eric and Dylan were sociopaths. So YES, that does make you an idiot, at least on that topic. Yes Eric and Dylan lacked empathy and were incapable of it like a sociopath okay lmao. Diatribe? No. You just take it that way, because you misinterpreted it as a personal attack on those who believe Eric and Dylan to be sociopaths, when really it was me discussing why that literally cannot be true, and explaining examples of actual sociopaths. Bud, I literally go on this website like once every two or three months and I ALWAYS see you on here. You’ve been on here, a website about Columbine and mass shootings, every day for years. I don’t give a single fuck about making sure I have proper grammar for someone like YOU. Your opinion is completely irrelevant to me.

Black and white thinking is typical of those who lack the comprehension or ability to properly assess situations like this in depth. As for your personal attacks it points to the fact you have nothing really substantial to add and you're offended someone disagreed with you on the internet so you went ahead and attempted to fault them for what they do in their spare time. This doesn't just apply to me but to many contributors on this forum who you have shamed with your simplistic attempt at a rebuttal.

By the way there are various examples of serial killers not being sociopaths/psychopaths and visa versa. Mark Barton is a great example of a psychopathic workplace/mass killer and your so called knowledge would rule him out of the equation and assume he was "mentally ill". A man who lied about murdering his mother in law for years and had a tattered history including many elements that point to what he was.

I don't think that Eric and Dylan were sociopaths. As many have already said, I believe that they were seriously mentally ill and that should have been taken more seriously than it was at the time.

Eric and Dylan weren't sociopaths, they were just angry at the school and the people there. Eric did once mention in his journal that "I wish I was a sociopath" I think.

(Delete)

I think that Eric was given a medicine that made him have certain symptoms and that's why they changed him to Luvox. however I believe that none of them were sociopaths under any context

Eric and Dylan werent sociopaths, they discussed on wich director would make a movie about them, sociopaths don't want to be recognized, sociopaths want to live an ordinary life without been caught

I don't know if they were that way because I never met them and I'm not an expert.

But the mere act of killing random people does meet some psychopathic/sociopath traits.

majipan wrote:

From what I understand sociopath is kind of an oudated diagnosis. To me it seems like a stereotype, I don't think you can typically pigeonhole peoples personalities into a single archetype like sociopath/psychopath.

I don't think either of them lacked empathy, but it had certainly been diminished, at least by the time they did the shooting. Lack of empthy doesn't mean you go on to be violent, though. People choose to be violent, and a lack of empathy can make it easier, but I'm certain there are people out there who lack empathy but who understand that violence is wrong, either because it would be against their self-interest or out of some kind of moral but not affective sense.

Sociopath is just another word for psychopath if you go by wikipedia.

myshame wrote:

majipan wrote:

From what I understand sociopath is kind of an oudated diagnosis. To me it seems like a stereotype, I don't think you can typically pigeonhole peoples personalities into a single archetype like sociopath/psychopath.

I don't think either of them lacked empathy, but it had certainly been diminished, at least by the time they did the shooting. Lack of empthy doesn't mean you go on to be violent, though. People choose to be violent, and a lack of empathy can make it easier, but I'm certain there are people out there who lack empathy but who understand that violence is wrong, either because it would be against their self-interest or out of some kind of moral but not affective sense.

Sociopath is just another word for psychopath if you go by wikipedia.

Except, thats not entirely true, though.

Its easy to just dismiss them as psychopaths or sociopaths. Im not the one to speculate as Im not a psychologist or know enough about personality disorders.

Its true, however, that some of them do lack empathy for other people and that this could be associated with narssism or psychopathy or something similar.

Yet, there are tons of psychopaths out there and tons of people with ASPD and they dont murder people. There are tons and tons of people with depression and mental illnesses and they dont kill people. Most people with mental illnesses are, in fact, more likely to be victims rather than perpetratrors of violence.
They did a podcast with Reid Meloy and Frank Ochberg here.


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. Ochberg worked on the profiles of the two.

I def do believe that most of these shooters have a chemical imballance inside of their brain and for some it can imply lack of empathy for other people. But the path to violence are much more complex.

VoDKaComeHere wrote:

Pretty obvious you read my reply on the other post and that gave you the inspiration for this post, lol. So let me copy and paste since I got an answer ready for this post.


There’s PLENTY of non-sociopaths that have committed murder. Yea, it is possible to have empathy and still be willing to kill certain people, given specific circumstances. I’m sorry, but if anyone really thinks Eric and Dylan have the diagnosis that is known as *sociopathy*, you’re a complete fucking idiot. Do your research on what a sociopath is, what Eric and Dylan were, and you should come to your conclusions.
It’s worth mentioning, serial killers VS mass shooters are two VERY different breeds. And most of the time, serial killers are sociopaths and mass shooters aren’t.
This is really a whole discussion in of itself, but a serial killers kills purely for psychological pleasure, usually doesn’t even know there victims. It’s not personal AT ALL. For a lot of mass shooters, it’s very personal. And even if not, they choose a specific location and make it a big spectacle for the world to see, and forfeit there lives to either suicide, death by police, or life in prison. A sociopath serial killer doesn’t want that AT ALL. They usually are fathers and husbands, have successful jobs, live completely double lives, while they secretly murder dozens for decades. Usually there family and friends are SHOCKED and say they were normal good people. They don’t want anyone to know to get away with it, they won’t shoot up a school in broad daylight for the world to see. They’ll sneak out of there house at 3am, break into someone’s house and kill them, return home before there family wakes up... no one knows and they completely get away with it.

A mass shooter is usually isolated, bullied, and suffers from some sort of mental illness.

Again, usually serial killers are sociopaths and mass shooters aren’t. And the two groups of people are COMPLETELY different.

Sociopath serial killers examples are Ted Bundy, John Wayne gacy, Jack the Ripper, the green river killer, the list goes on and on.

Non-sociopath mass shooters are Eric, Dylan, Nikolas Cruz, seung hui Cho, Adam Lanza. Again the list goes on and on.

If you ignorantly mistake the two, or anything otherwise, this massive paragraph should be a good education for you.

Recent research over the years have suggested that some mass shooters do have psychopathic traits, though,and not all of them are bullied. Many of them are, on the other hand. Lack of empathy isnt a single cause for explanation, but it can be a part of the whole picture. Theres some research that suggests that exists even amongst far right terrorists, but, again, this is just extremely complex and I think its better to just listen to people that have the right expertise, cause its complicated, and easy answers doesnt exist.

lognifiiskurk wrote:

I don't think that Eric and Dylan were sociopaths. As many have already said, I believe that they were seriously mentally ill and that should have been taken more seriously than it was at the time.

I have hardly run across any expert suggesting Eric or Dylan were sociopaths.

The FBI- profiles suggests that Eric was a psychopath and that Dylan was depressed. Not really sure wether they diagnose them or it was just an hypothesis.
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