Lately I've received copies of several medical records for both of my biological parents (both are deceased). I wanted these files primarily because I'm expecting my first child and want my family to be as healthy as possible, and I also for my own health information. I've been going over my father's records for the last couple of days (there's a LOT to look through), and it's brought back many painful memories of when I knew him. Today I found some psychiatric records for him, and amongst other things, the psychiatrist wrote that my father showed "classic sociopathic symptoms", was cold, and in the psychiatrist's opinion has little or no conscience. Actually this makes a lot of sense to me given my experiences with him. Looking back I really think he was incapable of love or loving feelings.

Anyway, my question is, if my father in fact was a sociopath or had some form of antisocial personality disorder, is there a genetic component? Is it possible that my children could inherit it? And if there is a known genetic component, what are the chances of them getting it? My bio mom had schizophrenia, which is partially genetic, and as a result I had a 10% of getting it myself. That's what I mean by chances. Thanks!

Hi Orange. It's been quite some time since I've studied anything related to psychology or genetics, so I for one could not give you a completely definitive answer, but I don't feel you have much to worry about. To the best of my knowledge, classic sociopathology is far more of an issue of nurture than nature. The process usually begins very early in life with an inability of the young child to bond with the mother. Without this strong maternal bond, the child may later have difficulty naturally developing feelings of empathy for others. If not treated, problems can continue to develop well into adolesence, as it is not until this time that the prefrontal cortex, the last part of the brain to finish developing is completely formed. This is the part of the brain largely responsible for controlling impulsive behavior, and imparting the ability to reason and forsee the potential consequences of our actions. This strongly correlates to "Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development." Occasionally, in people not exposed to proper social settings and appropriate passages of growth, the prefrontal cortex fails to develop fully, leading some to never achieve Kohlberg's proposed fifth moral stage. This can happen anywhere in adolesence, and it's manifestation in adults is commonly referred to as asocial behavior. Asocial behavior can also be caused by a variety of illnesses and certain brain injuries. The difference between asocial behavior and classic sociopathology, is that the sociopath has no inherent faculties or ability to understand the moral implications of right and wrong. Though both live primarily or totally for the gratification of their own needs, true sociopathic behavior is generally a lifelong process of a failure to bond. There is no effective treatment for the latter once late adolesence or adulthood is reached.
I really feel you have little to worry about. Just give your children all the love they require and deserve and everything should turn out quite fine.
Hopefully someone else can give you a more concrete answer. Take care, and don't worry. :)

Thanks Thomas, I really appreciate your thorough answer!

I would like to add to Thomas 1970's response. I agree with his assessment. I would like to add that as a retired Probation and Parole Officer I used to deal with some of the "sociopaths" in prisons or on Parole. My job was to "rehabilitate" them.

Some would have what I regard a "Anaclitic Depression" a term used by a psychiatrist, Dr Rene Spitz in 1946, who observed that young children brought up in orphanages failed to bond with nurses. Nurses would come to the orphanage on a roster basis, that did not allow any bonding. So the children tended to be well behaved, but rather withdrawn form social interaction.

I have described how we got these clients to participate in groups:

"I also found that these clients could learn to express themselves more fully by participating in our “Communication and Counselling” course, as explained in this web site. Such person would be asked to “parrot” an interviewee’s responses to a set of general questions about a person’s life.
“Parroting” means repeating word by word a response given by a another member of the group being interviewed. Once skilled in ‘parroting” this person would soon start to give his own interpretation of what an interviewee was saying. So he learned to empathize as a variation of “parroting”, which is a basic skill in intimate communication."

Source: here.

I agree with Thomas that this is nurture, rather than nature matter. If you can get your child to bond with you, no problems would be expected..

As to schizophrenia, yes there could be a genetic component there. But I have found that the genetic influence can be beaten by making sure that young children of schizophrenic parents adhere to a Hypoglycemic Diet, especially in the first ten year of their lives. I have used the Hypoglycemic diet to help clients overcome their 'mental' problems as part of overall treatment.

See: Pottinger’s Cats Experiments.

Hi Chava!
I wasn't aware of this thread until know.
There's hardly anything I could add to the 1st (excellent) answer, and as far as I know, sociopathic behavior is a matter of nurture.
The only reason for me to write this post is, that if I remember correctly, your parents were born in Transilvania (Romania) - was you father an infant during the holocaust- or, was he 2nd generation to the holocaust?
If any of these answers is affirmative, this might have caused his pattern of behavior.
I'm not sure this is relevant to you anymore, but in case it is, I hope it will help a little.
Millie

My father is a sociopath as well, so I share your concerns and have been reading up on it for awhile. From what I've read the tendency to be sociopathic is inherited, so at risk children need to be raised with attention to making a close and loving emotional connection with their parents so that those tendencies from being realized. Sociopathy does apparently run in families (I found some references to studies showing this that you'll probably find if you dig around), but you and I are not sociopaths, so there are of course exceptions. The thing is as well, sociopaths make poor parents (to say the least!) so a child born with sociopathic genes to a sociopath parent is not going to get the emotionally connected parenting they particularly need. I saw a statistic stating that 3% of males are sociopaths, so it seems likely it is heritable in some of the same ways as schizophrenia. Schizophrenia has a strong genetic component, but even identical twins don't always both have schizophrenia, so the environmental conditions have to be met for the disease to express itself. It seems logical to me that sociopathy would work the same way. I chose not to have children, and this was one (but not necessarily the main) reason.

Robert Hare - considered an expert:
What is most outstanding about psychopaths is that they appear extremely at ease with themselves. They can be articulate, are often highly intelligent, and are regularly described as 'charming', and 'convincing'. Psychopathy is not associated with low birth weight, obstetric complications, poor parenting, poverty, early psychological trauma or adverse experiences, and indeed Robert Hare remarks 'I can find no convincing evidence that psychopathy is the direct result of early social or environmental factors' (Hare, 1993, p. 170). No sound evidence of neuroanatomical correlates for psychopathic behavior has been found, though an interesting (and highly significant) negative correlation has been found in 18 psychopaths between the degree of psychopathy as assessed by the Checklist and the size of the posterior half of the hippocampi bilaterally (Laakso, et al. 2001). Lesions of the dorsal hippocampus have been found to impair acquisition of conditioned fear, a notable feature of psychopathy, but it is not clear whether this neuroanatomical feature is the cause of, or is caused by, psychopathy. A study of 69 male psychopaths identified by the revised edition of Hare's Psychopathy Checklist found no support for the hypothesis that psychopaths are characterized by verbal or left hemisphere dysfunction (Smith, Arnett & Newman, 1992).

It can be inherited. My stepbrother is a sociopath. His mom was raped by his father, a sociopath, who has spent most of his life in prison