Salvation of Psychopaths and Sociopaths 

I am orthodox and I am a clinical psychologist. I can't comment on their capacity for salvation. Beware of the brain scanning story. One thing to note is that socipathic traits are actually quite common among clergy of all deninations. in particular, it is especially common among person's with a fundamentalist mindset. But sociopathy is a spectrum phenomen on many successful entrepreneurs have sociopathic traits and they manage to channel their risk taking, anti-authority-tendencies in a socially productive direction. But in more extreme cases true repentence may be absent in their lives.

With God, all things are possible.

Yes they can David Wood is one example. They have the capacity to recognize a moral code and distinguish between right and wrong. They won't experience regret as normal people do but can be influenced by God's grace to repent and be redeemed from prior wrongful behaviours.

As I heard this interesting discussion, I was reminded of St. Ephraim's prayer, "... and grant me to see my own transgressions and not to judge my brother...."

The ranks of the saints include people who any rational society would consider to be a psycho. St. Olga for example. I imagine virtue would be a lot harder for such people, divorced from emotion, but certainly not impossible. On the other hand, many people out of an overabundance of compassion promote some truly evil things.

Great! Thank you for the reply!

As always very good thoughts to make one think and pray.

They know not know what they do

I've thought about this myself. I assume this is one of these things God knows better than I. I don't want to place my feeble understanding of right and wrong upon a situation like this. Also as a social worker I want to head people who think sociopaths and psychopathic are the same thing. There is a difference between how 'well adjusted' they are and how well they can function day to day. Looking into anti-social personality disorder will give you more insight into this.

i beleive that no one is beyond salvation. as for psychopathy, if you have it, wether you are a saint or a sinner depends on how you use it. psychopaths, because of their ruthlessness & lack of concience may become murderers or theives but, likewise because of their fearlessness & lack of emotional responses to things other people would find repulsive, can also do heroic jobs, such as firefighters, police officers, soldiers, or dirty jobs such as sewerage workers, refuse collectors, or cleaning out annimal wastes ay zoos, catteries, farms etc. they are naturaly tough & resillient, with high tollerance levels to pain, tiredness & discomfort, & can often carry on working when others cannot, such as when they have rhumatic pains, flu, etc. remember, we are all gods creations , & true psychopaths are born with the condition, so if god creates people with these charicteristics, he must have originaly intended them to serve some worthy or useful purpouse, perhaps to do things that normal, weaker, more sensitive folk cannot do. thus, they have a place & a role in gods creation. such as the woman who, even though she was apsychopath, used her toughness, resistace to pain , illness & discomfort, & ability to stay cool & unemotional in what ,for others, would be distressing situations, to do dirty, tireing work for her frail, often ill ,mother, to take care of her elderly pairents, to nurse them when they were dieing, & to financialy support & provide for her brother ,who went into depression & became dysfunctional after his mother's death. because she was a christian &, despite having no deep emotions or maternal instincts, knew she should use her natural abilities( she didden't ealise that she was psychopathic at the time, just that she was tougher & less emotional than most people), to do what she could to help her fammily. i am that woman i am a psychopath but i am not a monster!

At first I read "Salvation Psychopaths and Sociopaths" and I thought it's going to be a video about "christian" fundamentalists in the US, ha.

On the other hand. 💊I'm sharing Acts 2:38 and oneness about Jesus

Unfortunately, a lot of people's perspectives of uncommon mental illnesses (Anti-Social Personality Disorder, which is what most people mean when they say psychopath, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, etc. ) come from popular media, which does not tend to show any of these people in a sympathetic light. I am not a psychologist, though I do plan on becoming one, but from what I have heard most people with Psychopathy simply do not feel as much as others. There may be some outliers, but from what I have seen this is the rule. It is important to treat a person with any mental illness with love and compassion and remember that no one is beyond help. I probably didn't explain this very well, so I will point everyone to the RU-vid video "How Pop Culture Hurts the Mentally Ill" by Clementine Productions, I got a lot of my information from it and it's a very well made video.

Thanks for the video Bojan, if I could please ask, I have Asperger's Syndrome and you might like this study with lots of data on a theory for Neanderthal-Caucasoid hybrid origin for autism. Please give it a read and maybe also answer how do Neanderthal fit into Orthodoxy? Thank you. Link-rdos.net/eng/

Bojan I have a question. Does Eastern Orthodoxy believe in the book of life. What I mean is do you believe you need to be in the book of life to be saved and enter paradise I hope you will get back to me :) thanks

On the other hand. 💊I'm sharing Acts 2:38 and oneness about Jesus