Sociopaths

[Faith No More]

Question:
Are narcissists also sociopaths by definition; is the former a subset of the latter?

Because my understanding is a sociopath doesn't care about right or wrong. The narcissist, IMO, is someone who is so self-deluded and self-absorbed that they are oblivious to any wrongs they commit.

PaulPaublo's story also sounds to me more like a narcissist than a sociopath. Maybe this is a hair-splitting distinction, and I agree with PP's statement that as a layman, I need to be careful of diagnosing, so let me preface this is just my opinion. Both his experience and mine were with someone who lies about their own wrongdoing, rewriting history in their own brains, so that they can either justify it or pretend they never did it.

Case studies of sociopaths that I'm familiar with, by contrast, are where they are caviler about the wrongs they committed. They have no need to rationalize their behavior or deny anything.

Those more formally trained in psychology: please correct me if I'm wrong.

I think narcissism and sociopathy are kind of like anxiety and depression. They go hand in hand and influence each other, but are distinct attributes. Sociopathy is seeing people simply as a means to an end, while narcissism is thinking the world owes you because you are special. One isn't necessarily a subset of the other, but the two can fuel each other. Most people that you would label either of those take a little from column A and a little from column B. I don't think there's a distinct categorization that clearly separates the two.