What do you think about researchers’ referring to such personality changes as “acquired sociopathy”?
It’s very unfortunate that this terminology has been used in scientific literature about people with frontal lobe damage, which can be caused by TBI. It’s not a description that fits the personality changes that follow TBI, or frontal damage. A sociopath is someone who deliberately harms others to benefit him- or herself, who shows a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others. People with frontal lobe damage, whether from TBI or not, are far more likely to be the victims of sociopaths than to act like sociopaths. Our research shows that people with TBI don’t track others’ intentions well, so they are more vulnerable to victimization. I think this unfortunate term was chosen by researchers who noted that people with damage to the frontal lobes could lose empathy for others, and that some of them were prone to fits of what is called “reactive aggression” – losing their tempers in reaction to frustration of some goal. These two things can happen after front
