so yeah, sociopath would be preferable in the legal sense
Taking from wikipedia as source, so grain of salt:
In practice, mental health professionals rarely treat psychopathic personality disorders as they are considered untreatable and no interventions have proved to be effective.[11] In England and Wales the diagnosis of dissocial personality disorder is grounds for detention in secure psychiatric hospitals under the Mental Health Act if they have committed serious crimes, but since such individuals are disruptive for other patients and not responsive to treatment this alternative to prison is not often used.[12] - Hare Psychopathy Checklist
That would explain why Sherlock would be sensitive about the labeling. A diagnosis of psychopathy would put him at the mercy of the justice system if he was ever arrested for a major crime. However, a diagnosis of psychopathy or anti-social personality disorder would (probably) show up if he applied for a job higher than minimum wage, so that would explain at least part of why he doesn't get a normal job; he might not be able to even if he wanted to, unless he wants to work for Mycroft.
(This is assuming he didn't self-diagnose initially, but I don't think he would bother even caring about it unless he was diagnosed and then he wanted to explore the concept and confirm it himself, since you know, psychiatrists couldn't be as smart as he is.)
The only thing that bothers me about it is; he's not just a genius, he studies people constantly. I've taken enough formal personalty diagnostics that I'm familiar with the pattern and it's not hard to skew them if they're working purely from self-reporting and not from observable criteria (assuming again that someone in his life recognized anti-social traits and threw him at a psychiatrist, but parents are really shitty at doing that as a rule, so it would have to fall under juvenile delinquency, and he was too young not to know why they were asking him all these random questions). If he was old enough to know what the results would be if he was given a particular diagnosis and skewed the results, he could actually be just about anything. And that assumes he either a.) wants to self-report accurately or b.) can self-report accurately, and observably, he is shitty at self-reporting altogether.
Suicide is much higher for sociopaths than psychopaths. Hmm.
Why am I even reading this? I need a nap. Or cookies!
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