Sociopathic Behavior

I don't know if it is because I read too much, but my son seems to be exhibiting alot of the symptoms of a sociopath.  First of all, we have 2 dogs.  One is a medium size year old dog and the other is a small puppy.  The medium dog, he always pulls her tail and paws and steps on her paws or he tries to sit on her.  He does this just to hear her yelp.  That is what is so disturbing.  he hears her yelp and then he will mimick the sound and then try to hurt her again untill I physically pull him off of her.  He has now escalated to punching the poor dog, and the dog is getting closer to actually biting him.  I have tried to punish him every way possible, and nothing works.  I take away everything from him and he could care less.  Its when I take all his things away and ground him that he does it even more because he has almost nothing to do.  And the poor puppy - he was gentle when we first got him, but now he pick him up by the head and throws him onto the floor and he always tries to make sure that the puppy does not land on its feet.
My son is 4 years old.  I see that some of these things he is getting from the TV & Playstation (at grandpa's), but he also has a temper that I cannot control.  My father is the only one that seems to be the one that can sometimes get him to calm down.  I brib him.  His father is not in the picture.
But, my son can be very sweet at times, and he is very protective of me, and he is very much a mama's boy.  I also know that this altogether is so close to what a sociopath is thought to start out like as children, and I am left to wonder, is my child one, or am I just a really paranoid bad mother?

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

It is way too early in your son's life to be thinking of him as a sociopath. Suffice it to say that his aggressive behavior is a problem and it needs to be addressed. You should arrange an evaluation with a behavioral health clinician right away. As far as limit setting and discipline are concerned, it is crucial to settle on a systematic method and not to be trying different things. Lynn Clark's book SOS Help for Parents will provide you with the type of systematic plan I am suggesting.

[jeryvon]

A related discussion, Is sociopathic behavior a learned behavior? was started.

[mark143666]

A related discussion, Brother in law was started.