755 Narcissist vs Sociopath: The Essential Guide to Spotting Dangerous Personality Types
The Terri Cole Show
Terri Cole
4.9 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 2 September 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Content note: This episode discusses manipulative and abusive relationship dynamics that may be triggering for some readers.
Have you ever been in a relationship with someone who made you question your own reality?
Maybe it's romantic, familial, or even just a friendship where every disagreement somehow leaves you thinking, "Did I misremember that? I really thought I said that out loud... maybe I didn't?"
If you're nodding your head right now, you're not alone. For years, my community has been asking me to break down how to identify narcissists and sociopaths because the confusion around these two personality types can literally be dangerous.
When you can't tell what you're dealing with, you can't protect yourself effectively.
After 25 years as a licensed psychotherapist, I've seen too many brilliant, capable people get trapped in relationships that slowly eroded their sense of self.
The good news? Once you understand the key differences between narcissistic personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder (which includes sociopathy), you can spot the red flags early and protect your peace.
Read the show notes for today's episode at terricole.com/755
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Well, hello there and welcome to this episode of the Terry Cole Show. I'm so psyched. |
| 0:05.8 | You are here with me today. I'm going to start with the question. Have you ever dealt with someone |
| 0:10.1 | in your life who consistently made you question your own memory, what you did or didn't say, |
| 0:18.0 | what they did or didn't say, sort of questioning your own reality. |
| 0:23.5 | But you can sort of put your finger on exactly what they're doing, but you just always seem |
| 0:29.8 | to feel misunderstood or sort of accused in this relationship. |
| 0:35.2 | If you're not in your head, yes, then this episode of the Terry Cole show is for you |
| 0:39.0 | because I'm going to be breaking down the differences and the similarities and all the dangerous |
| 0:44.4 | crap about narcissists and sociopaths because I've had this question many times. And listen, |
| 0:51.8 | they're both bad actors, as we'd like to say, right? But they're not the same. |
| 0:57.2 | And I think that a lot of times we think that they are. So by the end, you will know that of this |
| 1:03.1 | episode of the Terry Cole show. You're going to know the key differences between and how to |
| 1:07.4 | spot them early and how to protect yourself. Because really, how to spot them early is the key to not getting sucked into these types of |
| 1:16.5 | relationships in a repeated way. |
| 1:18.6 | So before we get into it, just, hi, friends. |
| 1:22.1 | I'm really psyched that you're hanging out with me today. |
| 1:24.6 | It always warms my heart because you could be doing so many |
| 1:27.5 | other things. But the fact that so many of you are here, I don't know, I just love it. So it really means the world to me. I'm feeling very nostalgic, you know, because we're coming up on our 10 year in September. I'm going to do something to celebrate it. We're not positive. What? or this is September actually |
| 1:25.6 | that's what I'm recording for. |
| 1:27.1 | Yeah, so we're doing something. |
| 1:28.4 | But since I'm going to do something to celebrate. I'm not positive. What? Or this is September, actually. |
| 1:44.8 | This is what I'm recording for. Yeah. So we're doing something. But since I'm recording this, |
... |
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