According to the experts, sociopaths experience "shallow" emotions. This means that virtually all of their emotions are fleeting, if they have them at all. Therefore, they feel a corrupted form of pleasure, and they can find things humorous in a brief, shallow sort of way. But they are unable to feel pure joy, because they are unable to feel real emotional pain. One cannot appreciate joy unless one has felt pain. Sociopaths can't find pleasure in the small things in life that make us normal people happy, such as watching a sunset or petting an animal or hugging another person. They only get a temporary, meaningless thrill out of things like sex or food or duping and manipulating others. That's why they are empty, and that's why they are so, so bored all of the time and tend to deal with their boredom by becoming addicted to alcohol or drugs (along with pursuing sexual "relationships" with multiple targets at the same time).
They seem to experience anger and envy in full force, though any rages they display are short-lived. They probably do not feel fear in the ways that normal people do, and so they cannot truly be depressed, or anxious, or stressed. Many sociopaths use anxiety and depression as pity plays. They are not actually experiencing these conditions; they are only pretending. For example, the sociopath I survived pretended to be “anxious” and “depressed” near the end of our encounter. I know it was faked because I later found out he began an intense relationship with a brand new, main target right when he started talking about the "anxiety" and "depression." That's not a coincidence. It means it was all a lie. Besides, during that time, he told me he's always been in control and that he can handle stress very well. He was always as cool as a cucumber around me, so he was most likely telling the truth in that statement. But it comes from not feeling the full range of human emotions.
Another outcome of these abnormal emotions is that the charm that sociopaths turn on and the love bombing they do in the beginning of an encounter with a target is all an act. They are masters at impression management. They spend their entire lives watching people, mimicking and mirroring them, and then they use that knowledge to exploit others in order to get what they want. One thing is for sure...they do NOT feel bad about anything! They do not feel guilt or shame or remorse, because they do not care. This lack of caring also means that they do not demonstrate empathy for others. Remember, they do not feel real emotional pain, which prevents them from experiencing empathy.
Sociopaths also have a tendency to “hoover” targets back in because they want to use others and have power over them. Everything is a game, and they have to win. Any hoovering they do is about control. Sociopaths view others as objects, as “toys.” And, often, they decide that they are not quite done with their “toys.” It's apparently really fun for them to pick up a "toy," play with it, and throw it down, over and over and over again, until the toy is virtually destroyed.
But, the most significant and ominous result of this incurable emotional deficit is that sociopaths do not and cannot love others. The lack of normal feelings and the lack of empathy and love are the essence of what makes sociopaths so different from most human beings. It’s also what makes them evil. Only evil monsters view other people as “toys.”
To learn more about psychopaths, and for recovery support, read The Survivor's Quest, available through Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Survivors-Quest-Recovery-After-Encountering-ebook/dp/B00MOTO00Q/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1408138504&sr=8-2&keywords=the+survivor's+quest