Tim Gunn courtesy TimGunnSmileAAFeb09: Chrisa Hickey (cc 3.0)

The fashion consultant to Project Runway, Tim Gunn said he believes that Michele Salalhi and her husband, Tareq “…are sociopaths - they believe their own lies,”  Gunn said  today on  Access Hollywood Live. “When you’re dealing with a sociopath, you can’t reason. You can’t deal with logic. … They do believe their own lies in my view.”

When learning earlier that Michele revealed she suffers from multiple sclerosis, Gunn was skeptical.  “I find it curious that the story is coming out now, though.  I would want a doctor’s note.”

The Salahis became infamous celebrities after allegedly crashing a presidential dinner party. Michaele now appears in Real Housewives of D.C. and earlier she was hawking her biographer’s book where the MS illness news appears.  Later, on the same show she talked about getting a boob job (the busty augmentation type).

The term sociopathic personality disorder is interchangeable with the older psychiatric term psychopath, meaning, among other things, someone who has never internalized a moral code.  The sociopath/psychopath can grow intellectually and is especially dangerous when combined with a charming nature.

Court-appointed psychiatrists (doctors who have no biases in a case) often diagnose serial killers on trial as sociopathic.  A person so diagnosed usually exhibits no feelings of guilt, remorse, compassion or empathy for others.  In other words, the behavior that makes us human.  Consensus today is that both nature and nurture are necessary for the development of a full-blown psychopath.

Only a doctor under study conditions can actually determine if anyone suffers from some personality pathology, but Gunn’s observation is that actions scream louder than verbiage.